Intel 533mhz
128mb Video Card (ATI ALL IN WONDER 128)
Cable connection
I know this is terrible, but can someone give me some tips to improve ET performance on my computer? I’m not having that many problems in ET, just 10-20 fps, “Server disconnected for unknown reason”, and “CL_ParseServerMessage: read past end of server message”.
I capped my fps at 76…
Are there any other ways I can improve performance?
Thanks in advance.
Your CPU is slowing everything down. No matter how fast your GPU is, your CPU has a limit too…
Is that really a 128 mb video card ? Just because it has 128 in the name doesn’t mean it is. Unless it is a fairly recent radeon or geforce, it is not.
[quote[
I know this is terrible, but can someone give me some tips to improve ET performance on my computer? I’m not having that many problems in ET, just 10-20 fps, “Server disconnected for unknown reason”, and “CL_ParseServerMessage: read past end of server message”.
I capped my fps at 76…
Are there any other ways I can improve performance?
Thanks in advance.[/quote]
Capping your FPS above the value that you actually get will not help you. low resolution, lowest detail, 16 bit color are the only things that well help you. No matter what, you are not going to get good FPS without a CPU upgrade.
Is your intel 533 a celeron or P3 CPU?. A P3 533 w/ 133 FSB and 256k cache is alot faster than a Celeron 533 w/ a 66 FSB and 128k cache. How much system ram is in your PC, 128 megs? 64 megs? 256 megs?
Your video card is most likely a 16 meg card, and definitely a major bottleneck for running ET. There are many decent grfx cards that can be bought for about $50 (US) that will improve your FPS more than a few CFG tweaks, like turning on fast sky, lowering screen resolution to 640x480, using 16 bit colors/textures and turning on ‘simple items’
See if you can post more specific systyem specs and maybe we can make some better recommendations.
I have a problem i can’t get mor fps than 10-15 i have everything on low (resolution,color,sky…)
C1700
256 ddr
radeon 7200 64mb
disk 60 giga 7200
Sb live sound card
ATI chipset 266kt
can someone help me? 
Yes, you are correct. THanks for all the help guys.
Ok, I have 128 mb ram, not a 128mb vid card…
My computer is a 533mhz P3, 133mhz fsb.
My comp is on the low end for playing this game too, just some ideas…
Mine is a P3 800 Mhz Coppermine , 256 Mb RAM, Geforce 3 Ti500, running the ET Linux client.
There are several things I have knocked down or turned off to make it playable…
“decals” - turn em off, they use up memory.
“high quality sky” make it low, who cares how pretty the sky is. You aren’t looking at the sky unless you are dead. Hmm, if you get carcified a lot, perhaps you should keep this setting. 
“dynamic lighting” is usually a resource hog, axe it if you need to.
“ejecting brass” absolutely turn this off, it’s a very minor visual effect and uses resources.
Well, that is all I can think of, off the top of my head, without looking at the options menu.
As for the original poster, you are really pushing it. It’s going to be a struggle to get it playable. Good luck.
Yes, you are correct. THanks for all the help guys.
Ok, I have 128 mb ram, not a 128mb vid card…
My computer is a 533mhz P3, 133mhz fsb.[/quote]
Assuming you are correct, then your system is:
Intel 533mhz (P3?)
128mb RAM
ATI All-in-Wonder video card (probably with 16mb) (AGP or PCI?)
Cable modem connection
Ignoring game tweaks for a moment, you could really benefit from upgrading any one of the elements above outside of the cable modem. More RAM is quite cheap, a better video card is pretty cheap too. Getting a better/faster processor is more problematic but can also be done. I think you will get the most return on your money by getting a better video card and increasing your RAM. It shouldn’t cost all that much.
As for tweaks, the simplest thing to try first is to select the “fastest” options setting in the in-game menu. It will set many of the game variables that will reduce the processing load on your CPU and GPU. I’d start there and then try the “fast” setting and so forth. You may find a setting that is playable without manually tweaking the configuration variables.
Dawg
If you dont want to spend a lot of money on all brand new equipment, I suggest something like an Athlon XP 1800 perhaps. Quite cheap, but still a good upgrade from what you currently have. RAM is cheap too (make sure you get a type that your system supports though, no good getting DDR 3200 or something if your comp only supports SDRAM).
You’d need a new motherboard for that processor, but thats a good thing. You can get one that perhaps supports better RAM (dunno what you have now) and AGP (again, I don’t know if yours does now or not) so you can get a better vid card. Again, if you go just for what you need, not the most expensive stuff with al the features, you can get a reasonable mobo pretty cheaply too.
You can get a decent graphics card for around $50 now too. I’d reccomend a Geforce 4 ti 4200 though, card isnt bad at all (It’s what I have at the moment, and this and other more graphics intensive games run absolutely fine with it. I havent had a game yet where I’ve needed to turn the detail to low and turn loads of crap off in order to play it) and its not that expensive anymore, due to the release of the FX cards, so it’s good value for money if your on a budget.
The reason for this post was just to let you know that you dont have to buy the best, most expensive stuff if you want to upgrade.
You could get a nice upgrade on your current machine for relatively low money compared to buying all top of the range stuff, and get nice FPS in ET and other games too.
I dont mean to sound patronizing either. I dont know how much you know or dont know.
In the end, its still money, depends if you have it. I’ve always got too much month left at the end of my money 
Yeah, thanks for all the help. Its running a little better… but I’ll get some computer upgrades soon.
Thanks again.
n00ber,
cheapest solution is new grfx card and more ram. how ever, it really depends on how much of your syustem you want to upgrade and how much money you want to spend.
Newer grfx cards scale w/ CPU speed and system ram. Carcifier has the same card as me, a geforce3 ti500. If he kept that grfx card and upgraded his cpu ram and mobo, that card would make ET fly.
Heres an example - I had an AMD 900 w/ 386 megs SDRAM and a geforce1 grfx card, I bought the g3 ti500 super cheap at the time, played wolf and I didnt get an FPS increase at all. What I did get was ability to bump up grfx settings w/out loss of FPS, it also didnt dip as low as it did before. But it did not run faster. Thats a geforce 1 to geforce3 ultra.
I upgraded to athlon 1800+ (1.5ghz) , 512 DDR pc2100 and an asus a7v266-c (KT266a chipset), and from that I got an across the board huge bump in FPS for wolf, even w/ max settings, Id estimate an average of 20 - 40 FPS higher, depending on map. However, ET wasnt too impressed, so I upgraded mobo, cpu and ram again, increased CPU speed by 700 mhz and system bus from 133 to 166 - now ET flies and doesnt bottom out. I still have the g3 ti500. I tell this tale of hardware lust to illustrate the point that newer grfx cards keep on giving when you get a faster system.
I highly recommend Aces Hardware website, they have a gamers upgrade guide , heres the link
http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=50000356
fabulous stuff - shows the true path to enlightenment : )
w00t, thanks for all the help… again…
I’m getting a:
2.4 ghz
512 ram
Dunno about the vid card… is there some way to find out?
If its a prebuilt dell, for instance, and they dont spell out which vid card it uses, it usually means integrated video, which is no good for ET.
If youre building it yourself … then its up to you and your budget.
Integrated is bad… that’s all I know.
I got a 16mb ATI vid card right now…
Could I ask them to put in a radeon 9800 or something?
Whos building it for you?
and yes, do specify which card you want if someone else is building it for you.
never heard of them,
and a 9800 pro is a very fast card
see if you can have Tolga build you a P4 w/ 800 FSB on a 865PE chipset
that rig will scream, and proilly remain a good gaming rig for a few years
GL
radeon 9800 is $150, that should be ok…
I think its gonna be a 533mhz fsb, but I don’t know what a 865PE chipset is.