Upgraded my CPU and RAM
I play a game called Project Reality, it is a great game and I enjoy playing, according to game tracker, I have so far played 250 hours of gaming on it. I have in fact played much more, since the server itself was changed last year to an upgraded server or something of that nature. – To handle the online gaming world of 64 players on huge detailed maps.
My poor overclocked 3.0Ghz CPU wasn't doing me too well. For one I wanted to record game play videos, Fraps is a very CPU intense program when recording, so I couldn't record all the time as it would drastically reduce my frame rates per second. I even purchased a new graphics card, though only because it was really cheap. I upgraded from a 9600GT 512mb to a HD 6850 (MSI R-6850), which has been working great, so great my friends come round and ask how I get such good lighting and effect when running Vista and other programs.
What CPU did I upgrade to?
I'm afraid I was a little lazy with this one. I didn't buy the CPU by itself. I bought an entire computer and simply fitted my GPU and my extra fans inside the case. It came with a 500GB hard drive, so I just installed a new copy of Windows Vista and done a Windows Update shortly after.
I upgraded to an AMD Quad Core. (Not the one in the picture) – I just liked the boxing, which is why that picture exists there, and it was somewhat relevant. With this said, my new computer came with upgraded RAM. I was previously running DDR2 RAM 800Mhz, while this upgraded computer consisted of DDR3 1333MHZ ram which is a significant improvement.
I know I don't have the best computer in the world, but you really don't have to, so I thought when I started playing Project Reality with my new setup. I can play on mostly high (If I want to record) with 8 x anti-aliasing, and I can record with decent FPS which doesn't effect my game play. I can also play on the highest resolution settings my screen/gpu can support which is great as now I can see more in my field of view, or so I think.
It is running great so far, but leaving Fraps recording seems to be a problem. When I bought this computer it came with 500 GB of disk space which runs at 7500 RPM or somewhere near that mark. – But I am actually recording the files on a 1TB 10,000 RPM hard drive. However if I record too long it seems Fraps starts to degrade in terms of my game play. When I go to task manager, my CPU is only using 17% of its total usage and my RAM has 1.5GB left since I have Windows Vista 32bit edition.
I think I can come around to workarounds in Fraps – I hope, but hopefully I can get some decent game play videos up, especially since I play within a community and within that community I am part of a squad, who I would like to show how we play and that teamwork does work in the end within the squad as well as out.
Peace out.
