need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

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lagagnon

Re: need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

Post by lagagnon »

You have that sort of machine and you need to upgrade? Sheeshhh, I have probably 1/4 of that speed and the Gimp works just fine for me. Of course, I don't really know what you are doing, but before you go out and spend money perhaps unnecessarily have you done any systems analysis while you are doing those "intensive" tasks?

For instance, open a terminal and type "top" and see how your RAM and CPU usage goes, also type "free" once in a while to see how much, if any swap space (virtual memory) you are using. If you never use your swap you don't need more than the 2GB of RAM you already have. If your CPU rarely stays at 100% usage then a faster CPU probably won't make your computing that much quicker to justify an upgrade. If you are not going to run more than 2 intensive processes at once why would you need more than a dual core processor?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Anaxis

Re: need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

Post by Anaxis »

Do you know what video card you're using? Will you be using any CAD software or anything like that?

GIMP is lightweight and not too intensive, especially for what you're currently running, but if you're going to be getting into any intense 3D designing software, you might want to get a decent graphics card.
rhY

Re: need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

Post by rhY »

I agree: Your machine pwnz mine! Unless you are running virtual machines or Dolphin, I can't imagine needing more hardware than what you have! Are you running Compiz? What kind of graphics card have you got? That CPU/memory should be fine for nearly any task except Dolphin or an intense VM.
DrHu

Re: need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

Post by DrHu »

foroz wrote:Tks for the your replies - I'm not a techie person, its difficult to find reliable information of what to expect for the configuration
..its difficult to find reliable information of what to expect for the configuration
OK then, here goes..

The machine is OK for Gimp, especially if it was the only application you were running while working with the graphics files..

However, if you want a machine/computer power to grow on..
--then
  • Look for a mainboard that supports more RAM, and they can get pretty high these days
    --say up to ?
  • Change your graphics card for the fastest you can buy
    ---again with a fair amount of onboard RAM (VRAM), such as ?
http://xplanescenery.blogspot.com/2006/ ... -vram.html
  • If I haven't already lost everyone, you could say:
    • max framerate = bus bandwidth / (working set - VRAM )
      So faster bus = faster framerate, and more VRAM = faster framerate. (Math sticklers might ask - if VRAM = working set, is framerate infinite? No...but this equation tells us that if the entire working set fits in VRAM and thus you are not limited by the card fetching data. Other limits on the card will limit your framerate. But this doesn't happen so often as X-Plane's working set on a high-end card with nice settings can be hundreds of MB.)
A specific application (xplane), but it tells the story..
  • So...on the old cards if you ran out of VRAM, the sim's framerate really tanked - it could fall down to 2 or 3 fps. But modern machines have much faster graphics busses, so as you run out of VRAM, the framerate get slower but is not totally unusable, becaues the graphics bus can keep up.)
Finally you likely would want to use the 64bit version of the OS to make use of as much RAM (memory) as you can possibly use ..
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... #anchor_os
--example of a large capacity ($$$) mainboard for Intel processor..
max memory 24GB
Last edited by DrHu on Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:17 am, edited 4 times in total.
vrkalak

Re: need suggestion upgrade to better computer configuration

Post by vrkalak »

I don't use Gimp or Compiz on my PC.

But, I do use AutoCAD for Linux.

Either Gimp (lots of art, fractals, vectors) and program files like AutoCAD ... do use a lot of memory.
I would suggest upgrading your computers RAM to 4-6 Gb. RAM/Memory is relatively inexpensive and easy to install.
A graphics card, would be nice but not necessary, unless you are making, editing and running videos ... or playing major war-games.

Otherwise, your computer looks good, IMHO
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