Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheXanatosGambit]

Hello!

Now, it turns out my loyal fellow of a computer grinds to a horrifying halt when there anywhere above 30 dwarves in my fortress, I can't get Skyrim to run smoothly, and even Fallout 3 etc. lags as to make it unplayable.

Now, my 20th birthday is coming up, meaning, for various reasons, that I have more money between my hands than before. However, not -that- much, so I'm on a budget.

This is my computer - it's assembled from scavenged parts from three dead computers. Call me Frankenstein!

These are the specifications:

Motherboard: ASUS P5E-VM-DO, Socket LGA 775

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 524, på 3,06 GHz

RAM: 6 GB DDR2

Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GTS

I want to play Dwarf Fortress at reasonable FPS! What say you, can I save it, or must it go?

[Sensei]

You're really having problems like that? My computer has considerably lower specs and it runs Skyrim, and certainly more than 30 dwarves. I'd try cleaning your hard drive or something; I don't think hardware is the issue.

[TheXanatosGambit]

Yeah, I am, it's pretty severe actually.

I don't think it's the harddrive - it was rebooted mere months ago. I was under the impression that it's the single-core CPU.

 It's pretty odd the outcome is so vastly different over here.

[nenjin]

Well, everything else aside, your motherboard is your bottle neck. It won't support better than a dual core. So you're in for a mostly total rebuild any way you slice it. The memory and video card should carry over...although they'll be the weakest parts of your system by far once you get a multi-core CPU in there.

Technically speaking, you might see a reduction in DF performance, since a powerful single core is more beneficial to DF than several lower clocked cores it won't be using. (Your 3ghz single core compared to the ball park 2.0 - 2.8 ghz on each core in a multicore processor.) On the other hand, when you're juggling DF, Sound Sense, Fortress Overseer, Stone Sense, Therapist, switching between tasks and windows will be smoother.

I'm guessing that in regards to Skyrim, that single core and video card are hurting you. Remember that "runs smoothly" is pretty subjective. I've played games at 15 to 20 FPS because I'm broke but refused to shelve it. So. Getting it run and having it run comfortably are separate things.

[TheXanatosGambit]

Well, everything else aside, your motherboard is your bottle neck. It won't support better than a dual core. So you're in for a mostly total rebuild any way you slice it. The memory and video card should carry over...although they'll be the weakest parts of your system by far once you get a multi-core CPU in there.

Technically speaking, you might see a reduction in DF performance, since a powerful single core is more beneficial to DF than several lower clocked cores it won't be using. (Your 3ghz single core compared to the ball park 2.0 - 2.8 ghz on each core in a multicore processor.) On the other hand, when you're juggling DF, Sound Sense, Fortress Overseer, Stone Sense, Therapist, switching between tasks and windows will be smoother.

I'm guessing that in regards to Skyrim, that single core and video card are hurting you. Remember that "runs smoothly" is pretty subjective. I've played games at 15 to 20 FPS because I'm broke but refused to shelve it. So. Getting it run and having it run comfortably are separate things.

Your words ring true. Thanks a lot for the advice, I'll be looking for a complete rebuild.

[Muz]

Those stats should be more than enough for DF, though. I mean, the whole DF isn't multithreaded thing (though a dual core would take care of whatever the OS demands).

Maybe your computer just has too much stuff running the background, or the parts are too old. idk.

[DJ]

Yeah, it doesn't sound that bad really. If all else fails, try reinstalling your OS before you go buying any parts.

[eerr]

Hello!

Now, it turns out my loyal fellow of a computer grinds to a horrifying halt when there anywhere above 30 dwarves in my fortress, I can't get Skyrim to run smoothly, and even Fallout 3 etc. lags as to make it unplayable.

Now, my 20th birthday is coming up, meaning, for various reasons, that I have more money between my hands than before. However, not -that- much, so I'm on a budget.

This is my computer - it's assembled from scavenged parts from three dead computers. Call me Frankenstein!

These are the specifications:

Motherboard: ASUS P5E-VM-DO, Socket LGA 775

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 524, på 3,06 GHz

RAM: 6 GB DDR2

Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GTS

I want to play Dwarf Fortress at reasonable FPS! What say you, can I save it, or must it go?

Small worlds have less creatures, and less lag.

It kinda seems like the hard drive might be a bottleneck?

Atom smashing stone is probably a good policy.