Call of Duty 4 Gameplay issues, Radeon 9800 painfully out of date?

Skirmisher · 12-31-2007, 09:00 AM

First off, my computer is ancient by today’s gaming standards. I built it in college when I still had free money to spend and haven’t followed new products or technology past the first page of Slashdot in about 3 years. Prior to that I worked for a local computer manufacturer so you shouldn’t have to dumb down too many responses for me, I just need input from those who have been keeping up with the PC gaming industry of late.

My current system is:

MSI mobo (model 6728) up to 8x AGP,
P4 3ghz,
1g DDR (I think 333, maybe 400, been a while since I cracked the case),
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP,
Audigy 2 PCI

Like I said, ancient, but for spreadsheets/email (work BS) it moves along just fine. I was given Call of Duty 4 for Christmas and installed it and am having terrible difficulties getting it to work properly.

*Before we go on, the minimum req’s of CoD4 are:

P4 2.4/AMD64 2800/1.8g Dual Core,
512mb Ram,
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro/Geforce 6600

So, I have the absolute minimum video card and scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as processor goes. My issues arise in Single Player mode once I begin a campaign. As soon as the opening videos finish the training level starts and my sound comes through at a normal rate but the video only updates about 1 frame per 2-3 seconds. Multiplayer is fine (poor gfx but I expected that with my card) which is what I will play most of the time, but I would like to play the single player as well. The slow refresh also occurs if I pause the game and try to mouse over to exit, I have to move the mouse, wait, see where it landed, adjust, rinse, repeat.

I have minimized as many settings as I can and still have the same painful frame rate. I assume upgrading my video card is the quickest option but as I stated earlier do not know if decent AGP cards are still being manufactured. My question is will simply upgrading the video card be enough or should I look into saving a bit of money each month and building a current day “gamers” PC. Also, if just the gfx card will suffice, any recommendations on AGP 8x cards?

My current budget allows me to put away about $200-$300 a month to play with so I could get a decent video card now or save for a few months and build a better machine from the ground up. Either way I am just looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.

supermep · 12-31-2007, 05:10 PM

Your machine is almost completely identical to mine, except I have the BFG 7800 GS AGP 8X card in my machine.

COD 4 plays on 800 by 600 medium settings at about 50 FPS.

So that being said you could spend 250 right now and get the card I have and get that performance or save for 4 months and replace your: motherboard, ram, video card

You could keep the same cpu or replace it. Depends on what graphics card you go for when you build your new machine. If you're going to get an 8800 Ultra save the money on the cpu and get the better card.

Daley347 · 01-03-2008, 12:37 PM

I recently upgraded my computer with a Mobo Bundle, got a new Processor, RAM and Graphics Card.
I can run COD4 on pretty much maximum settings at 1280x960

Here's my specs:

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (256 MB)
Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz
2.00gb RAM
Antec Earthwatts 500W Power Supply

Just a comparison for you, mate. Cost me £185.

12-31-2007, 09:00 AM	#1 (permalink)
Skirmisher Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1 OS: winXP	Call of Duty 4 Gameplay issues, Radeon 9800 painfully out of date? First off, my computer is ancient by today’s gaming standards. I built it in college when I still had free money to spend and haven’t followed new products or technology past the first page of Slashdot in about 3 years. Prior to that I worked for a local computer manufacturer so you shouldn’t have to dumb down too many responses for me, I just need input from those who have been keeping up with the PC gaming industry of late. My current system is: MSI mobo (model 6728) up to 8x AGP, P4 3ghz, 1g DDR (I think 333, maybe 400, been a while since I cracked the case), ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb AGP, Audigy 2 PCI Like I said, ancient, but for spreadsheets/email (work BS) it moves along just fine. I was given Call of Duty 4 for Christmas and installed it and am having terrible difficulties getting it to work properly. *Before we go on, the minimum req’s of CoD4 are: P4 2.4/AMD64 2800/1.8g Dual Core, 512mb Ram, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro/Geforce 6600 So, I have the absolute minimum video card and scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as processor goes. My issues arise in Single Player mode once I begin a campaign. As soon as the opening videos finish the training level starts and my sound comes through at a normal rate but the video only updates about 1 frame per 2-3 seconds. Multiplayer is fine (poor gfx but I expected that with my card) which is what I will play most of the time, but I would like to play the single player as well. The slow refresh also occurs if I pause the game and try to mouse over to exit, I have to move the mouse, wait, see where it landed, adjust, rinse, repeat. I have minimized as many settings as I can and still have the same painful frame rate. I assume upgrading my video card is the quickest option but as I stated earlier do not know if decent AGP cards are still being manufactured. My question is will simply upgrading the video card be enough or should I look into saving a bit of money each month and building a current day “gamers” PC. Also, if just the gfx card will suffice, any recommendations on AGP 8x cards? My current budget allows me to put away about $200-$300 a month to play with so I could get a decent video card now or save for a few months and build a better machine from the ground up. Either way I am just looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.

12-31-2007, 05:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
supermep Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Phoenix Posts: 254 OS: winxp	Re: Call of Duty 4 Gameplay issues, Radeon 9800 painfully out of date? Your machine is almost completely identical to mine, except I have the BFG 7800 GS AGP 8X card in my machine. COD 4 plays on 800 by 600 medium settings at about 50 FPS. So that being said you could spend 250 right now and get the card I have and get that performance or save for 4 months and replace your: motherboard, ram, video card You could keep the same cpu or replace it. Depends on what graphics card you go for when you build your new machine. If you're going to get an 8800 Ultra save the money on the cpu and get the better card.

01-03-2008, 12:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
Daley347 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: England Posts: 59 OS: Windows XP My System	Re: Call of Duty 4 Gameplay issues, Radeon 9800 painfully out of date? I recently upgraded my computer with a Mobo Bundle, got a new Processor, RAM and Graphics Card. I can run COD4 on pretty much maximum settings at 1280x960 Here's my specs: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (256 MB) Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz 2.00gb RAM Antec Earthwatts 500W Power Supply Just a comparison for you, mate. Cost me £185.