Team Fortress 2 P6831FX Question

I play TF2 a lot and I get about a 40-55 frame rate on average.....until I walk into an area where there is a lot of commotion going on (turrets, rockets, player models). Then it drops down to about 25fps. I run the game in native 1440x900 and I get the same frame rate no matter how high or low every graphical setting is set. The only way to get a better frame rate is to lower the resolution to 1024x768.

I want to upgrade to a T8300, but I'm curious if this is will solve my problem when there is a lot happening on the screen in FPS games. I would like to maintain a 30-35fps. Will this $240 upgrade be worth it?

 

What display drivers are you running?

 

I'm currently running Gateways 167.47.

 

Try updating to 177.41 - follow my guide if you don't know how to do it. I run 177.41 and TF2 runs really smooth although I do have an X9000.

 

I'm really more interested in how much a T8300 would help with my troubles. But thanks.

 

Well, running the best display driver for your video card can do more than you would think. I know people that have stuttering and horrible frame rates in games that are solved by simply updating or finding the correct display driver.

Also, I wouldn't upgrade the CPU to anything lower than the 9300. So far from what I've seen/heard it's the best price/performance upgrade out there. With the 8300 I'm sure you'll see some general overall improvement with the computer, and sure, TF2 will probably run a little smoother, but I think the little extra money you can pick up the 9300 for would be a far better upgrade.

 

My P-6831FX is stock except for a HDD upgrade. I'm running 177.41 for my drivers and I have nary a slow down in TF 2, at native resolution with a multitude of anisotropic filters and anti-aliasing turned on.

In summary: Try newer drivers before you upgrade your processor just for TF2.

 

I have just been assuming that it would since my friend saw massive perfomanc gains when overclocking his desktop Core 2 Duo from 1.6 to 3.0. I realize that he has a desktop cpu and that 3.0 is much larger than 2.4, but I figured I would see some relevant and worthy gains jumping from a 1.6 667fsb 2MB L2 cache to a 2.4 800fsb 3MB L2. I've played around with drivers in the past, I'll try these new ones, and I will admit to being really surprised if I see that big of a gain, drivers have never done much for me.

I'm still curious. Anyone out there install a T8300 and believe it to be worthy?

 

sorry man....i upgraded to its bigger brother. the T9300.

 

Did you notice a big change in FPS games? I also hear that TF2 does not support dual core, so is it only getting 1/2 of the 1.66?

 

um...not really, considering that was the first thing i did was upgrade the processor and do a fresh install of vista. i didnt have anything to compare it to except my old toshiba x205 which had the same processor, but an entirely different graphics card (8700m GT)

i will say this though, on the toshiba, i would get 45 to 60 fps in call of duty 4 @ 1440 by 900 with everything set at low. now i get that with everything set on high/extra even AA and AF maxed out.

 

umm can i see the guide

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265740 for the video driver guide