The "Would my PC be able to run M2TW?" thread (all such queries here pls)

[-oasis-]

Hi all,
I list my system specs:

AMD ATHLON xp 3200
2 Gb Ram Corsair
ATI RADEON 9800 pro 256 mb

Can I run M2tw with a decent detail? :juggle2:

Ps Sorry for my poor english... :idea2:

Thanks!


thanks for the numerous replies!

[maestro]

i'd suggest adding another GB of ram, should benefit a game like MII:TW

i have a similar system except a X850XT and 1.5GB DDR400 ram, which ran the demo fine at 1600*1200 with everything maxed except shadows turned off

so at 1280*1024 it should run even huge battles fine

Blimey - what's your framerate at those settings and are you using an FSAA?

[JR-]

Okay i think its time too ask for advice here then, if and what i should upgrade too.

my specs

Motherboard:

CPU Type

AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3500+

Motherboard Name

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (MS-7025) (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
[U]System Memory
1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type
Award (07/28/04)

Display

Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
Gainward GS(turns a GT too a Ultra)
[U]

lol, that is identical to my parents PC! :dizzy2:

you should be fine with that spec.

[mfberg]

I have just purchased a new low end graphics card for my low end computer it was an ATI Radeon 9250 for a PCI slot for $45. It runs the demo very well on low settings, and with a tiny bit of stuttering with a little detail added. So there is hope for those of us who run the game on low end business computers.

mfberg

[PwnageBot2000]

Actually the X1300 is the budget card of the X1x00 series, while your x700 is the mid card of the preceeding Xx00 series. My X850XT for example beats some of the X1800 cards.

So don't judge by the higher model number. Look into performance tets.

Shaitan

Ok, in what order do these ATI cards come out?? I know your x850 beats my x700, but what about the latest ones such as the x1900 and x1950?! Someone please tell me how my x700 compares to other cards.

thanks.

[R'as al Ghul]

1.8 Ghz AMD Duron
1 Gbyte DDR1 RAM
128 MB Radeon 9600XT Bravo

:jumping: I can't believe it but the game runs actually very good on this machine. I've no idea how many fps I have nor do I care but with almost all settings turned to low and unit detail on medium it's very playable. No noticeable lag. :yes:

R'as

Edit: Correction: When modding custom battles with full armies, it lags mercilessly.

[Steinfeld]

*sigh*
The last time I upgraded my PC for a specific game was for Black&White (talk about a letdown...). For the TW-series this was never necessary...

So, please tell me, how good will it get for me? I have nor problem with "normal" unit sizes, I never actually played huge sizes, even in Shogun back in the day.

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2424MHz
Display Card NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Memory 1024MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 27.11GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 9.1.4.7
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive DVD
Sound Card SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B400]

And be gentle... :)

Thanks and cheers from Vienna,
S.

[Caesar_julii]

how do you check your video card specs?(noob question sorry)

[Caesar_julii]

my specs are
1 gig ram
2.4 mhz processor
9600 radeon video card(256)

[JR-]

should be ok for low/med settings. :)

[gunslinger]

I've been looking at a few bargain cards including the Radeon X850 PRO and the Geforce 6600 and the Radeon X700. All are AGP cards with 256mb RAM. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out whether they have the proper SHADER support, though. If the card supports DX 9, can I assume that it will work? Assuming that the rest of my system is ok, will these cards run M2TW?



Ok, in what order do these ATI cards come out?? I know your x850 beats my x700, but what about the latest ones such as the x1900 and x1950?! Someone please tell me how my x700 compares to other cards.

thanks.

I can answer that one! Check out tomshardware.com. It takes a little bit of navigation, but they have tools showing how tons of vid cards performed on certain games when installed on similar systems. They also have a great little article called "best video cards for the money 2006" which lists their top picks in certain price ranges.

[maestro]

yeah, good point. I was gonna mention that a while back.... so sorry, I forgot totally to post the link :inquisitive:

Just click the link below to find out where your card is placed.

Interactive VGA Charts (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html)

Do bare in mind, that with everything maxed out, you will get lower frame rates than anything on that chart! For example, the lowest average frame rate for any game on the chart is for Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. My card (X1900XT) scores about 25fps at 1600x1200 res: everything maxed out but I get more like 15-20 fps average on M2TW at the same settings. So I suggest you use the RoN:RoL chart for the closest comparison and take a little off :2thumbsup:

[Pindar]

My game computer contains:

Processor: AMD Ahtlon(tm) XP 1900+, MMX, 3D now, 1.5Ghz
Memory: 512MB RAM
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00PG
Direct X: Direct X 9.0c

What do you think?

[Drake]

AMD Athlon XP 2600 2.08 GHZ
512 MB
128 MB nVidia Geforce FX 5200 (I think)

I know that card is as old as hell, if anything is gonna trip me up it'll be that. How bad do you tech experts think I'll have it, I appreciate any feedback.

[maestro]

My game computer contains:

Processor: AMD Ahtlon(tm) XP 1900+, MMX, 3D now, 1.5Ghz
Memory: 512MB RAM
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00PG
Direct X: Direct X 9.0c

What do you think?

I think you'll struggle - even though you haven't actually posted what video card you have - which is probably the most important info we need ~:doh:


AMD Athlon XP 2600 2.08 GHZ
512 MB
128 MB nVidia Geforce FX 5200 (I think)

I know that card is as old as hell, if anything is gonna trip me up it'll be that. How bad do you tech experts think I'll have it, I appreciate any feedback.

You'er definitely gonna need more horsepower for a video card. I assume you'll be limited to AGP so choice won't be that great.

[Pindar]

I think you'll struggle - even though you haven't actually posted what video card you have - which is probably the most important info we need ~:doh:


I'm not very computer savy. I don't know where to find my video card info.

[maestro]

You could always look in device manager.

Right-Click on "My Computer"
Select "Properties"
Click on "Hardware" tab
Click on "Device Manager"
Click the little plus simbol next to Display Adaptor.

Should tell you there :2thumbsup:

[bome99]

I have big trouble running the demo my spec's are:

Intel pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz

RAM 2GB

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 256 MB

What am I doing wrong, I've updated all drivers as well??

[bome99]

I have big trouble running the demo my spec's are:

Intel pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz

RAM 2GB

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 256 MB

What am I doing wrong, I've updated all drivers as well??

More spec's

Windows 2000

88,5 GB free diskspace

[Ferret]

My specs are:
Pentinum(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
1024 MB of RAM
HP d330 DT (DC580AV)
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500

I have no idea what any of that means, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[bome99]

Does any one know witch graphic cards are supported?

[LegioScythia]

Does any one know witch graphic cards are supported?
- 128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support
and the latest drivers. Must be 100% DirectX® 9.0c
compatible*. Nvidia® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 or ATI Radeon® 9800
are the recommended minimum hardware.
as long as it meets these requirements i think it should work

[ProudNerd]

*sigh*
The last time I upgraded my PC for a specific game was for Black&White (talk about a letdown...). For the TW-series this was never necessary...

So, please tell me, how good will it get for me? I have nor problem with "normal" unit sizes, I never actually played huge sizes, even in Shogun back in the day.

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2424MHz
Display Card NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Memory 1024MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 27.11GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 9.1.4.7
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive DVD
Sound Card SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B400]

And be gentle... :)

Thanks and cheers from Vienna,
S.

Should be fine for med settings. @ 1024x768.

[Pindar]

You could always look in device manager.

Right-Click on "My Computer"
Select "Properties"
Click on "Hardware" tab
Click on "Device Manager"
Click the little plus simbol next to Display Adaptor.

Should tell you there :2thumbsup:

Thank you, I have a Radeon 9600 it says.

[Fate]

- 128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support
and the latest drivers. Must be 100% DirectX® 9.0c
compatible*. Nvidia® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 or ATI Radeon® 9800
are the recommended minimum hardware.
as long as it meets these requirements i think it should work

I know youve listed the card types above, but i suck with things like this! I guess a GeForce 4 MX 440 nVida 64mb AGP wouldnt work?

[maestro]

I have big trouble running the demo my spec's are:

Intel pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz

RAM 2GB

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 256 MB

What am I doing wrong, I've updated all drivers as well??

You're doing nothing wrong, you just have a very low-end and antiquated video card.


My specs are:
Pentinum(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
1024 MB of RAM
HP d330 DT (DC580AV)
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500

I have no idea what any of that means, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Likewise - you're gonna really struggle to play any decent games with that kind of card.


I know youve listed the card types above, but i suck with things like this! I guess a GeForce 4 MX 440 nVida 64mb AGP wouldnt work?

I'd be very surprised if that card runs any game written since 1974 :dizzy2:


I don't wish to be the harbinger of bad news to y'all, but people really shouldn't expect to be able to play a game released at the and of 2006 on hardware designed for 2002. Really. Gaming hardware has a maximum lifespan of about 2 years before it needs upgrading. Playing games on a PC is the best gaming experience there is, but it's also the most expensive!

[maestro]

Thank you, I have a Radeon 9600 it says.

Which is an "OK" card, so medium settings should be OK. Stay clear of shadows and FSAA ~)

[Ferret]

You're doing nothing wrong, you just have a very low-end and antiquated video card.



Likewise - you're gonna really struggle to play any decent games with that kind of card.



I'd be very surprised if that card runs any game written since 1974 :dizzy2:


I don't wish to be the harbinger of bad news to y'all, but people really shouldn't expect to be able to play a game released at the and of 2006 on hardware designed for 2002. Really. Gaming hardware has a maximum lifespan of about 2 years before it needs upgrading. Playing games on a PC is the best gaming experience there is, but it's also the most expensive!
I can run the gold demo on medium settings with bloom alrite though.

[dcd111]

After doing a little upgrading based on some recommendations I received earlier in this thread, I've got the following:

Pentium 4 2.4 (512 L2 cache, 800 FSB)
1.5 GB pc3200 RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800GT AGP (overclocking at Ultra levels without any artifacts or other problems)

The demo runs well enough with this setup, I'm not particularly obsessed with framerate and can live without shadows (shadows on low look worse than no shadows in my opinion anyway).

However, at this point, I recognize that the processor is probably my biggest remaining limitation. There's no way I'm getting a new motherboard right now, and the upper limit on my particular socket 478 motherboard is a Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (512 L2 cache). They can be had for somewhere between $100-$130 on ebay, maybe less, but I'm not sure such an upgrade would even be worthwhile.

How much does a game like this depend on processor speed, and would an increase from 2.4 to 3.4 make a noticeable difference considering my other components? I don't play MP, so I'm not expecting massive numbers of men on the field at once.

Thanks in advance.

[Pindar]

Which is an "OK" card, so medium settings should be OK. Stay clear of shadows and FSAA ~)

Thanks maestro,

Just to confirm, based on what I put forward:

"Processor: AMD Ahtlon(tm) XP 1900+, MMX, 3D now, 1.5Ghz
Memory: 512MB RAM
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBios v6.00PG
Direct X: Direct X 9.0c
video card: Radeon 9600"

You think my system will be OK to run things then?

[doc_bean]

I just want to point out that I just played the demo in 1280x960 with everything maxed out, without slowdowns.

My new rig kicks ****.

[Phalaxar]

Mfberg, that's weird - I thought I remembered reading that the lowest that could run MTWII is a 9800?

Steinfeld, B&W or B&W2? :P

[bome99]

You're doing nothing wrong, you just have a very low-end and antiquated video card.



Likewise - you're gonna really struggle to play any decent games with that kind of card.



I'd be very surprised if that card runs any game written since 1974 :dizzy2:


I don't wish to be the harbinger of bad news to y'all, but people really shouldn't expect to be able to play a game released at the and of 2006 on hardware designed for 2002. Really. Gaming hardware has a maximum lifespan of about 2 years before it needs upgrading. Playing games on a PC is the best gaming experience there is, but it's also the most expensive!

Dang!:wall: guess I'll have to buy a new card then..
can you recommend any cheep ones ?

[hoetje]

How cheap should it be? :beam:

[Ferret]

I was thinking of getting the GeForce 7300 GS OC
Will this improve my system sufficiently?
Cheers,
Bob

[bome99]

How cheap should it be? :beam:

mm about a 100 £

[Ferret]

mm about a 100 £
The one i might get is only around £50 and seems to me like it will be good enough.

[ProudNerd]

I was thinking of getting the GeForce 7300 GS OC
Will this improve my system sufficiently?
Cheers,
Bob

if you can find a distributer for your country get one of these (http://www.pccasegear.com/prod3857.htm)even the non special price is great!

[Ferret]

I'm afraid my budget is a bit smaller than that
cheers anyway

[Burakius]

So would my stuff let me play this game on med? It does in the demo I have



2.66 GHz pentium 4
Radeon 9800 pro 128mb
1.5gb ram

[Fate]

Thanks for the feedback Maestro, though you may be pleasently suprised to find that i can paly all the previous total war games and many other with tat card, odd eh?

[Incongruous]

Hi guys!:beam:

I was wondering if anyone knew If there are any new drivers for the x 800xt agp platinum ed?
If there are it would so good of one of you to direct me to them.

Bopa.

[Dr_Who_Regen#4]

I know my PC will run M2TW as I can run the demo and it is pretty new. My real question is whether I should get more RAM (I asked in the hardware section and got limited replies so I thought I would ask here).

I have
CPU = Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (overclocked to 2.43 GHz)
GPU = XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX 256 MB
RAM = 2x512 MB Corsair DDR2 running at slightly over 800 MHz with 4-4-4-12 timing

On the demo I get 12 to 18 FPS at 1280x1024 with most settings in the high range (but not all and nothing on highest).

I have 2 more slots open where I could add another 2 sticks of 512 MB RAM, but I am not sure this will help much as I do not have much running in the background other then internet security and was wondering if anyone thinks M2TW would ever put me into Virtual Memory on Windows XP as I assume this would be the only reason to get more RAM.

Also is MP more RAM intensive? I will probably do mainly SP Campaign, but just curious if MP (due to larger battle size) would be helped by the added RAM.

Thanks in advance for everyone's expertise.

[ProudNerd]

So would my stuff let me play this game on med? It does in the demo I have



2.66 GHz pentium 4
Radeon 9800 pro 128mb
1.5gb ram

try the gold demo you shoudl get idencle performance sicne the gold ed demo is the optimized code. Id guess med/low btu i dont know much abotu Ati cards. I perfer Nivida myself

[Incongruous]

Yeah, I mean I admire the 9800 soo much. It's been ATI's Workhorse for so long. I'm guessing med settings with that card.

[ProudNerd]

I know my PC will run M2TW as I can run the demo and it is pretty new. My real question is whether I should get more RAM (I asked in the hardware section and got limited replies so I thought I would ask here).

I have
CPU = Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (overclocked to 2.43 GHz)
GPU = XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX 256 MB
RAM = 2x512 MB Corsair DDR2 running at slightly over 800 MHz with 4-4-4-12 timing

On the demo I get 12 to 18 FPS at 1280x1024 with most settings in the high range (but not all and nothing on highest).

I have 2 more slots open where I could add another 2 sticks of 512 MB RAM, but I am not sure this will help much as I do not have much running in the background other then internet security and was wondering if anyone thinks M2TW would ever put me into Virtual Memory on Windows XP as I assume this would be the only reason to get more RAM.

Also is MP more RAM intensive? I will probably do mainly SP Campaign, but just curious if MP (due to larger battle size) would be helped by the added RAM.

Thanks in advance for everyone's expertise.

while 1gb is usialsy fine ram is cheap and I'm sure 2gb would make a difference but anything above that really isn't worth the money. The huge amount of ram is rendered useless by a fsb too slow to address all of it memory and you may experance slower performance. Your also better off getting 1gb sticks they are often faster.

[Belgolas]

Hi guys!:beam:

I was wondering if anyone knew If there are any new drivers for the x 800xt agp platinum ed?
If there are it would so good of one of you to direct me to them.

Bopa.

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

It is the latest Catalyst 6.10 Windows XP driver.

It can run
Products Supported:

* Radeon® X1950 XTX
* Radeon® X1900 series
* Radeon® X1800 series
* Radeon® X1600 series
* Radeon® X1300 series
* Radeon® X850 series
* Radeon® X800 series
* Radeon® X700 series
* Radeon® X600 series

* Radeon® X550 series
* Radeon® X300 series
* Radeon® 9800 series
* Radeon® 9700 series
* Radeon® 9600 series
* Radeon® 9650 series
* Radeon® 9550 series
* Radeon® 9500 series

I was wondering if I should buy a new GPU or wait til Dx10

I have a X700. It can run Battlefield 2 Max, CS:S MAX and can run M2TW decently. One that is cheaper than $200 Canadian.
I have a 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4 800mhz FSB 1mb L2cache
3gigs of ram.

[Irish Soldier]

I am dying to play Medieval 2 but I dont know if my Pc is strong enough for it. I was hoping If i give out my details someone could tell me if it will play the game or not. Thanks






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[Monarch]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=70318&page=10

Welcome to the Org.

[Dutch_guy]

Well, what type of videocard do have. The rest of your system seems good enough, although you could maybe do with some more RAM - not a necessity mind you, but it could come in handy.

Now, if you do not know what you currently have. You're going to need to open your dxdiag. Go to start > run > dxdiag > screen [ one of the tabs in the dxdiag ]. That should tell you that you're running.

And it would help us answer your question.

:balloon2:

[Burakius]

Im thinking about buying a whole new system. AGP cards suck. I hate my radeon 9800 card. I hate it! PUKE PUKE..

im gonna buy new motherboard and new videocard. my budget is about 700 euros. any suggests?

also how much does a processor cost. I have 2.66 ghz now. Wanna upgrade that mofo.

[Miloshus]

Well I ve got computer about a year old with this hardware
AMD ATHLON 64 3700+ 2.41 MHZ
512 RAM
GAINWARD G-FORCE 6600 256MB

Would the game work on medium performance?

[Comrade Alexeo]

Alright...

So, I've been trying to convince a gamer friend of mine to try out the TW series for a while, and he's finally decided to give the M2TW demo a whirl. He's downloading it now and these are his specs:

2 GB RAM
2.16 gHz Intel Centrino Core Duo processor
256 MB NVIDIA Geforce 7400 Turbocache

Sounds to me like a pretty good system, but his processor concerns me...

I know that on my 512 MB RAM, 2.79 gHz Pentium 4, 128MB Radeon 9800 PRO, I can run detail and textures on medium, grass on, terrain low, buildings high, bloom off (cause its ugly!), reflections on, and largest unit size (in the demo at least) on 1280x1024 resolution with very good performance; the intro-to-battle videos can be a little slow, but once the gameplay starts I seem to have few problems.

Now, I suspect that my friend can do better than me, right?

[Phalaxar]

Well I ve got computer about a year old with this hardware
AMD ATHLON 64 3700+ 2.41 MHZ
512 RAM
GAINWARD G-FORCE 6600 256MB

Would the game work on medium performance?

I think so. I have twice as much RAM but my processor is worse, and mine runs good above medium. Just try the demo.

Alexeo, I should think a Core Duo can handle it? Not entirely sure.

[Belgolas]

I am thinking of buying a new GPU. Any suggestions? Price below $300 Canadian. Would like it around $200-250 Canadian.

I have a 541 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4, 800mhz FSB, 1MB L2Cache
3gigs of DDR2. 533mhz

I can run the demo at good settings but I would like to run it with max.

[Phalaxar]

I am thinking of buying a new GPU. Any suggestions? Price below $300 Canadian. Would like it around $200-250 Canadian.

I have a 541 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4, 800mhz FSB, 1MB L2Cache
3gigs of DDR2. 533mhz

I can run the demo at good settings but I would like to run it with max.

What's your graphics card? Quite often the processor is the bottleneck in such things.

[Ares]

I am thinking of buying a new GPU. Any suggestions? Price below $300 Canadian. Would like it around $200-250 Canadian.

I have a 541 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4, 800mhz FSB, 1MB L2Cache
3gigs of DDR2. 533mhz

I can run the demo at good settings but I would like to run it with max.

Do you have an AGP motherboard or a PCI-E motherboard?

On that note, my 7800GS should arrive tomorrow! :2thumbsup:

[Belgolas]

I have a PCI-E motherboard. Intel 945PSN. I have a crappy saphire X700. It has only 256MB, 128-bit, GDDR2, 8 pipelines, around 400mhz for both core clock and memory.

I am thinking of the EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO Price:$387.99 CND
With an HD CRT 19 inch monitor. $274.99

I think I would be happy with that setup.

541 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4
3gigs of ram
EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO

I hope that will run M2TW at max settings! Do you think that it will? I know that my CPU will be the bottleneck now lol.

[Ares]

I have a PCI-E motherboard. Intel 945PSN. I have a crappy saphire X700. It has only 256MB, 128-bit, GDDR2, 8 pipelines, around 400mhz for both core clock and memory.

I am thinking of the EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO Price:$387.99 CND
With an HD CRT 19 inch monitor. $274.99

I think I would be happy with that setup.

541 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4
3gigs of ram
EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO

I hope that will run M2TW at max settings! Do you think that it will? I know that my CPU will be the bottleneck now lol.

I think that setup will run the game very well. Probably at max settings!

[maestro]

Alright...

So, I've been trying to convince a gamer friend of mine to try out the TW series for a while, and he's finally decided to give the M2TW demo a whirl. He's downloading it now and these are his specs:

2 GB RAM
2.16 gHz Intel Centrino Core Duo processor
256 MB NVIDIA Geforce 7400 Turbocache

Sounds to me like a pretty good system, but his processor concerns me...

Now, I suspect that my friend can do better than me, right?

Firstly, his processor shouldn't bother you. Don't be distracted by mere clock speed. That processor is roughly twice as fast as yours! It's his video card that should worry you = it's pants. I suspect what we're dealing with here might be a laptop? If not then some dodgy propriatory system like a Packard Bell or something. The reason I mention it is that the turbocache series use shared RAM (at least the only ones I've seen so far) and they share system RAM with your PC. That's not a mega problem in itself with 2Gb of RAM, but the bandwidth for the RAM will be massively reduced. Not only will his video card be sharing resources with teh CPU, but the time taken to read / write info from the system RAM is waaaay slower than a video card with proper GRAM. For example, the latest ATI cards have a dedicated bus to the GRAM of 2GHz, and I suspect that your 7400TC is sharing space on a 677MHz bus, and it has to get the info over the PCIe bus too. Basically, all in all, the 7400TC are rubbish and should only ever be used when there is no alternative. They're just used to look good when salesmen are trying to sell a laptop. They can tell you how "it's got a 256Mb NVidia graphics card!" but what they don't tell you is that it's pretty pants cause it's a shared resource. :smash:


All in all, I suspect that your computer and your friend's computer will perform at very similar framerates in M2TW

[Belgolas]

I think that setup will run the game very well. Probably at max settings!


I think so. I have twice as much RAM but my processor is worse, and mine runs good above medium. Just try the demo.

Alexeo, I should think a Core Duo can handle it? Not entirely sure.
That is what I like to hear. Is the 7950 better or no? It is cheaper, but only just a bit.

[ignacius_magnus]

i need help i cant run the demo i have laptop with a 19" lcd display windows xp
512 of ram pentium 4with 2.66 GHZ proccesor 50 gigabytes of hardisk
and a nvidia gforce 4 GO with the bus being AGP 8X and 64 of memory ..........

what should i do to be able to play the mtw2 demo?
get more RAM?get a new video card ,if so wich one?


need help call 911

oops i forgot when i run the MDTW2 demo it says something about pixel shader does my card support it? is pixel shader a drive or something?

[maestro]

You need a new video card. Just get the best one you can afford although choice will be limited cause you're on AGP.

[ignacius_magnus]

where can i find one online?

[maestro]

That kinda depends which country you're in :inquisitive: :2thumbsup:

[ignacius_magnus]

well im in the caribbean but anything that ship through usa may work 4 me

anyways its just im having a trouble shopping 4 video cards all i seem to find is pc cards and i guess pc cards are different from laptop video cards any help?


anyone/.?

[maestro]

Sorry mate, my bad! I totally missed the point that you had a laptop. Basically, you're stuffed and won't ever be able to play M2TW on that laptop. End of. Really sorry to bare the news to you but that's life. You're gonna need another laptop or a proper PC, I'm afraid :sweatdrop:

[ignacius_magnus]

whaaaaaaa noooooo........ (outside noises fading)(hearing my own heartbeat)
(everything is getting dark) (out of air)

really man? oh im screwed man......is there no way to buy a motherboard with an enbeded gpu or video card?.......(crossing fingers)

[maestro]

You can only ever really upgrade the memory on a laptop. mYou could always try your manufacturer's website "just in case" but don't hold your breath :no:

[ignacius_magnus]

oh man i would have hoped u were wrong but u were right.....the thing i can upgrade the laptop ram to 2 gigs but im stuck with the crappy videocard cause its integrated to the motherboard........no MTW2 4 me crap!

my only option is to buy a new pc......but i guess ill beter make one from scratch and buy the part separately ........what is the best video card under 300 bucks thats made by Nvidia??? and wich processor should i buy pentium 4 or pentium core DUO?.......anyway thanks in the meantime ill guess the only thing i could play is the crusades mod if its finished someday ...i hope cause thats actually the closest thing to MDTW2 .....and the only thing my laptop can handle right now.... anyway thanks

[Belgolas]

pentium core duo is better but Core 2 Duo is way better. The best graphics card for under $300 american from tigerdirect.com is...

well for $300+ taxes and shipping is the
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2410575&CatId=0

the next best would be

$279+shipping nad taxes
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2541397&CatId=0

both are good cards. It is not that expensive. For a thousand-1300 dollars you could have a sweet computer.

[ignacius_magnus]

thanks dude......hey belgolas ehats the difference between those 2 videocards wich has more raw horse power????


and if it aint much hassle wich is the best motherboard available for pc gaming taking in mind something that wont cost me my right eye hehehe thanxxx

[Belgolas]

I think I am going to go with a XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX 256MB GDDR3 instead because it is cheap and DX10 is coming soon so I don't want to spend too much money. How well do you think it will run on my system?

XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX 256MB GDDR3
3.2 Ghz Pentium 4 800mhz FSB 1MB l2 Cache HT 541
3gigs of 533 ram. 2x512mb an 2x1g

Do you think that this should be able to run M2TW at 1280 x 1024 at high settings except shadows? Maybe max at 1280 x 1024? I hope so.

[Ignoramus]

The computer I use has a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 video card. Will that run Medieval: Total War 2? If it does, what kind of graphics settings would I get with normal sized units?

[JR-]

barely, on minimum settings.

you really should go out and spend at least £70 on a new vid-card.

[maestro]

preferably twice that ~;) Just get the best you can afford which will fit in your otherboard :beam:

[Ferret]

Pentinum(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
1024 MB of RAM
HP d330 DT (DC580AV)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS OC

How would I get on with these specs, Medium settings?

[Slayzer]

I think I already know the solution to my problem, but a second opinion is always nice. Here are my specs fresh from dxdiag:

Intel Celeron D 3.2 ghz
512 RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (256mb)

I played the demo and I didn't tweak anything graphics wise and the battle of Pavia ran almost, but not quite, like a slideshow. Is there any features in game that I can turn off to make it run faster? I really don't wanna spend more money on memory just yet and everything else i've thrown at it works for the most part.

[maestro]

Pentinum(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
1024 MB of RAM
HP d330 DT (DC580AV)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS OC

How would I get on with these specs, Medium settings?

I think so... :yes:


I think I already know the solution to my problem, but a second opinion is always nice. Here are my specs fresh from dxdiag:

Intel Celeron D 3.2 ghz
512 RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (256mb)

I played the demo and I didn't tweak anything graphics wise and the battle of Pavia ran almost, but not quite, like a slideshow. Is there any features in game that I can turn off to make it run faster? I really don't wanna spend more money on memory just yet and everything else i've thrown at it works for the most part.

You don't mention what your graphics card is - which is the most important bit :smash:

The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (256mb) of which you speak is a misnomer. Radeon Xpress 200 is a motherboard chipset and it doesn't have any memory. You may well have a 256Mb graphics card, but it ain't a Radeon Xpress 200, i can assure you ~;)

[Zharatustra]

AMD Thorton 2000+ (1.6 Ghz)
768 MB PC2100
Ti 4200 128MB (says its only 4x)

i was worried but this gold demo works great...!

i set unit detail to high and texture to medium...NO PROBS...

just to compare FYI...

[maestro]

AMD Thorton 2000+ (1.6 Ghz)
768 MB PC2100
Ti 4200 128MB (says its only 4x)

i was worried but this gold demo works great...!

i set unit detail to high and texture to medium...NO PROBS...

just to compare FYI...


Crikey, what resolution? I think that's the lowest spec we've had reported so far :embarassed:

[Vicarious]

Oh happy days..

My specs:
Intel Pentium 4
512 Mb Ram
GeForce 6600 512 Mb Ram

When I tried out the Gold demo, the game was almost unplayable even on the lowest settings, because of heavy lagging.
Yesterday, the original version arrived in the mail. I was of course anxious to the point of breaking down when I started the game. Runs perfectly on medium settings!

I can see two explenations on this:
1. Heavy adjustments on spec demands on the original version compared to gold demo.
2. I adjusted the framerate on my videocard from 60 Hz to 75 Hz.

[maestro]

Changing your refresh rate from 60Hz to 75Hz would make very little difference unless you were using V-Sync and then only a few FPS.

Maybe they just optimised the code - VERY unusual to make such a big change after a gold release. But hey - if it runs better then w0000t :beam:

[astonkiller]

Intel Pentium D 950 Dual Core Processor

3.4GHz, 800MHz FSB

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center

2GB DDR RAM

300GB Hard Disk Drive

Dual Layer DVD ReWriter Drive

512MB nVIDIA GeForce 7600GS Graphics

Built-in TV Tuner + Remote Control

802.11g Wireless Network Ready

19" LG TFT Monitor


would this computer be any good for mtw2.ps would it play on high settings or med.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Yea m8, it could run at High,from the looks of your stats :) :-)

[Fenix7]

My advice is that you buy dual core cpu processor instead pentium D. It is much better (processing/operations/a lot lower core temperature/etc) and it has a lot lower consumption then pentium D.

Just a thought.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

My Comp

2.8 GHz
Intel Penium
512 RAM
Radeon X1300 256MB Card

could run at Med,right and could do MP,right??

[maestro]

My advice is that you buy dual core cpu processor instead pentium D. It is much better (processing/operations/a lot lower core temperature/etc) and it has a lot lower consumption then pentium D.

Just a thought.

As long as it's an Intel Core2Duo - they're the ultimate chip in performance, price and heat / energy. The AMD dual cores are not as good.

[Myrddraal]

I'm buying a tablet pc laptop (for reasons unrelated to tw), but I'd love to know if it'll be good enough.

Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz ( Dual-Core )
1GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache supporting 256MB - 128 MB

I have no idea what that means, but I hope it's good.

[dcd111]

After doing a little upgrading based on some recommendations I received earlier in this thread, I've got the following:

Pentium 4 2.4 (512 L2 cache, 800 FSB)
1.5 GB pc3200 RAM
PNY Verto GeForce 6800GT AGP (overclocking at Ultra levels without any artifacts or other problems)

The demo runs well enough with this setup, I'm not particularly obsessed with framerate and can live without shadows (shadows on low look worse than no shadows in my opinion anyway).

However, at this point, I recognize that the processor is probably my biggest remaining limitation. There's no way I'm getting a new motherboard right now, and the upper limit on my particular socket 478 motherboard is a Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz (512 L2 cache). They can be had for somewhere between $100-$130 on ebay, maybe less, but I'm not sure such an upgrade would even be worthwhile.

How much does a game like this depend on processor speed, and would an increase from 2.4 to 3.4 make a noticeable difference considering my other components? I don't play MP, so I'm not expecting massive numbers of men on the field at once.

Thanks in advance.

I hate to repost the same thing over again, but posts can get swept off the page quickly in this thread, it's possible nobody noticed it. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[JR-]

should be ok to run it at 1280x800 on medium settings.

[maestro]

I'm buying a tablet pc laptop (for reasons unrelated to tw), but I'd love to know if it'll be good enough.

Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz ( Dual-Core )
1GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache supporting 256MB - 128 MB

I have no idea what that means, but I hope it's good.


Fairly naff graphics card, i'm afraid, but the rest is good spec :2thumbsup:

[redcolor]

My Specs:

Intel P4 3.0 G
1 GB DDR2 533
ASUS EN7600GT DDR3 256MB (Nvidia 7600 Chip), 560/1400,
VGA driver 91.47
with latest Intel MB driver

Game setting:
All Unit detail: Highest
Shader version 2
Shadow: High
Texture: Medium
Anti-Aliasing: off
other option: on

The Gold version demo run very smoth with no lag, for all 3 battle, cool, great experience, i think i am ready for the final release. The Display card is the most important thing for better quality and performance.

[Dutch_guy]

Anti-Aliasing: off

What is it exactly that Anti-Aliasing does ?

Is it worth having on ?

Sorry for posting this here, but it seemed the best place.

:balloon2:

[redcolor]

I am dying to play Medieval 2 but I dont know if my Pc is strong enough for it. I was hoping If i give out my details someone could tell me if it will play the game or not. Thanks






My Computer Information - General

Please wait while information is being collected...




100% (collecting Local Disk information)

Refresh screen
Specifications
Dell Inc.
System Model: Dimension 5100
BIOS Version: Dell Inc. A01


Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version: 5.1.2600
Service Pack: 2.0
Location: C:\WINDOWS
PID: 55277-OEM-0011903-00102
Hot Fix: KB925486


Memory (RAM)
Capacity: 512 MB


Processor
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Version: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1
Speed: 2992 MHz
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Version: x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1
Speed: 2992 MHz


General Computer Info
System Name: PC
Domain: WORKGROUP
Time Zone: GMT Standard Time
Connection: Workstation (standalone)
Proxy Server: Auto
IP Address: 192.168.1.2
IPX Address: Not Enabled


Local Disk
Total Capacity: 71.07 GB
Sum of Hard Disks: (C: )
Used: 42.27 GB

Free: 28.79 GB

The CPU is good for playing the game, but what about the detail of your graphic card and RAM ?,

[redcolor]

What is it exactly that Anti-Aliasing does ?

Is it worth having on ?

Sorry for posting this here, but it seemed the best place.

:balloon2:


just make thing look better when you zoom in (close look)

[LestaT]

This is basically my 4 or 5 years old pc through upgrades.

P4 1.7 (the earlier version) running Win XP SP2
512 MB SDRam
SB Live
GeForce 5500 256 MB

Will I be able to run it at least on mid setting with max number of units ? :help:

[redcolor]

I currently have a...
2.8 Ghz pentium D 533mhz FSB
NO HT 256KB L2 Cache
ATI 256mb X700 GPU
128-bit
400 VPU clock
250 Mem clock
3g of DDR2 533mhz
Intel® Desktop Board D945PSN


I am thinking of upgrading to a...
3.2 Ghz pentium 4 800mhz FSB
with HT and a 1mb L2 cache

and a...

EVGA GeForce 7950 GT KO SuperClocked
512MB GDDR3
46.4 GB per second memory bandwidth
1450MHz
600 MHz clock
256-bit

Would this be a good setup for M2TW and other games and how much of an improvement is this? Should I wait or buy a different setup? All post are welcome. Or should I just upgrade the CPU or buy a dual core. I would like to keep it cheap. Do I need just to upgrade the GPU?

M2TW would be happy with GF 7950GT. If upgrade CPU to P4 3.2 or Core 2 dual, you may also need to upgrade you mainboard to support the CPU. The cheaper way is upgrade the VGA first to 7950 GT, but first check you 945 PSN on how to support PCI-E x16 first (since the Intel spec just says it has "One PCI Express x16 bus add-in card connector", not sure what exactly means). and 7950GT may not reach its max. performance on a 533 Mhz Bus.

[dcd111]

What is it exactly that Anti-Aliasing does ?

Is it worth having on ?

Sorry for posting this here, but it seemed the best place.

:balloon2:

Anti-aliasing smooths out the edges of objects, which can look jagged and harsh without it. I find (in the gold demo, I don't have the game yet) that just having the lowest level of anti-aliasing (x2) is enough for me, and doesn't decrease the frame rate too much. Then again, I played Rome without any at all (my system specs then were way behind the times) and it never really bothered me much. I recommend experimenting with it and without it, and see if it is worthwhile to you.

[Duncan_Hardy]

LestaT: No way. Your RAM and CPU are scraping the edge of acceptability, and your graphics card will barely manage lowest settings.

I'd recommend upgrading, and in this order: New graphics card (at least a GF 6600), 512MB more RAM (1GB if you can afford it) and a new processor (go for an Athlon 64 of some kind).

Doing all of the above should come to about 300-450 Euros, and will allow you to run the game as you described (medium settings, max unit size).

P.S.: Are you a Muslim? Just wondering cos your sig is a Qur'anic excerpt if I remember correctly...

[LestaT]

LestaT: No way. Your RAM and CPU are scraping the edge of acceptability, and your graphics card will barely manage lowest settings.

I'd recommend upgrading, and in this order: New graphics card (at least a GF 6600), 512MB more RAM (1GB if you can afford it) and a new processor (go for an Athlon 64 of some kind).

Doing all of the above should come to about 300-450 Euros, and will allow you to run the game as you described (medium settings, max unit size).

P.S.: Are you a Muslim? Just wondering cos your sig is a Qur'anic excerpt if I remember correctly...

Yup. That's what I though. I can run the demo fine though a bit jerky at times. Instead of upgrading I think I better get a new rig. It's difficult to find SD Ram nowadays and even if there is it's always second hand and more expensive.

p.s: Yes I am. :yes:

[DukeofSerbia]

I'm buying a tablet pc laptop (for reasons unrelated to tw), but I'd love to know if it'll be good enough.

Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz ( Dual-Core )
1GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache supporting 256MB - 128 MB

I have no idea what that means, but I hope it's good.

Graphics card is weak.

[DukeofSerbia]

What is it exactly that Anti-Aliasing does ?

Is it worth having on ?


This option use new graphics card (yes, that have the previous generation but in the new games is useless). Much better 3D look in highest settings. Plus Anisotropic Filtering (AF).

[Zharatustra]

Originally Posted by Zharatustra
AMD Thorton 2000+ (1.6 Ghz)
768 MB PC2100
Ti 4200 128MB (says its only 4x)

i was worried but this gold demo works great...!

i set unit detail to high and texture to medium...NO PROBS...

just to compare FYI...


Crikey, what resolution? I think that's the lowest spec we've had reported so far :embarassed:

1024x768

my understanding is that i dont have teh SSE2 instruction set...
is this a shader...?

[JR-]

Oh, and Peregrine_Tergiversate, I agree totally that 15fps is perfectly playable and btw... you're killing that rig with only 1Gb RAM dude :dizzy2:

i now have 2x 1GB PC6400. ;)

[maestro]

Shweeeet ~:cheers:

[Heinrich VI]

just got the got news that mtw 2 should be out today. its late and i have to get up early but now i just have to check out the demo and look for the first forum responses - shame on me for not being up to date on mtw2 ;)

im wondering if my rig will handle the full game:

amd64 3500+
1gb pc3200 400mhz
gf6600gt 128mb agp 8x

[tiny_titan]

Here are my specs lol.

Abit KU8 Nforce2 Motherboard
Atholn XP 2600
GeForce 6600, 256mb 8x agp vga card
512 ram
8x Liteon optical drive

It runs the demo smoothly on high settings, so fingers crossed for full retail version, I dont know about the frame rates though, dont know how to find that out, have to ask big bro he might know he built system lol.

[Lord of the Isles]

As long as it's an Intel Core2Duo - they're the ultimate chip in performance, price and heat / energy. The AMD dual cores are not as good.


Just a quick warning to be careful with an upgrade to Intel Core 2 Duo. While they need a socket LGA 775, not all socket LGA 775 motherboards will support these processors (Intel changed the power requirements when Core 2 Duo was released).

So check your motherboard. Fortunately, with Core 2 Duo looking like the coming thing, this should be relatively easy as marketing types will be keen to plaster their copy with "Core 2 Duo compatible" type slogans.

Almost forgot: also note that there is an earlier Intel product line called "Core Duo" but these are different from the (much more recommended) "Core 2 Duo".

[chopa]

my specs

PIV 1,4 Ghz
768 DDRam
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256 Mb

demo was better than expected, played around with graphic settings, those large battles seemed to go 15-25 fps, some laggynes only on Azteca battle, toher batlles went nice (units high, buildings low, medium effects, no vync, no AA, med vegetation, low/no grass, 1024 res...)

hope that full version goes even better, what do you think, will that be the case ? :yes:

[Patrick1191]

I know that it says you need 11 gigs of hard drive space, but i heard that it will still run with less. Is this true? if so how much less?

[astonkiller]

hi iv been playing all day on my laptop thats 2 years old 40gig hard drive got battlefield 2,rtw.btw,civ4,and now mtw2 works great:beam: ps just ceep your pc clean ie;win defender ad-ware,avg free.:2thumbsup:

[Belgolas]

I just got my new XFX 7600 gt XXX 256MB graphics card today. I installed it and bam! M2TW with max settings execpt shadows on lowest at 1280 x 1024. I can run shadows on high but I don't like the looks of the shadows. I love my new card. The only problem so far is that I had to reinstall Battlefield 2 in order to play that game. M2TW never goes below 12 FSP on any battle in the Gold demo and it has never looked so buitifull before. Average frame rate is around 27 frames per second. Game runs smooth. CS:S average frame rate 82. Thanks tiger and XFX for this great card.

[Spartanian]

Got probs in mp....cant play a 2v2 without lag..:furious3:
I tires all settings but not much differenc between them.
In campain battles and custom battles (sp)the game runs smooth.

ati x1950xtx
amd5000 dc
2gig ram

[Bob the Insane]

Man I an so excited I an almost drooling into the key board...

I just ordered the following bits for my new home build:

Intel Core 2 Extreme x6800, Gigabyte MB, 2GB DDR2800, Soundblaster x-Fi card and the real killer piece... Nividia GeForce 8800GTX!! (yes 8800, not a missprint)...

Super sweet... just 3 or 4 days until it is here and as I am in the US at present thats about the same for M2TW...

Note that it is a happy co-incidence, I did not get the machine specifically for M2TW, but I am still excited...

[Motep]

i dont feel like sifting through ages of posts...but im pretty sure my geforce nividia 5800 wont cut it.
384 mbs of ram, a virtual ton of memory, and other stuff i cant find out....


p.s. way to go insane bob!

[chopa]

can someone please help me

what to upgrade to play smooth on high details?

PIV 1,4 Ghz
768 DDram
ati radeon 9600 pro 256

as im on tight budget, i planned to buy new processor cause this is realy outofdate

whats the best processor i can get for socket 478? :embarassed:

[hoom]

A 5800! & you actually use it? :fainting:

[AlJabberwock]

Motep,

We used a GeForce FX 5500 OC to play RTW with most items on high or highest with normal sized units or many things on medium to low for large units. A 5800 will probably still only have 2 to 4 pipes and reduced width and bit compared to more robust 6th Gen. GeForce cards with up to 16 pipelines and better bitrates which seem to be around where the game is playing reasonably... Meaning, I think your card can play the game M2TW, but not much will be on "high" and you may be playing with small units to achieve 'relatively smooth' play. On the other hand, your Ram is barely enough to allow your system to work for much beyond the Windows OS itself, and there is likely an underpowered CPU lurking around there though you didn't tell us what it was. If only your card were on the low side, I might risk saying go for it and see what happens, but "its beginning to look a lot like christmas" will be neccessary (replace your sys- you need a new mobo anyway with PCI Ex interface for the modern gens of vid cards). Only good news is that many cards and system components you will need to make the game run like a dream are a lot less expensive (than when I bought them!!!) now that even newer items are out or coming soon and the dual core competition is in full swing.

Chopa,
I am really sorry, but much of what you have is really out of date, and cpus using the 478 socket will limit you considerably. Best likely to still be around are things like the Prescott single-core P-IV in the 3.0 ghz range. They will still have an L2 cache of 1 mb, and should also come with hyperthreading. Dothans are Pentium Ms, and these single cores are outmodes despite their hefty L2 caches. The Northwoods are cool with the 13 mu process, but lack hyper threading and SSE3 and a few other things. A few Prescott 3 gigs for the 478 are available at Newegg, Monarch, E bay and the like in the under $100 range. Even less if you like open box... Some of these should have hyper threading (which you want) and they will have sse 1,2,and 3 and a few other things you will want along with lower voltage requirements and some other conveniences if you are an overclocker. (I'm not but many are). That said, there is no 64 bit support and these cpus, while adequate to play M2TW, are woefully behind the curve in general since multi cores and some single AMD cores use memory controls right on the chip called Hypertransports which eliminate fsbs altogether... Uh, ok, just trust me, a lot of tech has gone by the boards in the last 18 months, and 478s are as common as top hats and spats in church on sunday.

Your vid card is probably ok but to play to the max it would have to go, and your Ram should be increased, preferably doubled. I am an NVidia enthusiast, so I will make no reccomendations for your video card if you prefer ATI other than it will have to be a little more modern to cope.

Bob the Insane-
Totally cool system dude. Hope to hear how it sings right through the pip-squeak tasks you give it! The "I swear I didn't get it to play the game" comment strikes as just a _little_ forced though don't you think...?:clown:

[Bob the Insane]

Motep,
Totally cool system dude. Hope to hear how it sings right through the pip-squeak tasks you give it! The "I swear I didn't get it to play the game" comment strikes as just a _little_ forced though don't you think...?:clown:

Thanks, I am totally geeked out over it... It has only taken a years worth of campaigning with my wife and god know how much money in shiny, jewel encrusted bribes to get her to agree...

I grant you M2TW may have re-ignited my interest in updating but the release of the 8800 was a big deal too (getting all Vista and DX10 ready)... :2thumbsup:

[AlJabberwock]

{grins knowingly}

Heh! Something like that Bob... vacation destinations for mine. (e.g. Portugal in May 07).

My personal camouflage is I always point to one of the kids (hopefully looking innocent and helpless at that moment) and say "look honey, he's going to have to do _homework_ on this thing, there's just no way he can do that with these old technologies... ":no:

The bad thing is I have three kids AND my wife who get upgraded that way before I do so I always have the crappiest danged ramshackle left over rig...

I assume you are putting it together yourself. Let me know what the mobo and all the other component details are and how it all went together for you?
Thanks!

A uh, "g'equal"

Al Jabberwock

[Motep]

so i can run the game but with limited settings? Thats fine with me! But my cuz asked me isf his 5500 would be able to handle it, and I dont know, so naturally I must turn to this thread.

[AlJabberwock]

Motep,
That will again depend on the rest of what he has and how satisfied he will be to turn down the settings and the unit size. I may have mentioned we used a 5500 OC from BFG for RTW. A straight 5500 can run RTW for sure. Not great, but it does if you don't turn on all the eye candy (I think we also used a straight 5500 from Norwood as I can see the box balanced about ten feet above me on top of a bookshelf but that took even more patience or trade off of eye candy).

I'm not sure which forum I read it on ( I have been surfing the org, TWC, and the .com forums the last 24 hours), but somewhere I recall someone with something like a 5200 saying they had a hard time with the game. We will make a stab at the 5500 with the gold demo. I had meant to do that anyway before work took me away for a month. Nota Bene: we will be using at least a 2ghz rated Athlon or Sempron (single core) and 2gigs of DDRam. If the gold demo runs passably, the game will run better by all accounts. We will have the results probably by later this morning and post here (as it is not a full game test in that "other" thread (grin).

Al Jabberwock

[chopa]

al jabber thank you very much

I know im preety much stuck, and new socket is a must (PIV 1,4 Ghz
768 DDram
ati radeon 9600 pro 256)


could you please than advice what best new motherboard and processor can I get for considerably 200-250 euros max?

my video card and my old 768 DDram can go with no problems on new motherboard? (in next few moths new RAM will be my occupattion)

thnx once again on great help, you are the man

[Biggus Diccus]

al jabber thank you very much

I know im preety much stuck, and new socket is a must (PIV 1,4 Ghz
768 DDram
ati radeon 9600 pro 256)


could you please than advice what best new motherboard and processor can I get for considerably 200-250 euros max?

my video card and my old 768 DDram can go with no problems on new motherboard? (in next few moths new RAM will be my occupattion)

thnx once again on great help, you are the man


If you're going to upgrade your mobo and cpu, you'll most likely have to upgrade your ram to ddr2 as well. And you have to get a new graphics card, since new mobos now use PCIE and your card is AGP. I'd save up to afford new mobo/cpu/ram/graphics card if I was you.

If you go for a AMD socket 939 nforce4 system with a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 cpu you should be able to use your old ram on the mobo, but you still have to upgrade to a new PCIE graphics card; nvidia 7600 GT is good value for money.

[AlJabberwock]

I know im preety much stuck, and new socket is a must (PIV 1,4 Ghz
768 DDram
ati radeon 9600 pro 256)
could you please than advice what best new motherboard and processor can I get for considerably 200-250 euros max?
my video card and my old 768 DDram can go with no problems on new motherboard? (in next few moths new RAM will be my occupattion)...


Chopa,
"Owa fwend fwom Woam" is quite right, but first let me tell you about our test of the non over-clocked Ge Force FX5500.

Motep,
The straight 5500 Norwood ran the gold demo. Not particularly well, but it was playable with everything on minimum, shader 1.0, and no grass or shadows at all. We found we had to increase brightness a little bit and had reflections and bloom also off. No AA or AF at all. The intros were a bit jerky and so was the action, but not a full stutter/strobe effect. Camera control was poor under the laggy conditions. All the battles played about the same, with some of the effects (particularly the thundering of cannon and musketry) being still quite effective.

The sys we used featured a 1.8 ghz socket-A Athlon CPU (at stock) juiced to just about 2.0 ghz, 1.5 gigs of DDR (but not very fast being 266) with the Norwood 5500 running at factory settings. It was much more attractive than MTW, but way LESS attractive than anyone deserves to see the game at. Sort of a MTW in 3-d with better unit detail. The degrading of the colors and detail beauty as well as some of the more interesting effects on armor and so forth was high and it was clearly laggy, but the full game is likely to play slightly better.

Hope that answers your question Motep... Since there are more modern systems in my house, only in grave desperation might I play the game on that sys, but your cousin might mind less if he has no other option. Your 5800 will play it a bit better but not much. Truly is the 5th Gen. NVidia scraping the lower bound of being able to appreciate the game.

Chopa,

Aye Chiwawa... I don't want to steer you wrong but if you make me give you an opinion on what to do with your budget, I can only advise you that if you are limited to about $400 (I can't think in pounds being a 'colonial') you do not have adequate funds to meet the needs you will have by upgrading to a new system that a modern Mobo will require.

As Biggus stated (and I think I did also) the new generation of mobo will have PCI-ex interfaces for graphic cards, will probably incorporate dual core sockets which obviate front side buses (using HT technology instead-light years ahead) and in many cases not even having a northbridge if you are using AMD. There is also the DDR2 memory you would have to buy (the "2" standing for two-channel, where the data streams on alternating channels for theoretically up to twice the speed; although this is hardly true in practice it _is_ faster by an easily perceptable margin). You would also have to have the new vertical-storage, SATA drives if you didn't want your HD to be a bad bad bottleneck, AND you would need a significantly more beastly power source since all of these things suck in energy like the government does your income.

Lets look at what you have now:
Your card is good enough to play the game, though hardly at max settings. Since you can't change mobo's with your cash constraint, keep the card for the moment and upgrade the CPU within the limits of a socket 478 as I mentioned above. Probably a 3 gig Pentium 4 Prescott so you can get the Hyperthreading... It seems to me that components look a bit more costly on your side of the pond, but still you should be able to score the CPU for $100 or thereabouts. If it is a bit more, pay it if you have no chance of shortly saving up a few hundred more to replace the entire system. Now this should leave you a bit more than $200 US to muck about with your memory. You need to find out what rate and speed it is (SD or DD, AND 266, 333, 600, 800, etc), is it buffered or unbuffered, is registered or unregistered, and if you can, its CL or latency. Whenever I can I exactly duplicate the existing memory unless I am going to remove it altogether down to and especially, the manufacturer. If you don't know how to get these, drop me a message through the board or PM me. Once we know what kind of mem you have we will look to see what kind of sticks you already have in your board, how many slots for memory your mobo has, and what the best way is to increase what you have is... This way we eliminate most of the constraints at the CPU and memory, and the limits will be all about your graphic card. Alternatively, you could go ahead and buy that NVidia 7600 mentioned elsewhere, but it would be limited by the AGP interface your mobo has AND the very bad bottleneck represented by your CPU and probably your Ram.

There, I've said it. Have you trie dthe gold demo with the sys you have right now? Would you and tell me about it?

Al Jabberwock

[chopa]

about the demo first

i put first auto detect option:

battle with aztecs was unplayable, other 2 battle playable but with big laggynes

then i tried with manual options:
shader 1
1024/768
no AA, no vysnc
unit med
building low
effects med
grass none
texture highest

prebattle movie was at 15-20 FPS, battle with aztecs 5-10 FPS (fraps), other 2 battles were better, but also some camera stuttering when flying over battlefield

then about my system

done some researching and came to similiar conclusion as you, to buy ONLY new CPU but seems my mbo doesnt support 3 gig Pentium 4 Prescott (cause is presscot, i dont know why, but that is no official news, as some bloke told me that on other forum, maybe you know better...)

but than again I find some other CPus that should fit like:
PIV northwood 533 mhz, 2,8 Ghz
PIV 2,4 Ghz, 533 mhz FSB
PIV 3,0 Ghz, 800 mhz FSB (that is my favourite after Prescott)

my mbo is p4pe-x asus

my memory rams
my mbo allows 3 sticks, and I have 3 x 256 DDRam (pc2100)
done some research with CPU-Z freeware and this is info:
FSB:DRAM 3:4
CAS#Latency 2,5 clocks
frequency 134,9 Mhz
registered NO
buffered NO

DDrams are Hyundai and Samsung

hope I managed to give you all info required, also must say my hardware knowledge seems to be stuck 5 years ago, and today I admit its very hard to find some quality info, as so much new is on offer, I simply got lost in all that :laugh4:

once again, thank you for great help so far, and can be only happy to meet someone to give me precise instructions regarding my upgrade to play this great game :book:

waiting for reply with my eyes wide open :juggle2:

[scourgeofrome]

Hey,quick question.How do I look up this information.All I know is my computer can play games like Elder Scrolls:Oblivion without any problems.

[AlJabberwock]

Scourge,

If you are unsure of what your hardware is, go to programs, choose accessories, then system tools, then system info. After the window pops up and populates, you will be able to see the basics like your grpahic card the rate at which your cpu is rated, and the amount of physical ram you have...

You can get a little bit more info out of your machine by going to the command line...
From the "start" button, choose the "run" button, type 'dxdiag' which will start the diagnosis process from your Directx program. To get the nitty gritty, you should do what Chopa did above, which is download the free program CPU-Z. This will do all sorts of nifty listing in a more detailed way.

Show us what you find, but if you're playing obliv. 4 w/ no problem, you probably don't need any help... :2thumbsup:

Chopa
Totally cool dude. Good on ya. Yeah, the CPU is probably not up to the task, and the Ram ain't helpin' either. I am going to look up your mobo specs (which you can do as well as I can probably if you don't have them there right in front of you). What we need to see is a compatibility list from Asus-they're the arbiter of what goes on their board not some bloke on a bboard somewhere- unless he's already seen it, or makes the bloody things. This way we can see what cpus it supports and what its max ram is and per slot... Pretty soon you'll be able to sell those 256 sticks to a museum ya know... Give me a little bit of time, since I need get a shot of scotch in order to look at the Asus site...

[AlJabberwock]

Heh!

Chopa my friend,
Well figures, the Asus site is always a bugger but it looks to me like either I have really good news, or not very good news at all...

Does this look familiar to you?:
P4P800-E Deluxe

ASUS Intelligence Everywhere
-Intel 865PE Chipset
-800/533/400 MHz FSB
-Dual-Channel DDR400 Memory
-Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
-ASUS Intelligence Features
-Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade

Specifications
CPU -Socket 478 for Intel Pentium 4/Celeron up to 3.2GHz+
-Intel Hyper-Threading Technology ready
-Supports Intel Prescott CPU
Chipset Intel 865PE MCH
Intel ICH5R
Front Side Bus 800 / 533 / 400 MHz
Memory -Dual Channel Memory Architecture
-4 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 4GB DDR400/333/266 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory
-ASUS Hyper-Path Technology
Expansion Slots - 1 x AGP 8X/4X (0.8V, 1.5V only)
- 5 x PCI
- 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade

Does that look like your mobo? There is no p4pe-x listed on the Asus site, only this and a slight variation called the SE. The letter designations make sense and the memory would be consistent except in one way...

I need you to look inside your case very carefully and tell me if there isn't a 4th dimm slot that is simpy not being used. Either of the mobos in the class yours is supposed to be in would have 4 slots. Something you might also do is give me all your CPU-Z pages since I can probably suss it if you cant from what I have put out here... If you would like you can also go to the ASUS site, look up motherboards under products, choose 478 sockets, and then choose the p4p800e-deluxe and look at the picture. You can choose enlargement to expand the pic. If it looks like your board and you have 4 mem slots WOOHOO! We probably have a winner... Less interesting but as likely to give you an answer, you can just open your case and read the name of the mobo off the board... should include the 800 on it, but if not, please give me the info and count the slots physically.

As you can see, if this _is_ your mobo, it CAN take the Prescott, and it is made for Hyperthreading. TWO POINTS FOR YOU! Further, it has 4 mem slots, so the easiest thing to do is buy a 1 gig stick and put it in slot one, and move the 256 stick in slot 1 to slot 4. Now, I haven't priced the two makers you already have of ddr in your board, but Kingston was around $100 for a 1 gig stick online at Newegg in the States. Probably more for the Samsung, dunno about the Hyundai (but their cars are cheap at least!). With that, you wuold have money left over to comteplate a slight upgrade maybe on your vid card even... [raises his eyebrows].

Albeit all of this stuff is already antique, it will get you reasonably through the next year probably... By the end of 07, not only will most software be taking advantage of all the current technological changes, but you will have Vista, Directx 10, and the threatened brinksmanship of AMD in the quad and beyond cores through caveman technology.

If this is NOT your mobo, well, we don't know a damned thing... :wall:

Al Jabberwock

[Motep]

Thank you oh wise computer savvy AlJabberwock. Thank you for the info...also...how is the campign gameplay on the 5800?

[AlJabberwock]

Motep,

Please keep in mind that our test was with a system that had above average ram and CPU power for the typical set up in this class. (I do not have a 5800, only a 5500 and a 5500 OC). If your cousin or you have significantly less ram or CPU power, you may get bottlenecking in these quarters. Try the demo gold. Tell me how you do.

As to the actual full game, I know an awful lot about it from reading just about every post on the TWC, Org, and Com forums in the last two days and what I have been able to glean from the demos and the developer comments official and otherwise...but as I have said elsewhere, I live in the desert in Tucson AZ. We h'ain't got no game nohow for another ta-oooow dayz! I have to say, I might be a whole lot less helpful if I had the game on me right now at least till I got through the first day or two and had played a good number of turns and looked at the access for modding the whole year/age/build/ratio thingy...

Al Jabberwock

[Motep]

awaiting your results!

[chopa]

no jabber

this is my mobo (i found it with no probs on asus website)

P4PE-X (Intel 845PE) Series
P4PE-X socket 478 Pentium 4 motherboard is based on the Intel 845PE chipset. Supporting idustry-leading technologies such as DDR400(O.C), and FSB800(O.C) and an abundance of advanced features, the all-new P4PE-X enables outstanding performance and value. (When you used a CPU with 800Mhz FSB, you need to install a PC3200 (400Mhz) DDR memory.)

CPU
Socket 478 for Intel Pentium 4/Celeron
Intel Hyper-Threading Technology ready

Chipset
Intel 845PE
Intel ICH4

Front Side Bus
800(O.C)/533/400 MHz
Note:(A 800 FSB CPU requires a PC3200 DDR DIMM)

Memory
3x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC3200(O.C) /PC2700 / PC2100/ PC1600 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory
Note:(Optain PC3200 DDR DIMMs only from ASUS qualified vendors list)

Expansion Slots
1 x AGP 4X
6x PCI

Storage/RAID
2 x UltraDMA 100/66/33

Audio
ADI AD 1980 SoundMAX 6-channel CODEC
S/PDIF out interface

LAN
BROADCOM 10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller

USB
Integrated 6 USB2.0 ports

Special Features
ASUS EZ Flash
Support S/PDIF out interface
ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
ASUS CrashFree-BIOS

Internal I/O Connectors
Front panel audio connector
1xUSB2.0 connector support additional 2 USB 2.0 ports
20-pin ATX power connector
4-pin ATX 12V power connector
CPU /chassis Fan connectors
SPDIF_OUT connector
Chassis Intrusion
CD/AUX/Modem audio in

Overclocking Features
ASUS JumperFree
CPU,Memory, AGP voltage adjustable
"SFS(Stepless Frequency Selection) from 100 MHz up to 230MHz at 1MHz increment "
Adjustable FSB/DDR ratio, Fixed AGP/PCI frequencies

Back Panel I/O Ports
1xPS/2 keyboard
1xPS/2 mouse
2xSerial
4xUSB
1xParallel
1xRJ45
1x Audio I/O

BIOS
2Mb Flash EEPROM
Award BIOS with enhanced ACPI,DMI,PnP,Green,TCAV
ASUS EZ Flash, ASUS C.P.R, SM BIOS 2.3, ASUS Crash-Free BIOS

Industrial Standard
PCI 2.2, USB2.0

Manageability
WOL by PME, WOR by PME

Support CD
drivers
ASUS PC Probe
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2002 anti-virus software

Accessories
User's manual
UltraDMA cable
FDD cable
I/O shield

Form Factor
ATX
12.0"*9.0" (30.5cm*22.9cm)

i found all that info here:http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=36&model=188&modelmenu=1

waiting for reply :idea2:

[scourgeofrome]

Is this good?
Memory:510MB RAM
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.20 Ghz,~2.2GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Anything else you guys need?

[AlJabberwock]

Is this good?
Memory:510MB RAM
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.20 Ghz,~2.2GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Anything else you guys need?

Uh, wow, no. Seems I overestimated what it takes to run Obl 4 well.

Your CPU is up to the task. Your Ram is probably not really, even though it matches the bare minimum M2TW calls for in the specs... Practical experience would indicate you will not like how the game runs with it if you do not at least double or triple it. The Graphic card also is suspect and dragging right along the bottom of what it would take to run the game at all. I am quite amazed you have no trouble with Obl 4 unless you are running with many of the graphical features at low or off... Best to try the demo gold. You will need AA and AF off, shadows off, and most other things near low or lowest... Let me know.

Al Jabberwock

[AlJabberwock]

Thanks Chopa!

Yep, I always love the ASUS site. You are certainly correct that many options come up when you put in the Socket 478 today, including yours, but last night only two came up and a search for your exact motherboard returned "0 items returned in your search" !

This is going to be a long and slightly technical post, full of not so nice things to say about the Asus site and their 'support', so if you just want to know what I think you should do, go to the summary at the end.

After mucking about on the ASUS site for way too long, I did come across a smattering of reference in the forums related to your Mobo about the Prescotts being defined by Intel techs as possibly not working on the mobo because of the L2 cache size (entirely possible because these are 1m). On the other hand, at least one of the Asus people on the boards seemed to think it might be possible a P4 Prescott with a 512 L2 cache WOULD work...since there aren't any P4 Prescotts with less than a 1m L2 (and I think the Celerons are 256), I decided not to pay much more attention to the Asus responders.

Despite this, I also found this less-than-obvious location for CPUs supported by the p4pe:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P4PE-X

Here you will see the list of what the board supports as of the last time ASUs updated their list... Trust me, its been a while. Since their last Bios update was in 2003, its a cinch they haven't gone on to look at what more modern CPUs can be used on the board, or made even the most insignificant effort to make these compatible with your board either... Like many board makers, no money in it for them. Now if you troll through the list you will see many low-powered, outmode-type cpus, and toward the bottom, a few that might make you satisfied for the time being.

Nota Bene:
The p4pe-x board means 800 fsb cpus all will require you upgrade to the newest Bios, buy PC 3200 (ddr 400) and there you are also limited to only one stick in the first slot, and further there is a typically cryptic and non-english type of vague reference that appears to purport only northwoods are supported. This appears to conflict with info provided on the cpu page, but that's typical. This 800 fsb information can be found if you look at the "limitations" link listed next to any of the fsb 800 cpus in the cpu list... Except, that unless you are lucky, you will often see NOTHING in the "limitations" link because their site is not optimized for Explorer or some other reason as they have done to many of the links on their site (if they work at all - another case in point is the reference link for the updated Bios for the p4pe-x which will tell you sorrowfully that it is 'still under construction, come back soon' ... Since they made the Bios update in 2003, it seems they should have been done by now, but most likely, like most of the other things on their site, it will never be done). If you run into the "limitations" link problem, I was able to come up with a work around : move the cursor all the way to the top of the page of the limitations, and then from the limitation link, choose the "technical papers" link and once you go there, click on the "back" button on your browser and you should be able to see the limitations if you want to see what I was talking about above.

Summary
Bad news is, if you want the faster FSB, the dopes make it so you have to buy the faster ram, which is ok, but paradoxically, they limit you to only one stick of it... :inquisitive:

Also, we want to buy more bigger sticks of ram in addition to what we have, not eliminate what we have, so there looked to be a 3.06 ghz P 4 on the list, that has a 533 fsb. This does not require you change your ram, but you may have to update your bios if you do not have bios 1004 or higher (there is actually a 1007 out, but you may not need it). Also, probably any of the 533 or 400 CPUs in the 2.4 plus range should be ok too, just stay away from 800 fsb's and make sure the L2 Cache is 512, no larger. And sorry, this means NO Prescotts unless you want a Celeron, since the L2 Cache is too large.

Next, it also appears that the p4pe-x can only take a double sided ram stick in the fist slot, so that will have to be your only mongo stick, and the others can keep the soon to be museum bound 256's. (the 2 and 3 slots are set up in such a way that if you put a double sided stick in one of them, it makes the other unusable... another handy feature from those geniuses at Asus limiting the upside of your memory muscle). I have not seen anything to indicate you cannot take a 1 meg stick in slot number one and this would seem to be neccessarily possible if the sys is to reach its purported max of 2 gigs with only 3 slots (two of which can only take single sided ram).

Use the link above. You can look at the lists by mobo or by the processor you find... For other Asus users, this is a handy list, so book mark it.

Chopa, hope this helps. Look at the list, look up what you want to get and let me know?

Al Jabberwock

[scourgeofrome]

Uh, wow, no. Seems I overestimated what it takes to run Obl 4 well.

Your CPU is up to the task. Your Ram is probably not really, even though it matches the bare minimum M2TW calls for in the specs... Practical experience would indicate you will not like how the game runs with it if you do not at least double or triple it. The Graphic card also is suspect and dragging right along the bottom of what it would take to run the game at all. I am quite amazed you have no trouble with Obl 4 unless you are running with many of the graphical features at low or off... Best to try the demo gold. You will need AA and AF off, shadows off, and most other things near low or lowest... Let me know.

Al Jabberwock

:sad: .And yes,most graphics on Obliv 4 were tuned down.Oh well,I don't mind tuning down graphics.Don't need pretty trees to kill people.

Edit:I can't get an upgrade for my computer anyways.I just got one a few months back to play Obliv 4.My parents aren't gonna upgrade it again so soon.

[chopa]

tnx Aljabber

seems Im looking for this

P4-3.06 GHz (533 FSB, L2 cache:512KB, HT, C1/D1) or P4-2.80 GHz (533 FSB, L2 cache:512KB)
(i dont fancy celerons as Im told they are low end CPUs and not good for gaming)
+
512/1 GB of DDRams

must say Ive been laughing for those silly limitations by Asus (only double rams in first stick etc...) :laugh4:

also strangly, asus site works greatly in firefox :wall:

tnx mate its been a great help, and some learning stuff for me

seems that 3,06 PIV will be very hard to find in Croatia :no: , maybe if YOu have some good links for online shops?

edit:
no need for online shops links, Al Jabber
found at my local computer store PIV 2,8 Ghz, 533 Mhz, 512 cache l2 for cca 120 $, and 512 DDRam for 70 $

should keep me happy I hope for next year

tnx once again for great help Al Jabber

[Matty]

Afternoon chaps.

I could do with a little advice on the technical side as I am something of a numpty in this department. With small battles all is well, but I just tried taking Paris (as one does) and with the 2000 odd soldiers on the field it got very delayed - sufficient for me to quit in desperation. I have the settings on custom but wondered whether my 2 year old ex-office beast was not up to the task.

I have:
AMD Athlon XP2400+ processor (1.99GHz)
512 MB of RAM
Sapphire Radeon 9200 Atlantis.

I'll fiddle with the video options but any advice you kind fellows could provide would be much appreciated.

[Incongruous]

This should do it.

7900GT

2 GIG of Ram

and well

AMD 3800+

[Bob the Insane]

Well, seeing as we are showing off the first bits of my new PC arrived this morning...

CPU INTEL|C2D X6800 2.93G 775 4M R
CPU COOLER ZALMAN|9700 LED
MEM 1Gx2|COR 240P TWIN2X2048-6400C4
MB GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 P965 775
HD 500G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD5000KS
SNDCD CREATIVE|70SB046A00000 Fatality X-Fi
CASE ANTEC|P180B BLACK
DVD-ROM SONY 16X DDU1615/B2s

Still to arrive is the 650watt PSU and the sweetest piece of all...

The BFG 8800GTX... :jumping:

Hopefully on Wednesday it will all be here... :2thumbsup:

[PwnageBot2000]

Hey guys, sorry about the new post, but the other one was getting crowded and it got to a point that no one would respond.


Anyway, my question is: How does the CPU as opposed to your graphics card affect gameplay. IF I did get a nVidia GeForce 7900 GS SLI and (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 + Dual Core CPU w/HyperTransport Technology, how would gameplay hold up? If not the 3800 then what about the 4200?

Thanks, PwnageBot2000

[AlJabberwock]

Chopa,
YEAH! great dude, you've got most of the goods now. Won't be all on max, but should run considerably better. Run the gold demo and let me know? If you have cash left and want more upgrades, go for an AGP Geforce 6600... You can find them at newegg.com very reasonably... $100 to 120 US. (If you had a new mobo you could get a PCIex16 GeForce 7600 for $143, but, oh well!).

BFG rules Bob!
Good on ya. Your Sys is an Intel version very similar to an AMD dual core, SLI sys I built for my middle kid down to the Zalman! (Those things look so COOL with the green LED when they're running! I had to send the first one back to Newegg since one of the fan fins had drooped in their molding of it, but got its replacement right away). Same Corsair mem, but I had to buy the Pro as they were out of the regular, though that has LEDs along the top that look wicked in operation. I am interested in your PSU, which model and mfgr? Hope you checked for your +12v reqs! Baby loves 12v
Cheers!

Bopa,
Yeah dude, you're well over the average and most things will run on max and little to no sweat... Using a single 7900gtx oc (from BFG!!) the gold demo is smooth as silk with everything on max. Fraps will give you a bad rating on your frame rate, but my advice is to ignore it. Looks like 7th gen GeForce cards in the upper end like yours get bad numbers, and yet the game runs fantastically, and the frame rate reported doesn't change no matter what eye candy you turn off or on... (No, I had v-synch turned off!) Running twin 7900gtx oc's in SLI was even smoother, and stupid fraps reported the same frame rate- I suspect some tech artifact is returning false data. I will look at some 3d mark 2005 readings for comparison.

Scourge,
I sure know about the limitations parents put on ya! (I'm a parent, and sometimes I hate me!). On the other hand, without them, you wouldn't have a machine at all! I'll tell ya what though, if you give me your mobo model, I'll bet we can come up with a few things that might make your machine run better, if only a little bit, and possibly we can find a place where very very cheap upgrades are possible... Heck, I can send you a 5500 for free (which isn't much help as its barely better than a 5200).

Here's an example... most folks use the cheap ata cables that came in the last generation of mobos (those without PCIex, without hyper transports, and limited or no sata2, vid power hook ups and so forth...). IN these cases, many people will hook up their legacy devices (like older HDs or CD/DVD drives) and their HD on the same cable... The legacy device will slow down access times to your HD by as much as 10% creating significant slowdown in game performance and some other potential problems...

Matty,
Your CPU is ok, its the Ram that comes to mind as the worst offender. This is the bare minimum to get the game to run. You should at least double it. I always prefer overkill in the Ram dept. as it is much cheaper than going to a better system altogether... If you like crackpot analogies, the Mobo can be likened to the human body where the CPU is the brain, the Ram is the muscle, arms and legs, and all the things that go in PCI, AGP and PCIex slots are your senses (hearing, sight, touch, etc). YOu have a good mind there, but its a little bit like Johnny Bravo with his giant head running along on teensy tiny legs. The 9200 vid card comes in an AGP AND a PCI version...more on this in a minute. Your vid card is an ATI , and as an avowed NVidia junky, I am not as qualified to speak on it as many others here, but with 4 pixel pipelines, you are at least doing better than the FX 5000-series owners but you will also probably have to turn off a lot of the eye candy to get decent playing smoothness... Lose shadows first as these are the least needed no matter how cool you think they are. Trust me that from the moment the first exploding shell shakes your view as the armored french cavalry charges straight into your face as you try to stand fast with the pikes of your Landsknecht outstretched, you will never notice the fine detail of shadows under your nemesis as he rides crunchingly over your mangled corpse!
One note of caution on the assumption of your video card being 'marginally ok'. If this is the PCI version of this card, it is possible the CARD not the RAM is the worst bottleneck. The old PCI bus is at best giving half or less of the bandwidth of the AGP slot in your machine. There are a couple of ways of determining whether you have the PCI or the AGP version of the Sapphire 9200 (or 9250). The most straightforward is to simply look in your case and see if it is sitting in one of the lighter colored PCI bus interface slots (there will be anywhere from two to 5 of these altogether by the out slots on the back of your computer). If its in the darker and slightly offset AGP slot nearer to the top of the board (closer to the CPU), you are fortunate and have the AGP version. If its in the PCI slot... I would ditch this card. It is the main reason anything of any size will become so lagged you can hardly wait for it to end. Before the Prophet I must humble myself by stating I once bought this card years ago before I knew any better. I was so appalled by what it would not do, and that I had bought it in my ignorance, that I spent the next two to three years studying everything I could get my hands on in my spare time to never, NEVER do such a thing again, and to pledge myself to prevent others from being in such a state to be duped by the knowledgeable.

Folks, if you want to play games, do not think about old PCI, LE, SE and 'turbo charged' memory versions of video cards. They are bywords for the 'The cheap, the bad, and the ugly'! Matty, after you have had a look at your machine, let me know what you find?

Al Jabberwock

[PaulTa]

Hey Al, good to see that this is more than a pissing contest.

Maybe you could offer some advice on what I should upgrade next, aside from my obviously lacking power supply (only 300 watt). (By the way, if anyone wants to donate an old power supply that is PCI E capable and is above 300 watt, I can probably scrounge up a few bucks to send back to ya. Please, try and make sure that it actually works though)

I have a 2.8 gig intel processor
X800 GTO from connect3D
1 gig of DDR2 RAM (four 256 pieces actually :P)

I was thinking about trying to rob a bank and get enough money for the 7600GT on newegg for 143 bucks, but that would also require a power supply update, since my 300 watter ain't gonna cut it. (Damned dell shipping bare bone minimum parts with their PCs)

Also, I don't know how you are on hardware, but the fan quit out on my X800. Being the avid gamer that I am, even if I could find proof of purchase for the card (got it on newegg) I probably couldn't bear the wait of having it gone for a few weeks while they tink at it. Basically, the fan starts up after I fiddle with it a bit, but there is apparently some friction between the fan blades and where it sits, because it makes a chirping noise that indicates that it's rubbing up against something with it's high speed turns. Thankfully, the rather large heatsink coupled with a box fan blowing in the general direction of my PC is keeping the temperatures down (I average around 35 C idle, and max 45 C while gaming), but that's only CPU temperature, as my card doesn't have the hardware to monitor heat output.

I'm starting to get artifacts after prolonged gaming on graphics intensive games like FEAR, which I'm betting is a result of overheating. On occasion, my computer has decided to black screen, which is probably a bad indicator. Poor X800 is dying.

If it helps, the X800 isn't being overclocked at all, and I've made sure to discharge any static on my persons before handling the card with a large dose of TLC when trying to clean it and fix the fan.

Any comments, suggestions, or donations are welcome. :P

Thanks in advance,
Paul


P.S. If the help is really profound, we'll have to keep in touch and I'll show my gratitude when I graduate college and start making around 100k a year. :beam:

[AlJabberwock]

Thanks for the kind words Paul.

Sorry to hear about the nasty squeak on the Vid card, and boy do I know that one. Wasn't that long ago that I had a few best Data GeForce 2 Mx 400s (yeah THOSE peices of junk!). I had built a few machines for fun to help out at work and also built two basic machines for my house using similar parts since there were few graphic demands on those machines in those days. After a year or so, one and then both of the cards developed the squeak. Like the coughing of a TB victim, it is possibly terminal if you do not do something, and sometimes, its terminal even if you do.

I will ask this question... you already have a number of juice hogs on your machine, what is the mobo, and what other peripherals and add in cards do you have? Do you have an audio and or physx card? Lan or other? What is the 12v rating on your PSU? (you will have to look on the card on the PSU under the +12v listing to see how many amps it has on the 12v rail).

The problem on your fan could be any of several problems: not properly balanced, not centered, bent pin, needs cleaning, lubricant, heat...
If you feel like tinkering and have no cash at all, you can take a chance on operating now, or wait for your card to die, which it will. Unfortunately, with only a 300 w PSU with probably borderline 12v, it may not matter as you are probably slowly frying your card and maybe your mobo anyway. I have frequently stated that underpowering your system will possibly cause artifacts, black screening, and worse, possibly no visible probelm at all (at least at first) while you slowly fry your components until you DO see problems...

The X800 GTO is a decent card, and it would be a shame to have to pitch it. I am going to take a look to see if I can find a decently sized and resolution picture of it. If the fan is soldered to it, it might get messy, but it is entirely possible to put another fan on there. On the other hand, if the power is too low or insufficient on the 12v, you're treating the symptom and not the cause. "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" as someone has said.

By The Prophet I am going to take a look and get back.

Al Jabberwock

[big_boss120]

I got a really out of date system:

P4 1.8Ghz
512 RDRAM clocked around 400Mhz
ASUS ATI Radeon 9550GE 256MB (OC'ed to 450/260)

In the gold demo with exception of beginning of Otumba, everything runs kinda good when set everything low except unit detail(medium) and texture(medium).

I pretty much shut off almost half of useless windows services and keep almost to zero unessential background applications...do I have a chance running the game at normal unit size or do I need to settle for low just for insurance (kinda afraid the city battle will lag...)

[AlJabberwock]

Paul,
Ok, I found a decent picture of the card at Tiger Direct... (3d Connect didn't have one of their own card or at least I couldn't find it!)

Having had a better look at the specs I really hate the thought of tossing the bugger. Sure you don't have any papers or proof even old e mails from Newegg? Those guys are famous for doing almost anything with hardly any stuff if you can just explain it to them... If they can't do anything, they will at lest tell you in detail what you might get form the manufacturer (and if they give you no joy, Newegg will take that into account when next they look at customer preferences for whose stuff they will sell...)

Because it has that enclosed plastic case for airflow, you would have to be kind of careful with any replacement operation, and my thought of worst case scenario where you would be putting a cage or "squirrel" fan on the card would have to take account of the heatsink that is under that plastic cover... I would still be tempted to give it a go even if I couldn't find a way to use a conventional fan in that plastic case and had to go with the worst case scenario if there is no way at all Newegg will refund the bugger.

Again, not knowing your cash situation, if you can't bear the thought of the wait beause you could just buy another one, then there is little sense in discussing an operation (which without a better power source might not help you much or at all anyway, and power fluctuations and "brownouts" are at least partially responsible for your trouble anyway...) Let me know on your other add ins and PSU specs. BTW I have a 450 w cheapo LC my middle son got with his cool Gladiator case from Newegg, but it really is so terrible I don't even think it has enough connectors for the most basic machine and is only rated 18 amps in the +12v...

If it makes you feel any better, the x800 gto is a nice card if it lives and should run the game quite well with much of the detail on high in selected areas...(nice AA- 6x!, 12 pipes, Shader 2, and decent bitrate and speed) The rest of the sys is adequate to not trip up the card.

Get me those details!

Big Boss,
Yeah, you have a situation similar to the upper FX and lower GeForce 6 guys. You can run the game stably with the detail at low or lowest with shadows and or AA off, and a few other things limited... I do not have the game until tomorrow like the rest of North America, but it has been indicated the full game is slightly more optimized than the demo, so what the effects on unit size will be for you I cannot tell without knowing what was optimized (and how). Best bet is that your Ram is woefully limiting and if you can do anything at all, fix that problem... Double it if you can. Guess we will all know tomorrow!

Good luck!

Cheers

Al Jabberwock

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Processor : AMD Sempron 2600 (1,71 Ghz)
Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Ram: 512mb Ram

RTW with huge units, and high details, runs ok....

Is it worth to get MTW 2, considering the fact that due to some reasons, i wont be able to make upgrades at the PC very soon (maybe upgrading the Ram to 768, but no more, as my budget is quite tight...)? Will it run on the lowest settings ?

[PaulTa]

I am one of those poor college student types. When I figured that I could sell my accounting books back with just enough to afford a graphics card, I picked a card that I really really loved compared to everything else on the market, and I got it with my X800 GTO.

it actually doesn't have a plastic encasing, it's a big mother of a metal heatsink. I don't know the power rating for my PSU, but it's the standard Dell Dimension 4700 ship PSU, so I bet I might be able to find specs on the internet somewhere.

I'm thinking that I might, in the near future, try to get enough money together to replace the power supply and upgrade my X800 to a 7600GT off of newegg. Problem is, I need around 200 bucks to do it all, and I have pocket lint and I owe myself's in my pockets right now. I'm banking on christmas cards and finding money on the ground.

I'd appreciate it if you'd go into a bit more detail about this "ruining your computer" thing. I'm scared shitless as you can imagine, because my only real pride and joy in my life (aside from my girlfriend) is my trusty gaming PC. I only seem to get graphics artifacts on games like FEAR, but I've played all of Farcry and never gotten any, and I've played Rome on beefy settings and haven't had any. I got a few on the Gold demo for MTW2, but I updated the ol' graphics drivers and not only did the FPS kick up by about 10, but I haven't seen an artifact yet.

The ol' box fan solution isn't going to work for long, but it keeps me good to go while I wait for A) Money bags being dropped off at my house, or B) Bill Gates, after coming back from the future, realizes that in a few years I'm going to inadvertantly cure cancer and gives me a million dollars.

Come to think of it, my X800 GTO is the first graphics card that I have ever owned... wow... I'm going to have to frame it when I get rid of it.


Let me once again remind the community that a donation of an old PCI E compatable power supply above 350 watts would not only be greatly appreciated, but I would be more than interested in reimbursing for shipping and other expenses.

[AlJabberwock]

Processor : AMD Sempron 2600 (1,71 Ghz)
Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Ram: 512mb Ram

RTW with huge units, and high details, runs ok....

Is it worth to get MTW 2, considering the fact that due to some reasons, i wont be able to make upgrades at the PC very soon (maybe upgrading the Ram to 768, but no more, as my budget is quite tight...)? Will it run on the lowest settings ?


It will run well on lowest settings most likely with shadows, AA , AF, and grass off, and small to normal units... however, this is based on running a 5500 and looking at the similarities between that card and yours. I would also say I am rather surprised you would say you were running largest units with high details in a smooth manner with RTW. In testing, we ran a GEForce FX5500, 1.8 Sempron juiced to 2.0, with 1.5 gigs of 266ddr with RTW and could run on high only in settings with normal unit size. Going to large or huge occasionally caused noticeable lagging with anything larger than half a stack, or if any city was in the view of the camera. Only with turning down many items were we able to achieve completely smooth play with the largest unit settings. [shrug] Although your specs show woefully limiting card and ram, (your CPU should be borderline ok) with your results in RTW, perhaps for whatever reason you can do better than I think you can. :beam: On the other hand, ten more hours or less, and we will all know for sure, ay?!

Good luck!

Al Jabberwock

[AlJabberwock]

Aye, the trick is PCI E capable. The LC I have doesn't even have a PCI power connector for the vid card. Pathetic, this is a power supply that came with a upper end case in something like March of this year...

Looking at my explanation below, it would be made WAAAY easier for you if you could be looking at the info that is supposed to be on the side or bottom of all power units when you are looking at my expo. If yours really doesn't have one, please sue Dell, but in the meantime, log on to Newegg, find a power unit and look at the blown up picture of the energy pacard on the unit as you read the below... You will see that all the ranges are indicatred and what the wattage or amperage is in each range... Now, read on!

The power thing is this. Most cards (like yours) will have specs that indicate the minimum wattage output that the PSu should be capable of in the system they will be in. There will also usually be indications that if you have many items in your system, you will need to go above the minimum wattage named since these items all suck energy and will compete for the energy if there is not enough to go around. Furhther, your vid card draws uniquely its power from the +12 volt range. Now this would be fine , except this is also the range from which your mobo draws too... Now most mobos will draw between 10 and 12 amps from the +12v rail, with anything left over having to be sufficient for the Card. If you have something like, say, 12 or 14 amps from the +12v on that 300 watt, you might have the problem of competition for insufficient resources in the specific 12 v range even if the overall rating of 300 watts is enough for your system (doubtful, but we'll get to that later).

This is why I want to know what is the exact spec for the PSU, and what add ons you have in your case. Once you get to midrange cards like yours, you can usually depend on them to need a few amps... chances are anything less than 16 is not enough, and probably 18 would be the minimum...

NOw here's the real fun part. "PFC" is power fluctuation control. PSUS have eiether a passive or an active PFC. This usually means there isn't much control at all if it is passive. It also means that there must be a reason there is such a thing as a PFC... Well this is, predictably because the power you receive and your unit gives out, AND your system uses, ALL fluctuate. If you do not have active PFC, firstly, the chances that the rise and fall of the power fluctuation will occasionally cause one or more of your units to not receive the amount of energy they were needing which can cause, artifacts as I described, black screening as I described, or simply a slow burn out of the device (just as your AC unit or anything else can burn out if it receives an incorrect amount of energy to function properly). For componenets in specific ranges of usage of energy there is the added possibility that just that range fluctuation (say in the 12v )will cause the amount of amperage in the 12v range to be unsufficient, and cause the same sort of "brownout" damage to your unit. It can be catastrophic all at once, or cumulative over time. I therefor always get a PSU with active PFC, and aim for those that are at least 50% above what I will need with minimum add ons...

As cards climb the scale of power, they need more energy, and particularly more 12v. It also means that fluctuation is more dangerous the closer to the minimum your system puts out max. Further, wattage and ammmperage numbers are "max", it doesn't mean "steady" or even "usual" output, so always get more than you need.

Here is an example (albeit a bit more extreme than the needs of an x800). A Ge Force 7900gtx requires a power source with at least 400 watts, but moreover AT LEAST 26 amps in the +12v range! Between 10 and 12 go to the mobo, the rest to the card and the like... I am not familiar with anything in that wattage range with that type of amperage in the 12v in the first place, and even if I did, I would be looking for 5 to 600 watts and 36 amps in the 12v. A SLI set up for 7900gtxs (two linked together in one board) would require a minimum of 36, with 500 watts, so I would be looking for a 750 w with 54 amps in the 12v). I would look up the power requirements of the 800. I doubt it is less than say 4 or 5 amps and could be 6.

Artifacts that show up in one game alone could be due to the pressure it puts on the card, the power needed to process that game as opposed to the others (RTW is not that demanding, really), certain techniques used in the graphics that are not supported by the vid card, a setting issue that needs to be changed for that one game, a specific profile needed which might be on your vid card already and just needs to be switched, could be a driver problem, or a host of other things - like heat. If you can't touch the card without pulling your finger away, its too hot and is being damaged. You could also have more than one problem. Heat will kill your card way faster than a low energy issue, but a low energy issue could also be creating some of the problems that lead to the demise of your fan...

I know you don't have the cashola, but replacing the power system would be the first thing would do, and mucking with the fan second, if I couldn't talk those nice Newegg folks into helping you out...

Al Jabberwock

[PaulTa]

Thanks much Al. I owe you quite a bit for the tech advice.

I'm going to go see if I can find enough change under the couch to maybe afford a better power supply.

Have a good one mate, and thanks again for the tips.

[AlJabberwock]

I'm going to go see if I can find enough change under the couch to maybe afford a better power supply.
Have a good one mate, and thanks again for the tips.

Sorry I can't type at 3 in the morning, and probably not explain all that cogently either for that matter...

Good luck, PSUs have gone through the roof (as you go through the cushions). However, I also have no idea what kind of visitors sit on your couch... :egypt:

Good luck!!

Al Jabberwock

[Matty]

Matty, after you have had a look at your machine, let me know what you find?

Al Jabberwock

Wow, seriously impressive response. Many thanks.

With some trepidation I've take the side off the machine. It didn't explode or electrocute me, which was a plus. By a process of elimination I think I've identified the video card (I note the lack of any evidence like 'video card' or 'video card goes here'). Terrifying logic deduces that its probably the bit that the monitor connects to.

It seems I have 6 horizontal white slots near the bottom of the box, all empty. Just above this is a shorter dark slot into which the video card is placed. there is a sticker on it saying Radeon 9200 64MB DDR V/D/VO. Hopefully all of this is good news.

If I want more RAM do I just buy it and stick it in one of the two spare slots next to the existing RAM?

My incompetence leaves me feeling deeply inadequate....

EDIT: So I slung another 512 of RAM in and it made almost no difference (I did check that its working), especially on the sieges. The buildings seem to blow its mind. Should I get more RAM??
EDIT 2: Another 1 GIG of RAM and its better but still way from good for the sieges. That's it, I spend no more!

[Bob the Insane]

Chopa,
BFG rules Bob!
Good on ya. Your Sys is an Intel version very similar to an AMD dual core, SLI sys I built for my middle kid down to the Zalman! (Those things look so COOL with the green LED when they're running! I had to send the first one back to Newegg since one of the fan fins had drooped in their molding of it, but got its replacement right away). Same Corsair mem, but I had to buy the Pro as they were out of the regular, though that has LEDs along the top that look wicked in operation. I am interested in your PSU, which model and mfgr? Hope you checked for your +12v reqs! Baby loves 12v
Cheers!


Thanks for that, I am seriously over excited at the moment...

PSU is:

Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails (SLI certified) Plus it has PCI-e connectors...

Thanks for all the advice...

[vikrant1986]

my specs
p4 3.00 ghz
2 x 512 mb ram 400 mhz
GF6600 256 ddr3
intel 945 mobo

so ?? will it run

[PhakeDC]

Of course it will run, just how good someone here will tell you. I would love to read the replies above, but I am asking this for a friend. He has an Athlon XP 1500+ plus a GeForce 5900, so will he be able to run the game without SSE2? And is medium details at 20-30 fps possible, without shadows and AA that is? Cheers for any help.

[Garnier]

AMD Athlon 64 FX 55 2.6ghz
2 GB Ram
ATI Radeon X850

So I have the game, but it runs pretty bad(12-20fps) in normal battles (2000-4000 troops). I have units quality and textures on medium, vegetation and grass on low, no shadows reflections or bloom,(but I have shader 2 for blood), 1280x1024. Also AAx2, and no AF.
I wonder about vertical sync, Ive read that it helps performance and Ive read that it hurts performance. Which is true?

[unknown_user]

Alright guys, enough showing off your specs. I've got a real doozy of a question for ya.

Here's what I'm running:

P4 1.8 GHz
768 MB RAM
256MB ATI X800

Will it run it?

Now, I'm not asking for any amount of detail or such. I just want to be able to run it, perhaps on the lowest of the low settings. If it helps at all, I was able to run the demo, with a bit of lag on the two scenarios (not too much, but some.)

[gunslinger]

Just a warning for anyone out shopping for agp video cards. I picked up the x1300 xge at Best Buy for $140. It's factory overclocked to 600mhz and has 512mb of onboard RAM, but it won't run MTW2. Ok, it will run it, but it's a slideshow even at low settings. I know this doesn't make sense, since it's a generation beyond the x800s and x850s, but, believe me, this card just isn't worth having.

Just because I know someone will ask, I have a 2.8ghz Intel processor with Hyperthreading and 512 RAM.

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Thank you very much , Al Jaberwock ! I will attempt to run it even at the lowest settings ~;)

[scourgeofrome]

Scourge,
I sure know about the limitations parents put on ya! (I'm a parent, and sometimes I hate me!). On the other hand, without them, you wouldn't have a machine at all! I'll tell ya what though, if you give me your mobo model, I'll bet we can come up with a few things that might make your machine run better, if only a little bit, and possibly we can find a place where very very cheap upgrades are possible... Heck, I can send you a 5500 for free (which isn't much help as its barely better than a 5200).

Here's an example... most folks use the cheap ata cables that came in the last generation of mobos (those without PCIex, without hyper transports, and limited or no sata2, vid power hook ups and so forth...). IN these cases, many people will hook up their legacy devices (like older HDs or CD/DVD drives) and their HD on the same cable... The legacy device will slow down access times to your HD by as much as 10% creating significant slowdown in game performance and some other potential problems...

Truth,I don't know a word you said (not computer literate).And for making it run better,I can live with it moving a little slow and having to turn down the graphics a bit.I don't need pretty grass and clouds to kill little virtual people.Besdies,I autocalulate battles quiete often (yes,I'm lazy.Only fight real important ones,have lost often using autocal.,or just got bored).

[PwnageBot2000]

Hey guys, how does a computer's CPU opposed to it's graphics card have an affect on gameplay?
So, IF I were to have a nVidia GeForce 7900 SLI and an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+CPU w/hypertransport technology, how would M2TW's gameplay hold up?
If anyone has any suggestions please know that I'm going for the AMD Athlon 64x2 4200+Dual-Core w/Hypertransport technology as the highest.

[Maxfu]

Just a warning for anyone out shopping for agp video cards. I picked up the x1300 xge at Best Buy for $140. It's factory overclocked to 600mhz and has 512mb of onboard RAM, but it won't run MTW2. Ok, it will run it, but it's a slideshow even at low settings. I know this doesn't make sense, since it's a generation beyond the x800s and x850s, but, believe me, this card just isn't worth having.

Just because I know someone will ask, I have a 2.8ghz Intel processor with Hyperthreading and 512 RAM.

Do you think your problems could be due to the fact that you are only running the min RAM requirment? I only ask because I was about to go out and opurchase a ATI Radeon® X1600 Pro 512MB Video Card and now you have mw worried.

[AlJabberwock]

Since I found the game last night at 8pm (was looking most of the day) I have answered no posts since early early am Wednesday. I will troll back and do the best I can.

PWnage,
Yeah my middle son has that system with the 3800 x2 and SLi 7900gtx OCs from BFG. The game plays like a dream on all max with ONE card... and is even nicer a picture with the two (you want to use the alternating frames method) but it is barely perceptible. A snowbound battle for Zagreb in the evening was ... breathtaking. I nearly cried.

You can get the 4200, but the 3800 is already almost asleep playing M2TW which will not test even the middle levels of this chip's capacity. One 7900GT would probably also be good enough, or nearly. Make sure you have 2 gigs or more of memory for your cooking system... Your a lucky man. Go over to http://www.slizone.com and look for the "Is your PC Optimized for SLI..." link. Everything you want to know is there... Let me know if I can help with SLI questions if you can't find it there (but its a pretty good site). We used the Foxcon CX51... Really stable, reliable board with really cool features... Sexy to pimp out since it and its cords are all black... Good muscle board if you like tweaking, but also really good right out of the box with epp and the works.

Max,
I agree his ram is too low. Unfortunately, the 1300 is also limited in a few ways the 800 was not: a comparison on ATI (well, now AMD.ATI -sheesh) shows the x800 has 12 pixel pipelines, and the 1300 has only 4!!! The x800 has a 256 bit interface, while the x1300 has only 128, and the g.pixel rate for the 800 is between 2.5 and 3.5 times higher than the various versions of the 1300 as well... The engine and clock speeds are similar and in general, on the face of it, the cards look like the 1300 is a budget card perhaps with just the api's updated... The x1600 for your information has 12 pixel pipelines, at least, and the clock and engine speeds are at least not worse. Some information is not available on the official site, so I cannot absolutely make a determination on what the comparison is , although you can go to a few places like Ajit's Corner, and Firing Squad which are online sites likely to have done benchmarking tests on the cards. Just google or do an msn search on these.

Gunslinger,
Buy some ram. There is also a possibility that a newer catalyst driver will greatly improve your results. If not, it is probably that the bottlenecks that the PCI ex interface solve have been substituted for by putting bottlenecks right on the card! See if you can return it and get something else.
I need to repeat here that I am not an expert in the ATI products (although with the merging of ATI with AMD, it appears I will have to be soon- sigh). I prefer NVidia cards (so I know considerably more about them) even though it is clear that ATI products have the clear edge in some graphical areas. On the other hand, I would also say that if you spend wisely with either company, you will get a very kick-butt result and be happy. Your CPU is the only thing that looks like a no problem component at this point. Get at least another 512 of ram, makr sure it is compatible (the same as what you have already).

Folks,

DONT buy vid cards that say "turbo charged", "SE, LE" "low profile" or have the OLD PCI bus interface type (not to be confused with the new, faster, sexy PCI E which clearly make you look taller and more attractive to women... unless-you're a woman - never mind, you know what I mean).

DO look to see how many pixel pipelines, what the bit rate is for the memory interface, and the pixel fill rates... AND look at engine (core) and clock rates. You may not know what they are exactly, but in each of these cases, bigger nimbers are better. Ram size above 256 won't make much difference unless you are planning on using more than one monitor OR a very large monitor (say, above 24") with the more exotic stratospheric resolutions. Not always are newer cards better (see above for example), because some may be intended for business use or other budget, or energy conservative applications...

Read online accounts or comparisons at online sites like PC magazine, byte, Ajits, Firing Squad, Hard OCP and the like. Look at the forums on official sites to see what people are complaining about... Unless the guy at the store is you PERSONAL LIFETIME friend and has a certified card as a GEEK, YOU are the best weapon you have to figure out what is NOT a rip off. Don't believe NVidia or ATI or any other marketing trash. Upper bound cards are good, really good - but do the research yourself, or ask someone you trust whose hands in which you don't mind putting your future happiness if they're wrong!

Al Jabberwock

[Bob the Insane]

Yeah, I have always liked the reviews on HardOCP...

Nothing beats a little reading and educating yourself on the subject...

I got my new machine up and running last night... Blood, sweat and tears it took... Well just blood actually, those Zalaman CPU Fans should be labeled as dangerous, those blades are sharp!! :laugh4:

The 8800GTX, well I can't say that much yet as by the time I had the machine all setup and then installed and tried M2TW out for a couple of hours it was OMG in the morning...

But I do have the graphics setting at max (resolultion is limited to 1280x1024 because of my aging but still very nice LCD monitor), I mean x8AA, x16AF, HIGH or HIGHEST settings as applicable and EXTREME shadows, all settings maxed...

I set huge units and had a x2 full stack peasant battle (6000 men total) and it worked just fine and was smooth (though I still got the excessive number of men warning at around 4000)...

I then leapt into the tutorial and the main campaign as the English... Campaign map is smooth and battles all smooth so far...

I will try the FRAPs thing tonight to get FPS...

[Maxfu]

Running 3.0Ghz P4, 1.5 Gb RAm, GF7600 AGP 256Mb DDR2 RAM, 500W Power Supply. Resolution set 1280 x 1024. I could probably go higher but have not tried yet. All settings at max, including bloom and shadows. Everything is running great, no lag at all. The graphics really are unbelievable. Now I need to start my campaign.

[gardibolt]

Well, amazingly enough I was able to run the game problem-free on all settings low, Shader 1 with the following setup:

P4 3.0
2 GB RAM
FX 5200 card

I was going to upgrade the video card, but after all the talk about needing to upgrade the power supply too and not having the first idea what connectors are correct for doing that I've chucked that idea. I'll just play it looking crappy.

[Maxfu]

Im thinking about buying a whole new system. AGP cards suck. I hate my radeon 9800 card. I hate it! PUKE PUKE..

im gonna buy new motherboard and new videocard. my budget is about 700 euros. any suggests?

also how much does a processor cost. I have 2.66 ghz now. Wanna upgrade that mofo.

I would suggest you that it is your ATI card that sucks not AGP cards on a whole. I'm running a GF 7600 GS AGP 256mb card and have all settings maxed. No lag at all, graphics look awesome.

I think your CPU is pretty good as far as speed, what amount of RAM are you running?

[GrandInquisitor]

I'm really...unhappy.

Pentium 4 2.6 ghz
1 gig + of ram
GeForce 6600 256mb

All drivers are up-to-date.

The wonderful auto-detect puts everything at high: details, vegetation, shadows, bloom, reflections, vsync, and ani-something x4 (can't remember what it was).

I figured this wasn't going to hold in battles, but everything actually ran fairly well at first, if a little choppy. When I got into a siege battle (around 2700 men total), the game basically stops from lag as the enemy army masses around its siege engines. I dropped shadows, vegetation details, and reflections, and still this one battle lags to a stop -- becoming entirely unplayable.

Strangely, I had a siege battle only slightly smaller -- with flaming arrows and siege weapons -- and it only lagged slightly with all the whistles and bells on. Please, any help would be appreciated. :shame:

[King Bob VI]

I'm trying to get a friend to download the demo for me, but in the meantime, how well do you think I can run it? Hopefully I will get the game for Christmas!

2.8 Ghz Pentium 4
1.0 Gigs RAM
256 MB ATI Radeon 256 X600 Hypermemory

I know the graphics card is the weak link here, does anyone else have something similar. (I've seen similar ones mentioned here already, but I know next to nothing about graphics cards, so I don't know if mine is comprable)

[AggonyKing]

My laptop can run it on high settings smoothly

CPU: 1.66 GHz Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology featuring Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500
Memory: 2GB / 2048MB DDR SDRAM
Display: 17.0" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1440 x 900) Display
Video: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB DDR Memory

[gunslinger]

I was going to upgrade the video card, but after all the talk about needing to upgrade the power supply too and not having the first idea what connectors are correct for doing that I've chucked that idea. I'll just play it looking crappy.

I actually just upgraded my power supply so I could get a video card. I too was intimidated by the whole plug thing. In reality, it wasn't that bad. I'm pretty sure that as long as you don't get one of those $15.00 500W cards available online, it should have all of the plugs you need. If you don't know what kind of connector your motherboard needs (I didn't know either) then look for a power supply with a 20 + 4 pin motherboard connector. That one will cover you either way.

The Antec psu I got at Staples has WAY more plugs than I need, so I'm pretty sure that it would work in just about any computer. I've heard that Dell computers need a power supply that mounts differently than others, so if you have a Dell, then you'll need to look into that.

Al Jabberwock, I currently have 2 x 256mb RAM with 4 available slots. I have an Intel P4 2.8ghz processor with HT. For now, I want to upgrade with 2 more 256mb sticks (it's my understanding that I can't throw one 512 or 1g stick in with my existing RAM because the HT requires balanced pairs). Is there a way to find out EXACTLY what I have under the hood without trying to read it off the RAM itself so that I can try to match what I've got now? I know that it's pc2700 dual channel, but I don't know the brand.

[slav frunze]

Hi, I'm a long time fan of TW.

My system is really bad right now(except for the graphics card which is OK):
1.7GHz Pentium 4
512mb DDR RAM
6600GT

The problem is that recently a virus stuffed my good hard drive, so I'm forced to use an ancient 10Gb one.
I was wondering if I get a new hard drive, with enough space for M2:TW, will my system handle the game on minimum, just until I get around to upgrading my CPU and graphics card?

Thanks, any replies appreiciated.

[Yun Dog]

My lords

Im looking to upgrade from my old inspiron 9100 lappy and build myself a desktop

the soul purpose of which will be to play M2TW and NWN2

I dont want a machine just to run the game

I WANT A HOLY CRUSADER JUGGERNAUGHT THAT WILL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY VANQUISH AND DESTROY THIS GAME

I WANT TO LAUGH AT LAG WITH ALL THE VIDEO SETTINGS TWEAKED TO MAX


I have a buget $3000AUD

any recommendations for processor/video card/motherboard combos greatly appreciated

strength and honor

[Quickening]

Hi, I'm a long time fan of TW.

My system is really bad right now(except for the graphics card which is OK):
1.7GHz Pentium 4
512mb DDR RAM
6600GT

The problem is that recently a virus stuffed my good hard drive, so I'm forced to use an ancient 10Gb one.
I was wondering if I get a new hard drive, with enough space for M2:TW, will my system handle the game on minimum, just until I get around to upgrading my CPU and graphics card?

Thanks, any replies appreiciated.

My system is the exact same as yours except for a 40GB hard drive and Ive decided to take a chance and buy it. So I'll let you know in a few days whether it is playable or not. Ive heard so many conflicting reports that the only way to find out for sure is to try it. I hate wasting money but if it works it will be worth it.

[Dutch_guy]

I figured this wasn't going to hold in battles, but everything actually ran fairly well at first, if a little choppy. When I got into a siege battle (around 2700 men total), the game basically stops from lag as the enemy army masses around its siege engines. I dropped shadows, vegetation details, and reflections, and still this one battle lags to a stop -- becoming entirely unplayable.

Strangely, I had a siege battle only slightly smaller -- with flaming arrows and siege weapons -- and it only lagged slightly with all the whistles and bells on. Please, any help would be appreciated. :shame:

This is a common problem, the game's FPS tend to drop during a siege when the enemy tries to get it's entire army up one ladder, or other type of siege engine. This should get fixed in the next patch IIRC.

:balloon2:

[R'as al Ghul]

I have a buget $3000AUD

any recommendations for processor/video card/motherboard combos greatly appreciated


Hi mate ~:wave:,

I'd pose that question where the geeks hang out, i.e. in the "Hardware & Software" section.

:bow:

R'as

[slav frunze]

Thanks quickening! Very much appreciated!

Looking forward to your reply:)

[Matty]

Just bumping this up in the hope of techno-assistance.

I added 512 MB of RAM and then another 1 GB in the last remaining slot. During gameplay I got an error message saying 'ati2dvag display driver error' everything froze and on re-booting I got a note telling me my computer had recovered from a serious error. This happens every few hours, not every time.

I took the 1 GB RAM out and not only saw no difference in game speed but have not had the freezing/error messages. Is there any way to use this 1 GB of RAM - should I put it in the slots in a different order?

Help!

[Dr3x4L]

Processor: Intel Extreme 2 Extreme X6800 @2.93mhz (1066)
Motherboard: Evga Nvidia 680i
Memory: Corsair Dominator (sli) Xms2 2Gig (1066)
Graphics: Bfg 8800GTX x2 (sli)
Hard Drives: Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache x2
Sound: X-fi Fatal1ty FPS edition
Psu: Enermax Galaxy 1000watt
Monitor 24" Dell Widescreen 1920x1200
Speakers: Gigaworks 5.1 Thx

Runs like a dream maxed out :) even with sli dissabled so to the guy whos getting similar bits to me :) your in for a real treat buddy the 8800GTX eats dx9 games alive :)

[Dr3x4L]

My lords

Im looking to upgrade from my old inspiron 9100 lappy and build myself a desktop

the soul purpose of which will be to play M2TW and NWN2

I dont want a machine just to run the game

I WANT A HOLY CRUSADER JUGGERNAUGHT THAT WILL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY VANQUISH AND DESTROY THIS GAME

I WANT TO LAUGH AT LAG WITH ALL THE VIDEO SETTINGS TWEAKED TO MAX


I have a buget $3000AUD

any recommendations for processor/video card/motherboard combos greatly appreciated

strength and honor


See above Buddy that little lot cost me £3200, just get one GTX u will be well within your budget providing hardware is similar prices where u are :)

[Drake]

problem that has finally pissed me off enough. I turned off the FMVs but some like a new Pope keep automatically coming off, can't turn them off. Every seocnd one my PC freezes for a few moments then crashes. Has anyone else run into this? Have I done something wrong with the game? it runs battles well enough on low specs and the campaign doesnt have any uber-load times, whats the deal?

[maestro]

See above Buddy that little lot cost me £3200, just get one GTX u will be well within your budget providing hardware is similar prices where u are :)


Erm... isn't $3200AUD about £1300 ? :inquisitive:

You'll never build a monster for that kinda money, Yunus Dogus. You'll build a good, fast rig but not a monster like Dr3x4L's. :shame:

Oh, and Dr3x4L.. why, oh why did you get crappy speakers with that rig? And WTF is SLi RAM? U just mean dual channel, right? And nice one for managing to get 1066 Dominator RAM on the day of release, getting your system built in time, with the operating system installed and M2TW and tested by lunchtime *wow*. But why didn't you get a Core 2 Quadro since you only just built the rig and they're only £40 more yet TWICE as fast ?!?!?!?!?! You nutter ~;) What kind of benchmark scores you getting on that thing?

[plane_crazzy]

I got the prerelease demo to see if the battles would be ok on my computer. Ive got a 3.0Ghz Pentium 4 with 2Gigs of RAM. My vid card is a 256Meg Nvidea 6600. Was wondering if someone with a similiar system could let me know if the game was choppy or anything during battles. The demo was slightly choppy, Im hoping it was just a product of it being prerelease.

Thanks

[Monarch]

It'll run well on medium settings, maybe towards high. I'm not sure because you have good ram but a disinctly average processor.

[Dr3x4L]

Erm well currency isnt a strong point sorry. Would of got a quad core but i wasnt aware of it at the time ie 2 weeks ago the ram only just arrived yesterday i had been running it on some geil ram till that point so it didnt take to long to swap the ram over :) thats how i built it so quick. And Sli ram dunno what it is myself lol its called a typo i think ive got sli on the brain, my motherboard supports quad core i believe so thats a bonus for the future :) and tbh it dont need to run any faster :) compaired to my old pc this kicks arse and yeah i am crazy
Crapy Speakers? they sound alright where im sitting.

Old machine was Amd64 3.2 @2gig
6800GT
1Gig ddr 400


When combined with two NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, you get innovative NVIDIA® SLI™ technology for enhanced system performance. With select SLI-Ready memory with EPP you get automatic access to special memory performance.

I knew there was sommat about the ram no idea what it does like :) performance feature on the mobo.

Where can i get a decent benchmark program?

[scourgeofrome]

Well,after completely checking the minimum and recomennded requirements on gamespot.com,it seems all I need is more RAM in order to play the game(like I said,lowering graphic isn't a concern for me).Lucky me,I have a brother who is trying to get rid of some chips that increase RAM.Probably starting to push near the max amount though.

[Dimetrius]

Greetings,

I have the following machine

Intel Core Duo 2,16GHz
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM
RadeonX1600 with 256Mb VRAM

Will MTW2 run smoothly with this?

[maestro]

Where can i get a decent benchmark program?

Google for the 3DMark series. 3DMark 2001 is the ultimate test of your overall system performance, whereas 3DMark 2006 is the ultimate test of graphics performance.

Check them out :2thumbsup:

BTW - the crappy speakers remark was just cause the Logitech series are sooo much better than the creative ones and they're roughly the same price :whip:

[KRALLODHRIB]

Presario r4000 AMD 3500 ATI Radeon Xpres 200M works on min settings

Wow.

I was a bit surprised the battle screen shows as well as it does on this laptop since it is about a year old.

I play with all low settings, small units. But runs ok, fyi those who won similar laptops.

[Azndude2190]

My specs:

AMD Athlon 64 San Diego 3700+@2.4GHz
Leadtek 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
1GB DDR 400 PC3200
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit 7.1

Runs pretty smooth on high-highest settings.When there are huge battle sequences envolving many people it starts to tax my system.Right now I'm playing both the campaign and battle@1024x768,AAx4,AFx2,Unit Detail-Highest,Building Detail-Medium,Vegatation Detail-Medium,Grass Detail-Low,Texture-Highest,No shadows...full bloom and campaign map shadows enabled.

[Yggdrasill]

Hi guys, need a little advice... This is my machine:

CPU Intel P4 – 3.0 Ghz, 800 Mhz bus, 512 KB
GPU – Leadtek 6800GT 256 MB
Memory - 2 x 512 MB, Dimm PC-2100, DDR on 266 Mhz


Obviously I need more memory. I guess 2 x 1GB DDR2 at 800 Mhz will be more than enough, in fact I doubt it very much my CPU can use even 50% of what it can offer. However, I'd like to stick with the CPU and GPU.

The problem is, my motherboard and GPU are both AGP, and if I buy a new cpu (which I guess I do need), I definitely need a new motherboard (this one is ancient), which means a new GPU, since my trusty old 6800GT is AGP and I obviously won't be buying a new motherboard with AGP. Likewise, if I decide to buy a new GPU I will still need to buy a new motherboard (a PCI-e one), which means a new cpu. Either way, I end up buying a new rig, complete with a new power supply...so I was wondering how much juice I can squeeze out of this.

I don't care much about high graphical settings, I wouldn't mind playing on low settings (perhaps not the lowest but say 2 out of 5), no shadows, no gloss (don't like it anyway), simple smoke and dust effects, no anti-aliasing, medium environment settings, simple buildings. However, I absolutely want to use max unit sizes, and considering that I'd use low settings, I'd like everything to run smoothely, say 25 fps the norm, dropping to 15 in sieges.

So do you think it is possible to play MTW2 on my system?

I am sceptical – I know how RTW and BI run on my system, and I've never been impressed. With medium graphics settings and max unit sizes, RTW/BI does stutter at times, and sieges with large cities border on being unplayable.

By the way, I would have posted this in the 'official' system requirements thread but it seems to have disappered...

[FesterShinetop]

I think it will run just fine on mostly medium settings with some at high(and shadows off, always a big FPS improvement).
Have you tried the demo? If not you should, and see how that runs!

[alpaca]

Well my system has similar specs and the game runs ok. Don't expect any miracles, and it'll lag in some larger sieges, but it should actually be fine. Oh, and you should maybe play on normal size if you want to stick to this ;)

[Dayve]

I play on a P4 2.4 processor, 1 gig of ram and a radeon x800pro, and i run it fine with large units and everything on medium with shadows off...

Very large siege battles lag when the enemy try to rush their entire army in through my gate, but they are promptly slaughtered and the lag disappears.:smash:

[Yggdrasill]

I play on a P4 2.4 processor, 1 gig of ram and a radeon x800pro, and i run it fine with large units and everything on medium with shadows off...

Very large siege battles lag when the enemy try to rush their entire army in through my gate, but they are promptly slaughtered and the lag disappears.:smash:


Is the large setting the highest you can go in MTW2 or is there a bigger unit size? In RTW 'large' is I think 80-120-180 scale, while 'huge' is the biggest, 100-160-240 IIRC. Is it the same in MTW2?

[redriver]

it's above the min. so ya'll do just fine OP!
I've ran the demos on my p4 1.6 and 1g ddr with gf4 128mb settings on low and unit textures high without any probs lol

[LestaT]

Finally arrive in my country and guess what, to my surprise, my P4 1.7 mhz, 512 mb SDram , 256 mb gforce fx 5500 are able to run the game smoothly albeit with all the low gfx options. I can even use the highest unit settings. :2thumbsup:

[Lorenzo_H]

your memory is fine, 2x512mb should be sufficient.

[Reapz]

Yggdrasill I have the same CPU, bus and AGP graphics card as you. I have 2048Kb RAM but I don't think that makes much difference over 1024. I run the game just fine. I use 1024 x 768 res, high detail for buildings, units, vegetation and textures, 4x AF, no AA and bloom and reflections off.

I get 15 to 30 fps in battles depending on whether there are a lot of trees, and 30 to 45 fps on the campaign map.

I don't think that you need a more powerful system to enjoy the game.

[opium123]

My graphics card is NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 440 and it says when i play the gold demo i do not have a pixel shader 1.1. what should i do

[Faenaris]

My graphics card is NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 440 and it says when i play the gold demo i do not have a pixel shader 1.1. what should i do

I would upgrade my graphics card if I were you. A Geforce 4 serie is NOT gonna run M2TW (and if it does, it will be a slideshow unless you run at the very low graphic setting). I hope you can upgrade so that you can play M2TW.

[Dutch_guy]

My graphics card is NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 440 and it says when i play the gold demo i do not have a pixel shader 1.1. what should i do

You should buy a new card, as the MX doesn't support the pixel shading level M2 requires.

:balloon2:

[Azndude2190]

AMD Athlon 64 San Diego 3700+@2.4GHz
Leadtek 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
1GB DDR 400 PC3200
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit 7.1

My question is does anyone know what kind of upgrade I need to just play with two full "huge" scale armies on max settings?Would something like a 7900GS be sufficient enough or do I have to higher?

[ZachPruckowski]

Does anyone know how much high memory latency is going to sting?

I meet all the other requirements pretty easily, but I'm worried that using FBDIMMs is gonna bring me down. Anyone know?

[Dr3x4L]

Google for the 3DMark series. 3DMark 2001 is the ultimate test of your overall system performance, whereas 3DMark 2006 is the ultimate test of graphics performance.

Check them out :2thumbsup:

BTW - the crappy speakers remark was just cause the Logitech series are sooo much better than the creative ones and they're roughly the same price :whip:

Ahh reet ill let you off i though u were having a go lol :) well i have the 3dmark demos but i cant alter the settings to over 1024x786 eugh, there is a serious bug with the 680i motherboards with Fatalit1y sound cards with sli enabled how unlucky is that nvidia said they are working on a solution, so atm i have sli dissabled other wise the sound in TW2 is unbearable and also company of hereos :( Not noticed any performance issuses though with the 1 card its still unbelievably fast and smooth Ill run a few bench tests let ya know :)

[nevrozel]

Hi guys, I am planning on buying this great game for Christmas and would like to hear you oppinion regardin my config:

Intel Core2Duo 2,16GHZ T7400
1 GB 667GHZ DDR2
Ati Mobility X1600 128 VRAM

What do you think? Thank you.

[Yoko Kono]

Hi guys, I am planning on buying this great game for Christmas and would like to hear you oppinion regardin my config:

Intel Core2Duo 2,16GHZ T7400
1 GB 667GHZ DDR2
Ati Mobility X1600 128 VRAM

What do you think? Thank you.

Thats a pretty nice spec
I run at 1280x1024 2xaa 4xaf, high details, huge units size with no probs
my spec is:
AMD Opteron 146 @ 2.6Ghz
1Gb DDR @ 216MHz
Ati x800XTPE

You should be able to run at similar settings also with no major problems, at worst you may have to turn texture details down with only 128mb gfx memory

[dannothecolonel]

OK, so I posted on here a while back regarding some major graphics issues with the demo, now I'm still experiencing them with the full game. This was my original post...



My specs are as follows

AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.6 ghz

Nvidia Geforce 6800

512mb RAM

When I tried running the demo, the battles lagged, but the graphics were also screwed up in other ways ( soldiers would appear and disappear, strange lines radiating from units, knights appearing to fly through the air). This seems to suggest to me that i might be having some issues with my graphics card's compatibilty, as opposed to simply lacking RAM or processor speed. Then again, I don't know what I'm talking about, so what do you all think?

really don't want to have to buy a new computer to play this :(

Drawing on my limited knowledge of computers, I get the impression this is most likely a software problem. I have downloaded and installed the latest Nvidia and AGP drivers, my directx is up to date, I don't know what to do!:wall:

Has anyone else experienced similar problems, or could anyone just please, please HELP! Any assistance would be very, very much appreciated.

[perryqhill]

What sort of detail level will a Radeon 9800 pro handle on MTW2?

I'm about to buy the game this week and can't really afford to update right now.

Athlon 3200
1gb ram

[The Teacher]

quikie, i have a stonking new mac , will i be able to play it on there? and how?

[Dearmad]

What sort of detail level will a Radeon 9800 pro handle on MTW2?

I'm about to buy the game this week and can't really afford to update right now.

Athlon 3200
1gb ram

I have an old rig with this card in it. My guess is it would handle no shadows, small unit size fine. Maybe even normal unit size, but turn texture to medium, and make sure you're at a low resolution. That card is a good match for that cpu- neither one will be the sole bottleneck, they both will be...

[Test112345]

A64 3400+ (NC) | BFG 6800GT OC | Fortron 530w PSU |
DFI Lanparty UT | 1.5GB Kingston Value RAM | Audigy 2 ZS Gamer |
Diamondmax10 w/ 16mb cache| Antec P160| Logitech Z2200 2.1 | NEC 3500A

suggestions on what settings i should use from anyone with similar equipment?

[ZachPruckowski]

quikie, i have a stonking new mac , will i be able to play it on there? and how?

Which kind of mac? If it's an iMac (any but the $999 edu model), Macbook Pro, or a Mac Pro then yes. If it's a Macbook or a Mac Mini, then no. Macbooks and Mac Minis have integrated graphics, while iMacs, MBPs and Mac Pros have current-generation graphics cards.

To run it, you have to partition your hard drive, install Windows, and reboot every time you want to play.

[Bijo]

System Requirements Lab, hmm. I've been checking several times before I bought a game in the past. It's not perfect. For M2TW I pass the recommended specs, but still the campaign map is lagging for some reason. I only find this site useful for a general view, and nothing else.

[Test112345]

A64 3400+ (NC) | BFG 6800GT OC | Fortron 530w PSU |
DFI Lanparty UT | 1.5GB Kingston Value RAM | Audigy 2 ZS Gamer |
Diamondmax10 w/ 16mb cache| Antec P160| Logitech Z2200 2.1 | NEC 3500A

suggestions on what settings i should use from anyone with similar equipment?


?????

[Chernabog]

What sort of detail level will a Radeon 9800 pro handle on MTW2?

I'm about to buy the game this week and can't really afford to update right now.

Athlon 3200
1gb ram

A friend of mine has a very similar rig ...

Athlon 2200+
1.25 GB Ram
9800 Pro (AIW)

He can run using normal units, shader 2.0, no shadows, no bloom, medium pretty well much everything else.

Looks ok, plays ok and loads fairly fast.

I'm running on a 3200+ but with 2GB Ram and GW Bliss GS7900+ .. runs lovely with everything on max (unit size normal) :beam:

Chernabog

[Steinfeld]

I wanted to post this in the Tech-Forum but obviously my postcount is too low for that.

Anyhoo.

I've been wandering around with this idea for some weeks now, now I need some opinions by people who know their way in todays hardware...

Currently, I have a four year old rig which ran perfectly over that lenght of time, never had any troubles with it.

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2424MHz
Display Card NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Memory 1024MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 19.49GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 6.14.10.9371
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive DVD
Sound Card SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B400]
Belinea 19'' flat CRT

You just thought it. This is getting a bit rusty. Currently I am playing MTW2, looks good but COULD look great.
Sometime in the next months I will habe to invest into a new system. However, I am wondering if it was the best to bridge the wait with a new graphics-card (and maybe a new monitor). After all, I am not to keen on setting up a new system with Vista around the corner. Plus, I am convinced, I could make that 2,4 P4 run a little bit faster.
I do not play that much any longer, 25 fps are good enough for me and so far I have lived without 8xAA and 8xAF.

Would it make sense to buy a Geforce 7900 for example and live on with the system for another year? As I said, the current rig is still in the "ok"-sector and I am not wild about a new setting-up and installing and whatever.
Money is not an issue. Time is. (Darn, I am getting old). And although I do not have to watch the price that close I do not want to throw money out the window.
However, I want those armours to really shine :)

Maybe you can help me out here.
Wait / Upgrade / Dump ?
Thanks.

[Steinfeld]

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2424MHz
Display Card NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Memory 1024MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 19.49GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 6.14.10.9371
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive DVD
Sound Card SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B400]
Belinea 19'' flat CRT

Forgot to mention: I still run on AGP...

[JR-]

from what you describe of your situation, now may be the time to upgrade, or in february would be my recommendation.

by february ATI will have its DX10 reponse to nVidia's G80 cards, which means that a 8800GTS will be very affordable compared to the price now.

in the same timeframe AMD will have released chips all the way up to a 6000+ (3GHz), so an Intel 6600 will be even better value, price/performance wise, than it currently is now.

these two items alone add up to an order or magnitude improvment over what you already have.

[Barry Fitzgerald]

I am gonna chip in here as a system builder...

You wont get a lot more from 2Gb RAM compared to 1Gb...though if you run multi apps at the same time...it helps. Also the pagefile gets used a lot less at 2Gb...so that speeds that up.

Running over 2Gb to 3 or 4Gb is just a waste of cash at present. Also premium ram isnt worth the extra cash..it eeks a few extra fps overclocked..but not a whole lot.

graphics wise maxed out yeah...go for it on the cards..though I never advise top end ones..too expensive...the game runs pretty well on mainstream cards..and the next batch should do even better..

I am sure that the game relies on cpu power a lot more than most think..whatever you run AMD or Intel...a dual core seems to hit the spot nicely...even with a middle of the road card..

[Sunhawken]

Intel Celron 2.40GHZ
766 MB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 with 128 MB of Memory

[Ice]

t2400 1.83 mhz dual core mobile processor
1 Gig of Ram
(Hides from flamers) onboard 950 GM mobile graphics (yes I know, it sucks, but I couldn't get a dedicated card)

Any possibility I can run the game on low?

[Divine Wind]

Sunhawken & Ice, it should run however the settings will be on lowest and low I suspect.