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[JcFerggy]

Ok, as most people know, I have a crap computer, and I don't have the money to buy a new one at the moment. My solution to this was to partition my hard-drive, and have a clean install of XP just for my games. I've done that and I have noticed that I get more FPS, but it is still slower than I would have wanted it.

I have removed all the bloatware from here, and I only have Steam and my Nvidia drivers installed. No anti-virus, no other browser, no chat client. I even turned off Steam Friends so that won't slow me down any.

-MY QUESTION- is should I let windows do Windows Update? I'm still running Service Pack 2, but I want to know if updating to SP3 will help or hinder my performance.

I'd also like to know some console codes to improve my speed.

[VC]

You need a firewall. I don't think you need any updates; I use Windows 2000 SP4, so you shouldn't need anything more than that.

For Source, your best bet is overclocking your CPU.  However, you need to find out what your bottleneck is.  With cheats enabled, because Valve sucks, use +showbudget and learn where your processing time is going so you know what to fix.

[PPK]

What are your computer specs, by the way? Since you say it's crappy, I'd like to compare it to the shit pile I have near my desk, if you don't mind.

[JcFerggy]

Intel Celeron
2.66GHz
1GB of RAM
Win XP Home SP2
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS (Its AGP)
100GB Partition

[PPK]

Not much better than mine's:

P4 3.2 GHz
2048 MB RAM DDR400
80 GB HD
Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro AGP

BTW, how the hell does your avatar keep changing?

[Sergeant Kelly]

Either he is online 24/7 and changes his avatar every time you press refresh.

OR

He's using an avatar gallery which randomly chooses from a selection of pre-uploaded images.

[JcFerggy]

Either he is online 24/7 and changes his avatar every time you press refresh.

OR

He's using an avatar gallery which randomly chooses from a selection of pre-uploaded images.

What? Who goes offline?

Anyway, thanks VC, but by console commands, I meant ones that would reduce graphics and stuff on screen, to help with the speed.

[keefy]

Those celeron processors are notoriously weak for gaming.
You could try one of the FPS enhancers for TF2, CS:S or hl2dm, here is one from the latter
http://www.hl2dm-university.com/other_resources/FPS_enhancer.rar

I think most if not all the commands will work.

[PPK]

He's using an avatar gallery which randomly chooses from a selection of pre-uploaded images.

That's a nice one!

[VC]

"Anyway, thanks VC, but by console commands, I meant ones that would reduce graphics and stuff on screen, to help with the speed. "

What makes you think that graphics is the problem? Celeron is what's kicking your ass in Source, because Source is normally bottlenecked by CPU, not by graphics quality.

But if you are more comfortable using 1998-era PC gaming tips rather than analyizing your problem and finding the optimal solution, knock yourself out.

[JcFerggy]

Ok, here is what I get on Archives.

[keefy]

Woa, that looks pretty bad, I think, well in comparison the bars are all towrds the left on my graph.

You could try this orangbox engine tweaking guide its worth a try.
http://whisper.ausgamers.com/wiki/index.php/Fps_problems
Also this to reduce graphics quality.
http://whisper.ausgamers.com/wiki/index.php/Source_Autoexec_Tweaks

[VC]

You are underpowered across the board; even the sound system is being bogged down.

Part of the trouble is that Archives needs a lot of clean-up.  A little was done before release but it's still a beast that needs performance work.  That's why Static Prop and Other Model is so large.  It beats up my FPS, too.

World Rendering may be your video card, but since Sound is huge, too, I'm thinking these subsystems are really just waiting around on the CPU to attend to them

Before you go hard-core on dropping your video quality, just try dropping to the low options in the menu and run at 640x480, or even 320x240.  If the improvement is small, then you know it's your CPU that's at fault.

I hate calling a Celeron a "CPU," doing so is disrepectful to non-hobbled chips.

Beyond that, read your Whisper, he is a quality information source.

[keefy]

I do not like the whisper rate guide, it gives out the crappy magic 30000 rate number which is wrong.

[Sp1nn3y]

I do not like the whisper rate guide, it gives out the crappy magic 30000 rate number which is wrong.

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