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Looking to play old games in Wine with old computer

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  • Looking to play old games in Wine with old computer

    Hi, I have an old HP 8760c lying around and thought it would be fun to update it play games from around 2004. Here's my current computer specs:

    Pentium 3 733 MHz 133
    256MB SDRAM 133
    integrated graphics card (Vanta)

    Here's what I want to change it to:

    Pentium 3 Tualatin @ 1.4 GHz 133
    1.5GB SDRAM 133
    BFG GeForce 6600GT 128 MB AGP

    I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.04

    Seeing that I'll be running Wine on top of an old motherboard, what kind of performance should I expect for games like Far Cry, KotOR, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Butcher Bay, Call of Duty 1 & 2, etc? I'm thinking 20-25 fps with around max settings. Is this an unrealistic goal? Thanks for your help

  • #2
    Originally posted by Jaguarandi View Post
    Far Cry, KotOR, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Butcher Bay, Call of Duty 1 & 2, etc?
    I don't think those work well on a 6600GT even on windows. The CPU is below the minimum requirements of some of those games, too. Max settings? I doubt that.

    I couldn't play either Doom 3 nor Far Cry on high quality on my 6600GT, and I had a stronger CPU (1.8 GHz Athlon 64 3000+) to back it.


    Usually, wine is not a performance hog. A game will either run or it won't (check http://appdb.winehq.org), but it's rare that a game will run significantly slower than on windows.

    Also check the official minimum requirements of those games. Minimum means: will run slowly at lowest settings.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Jaguarandi View Post
      Hi, I have an old HP 8760c lying around and thought it would be fun to update it play games from around 2004. Here's my current computer specs:

      Pentium 3 733 MHz 133
      256MB SDRAM 133
      integrated graphics card (Vanta)

      Here's what I want to change it to:

      Pentium 3 Tualatin @ 1.4 GHz 133
      1.5GB SDRAM 133
      BFG GeForce 6600GT 128 MB AGP

      I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.04
      You may well find it is cheaper to replace the CPU/Motherboard/RAM with a DDR(2) based system than buying that much SDRAM. Even a $20-30 CPU would be faster than what you are using, and SDRAM is MUCH more expensive than DDR2 and MUCH slower as well.

      Just my two cents.

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks for all your responses so far.

        About the max settings thing, I took a look at the minimum system requirements for the games mentioned. You're totally right about this, so I'll have to scale back my expectations a little bit. The 6600 GT is only around $30 on Ebay (the 6800 GT is around $60 and ATI is a no-go on Linux). As long as Wine isn't too much of a bottleneck like you say, should I be ok?

        I figured if I cut the benchmark numbers I saw for the 6600 GT on sites like Anandtech down by half, then I'd have close to the performance I could expect from my system. Which is a totally unscientific measurement of course

        About the RAM, I found 512MB of SDRAM via pricewatch for $8.84 per stick: http://www1.pricewatch.com/public/in...5071609&a=2425
        The RAM came first (at 1.1GB right now) and I'm amazed at how much faster Ubuntu is with this. It's like I have a whole new computer.

        I've read that the 1.4 GHz Tualatin works as good as a 2.0 GHz P4 in many situations. It comes to about $30 becuase I also need an adapter for my motherboard. This makes it a little pricey for this setup I think.

        About the most expensive thing I'll be buying is the power supply:

        Some people think this is the most important PC component so I didn't cut any corners here.

        I'm a console gamer and have just recently started to take interest in PC gaming again. I figure there is a lot of ground to cover since the last PC game I played was Baldur's Gate 2.

        Comment


        • #5
          Uhh where are those "old games", games from year 2004 are rather new. I tought that there are someone to asking oldschool dos games...

          Well but on topic: What kind of monitor do you have, what kind of resolution do you want to game run. Runnig game on 800X600 max versus 1920x1200 max is 2 whole different worlds.

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          • #6
            Sell your pc as long as you don't have to pay for recyling and get a game console. Then you can all games for this console. Using an old pc for games is absolutely stupid.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Kano View Post
              Sell your pc as long as you don't have to pay for recyling and get a game console. Then you can all games for this console. Using an old pc for games is absolutely stupid.
              Bite your tongue! Redneck Rampage plays best on the K6.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by tuke81 View Post
                Uhh where are those "old games", games from year 2004 are rather new. I tought that there are someone to asking oldschool dos games...

                Well but on topic: What kind of monitor do you have, what kind of resolution do you want to game run. Runnig game on 800X600 max versus 1920x1200 max is 2 whole different worlds.
                Well, I guess they're not that old. I figured time always moved by faster for PC gamers, due to rapidly aging hardware. I'm an oldschool console gamer myself; been playing games since the Atari 2600.

                I'm thinking 1024x768 or maybe 1280x1024. My monitor's an old CRT but it'll do.

                Gee Kano, I didn't know my idea was so offensive. To each his own I guess.
                I do own most of the consoles btw, I just wanted to give PC gaming a try.

                Comment


                • #9
                  When you want to play games like Doom3 which require a much more powerfull hardware for 1024x768 or higher res then the idea is really broken. If you want to play those games you need a faster pc, but when you have got one faster pc why would you play older games with a lowend pc when you could use higher res with a newer one?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Kano View Post
                    ...why would you play older games with a lowend pc when you could use higher res with a newer one?
                    Because people run what they've got and we're knee-deep in an economic furball?

                    Comment

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