Newbie tech questions

[JeffOrt]

Hi everyone. I'm brand new to the game (and so far I LOVE it), but I have a few ?'s if that's alright. I have a Sempron 2600+, 1GB RAM, and a Geforce FX5500 card w/256mb. Is there any reason why ultra high detail should be causing serious frame rate drops? I would think I should be able to crank all details. Any help would be appreciated. BTW, I'm runinng XP and I have the newest Geforce drivers installed. I have an onboard 3d sound, so I don't know if the drivers for that are updated. Thanks all!

[Mister Frag]

The newest ForceWare driver is not necessarily the best -- I would recommend V78.03. There are several recent posts about it.

What sort of frame rates are you expecting, and getting? OFP doesn't yield the hundreds of frames that some other games crank out using current hardware, especially if you use AA/AF, VSync, or longer view distances.

My own preference is to trade good display quality for high framerates, so I have set my OFP to deliver the lowest target framerate that I can -- any frames in excess of that which the engine can render at this quality setting, it will. I get more annoyed by trees that suddenly pop up or change shapes, than a slightly lower framerate.

[Llauma]

Hi everyone. ***I'm brand new to the game (and so far I LOVE it), but I have a few ?'s if that's alright. ***I have a Sempron 2600+, 1GB RAM, and a Geforce FX5500 card w/256mb. ***Is there any reason why ultra high detail should be causing serious frame rate drops? ***I would think I should be able to crank all details. ***Any help would be appreciated. ***BTW, I'm runinng XP and I have the newest Geforce drivers installed. ***I have an onboard 3d sound, so I don't know if the drivers for that are updated. ***Thanks all!

OFP is not like other games which you can play on the highest level of detail right away if you have a fairly new computer. BIS added a posibility for the players to increase the terrain detail and view distance to a level which was totally insane and unplayable at that time but future computers might be able to run it.

If BIS had done it the way other developers works we would have been stuck with perhaps 1500m view distance and normal terrain detail being the maximum settings. Instead the players can enjoy their new computers by increasing the detail a little more and get a nicer game visually.

Your computer is still lightyears away from what's required to run the game on the highest detail.

[BraTTy]

Wow good answers and you guys are so polite.

The FX5500 is considered weak today.

However OFP mainly is Processor intensive program.
If you want to use AA/AF ,I don't think you want to run any better than normal terrain detail except for maybe screenshots.
The max viewdistance (5000 something?) ,no way...maybe if you had a fx6600 series or better video card
I think 2000-2400 viewdistance would be pushing it with your setup, shoot for around at least 1200-1400

On multiplayer games the viewdistance will be whatever the mission maker set or default of 900 meters (no matter what you set you distance in settings)

[JeffOrt]

Thanks guys for all your advice and help. I'm thinking about upgrading at some point to a new pocessor, but I'll probably wind up waiting. Thanks for the quick responses, I really appreciate it!

[JeffOrt]

Actually, if you guys could help me again. Since I am planning to upgrade, what would you reccomend to someone on a abit of a budget as far as processor? I see some idea for vid card. Thanks again!

[Mr_Tea]

Maybe you should think about buying an soundcard. Your onboard soundchip takes resources from your RAM and from your Processor too. Creative Audigy2 cards are available for a good price. I got one myself, and i`m absolutely satisfied.
When you built in an soundcard to your PC, don`t forget to disable the onbaord sound in the BIOS.