View Full Version : The M2TW hardware thread: please post all hardware queries here
The Citadel seems to be getting clogged up with hardware threads right now.
Please remember, we have the apothecary forum to deal with technical support issues. Do not post technical support queries in this thread.
There is also a hardware/software forum to discuss wider issues, like which graphics card to upgrade to. Members should post general hardware queries there.
Junior members cannot post in the hardware/software forum, however, so I am creating this stickied thread that they can post non-technical support hardware questions in.
I will merge any further hardware threads into this thread.
If juniors would like to start a thread in the hardware/software forum, they could still post in the Citadel and PM me to move it over. That way, their thread will get moved into the hardware/software forum, but unfortunately they will not be able to post any further in it.
Note: a very nice website to tell if your computer is good enough for M2TW is:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srl
First query of the thread (I'm having to quote it, otherwise it would be the first post in this thread):
Hiya Everyone :beam:
I will have Medieval II arrive soon, but I don't want to ruin it, by playing it with my current graphics card.
After getting lost in a world of Rome : Total War I visited these forums, I realised how much more awe inspiring the battles would have been if I had more than the 20ish people in an army!
My PC is as below
AMD XP 2600+
2 x 512MB of DDR memory
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB DDR 8x AGP
Asus A7N8X-X SKT A Nforce2 AGP X8 Sound USB 2.0 Motherboard
PSU Q-TEC ADT-350 (+12V - 30A)
Seagate ST380011A Barracuda 80GB 7200RPM ATA/100 2MB Cache
Windows 2000 Install
3dMark03 stays pretty much 640 no matter how I tweak settings :wall:
I have spent the last 3 evenings reading up on the new technology (and don't things change so fast) and have decided the best way to get my PC Medieval II happy is to upgrade the graphics card.
It has to be AGP and I can't bring myself to pay more than £100 as it will only be for this game - my christmas present to myself will be taking a few days work and playing this game all day :2thumbsup:
I have been looking at the X1000 series from ATI
Here are 2 examples
£82 - Sapphire Radeon X1650 PRO 256MB GDDR3 VGA TVO DVI-I AGP
£72 - Gigabyte Radeon X1600 Pro 256MB DDR2, PCI-E, DVI, HDTV Out, Retail with Silent Heatpipe II AGP
One of these has no fan (I think) and that might be important - my current PC is very quiet and I don't know how loud fans are on graphics cards...
I would be very grateful for any input anyone can give me to help me decide the best way to go with this. I have till Tuesday to research until I will then make an order for a new card. I have to go to work now so please don't think I am being rude if I don't respond until this evening.
And first reply:
Well the second card is PCI-E, so you're stuck with the 1650.
I wouldn't say stuck though, necessarily, since it has DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2.
I'll get back to you in the morning since it's 2:30 in the morning in WA, US, but I believe that there are nVidia 6800's out that are AGP. They'd be the better option, in my opinion, since nVidia has better support, better bang for your Euro, and depending on the company a lifetime warranty.
Are you in England?
Good idea - if this went on any longer i was going to scream, but starting a new thread seems like a much more constructive idea :P
@PaulTa, i thought the same thing, but it does have AGP at the end, so it's probably both
Thread posted at the hardware/software forum:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=76444
MrsCabbage
12-30-2006, 19:34
To be honest I just put those 2 graphic cards as examples. I am really after advice on wether cards like these will give me a full experience or not? Or if there are better ones etc...
MrsCabbage
12-30-2006, 19:55
Sorry I posted in the wrong forum area. I was wondering if you could post my post in the hardware software area for me, please. It doesn't seem to have had much response where it is currently. Apologises to those who have posted.
Moderator edit: Ok, done:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=76444
Andriejj
01-06-2007, 13:43
I have a question about the amount of free hard disk drive which is needed for this game. Is it really 11GB??? Because when I asked my friend who already has it how much does it weights he said it's around 7 GB. So what is the real size??? It surely doesn't need 4 GB of artificial memory(in polish it's plik wymiany lub stronicowania, in english I'm not sure).
I may be wrong, but I think the extra four gigabytes is for temporary files when installing the game. You have to have that much free to set everything up, but in the end it will only use seven gigs on your drive (unless you unpack your datapacks, in which case it will be considerably larger).
Andriejj
01-06-2007, 21:49
Thanks for help. Do you know if there are any possibilities during instalation- can you choose from medium, small, full instalations or sth like that?
Nope. It's been years since I've seen that sort of option on a game, you have to install everything.
Andriejj
01-07-2007, 08:17
That sucks. I have a small 40 GB disk divided into to parts and on the part where the system is I can make at most 10 GB free space :/ It's not only my computer.
Well, if there is a bright side to your situation, it's that hard drives aren't really that expensive these days (although if it's an old computer you'll need to buy a converter and if it's a laptop you're in trouble)
Quirinus
01-08-2007, 14:26
Uh, I'm not sure if my question is about hardware, but I've just installed the game, and when I tried to open it it says "Unable to Locate Component-- This application has failed to start because d3dx9_30.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."
Well, I've re-installed the programme twice, but the problem persists. Can someone tell me what is wrong, and how to remedy it?
Thanks in advance, and sorry if I posted in the wrong place.
You need to install the latest version of directx from here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx).
There's a windows validation process to go through but it's not much hassle, and then you can download the installer. The initial installer is around 500kb and the file itself 14mb, so it shouldn't be too much trouble.
Oh, and welcome to the org ~:wave:
Quirinus
01-09-2007, 14:07
Okay, the problem is solved now, but now when I try to start the game, I get a window: "This program requires graphic card with pixel shader 1.1 or better." What does that mean? Does that mean I have to get a better graphics card? How does that work anyhow?
It sounds like your graphics card is too old to play m2tw (or any other modern game for that matter).
What card are you running? (this determines your upgrade options)
Quirinus
01-10-2007, 15:11
I dunno. The only other game which had a problem with my graphic card was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I'm not sure if this is related, but Rome: Total War plays just fine with unit scale set at the default 'large'.
How do I check my graphics card properties?
Trust me mate - if your gfx card can't run pixel shader 1.1 it's way too old to play the game anyway.
Quirinus
01-11-2007, 17:08
So.... how do I check my graphic card properties?
click start, run and type in dxdiag.
Click on the 'display' tab in the window that appears and tell us what you see.
Roman_Man#3
01-12-2007, 02:24
I am probably posting in the wrong spot, but I would like to know where to check my gfx card properties cuz I get a pop-up saying the pixel shader 1.1 thing.
but i think it might my gfx card doesnt have enough ram or whatev it is.
If you get a popup saying it doesn't support pixel shader 1.1, it means that your graphics card doesn't support pixel shader 1.1. Fancy that.
As i said before, if you can't support an architecture that has been in graphics cards for genarations (i can't pinpoint the exact cards that introduced it but it sure has been around for a while) then your graphics card has no chance of running m2tw or any other recent game at a playable frame rate.
If you still don't believe me, follow the instructions in my above post to find the name of your graphics card via dxdiag
Quirinus
01-12-2007, 08:00
Name: Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip Type: Intel(R) 82852/82855 Graphics Controller
DAC Type: Internal
Approx. Total Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Is that it?
Yeh, that sounds like it.
Unfortunately, it also sounds like an inbuilt graphics chip. These are included for vista compatibility but they're not intended for gaming.
What system/motherboard (whichever you know) are you running? This determines if you can upgrade, and what to.
Quirinus
01-12-2007, 15:23
Oh dear.
How do I check which system/motherboard I'm running? I'm using Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, if that's what you were asking.
Hang on....are you running a tablet pc?
They really aren't designed for gaming at all....
Quirinus
01-13-2007, 07:07
Yeah, I am. I used to use it for school, but not anymore.
Short of buying a new PC, is there anything that I could do?
You may be able to upgrade a tablet, I'm really not sure if they upgrade like notebooks do, but it would a lot harder than just pulling cards out of a motherboard on a PC. I don't know what the going rate is on notebook components, but I'd imagine they're higher than you find on desktop parts; you'd be spending quite a bit of cash just on a graphics card before you could play the game, and you might still have to upgrade your memory or processor. In short: Good luck.
I don't think that you have many options with a tablet :(
Quirinus
01-13-2007, 16:45
Oh...... damn. Looks like I wasted my cash. I won't have any money to upgrade anything, let alone buy a new laptop, with my tight budget. Took me one month to save up enough to buy M2TW.
And yeah, my memory sucks like hell, only 40GB.
yeh - tablets aren't intended for anything but work - they don't have the memory, disc space, video or cpu for games
Quirinus
01-14-2007, 05:42
I have Praetorians, Deus Ex, Empire Earth, Condition Zero, Jedi Academy and RTW on my computer simultaneuosly....... it works okay...... I guess.
And my post got edited..... I hope I didn't get a warn for that.
stranganath
01-18-2007, 01:37
my laptop specs are below
Toshiba Satellite Pro A100
Intel Duo core T2500 @ 2.00GHz
1 GB DDRII @533 MHz RAM
nvidia geforce go 7300
Windows XP Pro
I am having troubles with battles even on "Low" settings the movement is very sluggish.
Any suggestions??
What resolution are you running at?
stranganath
01-19-2007, 07:45
1280 x 760
With everything else being equal, is there a big in-game improvement from having 3gb dual-channel vs 2gb dual-channel ram? Does 1 more GB make any difference?
I also have a EVGA 7600 GS 256mb ddr2 PCIe with the passive heat sink because I wanted a quiet machine and I had a weak power supply. I have a dell so upgrading the PSU is not an option I think. Is this card decent enough for MTW2 with decent visual settings? I run it at 1440 X 900 on a 19" widescreen.
I also run the game on a WD Raptor 10K hard drive. I'm pretty sure that makes a difference.
The main reason for these questions is that I want to make sure I am running the game at the optimal level for my machine. I don't mind spending the money to upgrade if it would make a noticeable difference. Right now, my PC sometimes get bogged down but I don't know if it is my PC's hardware limitations or bugs in the games that are causing issues.
Sometimes, my mouse control on the campaign map is less than smooth. I play NORMAL size and battles are for the most part not too bad even with up to 4-6 stacks on screen. I think I have most of my video setting on low though.
MY Gaming PC
Intel Dual Core 2.8GHZ
3 GB Dual Channel Ram
eVGA 7600 GS 256mb ddr2 passive heat sink
WD 10K Raptor 74 GB 8mb cache
Any help and/or comments appreciated.
Especially with what are the recommended video settings for MTW2 with the 7600 gs.
I'm not 100% sure but I don't think the current build of Windows can properly utilize over 2GB of RAM. I'm not sure why exactly, but that's what my tech-savvy friends tell me. Vista is supposed to be able to harness more RAM. Your performance issues I think are more CPU and GPU related. I've got a 7900 GT with an Ahtlon 3200+ (which clocks at around 2.2 ghz) and can run the game at full specs, but I do take performance hits when I've got two full stacks on the screen. Turning off extras like Anti-Aliasing and, especially, vegetation detail will help tremendously.
@laconic - xp can utilise 3gb of ram if you turn the pagefile down
@chosun - how exactly did you get 3gb of dual channel ram? I wasn't aware of there being 1.5gb sticks...
@laconic - xp can utilise 3gb of ram if you turn the pagefile down
@chosun - how exactly did you get 3gb of dual channel ram? I wasn't aware of there being 1.5gb sticks...
Can you elaborate on the pagefile please? Not having one or having a small one?
I am running XP Pro. I thought XP couldn't handle 4 gigs of ram, that's why I only bought 3 gigs.
I have 2 X 512mb and 2 X 1gb all by the same manufacturer and same type of memory. Is that wrong? Diagnostic says it's 3 gb of dual channel. Is that not possible?
XP can handle 4gbs of ram, so if you turn the pagefile (virtual memory) down to 0 you can theoretically have 4gb of physical ram - it's not reccomended though.
As to the dual channel question, most mobos only have one set of dual channel slots, but some modern ones have two (usually 1,3 and 2,4 but it varies) and that must be what you're running. My mistake.
Any thoughts on what would be the recommended video settings for my rig yet?
Thanks!
Your computer should be able to handle the lowest settings with no trouble. I'd just start there, check your performance, and bump things up to see how your computer handles it. Not really any science to it, just keep increasing your video settings until it slows down too much for your tastes.
TevashSzat
01-23-2007, 03:18
laconic it is better to have all of your ram exactly the same in manufactur and size
@xdeathfire - that only applies if you want to run dual channel, and in that case you only need 2x whatever sticks the same (if your mobo supports 2 dual channel pairs of slots, you can use different matched pairs in each)
@Chosun - do what laconic suggested - performance is subjective so you have to go with what you're happy with
hey everyone,i have question,i will buy SAPPHIRE X1300PRO 256M/AGP tomorrow,& i wonder can i be able to play M2TW?Or not.
sorry for my english :) .........
It's not a great card but it should manage on low settings.
Someone with more knowledge then me should be able to give you the specifics.
Ok thanks SAPI, I got SAPPHIRE X1600PRO 256M/AGP ,because a super salesman who make a good offer.A New SAPPHIRE X1600PRO 256M/AGP for a 55 dollars.
I'm shopping around for a video card, mostly to improve MTW2 performance, and saw a good review of the Radeon X1650 PRO on tomshardware.com. Has anyone here got any experience with this card? It's a low-end card but I'm on a tight budget.
I'm also looking at the Geforce 7600 GS.
Thanks!
Not sure if this is the right thread for my question (its not a 'problem', more of a query)
Is it worth leaving BLOOM turned on in the game video options? I thought bloom was more of a light-source effect - like the sun, lamps, fires, stuff like that. As there's not much of this in the game (flaming arrows maybe), is it worth turning BLOOM off to get a big performance improvement?
Cheers
@zarker - yep, i've used the same reasoning and turned bloom off asap.
Compared to HDR it looks rubbish anyway.
In a game such as oblivion, it (hdr) makes a huge difference, as it does in games that have been built to support it (source engine games such as day of defeat: source and hl2:ep1 are prime examples); but in m2tw i just can't see the need.
The Spartan (Returns)
01-30-2007, 23:31
currently have a NVIDIA 6200 LE.
M2 runs pretty nice.
but plan to upgrade to 7600 GT which is even faster than a Xbox 360 gfx processor I believe.
so when i upgrade how will M2 play?
i want all options on
and at least Trillenear and AAX2
how well will that play?
It will definitely run much better but the actual benifit depends on your resoultion.
The Spartan (Returns)
02-01-2007, 02:15
alright! i just run at 1024X768!
thanks.
Incongruous
02-01-2007, 08:18
Well, I just got a new Comp.
I have just got some kind of dual core from intel, maybe 2.4 or sommin.
I have also got a 7600GT.
But Unfortunatley only one Gig of DDR2.
I have yet to get my copy of M2TW back from my Brother, whom is using the new Alienware comp (waste of money, but he has it to burn ight now) and it runs like silk. I wondered if it would run ok on my own?
It should run fine - one gig of ram should be enough for most current games; the main reason that 2gb is reccomended is for smoother operation rather than a huge performance increase (in most games)
455trt43trg
02-04-2007, 22:14
I dont really know about graphic cards, and Im wondering if Geforce 6500 512Mb is good enought for this game?
Personally i wouldn't go for it.
It's a rather old core and getting 512mb of ram on it would be a waste.
Hi i want to know if i will be able to play MTW 2 with these laptops, and if so which will be the better one to get? Thanks in advance.
Alienware Aurora m9700
AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML37 2.0GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology
1GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
60GB 5400 RPM SATA with NCQ
8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Dell XPS M1710
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400 (2MB Cache/1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD Audio
From what i can see the second is the better choice, but you'd best wait for more info from members who know more about laptops than me
I was asking because, i have a choice to get one of those two laptops for free and mostly wanted to know if those laptops could handle Medieval 2 Totalwar.
so any will do as long i get to play MTW2. lol
Thanks for the reply. :)
Building a PC from scratch with the aim being to be able to play M2 at really decent levels. The build list I have so far is:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Socket 775 1.86GHz
Sapphire Technology Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TVO
Asustek S775 Intel 945G MATX Audio Lan Graphics Motherboard
Kingston ValueRAM 2x1G 240Pin DIMM PC2-4300 Non-ECC DDR2 CL4
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB S300 internal HDD
550W PSU Gold 12cm SATA PFC
Trust 5.1 Surround Soundcard SC-5100
Does this list “fall down” anywhere obvious? Perhaps in the choice of RAM??
(note: haven't bothered to include optical drive or case info...guessing they won't make much difference)
I'm not familiar with Intel components, but I'd be iffy about any motherboard that included onboard video these days. The motherboard is the one place I don't spare expense; a good motherboard will let you upgrade at will and provide much more stable performance in my experience.
You could opt for a lower wattage power supply if you want, unless you're planning on running two video cards. I probably wouldn't bother with a sound card as most onboard sound chips these days are good enough for what most people need; other than that I don't know anything about Trust sound cards, if I had to get one I would go with a Creative card. I had a bad experience with a Seagate drive so I keep away from them, but that's my personal bias. If you're going to go with a 7200 RPM hard drive you might consider cutting a corner somewhere else to get more space on it, as 80 GB will run out very fast these days.
My two cents, I'm not a technical master, so I'm sure someone else will have some more insight.
The HDD space isn't a real issue as i've been running with an 80Gb drive for the last 5 years - oh, and a Maxtor 320Gb backup USB external drive!
Interesting about the Motherboard, will look for an alternative without on-board (not needed anyway). Other pointers about what features are key to a motherboard?
I chose a soundcard purely to take just that little bit more processing load from the Intel. Besides its only £7!
PSU - perhaps a lower wattage...costs isn't really an issue so far as what I've listed is all less than £500 all in (i.e. including p&p and vat). The bigger gfx cards need lots of power.
No comments on the GFX card?
Pretty confident with the Intel choice as they run a good chunk faster than the AMD duo's.
For the motherboard I'd consider expansion slots, heat sinks, on-board devices (although these are pretty much standard now, like sound and LAN), support of RAM, and storage controllers. I'd also look at peer reviews if it's possible; if you're buying off the internet most sites have some sort of review function. I found this for the motherboard it looks like you're considering, note what they're saying about it supporting processors:
http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?&Quicklinx=44RC&fb=626&v=3#infoarea
Again, I'm used to AMD parts, so I don't know much about Intel boards. I just get a bad feeling about on-board video, to me such boards are geared more towards casual desktop users than gamers. Call it a knee-jerk reaction.
Graphics card seems fine. These are mainly my opinions, if you're satisfied with your loadout, then by all means, don't let me talk you out of it.
Thanks again for the info,
Well, a BIOS update is something I normally do before “assuming” a system will run anyway but I will be now looking for a compatible board without any on-board gfx chip….if I’m only, ever, going to run the system with a dedicated GFX card then its got to be a waste of money anyway!
BTW – everything I’ve listed is from dab.com anyway.
I used to be an AMD + Nvidia dedicated user but with the new Core2 Intel’s outstripping the relating AMD’s for performance and all the major issues Nvidia had with the 6000 series chipset…I’ve switched to Intel + ATi
Why are you going for the 1950 pro?
The new generation of nvidia cards are far, far better...
1) Price vs performance is exceptional (£118)
2) Nvidia’s recent “problems” with non-compliant drivers (which I had first hand experience of)
I could go for a next gen Nvidia but I’d be paying far more than the less than £120 mark.
Ossie The Great
02-13-2007, 15:49
hi i ran the system requirments test to see if i could run Medieval Total War 2
and it said i could not ~:doh: ~:doh:
but i also tried the system requriments test on rome total war and it said
i could not run it ~:doh: but i have rome tota war and it is running fine
What hardware are you running?
Ossie The Great
02-14-2007, 14:43
What hardware are you running?
i am not intirely saw, i have just brought mtw2 so it sould be intresting to see if it works :computer:
If it doesn't, post up your specs (start > run > dxdiag should display them)
Ossie The Great
02-15-2007, 14:27
If it doesn't, post up your specs (start > run > dxdiag should display them)
ok :computer:
should be coming tomorow
Ossie The Great
02-16-2007, 18:05
it is tomorow now and still have not got it :computer:
but i did the system requirments and it said this Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 96.0 MB is there any way of getting more video ram
or does it matter :grin: :confused:
With 96mb ram on your video card, i don't like your chances of success :thumbsdown:
gl though
Ossie The Great
02-17-2007, 11:58
With 96mb ram on your video card, i don't like your chances of success :thumbsdown:
gl though ok ~:doh: but is there any way of getting more
No - video ram is built into the card (and is not really relevant)
What matters more is the card's core; and there aren't many modern cards with only 96mb of ram
Ossie The Great
02-17-2007, 13:56
helo i have quite a modern computer ! when i right click on my computer and select properties it says 512 mb of ram ( does that have anything to do with it )
p.s still have not got mtw2:computer:
Ossie The Great
02-18-2007, 09:55
https://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w124/oscarreeve/picture006.jpg here you go
Okay.
I'm afraid that you're not going to be able to run m2tw on that computer, as you're using an inbuild graphics card (not good and the main problem), a celeron cpu (budget) and 512mb of ram. Is it a laptop?
Ossie The Great
02-18-2007, 10:01
Okay.
I'm afraid that you're not going to be able to run m2tw on that computer, as you're using an inbuild graphics card (not good and the main problem), a celeron cpu (budget) and 512mb of ram. Is it a laptop?
no it is a windows xp ( computer ) ~:doh:
That's your operating system.
What i meant by my quesion was whether it's a desktop (a box on the floor connected to a monitor) or a laptop (computer, keyboard and screen in the same housing).
From your answer it's probably a desktop.
Could you please click start > run > dxdiag, click 'save all information', open the text file that you save and post it up here in [code] tags?
thanks
:bow:
Ossie The Great
02-18-2007, 10:09
here it what it said for rtw ( which is working fine )
https://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w124/oscarreeve/picture001.jpg
I understand that, and i wish you luck, but with an inbuilt graphics card i wouldn't bet on your chances
Ossie The Great
02-18-2007, 10:27
I understand that, and i wish you luck, but with an inbuilt graphics card i wouldn't bet on your chances
thankyou for your help . I will let you know weather it works as soon as i get it ( which could be from 2-10 days )
:bow::bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
BlackAxe3001
02-18-2007, 23:42
No way that will work. Here is most likely the mobo or some variant of this board: http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/D865GVHZ/index.htm
He most likely has 64MB of integrated ram with 32MB allocated from the system ram. It might "run" the game but no way it will be playable. I'm surprised rtw works for that matter. And from the looks of the boards with his chipset I highly doubt you could even add in an agp card.
What I don’t understand from those figures above is that it’s showing 96mb RAM free on the in-built graphics chip, which (sorry BlackAxe) has to mean that Oscarreave must have a 128mb graphics chip.
That’s why Rome runs ok.
Medieval 2 will not run for the following specific reasons though:
Hard Drive space – that listing states you have only 14Gb left and that will not be sufficient for you to install and run Medieval.
To be honest, you really need to remove at least another 3Gb as this is effecting your system speed generally anyway (17Gb being a good minimum of free space for XP to run nicely).
Graphics issues – yes, your Graphics Chip (not a card, this is key to remember) is unlikely to allow you to play Medievel2. It may “run” but loading times will be appalling and you’ll get serious slowdown and even crashes mid-game.
Personally, I think (agreeing with most here) that it won’t even run because the Graphics Chip does not have the Shading capabilities essential to the game.
I will ask you, Please, to follow the suggestion above and click start > run > dxdiag, click 'save all information', open the text file that you save and post it up here in [code] tags.
You will get something which starts like this:
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/19/2007, 09:21:26
Machine name: DGB202223
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: IBM
System Model: 8171VAQ
BIOS: Phoenix FirstBios(tm) Desktop Pro Version 2.0 for IBM ThinkCentre.
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 578MB used, 1872MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINNT
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
- all in all its a very long txt file.
Now, this data is from my PC at work (a desktop) as an example. I’m not as experienced as others at deciphering all this but this will help others tell you if you will ever be able to run Medieval 2 on that computer – i.e. if you can upgrade to do that.
Yep - as i said and braden echoed, dxdiag will outline your options in full
Ossie The Great
02-19-2007, 12:42
here it is
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/19/2007, 11:37:35
Machine name: DGFGNX1J
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dell DE051
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A00
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 510MB RAM
Page File: 660MB used, 587MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.
--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2572&SUBSYS_01D51028&REV_02
Display Memory: 96.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ialmrnt5.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.4396 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/20/2005 08:52:38, 36990 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ialmnt5.sys
Mini VDD Date: 9/20/2005 09:00:54, 1302332 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B78E66-6632-11CF-B462-DF21A3C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0x2572
SubSys ID: 0x01D51028
Revision ID: 0x0002
Revision ID: 0x0002
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24D5&SUBSYS_01D51028&REV_02
Manufacturer ID: 65535
Product ID: 65535
Type: WDM
Driver Name: smwdm.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.7000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 3/22/2005 17:08:40, 260224 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Analog Devices
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 192000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 33, 31
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 33, 31
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: Yes
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): Yes
Registry: OK
Sound Test Result: Not run
---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: smwdm.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.7000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 3/22/2005 17:08:40, 260224 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x41
Format Flags: 0xCCC
-----------
DirectMusic
-----------
DLS Path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\drivers\GM.DLS
DLS Version: 1.00.0016.0002
Acceleration: n/a
Ports: Microsoft Synthesizer, Software (Not Kernel Mode), Output, DLS, Internal, Default Port
SoundMAX Digital Audio, Software (Kernel Mode), Output, DLS, Internal
Microsoft MIDI Mapper [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
Registry: OK
Test Result: Not run
-------------------
DirectInput Devices
-------------------
Device Name: Mouse
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a
Device Name: Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a
Device Name: Hid
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x413C, 0x5109
FF Driver: n/a
Poll w/ Interrupt: No
Registry: OK
-----------
USB Devices
-----------
+ USB Root Hub
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x8086, 0x24D4
| Matching Device ID: usb\root_hub
| Service: usbhub
| Driver: usbhub.sys, 8/3/2004 23:08:44, 57600 bytes
| Driver: usbd.sys, 8/4/2004 05:00:00, 4736 bytes
|
+-+ USB Human Interface Device
| | Vendor/Product ID: 0x413C, 0x2003
| | Location: Dell USB Keyboard
| | Matching Device ID: usb\class_03&subclass_01
| | Service: HidUsb
| | Driver: hidclass.sys, 8/4/2004 05:00:00, 36224 bytes
| | Driver: hidparse.sys, 8/4/2004 05:00:00, 24960 bytes
| | Driver: hid.dll, 8/4/2004 05:00:00, 20992 bytes
| | Driver: hidusb.sys, 8/17/2001 14:02:20, 9600 bytes
| |
| +-+ HID Keyboard Device
| | | Vendor/Product ID: 0x413C, 0x2003
| | | Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_keyboard
| | | Service: kbdhid
| | | Driver: kbdhid.sys, 8/3/2004 22:58:36, 14848 bytes
| | | Driver: kbdclass.sys, 8/3/2004 22:58:34, 24576 bytes
----------------
Gameport Devices
----------------
------------
PS/2 Devices
------------
+ Terminal Server Keyboard Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_kbd
| Upper Filters: kbdclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: termdd.sys, 8/4/2004 01:01:08, 40840 bytes
| Driver: kbdclass.sys, 8/3/2004 22:58:34, 24576 bytes
|
+ HID-compliant mouse
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x413C, 0x3200
| Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_mouse
| Service: mouhid
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/3/2004 22:58:34, 23040 bytes
| Driver: mouhid.sys, 8/17/2001 13:48:00, 12160 bytes
|
+ Terminal Server Mouse Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_mou
| Upper Filters: mouclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: termdd.sys, 8/4/2004 01:01:08, 40840 bytes
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/3/2004 22:58:34, 23040 bytes
----------------------------
DirectPlay Service Providers
----------------------------
DirectPlay8 Modem Service Provider - Registry: OK, File: dpnet.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
DirectPlay8 Serial Service Provider - Registry: OK, File: dpnet.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
DirectPlay8 IPX Service Provider - Registry: OK, File: dpnet.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
DirectPlay8 TCP/IP Service Provider - Registry: OK, File: dpnet.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
Internet TCP/IP Connection For DirectPlay - Registry: OK, File: dpwsockx.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
IPX Connection For DirectPlay - Registry: OK, File: dpwsockx.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
Modem Connection For DirectPlay - Registry: OK, File: dpmodemx.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
Serial Connection For DirectPlay - Registry: OK, File: dpmodemx.dll (5.03.2600.2180)
DirectPlay Voice Wizard Tests: Full Duplex: Not run, Half Duplex: Not run, Mic: Not run
DirectPlay Test Result: Not run
Registry: OK
-------------------
DirectPlay Adapters
-------------------
DirectPlay8 Modem Service Provider: Intel(R) 537EP V9x DF PCI Modem
DirectPlay8 Serial Service Provider: COM1
DirectPlay8 Serial Service Provider: COM3
DirectPlay8 TCP/IP Service Provider: Local Area Connection 2 - IPv4 -
DirectPlay8 TCP/IP Service Provider: The Internet (1) - IPv4 -
-----------------------
DirectPlay Voice Codecs
-----------------------
Voxware VR12 1.4kbit/s
Voxware SC06 6.4kbit/s
Voxware SC03 3.2kbit/s
MS-PCM 64 kbit/s
MS-ADPCM 32.8 kbit/s
Microsoft GSM 6.10 13 kbit/s
TrueSpeech(TM) 8.6 kbit/s
-------------------------
DirectPlay Lobbyable Apps
-------------------------
RC (DX7) - Registry: OK, ExeFile: ral.exe ()
Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast (DX7) - Registry: OK, ExeFile: jk2mp.exe (<File Missing>)
------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 14.8 GB
Total Space: 73.2 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST380011A
Drive: D:
Model: SONY CDRW/DVD CRX330E
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 05:00:00, 49536 bytes
--------------
will it work
Ossie The Great
02-19-2007, 12:50
:grin:
Medieval 2 will not run for the following specific reasons though:
Hard Drive space – that listing states you have only 14Gb left and that will not be sufficient for you to install and run Medieval.
To be honest, you really need to remove at least another 3Gb as this is effecting your system speed generally anyway (17Gb being a good minimum of free space for XP to run nicely).
.
i could do that quite easyily :grin:
You probably should as a general performance booster
As to m2tw running, you don't (from what i see) have the capability to upgrade your graphics card, so you probably won't be able to run it (certainly not the battles, unfortunately)
Yeah, its amazing how much space those porn movies take up isn’t it….
Anyway, and seriously, I think that freeing up more Hard Drive space is essential to your system if only to get your PC running faster and better whenever you use it.
At least, it’ll mean you can install Medieval 2 even if you can’t run it!
Erm…the key for you currently is what Motherboard you have at the moment AND if it has PCI-E expansion slots. If it has, then you can purchase a new dedicated graphics card and you’ll be ok to play Medieval 2.
If it doesn’t….erm…I’m very sorry to say that its is absolutely time to purchase a new PC as replacing the motherboard is not worth the hassle when you can buy a PC for Medieval for less than £500.
sbroadbent
02-19-2007, 17:03
Building a PC from scratch with the aim being to be able to play M2 at really decent levels. The build list I have so far is:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Socket 775 1.86GHz
Sapphire Technology Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TVO
Asustek S775 Intel 945G MATX Audio Lan Graphics Motherboard
Kingston ValueRAM 2x1G 240Pin DIMM PC2-4300 Non-ECC DDR2 CL4
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB S300 internal HDD
550W PSU Gold 12cm SATA PFC
Trust 5.1 Surround Soundcard SC-5100
Does this list “fall down” anywhere obvious? Perhaps in the choice of RAM??
(note: haven't bothered to include optical drive or case info...guessing they won't make much difference)
I was looking to put together a list for a new machine, and yours almost duplicates my own. The only thing I would switch out is the Seagate Barracuda. If you go for I believe the 7200.10 they have the perpendicular recording technology, which vastly improves performance of the hard drive.
The reason I suggest the 7200.10 is because you get WD raptor-like performance with 7200rpm spin speed (meaning less noise and heat), and the increased storage capacity (upwards of 750GB).
My friend put a 5400rpm Seagate Momentus drive with perpendicular recording into his celeron laptop and he finds it boots up faster than his desktop.
As to motherboard, I have to stick with MATX.
Regarding a soundcard, if you're planning to get Windows Vista, Vista uses a completly new model for the sound processing, that actually gives a boost to the performance of onboard. Normally you get a soundcard to take the load off the processor, though the way Vista handles audio makes a separate sound card less necessary. In particular, I read on Toms Hardware (if I recall) that you needed a utility from Creative to benefit from the hardware processing of Creative sound cards, which basically bypasses the Vista audio stack.
I planned to get the same video card because it has had a pretty good price/performance value. It's a strong card, and you're not paying a crazy amount for it.
The RAM won't necessarily matter on the Intel. AMD's are more affected by the specifications of the RAM because of the ondie memory controller, and the PC2 4300 (533Mhz) should be fine. 2 GB is a good choice.
@laconic - xp can utilise 3gb of ram if you turn the pagefile down
I've been trying to find some details on it, but to be specific XP (32-bit) from what I've heard, is limited to addressing 3.2 GB of RAM. That's a limitation of the 32-bit operating system. I've not heard anything in regards to reducing the pagefile, but if you have the RAM available, you shouldn't need much in the way of virtual memory.
I'll throw this in here as something for the more technically savvy folks to try, since it's hardware related. I used to think defragging was mostly pointless and didn't offer too much in the way of performance increases, even on a heavily fragmented drive... until I discovered JKDefrag.
Find it here: http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
READ THE DOCUMENTATION BEFORE YOU USE IT! THIS IS NOT FOR THE UNSKILLED OR FAINT OF HEART! It's completely free and open source. Run it with the -a 4 option and it will do a pretty damn thorough defrag and space optimization on your drive(s). Make sure you shut down as many programs and processes as you can before running it. I had a VERY noticable increase in drive/paging performance after I ran this. For those of us who don't have 10k rpm raptors or whatnaught, this will potentially work wonders for you. Viva la Norton Speeddisk! Enjoy!
BlackAxe3001
02-19-2007, 18:38
What I don’t understand from those figures above is that it’s showing 96mb RAM free on the in-built graphics chip, which (sorry BlackAxe) has to mean that Oscarreave must have a 128mb graphics chip.
Obviously he doesn't have 128mb of graphics ram because it would say so and also his dxdiag says that he has 96.
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2572&SUBSYS_01D51028&REV_02
Display Memory: 96.0 MB
Medieval 2 will not run for the following specific reasons though:
Hard Drive space – that listing states you have only 14Gb left and that will not be sufficient for you to install and run Medieval.
To be honest, you really need to remove at least another 3Gb as this is effecting your system speed generally anyway (17Gb being a good minimum of free space for XP to run nicely).
This is not true. That is plenty of space to run m2tw. It may be cutting it close, but with at least weekly defragmentation it would run fine with low drive space. I am doing it right now as a matter of a fact.
Graphics issues – yes, your Graphics Chip (not a card, this is key to remember) is unlikely to allow you to play Medievel2. It may “run” but loading times will be appalling and you’ll get serious slowdown and even crashes mid-game.
The game would not load slow because of the graphics card. It would load as fast as his hard drive can load it. It would run horrible(if at all) due to the onboard graphics that do not have even shader model 1 let alone anything else. It's on a 865G board limited to onboard only... no way it will run at a playable rate....ever.
BlackAxe3001
02-19-2007, 18:43
I've been trying to find some details on it, but to be specific XP (32-bit) from what I've heard, is limited to addressing 3.2 GB of RAM. That's a limitation of the 32-bit operating system. I've not heard anything in regards to reducing the pagefile, but if you have the RAM available, you shouldn't need much in the way of virtual memory.
It will use pagefile regardless of how much ram you have, and as most of us know, pagefile is SLOW. If you get rid of the pagefile it forces the OS to use your massive 3GB of ram which will be much faster than pagefile.
You beat me to it blackaxe :laugh4:
Lord Dazed & Confused
02-20-2007, 09:41
What size pagefile do you recomend with 1g of ram, if any?
Or is it best just to set pagefile to the minimum?
LDC
I just leave it at default, tbh :laugh4:
Lord Dazed & Confused
02-20-2007, 10:26
:2thumbsup:
I'm sure mine is set to the max so I'll change it back tonight
Ta
LDC
@ sbroadbent,
Thanks for the comments. I’ve been considering changing the Motherboard as the one I originally chose had a built in GFX chip, which for my system is just an annoyance (as I’ll have a dedicated card from the on-set).
So, I’m trawling for a competent board but am wondering if a dedicated soundcard is worth it. I’m not really one that uses “sound” in the TW games (or my other ones), I even play many with the speakers OFF! I find that, especially in RTS games, the sound is ok at first but eventually grinds you down and gets frankly annoying (if I hear “Strappy horse” one more time!!!).
Your comments on the HDD were helpful but I don’t want or need a large capacity unit. Maybe the Seagate will be ok, but I’ll investigate the 7200.10 versions.
RAM – DDR2, pretty much a “must” these days. I’ve only had good results from Kingston ValueRAM so I’m going that route again.
GFX card – the combo of low price (sub-£120) and DDR3 RAM is a winner for me!
OS – Oh! Geez NO! not getting Vista. A OEM copy of XP will do me just fine thank you…..fangled Vista, I fear change! Get ye away from me, ye evil do’er.
@ BlackAxe,
I just took the info to mean he had 96Mb “Free”, meaning a potential nominal of 128Mb…my error.
Although, if he’ll have plenty of space to run M2 then he won’t be “cutting it fine” either?? Pedantic I know, but he either needs to free up more space for optimal performance or not.
Oh, by “loading” I mean between screens in-game (not boot-times), switching from Battle to Campaign and visa-versa. So, I think you’ll understand that I’m agreeing with you basically, now I’ve explained that bit.
sbroadbent
02-21-2007, 06:13
With onboard graphics, just disable it in the bios, and it shouldn't be a problem. It can be a useful backup if anything should happen to your graphics card. Regarding sound, you should probably be fine with onboard, and if your integrated sound is something like Realtek or Creative, then it shouldn't affect performance. The biggest problem with onboard sound is not the quality, but the load (if any) that it may put onto the CPU.
Regarding hard drives, the 7200.10 Barracudas start at 200GB and go all the way up to 750GB. Maybe I'm just a little obsessive about my hard drives because I currently have in (or near) my system:
Maxtor 200GB SATA 150 (Internal)
Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATA 3G (External - Also known as my "ISO" drive which contains ISO images of most of my game discs... when you can install UT2004 in under 3 minutes off a regular optical disc, I'll give up my ISO's... it generally takes atleast 10 minutes off normal cds)
Maxtor 300GB SATA 3G (External - Also known as my "Star Trek" drive because it will eventually hold every episode and movie of Star Trek ever made :laugh4:)
Maxtor 160GB PATA (External - Also known as "The Internet" because it holds many hours of videos and documentaries downloaded from the internet...)
Yes, that is 980GB of HDD storage and probably less than 45-50% is free space. That is mainly because I haven't gone through the long process of ISO'ing all my game discs.
My eventual plan is to put together a RAID 5 server with 5x 750GB Seagate Barracudas for a nice 3 terrabytes of hard drive storage. So far that will cost around $2000 so it's not a top priority
I found a pretty decent set of DDR2 from Kingston for a very low price compared to other 2GB sets. In fact it's PC2-7200 (DDR900) rated at CL5. If I run it at 533, I might be able to get the latency down to CL3.
I found the same card for $239 (cdn) but I found basically the exact same card but made by Asus for only $215. The only problem is that the Asus card may use a double slot cooler.
Once drivers become better optimized and games start using DX10, Vista will be well worth switching to. Sometimes I wish I could advance time just to get to that point :laugh4:
Here is the system I'm looking to put together if anyone might be interested. My setup is "restricted" to MicroATX because of the Ultra Microfly case that I will be using, and the power supply is a modular one so I only need to use the cables that I will need, and not have any hanging around.
CPU: C2D E6300 - $231 (http://www.pccyber.com/scrItem.asp?product_subtypes_id=820&product_types_id=19&product_id=9732)
Motherboard: ASUS P5B-VM - $158 (http://www.pccyber.com/scrItem.asp?product_subtypes_id=45&product_types_id=14&product_id=9897)
Video: ASUS Extreme EAX1950PRO/HTDP256 - $215 (http://www.pccyber.com/scrItem.asp?product_subtypes_id=287&product_types_id=26&product_id=11207)
RAM: Kingston 2GB PC2-7200 CL5 - $237 (http://www.pccyber.com/scrItem.asp?product_subtypes_id=453&product_types_id=20&product_id=9799)
PSU: Enermax 500W Liberty Series (ELT500AWT) - $127 (http://www.pccyber.com/scrItem.asp?product_subtypes_id=112&product_types_id=30&product_id=8553)
Hello Gents,
My company has graciously decided to get me a lap top at thier cost for my own home use. I have a very old system at home and it has negated my ability to run MTW2.
So before i go out and buy the game i thought i would ask if these specs will run it. i appologize if this post is redundant from others, I am very non technical with pc's.
Style: Lap Top
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5200 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
Memory: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7300 GS
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
I believe these are the relevant options to determine if this game will run. Again this lap top is being given to me, I dont have the option of changing the specs however I was able to get them to put in the best graphics card possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Odin
sbroadbent
02-21-2007, 19:13
A very good first step would be to go to the link in the very first message of this thread. Looking at those specs though, you shouldn't have problems.
A very good first step would be to go to the link in the very first message of this thread. Looking at those specs though, you shouldn't have problems.
I did, thats how I determined my home PC couldnt run it :).
When I get the new PC I will go to that posting but I may not be online with that lap top straight away. I suspect I will be fine too but since this thread was here i thought I would post anyway see if anyone who saw it could give me a yay or nay in the hopes of boosting my spirit for getting the game.
It should be fine (that's not a great graphics card as far as desktops go, but putting a big one in a laptop kills the battery life)
It should be fine (that's not a great graphics card as far as desktops go, but putting a big one in a laptop kills the battery life)
Thanks for the reply, I do realize that a lap top isnt ideal for gaming but given the circumstances I thought it best to get the best graphic card I could out of my company. Corporate purchase plan or something from dell, my company had some resources and got them for a few of us.
MTW2 will be the most demanding game (cpu wise) I will play on this lap top.
Warmaster Horus
03-03-2007, 15:08
I've got an old laptop (2-3 years old) and have been able to run the first M2TW demo on it fine. Could I run M2TW reasonably well? I barely reach the minimum system requirements.
Dutch_guy
03-03-2007, 16:22
I've got an old laptop (2-3 years old) and have been able to run the first M2TW demo on it fine. Could I run M2TW reasonably well? I barely reach the minimum system requirements.
Well, if you can run the demo fine then you should be able to run the game fine as well. Maybe even a bit better, since demos often aren't optimised the way the actual game is. Expect the actual game to run slightly (maybe not even noticable...) better than the demo. Since the laptop's 2-3 years old, however, don't expect anything higher than medium, if you're able do get that with the demo at least. Don't expect any miracles.
:balloon2:
Warmaster Horus
03-03-2007, 18:32
Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks for the reply.
Scot's Pike General
03-08-2007, 00:29
umm..quick question. Would this laptop be suffice for MII: TW?
I want this game REALLY bad and I'm on a 1100-1200 dollar budget.
Scot's Pike General
03-08-2007, 00:35
sorry. here's the website. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Specifications-of-Gateway-15-4-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-MT6821/sem/rpsm/oid/170889/rpem/ccd/productDetailSpecification.do#tabs
sorry. here's the website. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Specifications-of-Gateway-15-4-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-MT6821/sem/rpsm/oid/170889/rpem/ccd/productDetailSpecification.do#tabs
Don't know what the video card is, so the answer is "maybe". Why do you need a laptop? If you're going to game, you're far better off getting a desktop, you can get a far better gaming system for less than what you're going to drop on said lappie.
sbroadbent
03-08-2007, 07:43
From Gateway's website http://www.gateway.com/retail/mt6821.php the Video is:
Video
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Up to 224MB of shared video memory
So, the question would be whether the GMA950 will be able to handle the graphics. It might be capable seeing as it is running Vista, though worst case scenario you're running on low settings. One note, the video will be using 224MB from the 2GB system memory.
I wouldn't get a built-in graphics card if you can help it; but with laptops you often dont' have much of a choice
Scot's Pike General
03-08-2007, 13:32
I know its true that laptops aren't necessarily good for games, the problem is that we already have a desktop( terrible one at that) its just that we don't have enough room. I'm purchasing it with my money. As for the video card, I can't get it upgraded just because it's a laptop?:help:
sbroadbent
03-08-2007, 21:55
When I get around to it, I'll try disabling my x1950 Pro and running off the onboard graphics to see how M2TW runs (or doesn't run). My new system has an e6300, and 2GB DDR2, so it might be an ok comparison.
BlackAxe3001
03-09-2007, 03:59
It might be worth the time to check out a Dell or something where you can customize the parts to an extent. At least then you will know what you are getting for the most part(except for the brand names of the parts.)
Scot's Pike General
03-09-2007, 22:59
yes, I have considered customizing a dell....
vastator
03-12-2007, 01:41
I've just bought a new computer and don't know how far I can push the game settings without it getting sluggish. For the record I have:
Intel Core 2 Processor (2.66 GHz)
2 GB of 800 MHz RAM (1.33 GB free)
NVIDIA 8800GTX graphics card
1280 x 1024 TFT monitor
Can I whack everything up to maximum, or will I have to compromise in some areas?
sbroadbent
03-12-2007, 02:18
Intel Core 2 Processor (2.66 GHz)
2 GB of 800 MHz RAM (1.33 GB free)
NVIDIA 8800GTX graphics card
1280 x 1024 TFT monitor
Can I whack everything up to maximum, or will I have to compromise in some areas?
I have the following, and I maxed everything out as much as it can go, so you should definately not have any problems:
C2D E6300 (1.83ghz)
2x1GB PC2-6400
Asus x1950 Pro (256MB)
vastator
03-12-2007, 02:22
Great - thanks for the quick response! I'm really looking forward to playing my first campaign.:2thumbsup:
vastator, you could be running three copies of m2tw all at highest on that system and not get any lag at all :laugh4:
Hy there .. hope this is the right place to ask my dorky question
My system is 2,6 Ghz Intel Celeron whit 1280 DDR 2 ram - one 666 the other 533 mhz ... know that this lowers the other one to ... 256 DDr Nvidia 6200 TC but when i dit raise my ram over 1 GB it says it`s 512 MB - why - 80 Gb Maxtor whit 7 Gb free after M2TW is installed .. 2 partitions 7 GB foe WinXp2 and the big partition for games mp3 etc.
1. wy does the video ram change - not onboard video card
2. whit medium settings version 1 bigger battels are fustrating .. sloppy performance .. specially wen laying seige to citadels
3. more ram more free space new video card ? what would help ?
thanx
Hey
1) The 'tc' in that card's name indicates that it does not in fact have on board ram but 'borrows' system ram for use in video rendering. This isn't ideal for gaming, as you might guess.
2) Have you tried turning bloom and shadows off? They seem to be the big killers...
3) I don't think that there's much you can do with that system except learn to live with it. The cpu's likely to be part of any percieved problem and you can't get rid of that without upgrading practically the whole thing
:embarassed: ... d`oh .. i only bought this pc last year in october .. paid 450 euros for it .. damn ... well this is it ... going home to play lumberjack whit it ...
Will try to set shadows to min , an no bloom ... would upgrade to 2GB ram help ?
Thax for the help :beam:
Hey
I'm not sure about the ram upgrade (i personally wouldn't bother) but turning shadows and bloom down should give you a performance increase without affecting how the game looks too much.
And i'm not sure of the exchange rate atm, but 450e is likely to equal 1000aud, and that's about what i'd expect for that price - so no need to murder the salesperson...yet :grin2:
dont worry sapi ... i will not murder him/her ... just skin them alive >:) - not really -
well honestly ... it seems a new video card vould be needed ... only prob is that the good ones all are over 100e .... to much for my budget ... but the ram is cheepier ... some 100e 1Gb at 666 Mhz ... but than agin it may not solve to much... i did try to play on lover settings like all an min but the difference in performance was neglectable .. and shadows were set to low - it seems this was the trouble -... will try tonight turning bloom and shadows off ..
thanx again !!!
sbroadbent
03-13-2007, 15:11
As mentioned, that card is a very poor choice.
Essentially it has 64MB of it's own memory, and gets the rest from system memory. Here's some more details:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/191/
Regarding the system as is, I'd definately look to getting a better video card. You should be able to get a decent card for a good price, and presuming the board has a PCI-e 16x slot you should be able to salvage something out of the system. You may not have the budget for a better video card, but it's what WILL give you better performance than what you have now. you could spend money on RAM or CPU, but you won't notice nearly as much performance improvement than a better video card.
Here's what I'd look to "upgrade" in this order:
- Video Card (something with atleast 128MB (of it's own) RAM, if not 256MB).
- Memory. Depending on what FSB your processor runs at, getting 533 or 667 RAM may not make alot of difference. Your celeron like my old system may only run at 400Mhz Front Side Bus, which means that the system will clock it down to 400Mhz. Only if you are going to be upgrading or Overclocking would you want to consider higher rated memory.
- CPU (I ran a Celeron 2.26 with a Radeon 9800 Pro, and it provided playable performance, so you shouldn't have too many problems with the CPU... in addition, I am running only 512MB of RAM in that system).
The best option would be to see if you can sell the system to someone who may not necessarily need a gaming system, to try to recover some if not all of what you originally spent, and look to build a new system.
Some recommendations:
Intel: Anything in the Core 2 Duo family, or
AMD: Any X2 processor
RAM: Dual Channel and a minimum of 1GB. 2GB if you budget allows for it.
Video: Minimum of 128MB Video RAM, but look at the specs like Pixel Pipelines/shaders, memory bus size, and clock rates. A card with less video ram, but higher clock rate and memory bus size would outperform one that has more ram, but less of the other stats.
Finally, go to http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html and read up on the various technologies. THG has charts that show you the performance of different CPU's, GPU's, etc so if you're looking at a couple different options, it can give you an idea on which is a good value for the money.
thanx for these links sbroadbent, helped a lot. By the way my motherboard is a Foxcon Core 2 Duo and it supports DDR 2 from 533 - to 800 Mhz .. that`s the reason why i bought it in the first place / only prob it has just 2 slots for ram :( ...
Would it be alright if i send you a full system spec ? - for a better wiew of the possibilities of upgrade or system evaluation ..
Thanx for the help - appreciate it !!! :bow:
sbroadbent
03-14-2007, 15:04
thanx for these links sbroadbent, helped a lot. By the way my motherboard is a Foxcon Core 2 Duo and it supports DDR 2 from 533 - to 800 Mhz .. that`s the reason why i bought it in the first place / only prob it has just 2 slots for ram :( ...
Would it be alright if i send you a full system spec ? - for a better wiew of the possibilities of upgrade or system evaluation ..
Thanx for the help - appreciate it !!! :bow:
A more thorough list of the components would help, though probably be best to send through as a PM, unless others would have any opinions.
A useful Freeware program to locate more information about your componets is CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php)
The most useful information are these:
CPU tab: Processor (Specification, Instructions), Clocks, Cache
Cache Tab: L2 Cache
Mainboard Tab: Motherboard, BIOS, and Graphic Interface
Memory: General and Timings
SPD: Everything except timings table listed under both Memory Slot Selections
Optionally you could take a screenshot of each of the tabs listed above if you didn't want to write it all out (though I wouldn't post them here).
What is the model number of the Hard Drive and is it SATA or PATA?
at long last, i'm poised to make my return to the glorious world of pc gaming. this fall, while playing the company of heroes demo, my pc just crapped out. i'm farily certain it was psu failure, but, since it was just before my university studies began, i haven't really had time to fix it since - plus... well, it was a little long in the tooth back then, so by now it's positively antidiluvian. anyways, summer is just around the corner, and in addition to a respite from writing papers it brings with the the prospect of cash with which to build a new pc.
i want to build a comp that will run m2tw like butter. i'm talking thousands of troops on max detail, flaming shells and arrows zippin' around, elephants stampeding, babies crying, ground shaking, ass-kicking total war. i'm lookin to spend around $2000-2500 CDN to do it, but i'm a bit lacking in technical expertise. i've installed ram, new video cards, psu's and fans before, but i've never built my own frankenstein. any advice you knowledgable chaps could give me would be much appreciated.
suggesting specific comps is fine and well too, but keep in mind that i'm probably 2 months away from putting the finishing touches on my new rig, so some prices or products might change a bit.
cheers!
my god, i've killed the thread!
boom! headshot!
ok, ok. in case anyone cares, here is the rig i have picked out (this is somewhat subject to change as i won't start ordering parts for another month):
- antec 900 ATX case
- nvidia 8800gts (320mb model, also: will probably add another one in SLi in November or thereabouts)
- intel core 2 duo 6300 CPU (will likely overclock at a later date)
- western digital 320gb hd (may add a second later on if necessary)
- seasonic 650w psu (alas, no modular cabling but A+ in all other regards)
- 2gb corsair dd2 ram @800mhz
- msi p6n mobo w/SLi support
- samsung 19" widescreen LCD monitor
including s&h, the whole thing comes to about 1500USD on newegg, and the only things left to pick are what version of windows vista i'll use, my keyboard and mouse, and maybe a new set of headphones if my current ones crap out before may.
let me know what you think. how will it perform with m2tw? is it a good gaming rig in general?
Aaronyman
03-21-2007, 02:10
THIS IS MESSED UP!
I quite a good computer. radeon 9500 pro , athlon 64 3200 cpu, 2 gigs of ram (1 gig of one kind, 1 gig of another)
something very strange is happening when i play this game. I can play custom battles fine, but when I go to Grand Campaign, anywhere from 1min to 5 minutes after i start, it freezes. EVERYTIME! I can't even escape the game, I have to restart my computer manually...
anybody else having this problem or anybody have any solutions
btw: i have already went to my catalyst control center and turned the AI thing off...didn't work
thanks in advance
@katana.
Looks good, although I'd get something a little better than an e6300 (probably a 6400 - shouldn't be that much more)
@aaronyman
Might be heat.
I can't see it as a failing of the system if custom battles work fine...
Aaronyman
03-21-2007, 20:39
Oblivion played fine, maxed out. Far Cry fine, maxed out. Splinter Cell Double Agent, fine. yeah, so I don't think it's the system
I dunno what to do really, might just give up on this game.
I doubt heat is the problem if it plays these other games that well.
@sapi
i was planning on getting a 6600, but after talking with some guys on the tom's hardware forum, i've decided to get the much cheaper 6300, buy some nicer ram with the extra money, and overclock it if i decide it's not fast enough.
@aaronyman - oblivion played fine maxed out on that? I find that very hard to believe....what resolution was that on?
@katana - I suppose you're right :yes:
Aaronyman
03-22-2007, 15:25
for the most part, everything was maxed out, I kinda forget whether it was 100%, it may have been all but 1 or 2 settings.
WAIT A SECOND!
wow, this shows how much I know...my graphics card is a x1950 pro, not 9500....sorry about that, typing fast, didn't double check.
any ideas on what could be making my computer freeze 1 to 5 minutes into the grand campaign?
I tried reinstalling, no dice. it's really frustrating, cuz my roomie has this game, and I love watching him play it.
Scot's Pike General
04-01-2007, 01:05
alright, rethought my laptop. A HP T-5600 , a NVIDIA GeForce Go Force 7600 graphics and 256 mb memory video card, 1.83GHz processor, a 1440-900 pixel resolution screen ( 17'), 100 GB Hard Drive at 5400rpm, all for the mail in rebate price of $1,349.:scotland:
Furious Mental
04-01-2007, 05:14
Recenty I bought a new computer with an 8800 GTS, I have read that medieval 2 has several problems with the 8 series of nvidia cards. My particular problem is that the shadows do not render for trees, rocks and other assorted overgrowth in the battlemap. Are there any particular drivers I can download that will fix this issue?
aw, what a pity. i couldn't tell you what to download if you're drivers are screwing up (other than to get the most recent ones and have a little patience), but your comments raise my hackles - the system i'm probably (95% sure) going to buy in a month - check it out here (http://www.chipfast.com/z/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=5) - uses a 8800 gts. bugger.
just to clarify, what model of 8000-series nvidia card are you using? what driver version? what os? also, how does it run in general (outside of the errors, i mean)?
EDIT: Language ~sapi
BlackAxe3001
04-01-2007, 05:37
Recenty I bought a new computer with an 8800 GTS, I have read that medieval 2 has several problems with the 8 series of nvidia cards. My particular problem is that the shadows do not render for trees, rocks and other assorted overgrowth in the battlemap. Are there any particular drivers I can download that will fix this issue?
Make sure you are using shader model 2 instead of model 1.
Make sure your shadow options are turned up too, and not on low.
Furious Mental
04-01-2007, 10:39
aw, what a pity. i couldn't tell you what to download if you're drivers are screwing up (other than to get the most recent ones and have a little patience), but your comments raise my hackles - the system i'm probably (95% sure) going to buy in a month - check it out here (http://www.chipfast.com/z/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=5) - uses a 8800 gts. bugger.
just to clarify, what model of 8000-series nvidia card are you using? what driver version? what os? also, how does it run in general (outside of the errors, i mean)?
EDIT: Language ~sapi
Its a Leadtek Winfast 8800 GTS 640 mb. My OS is windows xp home on sp 2, and I have tried using drivers 94.20 to the 100.87 beta drivers and none of them seem to fix the issue. Outside the shadow issue everything runs great, with all the maximum possible settings at a 1600 x 1200 resolution. However, not rendering overgrowth shadows surely makes some performance difference. Is it possible to edit some game files to force the tree shadows, or at least to check whether they are indeed on?
Having a problem reinstalling TW2. I just got a new hard drive. Reinstalled Windows. Authenticated Windows. Installed Video Card and did all the drivers. But when i goto install the game i get past my key and all that jaz but then I get a error :
Feature Transfer Error
Feature: Main
Component : Bin
File: (nothing there)
Error: Access is denied
Fixed through reinstalling windows and remembering to Format the drive first
Scot's Pike General
04-06-2007, 21:08
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavilion-17-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-DV9339US/sem/rpsm/oid/177335/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
ok, now tell me, would this cut it?
sbroadbent
04-07-2007, 04:32
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavilion-17-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-DV9339US/sem/rpsm/oid/177335/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
ok, now tell me, would this cut it?
High-end graphics and audio: NVIDIA GeForce™ Go 7600 graphics and 256MB of dedicated video memory—
With the above mentioned video, I'd definately say you'd be good to go.
Scot's Pike General
04-07-2007, 16:55
well, what about the processor? its only a 1.7GHz and the minimum is 1.8.
sbroadbent
04-07-2007, 21:15
With current generation processors a Ghz minimum requirement is generally irrelevant. In particular, the requirement I've seen is for a 1.8Ghz Celeron or 1.5Ghz P4.
A 1.83Ghz e6300, like the one I have rolls over Intel's older 3.4Ghz P4 Extreme Edition. Why? Because it can do more instructions per clock cycle, therefore it need not be clocked as high. It's exactly why AMD's lower clocked processors had for several years dominated the performance compared to Intel's netburst processors.
The T5500 in that laptop is of the Core 2 Duo generation, therefore you'll have absolutely no problem regarding the CPU. Where you should be most concerned with is video and RAM, which that laptop should have no problems at all.
For further details on why Core 2 is so fast skip down to "What makes the Core 2 Duo so Fast?":
http://www.short-media.com/articles/core_2_duo
Scot's Pike General
04-08-2007, 18:59
thanks. this is gonna save me about $450, and a whole mess of time.:verycool:
Malcolm Big Head
04-09-2007, 11:52
I am looking at a video card after several months of battles with low settings. I just thought I would see if anyone had suggestions. I would like to limit my spending to 100-150 USD. Thanks in advance.
CPU: AMD Athlon™ 64 3400+ Processor (512KB L2 cache, 2.4GHz, 1600MHz FSB)
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Chipset: ATI RS480
Memory: 1024MB DDR (400MHz)
Expandable to 2GB (no free slots)
Hard Drive: 200GB
Video: ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 (PCI-Express® )
128MB DDR shared video memory
300 Watt power supply
sbroadbent
04-10-2007, 03:48
I am looking at a video card after several months of battles with low settings. I just thought I would see if anyone had suggestions. I would like to limit my spending to 100-150 USD. Thanks in advance.
SAPPHIRE Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061) $154.99 ($134.99 after $20 MIR).
I have an Asus x1950 Pro and it is quite decent, particularly for that price point.
EDIT: I just realized you will likely need to upgrade your Power Supply for that card. You'll want something along the lines of a 450Watt power supply that can supply atleast 30A on the 12v.
EDIT 2: Since selecting a power supply is an important task, I'd recommend avoiding anything rated Tier 3/4/5 in the: Official XS Tiered PSU Manufacturer Brand Listing (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088). I got a 500W Seasonic M12 myself.
Two things never to skimp on: Good RAM and a good PSU.
Link to a calculator to help you determine what kind of PSU you should get: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
I'd recommend PC Power and Cooling PSUs, been using them for awhile now and they are bulletproof. Only problem is they cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
:balloon2:
Malcolm Big Head
04-10-2007, 23:23
Thanks for the suggestions. I guess i need to decide if I want to throw 200 in this computer or wait a bit and get a new one.
I'd like a rig which can run M2:TW on absolutely maximum AA, AF etc, whole works.
What's everyone's dream gaming rig spec ?
Money no object?
Quad core Conroe
2x8800gtx in sli
4gb ram
30" dell monitor
7.1 speakers + an X-Fi
Realistically?
Some sort of core2 (conroe)
2gb ram << a must
a dx10 compatible card (give it a while for more to come out)
sbroadbent
04-11-2007, 06:20
Regarding whether to wait and buy a complete system in a few months, or buy a "small" upgrade now depends on how soon you'll be able to afford the new system, and how desperate you are for better gaming. In my case, the money was available and it became a must have.
Still, with a 300W power supply I'd be concerned about any video card you might be looking at. Even if a video card does not eat up a crazy amount of power, you need to look at the amps required on the 12v rail. In this case the x1950 Pro needs to be supplied with atleast 30A on the 12v rail which is a minimum of 360Watt PSU. Under full 3d load the x1950 Pro only uses 65.7 Watts (23.2 at Idle and 36 at full 2d load).
As to what kind of system to max out Medieval 2, here's mine:
C2D e6300
Patriot 2GB DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Asus P5L-MX
Asus x1950 Pro 256MB
Seasonic M12 500W
All in a nice Antec Solo case
As to DX10, I'd definately wait for ATI to bring out their line of DX10 cards. Crysis isn't even out yet, so there's no need yet for the expensive 8800's. To be honest, I'd wait until christmas before jumping into DX10, and that's 8 months away.
Until then build a system that will be ready for DX10 gaming and then drop in a decent card once they have come down in price.
What performance should I expect with:
AMD Athlon 64 2.6 ghz FX-55
X1900 XT 512mb
2 GB Corsair RAM
SB Audigy 2
at 1280x1024 (19 inch monitor)
Good, but I'm wondering why you'd be buying an AMD cpu instead of a Core 2?
sbroadbent
04-14-2007, 04:39
I agree. Unless it's amazingly cheap, or you've had it for a while, I definately wouldn't go for a FX-55, as I believe it's single core, and more games will be coming out with multi-core support.
The C2D e6300 is at a good price point for its performance. As much as I would like to recommend an AMD processor, I'd wait for AMD's quad cores to hit.
And if you're willing to spend the price of a FX-55, you could get a damn good Core 2
I already have that whole machine except for the X1900. I've been using it machine since last august. I have an X850 and am getting an X1900 at some point as a hand-me-down from my brother.
If I was putting together a machine out of my own pocket I'd get a nvidia 7600 and a dual core intel.
Ah ok, that makes sense then :bow:
Xhin_Akuma
04-26-2007, 02:31
ummm I tried the system Requirements test and I can run everything. I failed recommended though, it was my graphics card and my CPU.
Specs:
1 gig Ram
Nvidia Geforce 6200
Intel Pentium 4 2.00 Ghz.
I think thats all...
I don't care if I have to put everything on low, but will it play smooth? and can I atleast put anti aliasing on?..I hate Jagged edges...
oh yah Have I got the worst hardrive space ever with only 30 gigs.
Gallicflair
04-26-2007, 12:52
This game runs really badly on my current machine which Is obviously a lot older than I thought it was :dizzy2:
Specs -
AMD 64 3500+
2 * 512MB DDR
250 GB Sata HD
256 MB FX 6800 GT +
like I said the game seems almost unplayable at present even with the setting turned right down so I'm looking at an upgrade.
Any ideas?
sbroadbent
04-26-2007, 16:07
like I said the game seems almost unplayable at present even with the setting turned right down so I'm looking at an upgrade.
Any ideas?
Without further details, it'd be hard to make a recommendation.
What is your budget? Where are you located? When do you plan to build?
The reason these questions are important is because the budget determines whether we recommend a completly new machine, or maybe recommend a specific upgrade. Your location would determine how expensive particular components might be. As to when you plan to build, I might make a different recommendation if it was necessary NOW, as opposed to in several months.
For instance, AMD is set to finally release their DX10 video cards some time in May. When these come out, expect prices across the board for video cards to drop. Nvidia will probably release additional models to compete therefore holding off for that may allow you to get a better card for less. If it's within budget, I'd definately recommend a DX10 card, though it's not essential, particularly because you'd need Vista and there aren't much in the way of games yet. If that were not enough, AMD may also bring out their quad cores, which will likely reduce CPU prices, though I don't believe that will be for several more months.
what do I need if I want to play this game on the following settings:
huge unit size, max all graphics - except the following : I don't need AA or bloom or hdr, with 3 full armies fighting a siege battle in a huge city without lag?
what do I need hardware wise? I been holding off on my upgrades since ati still haven't come out with their dx10 gpu. I don't want the best there is, I just want the hardware that allows me to play the game at the above settings.
deadmeat36
05-08-2007, 01:50
Can my laptop run this?
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Genuine Intel(R) CPU 1500 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 480MB RAM
Page File: 347MB used, 774MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
What video card have you got?
If it's an integrated one, as I suspect, you probably won't be able to run it.
Helo me... i got this spec.. but i always lag when a battle with 1000 soldier...
P4. 3.0ghz.. (631. Cedarmill)
Gigabyte DS3
Geforce 8600GT
512x2 MB @5300
320GB SataII
any suggest why i got lagging??
thz
What settings are you playing on?
Either the CPU or the RAM could be bottlenecking you - try turning some things down...
deadmeat36
05-09-2007, 23:59
What video card have you got?
If it's an integrated one, as I suspect, you probably won't be able to run it.
I think it is so crap :computer:
I'd like a rig which can run M2:TW on absolutely maximum AA, AF etc, whole works.
What's everyone's dream gaming rig spec ?
this (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8742) isn't the most powerful rig on the market, but it's still pretty beastly and it's under 2k USD. i've got one in the mail (arrives friday; i'll likely phone in 'sick' at work), and i'm lookin' forward to loading up a historical battle with the everything cranked when it arrives.
Agent Smith
05-11-2007, 02:42
Ok, I'm not sure if this type of question has been asked, but I have to ask it after watching that Britania trailer.
What system specs do I need to make the game look that good? I'm talking highest quality everything, huge unit settings, 10,000 people on the screen, etc.
I'm asking because I'm taking the Bar Exam in July and, God willing if I pass, I hope to find myself in a nice cushy job so I can afford a brand new rig :laugh4: Any suggestions? Is Alienware any good?
Alienware is mostly overpriced junk that you can get for much cheaper elsewhere.
You'd do well to pop in to your local computer shop and explain to the guys there what you want; they should be able to do a good price with a system that suits your needs.
Post it up for us to check first, of course :grin2:
Agent Smith
05-11-2007, 16:50
Alienware is mostly overpriced junk that you can get for much cheaper elsewhere.
You'd do well to pop in to your local computer shop and explain to the guys there what you want; they should be able to do a good price with a system that suits your needs.
Post it up for us to check first, of course :grin2:
Thanks for the advice. I'm slowly getting better and better in the inside of a computer, but I still don't feel entirely comfortable building it from the ground up.
So, what is needed to get everything as good as possible for M2TW?
The funny thing is, I could come up with a system now, and it would probably be outdated by August or September when I'm ready to buy it!
Hello,
I have ordered a computer and it'll be here later this week.
Specs:
Windows XP
Dual AMD 2.4ghz processors
1 gig of RAM
Geforce 8600 gts
I'm not really a fan of running things on max settings, I just want smooth gameplay.
Any idea how this pc will work? (low, medium, high settings.)
(Sorry if someone has posted about the same thing, I don't have time to read the entire thread.)
Thanks.
Thanks for the answers earlier. I'm not sure what benefit having core2 is for M2:TW because AFAIK M2 does not use the capacity of dual core. That's what I gathered anyway.
I have one more question: What is the BEST (money no object.. I hope) LAPTOP for gaming?. That is a normal sized laptop which I can work on AND play games at MAXIMUM MAXIMUM MAXIMUM settings.
It really depends.
You can get really good laptops for games, but they'll usually have barely any battery life, thanks to the strain of having to power a high-end video card.
If you do intend to use it for work, probably best to get a business orientated one and just game on your desktop...
Oh, and there's no reason not to go dual core these days ~;)
FactionHeir
05-20-2007, 16:00
Thanks for the answers earlier. I'm not sure what benefit having core2 is for M2:TW because AFAIK M2 does not use the capacity of dual core. That's what I gathered anyway.
I have one more question: What is the BEST (money no object.. I hope) LAPTOP for gaming?. That is a normal sized laptop which I can work on AND play games at MAXIMUM MAXIMUM MAXIMUM settings.
Well, my old specs were:
P4 2.8GHz
512MB (really bad, 266MHz) DDR RAM
64BM GeForce Go FX 5600
Now I got:
Pentium Core2Duo 2.16 GHz @ 667MHz
2GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
256MB GeForce Go 7800GS
Both laptops.
My new one can run M2TW on near max settings (I prefer below max because I rather want smoothness than visuals) and have other progs running in the background and have no probs tabbing out of M2TW to do other stuff at the same time at all. So while M2TW may not be using the second core, you can.
Funny aside is that the game will keep telling me reinforcements delayed quite often even though I got no problems running a large scale custom battle for instance.
Gawain of Orkeny
05-20-2007, 16:09
How has this thread remained here instead of the hardware and software forum is beyond me.
I have ordered a computer and it'll be here later this week.
Specs:
Windows XP
Dual AMD 2.4ghz processors
1 gig of RAM
Geforce 8600 gts
I'm not really a fan of running things on max settings, I just want smooth gameplay.
Any idea how this pc will work? (low, medium, high settings.)
(Sorry if someone has posted about the same thing, I don't have time to read the entire thread.)
Thanks.
Id say medium to high settings. How much will this baby cost you?
Heres a pc I posted in the other thread for under $1000 that should run MTW2 fine
http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/2006/10.13.06/25417_g1.jpg
This includes everything shown.
Quote:
Micro Express MicroFlex 66B
This model may be priced as a cheap system, but its components make it a performance powerhouse.
When it comes to performance, the Micro Express MicroFlex 66B ($999 as of November 6, 2006) is a winner: It managed an impressive WorldBench 5 score of 148. The MicroFlex 66B carries a speedy 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 processor and 2GB of memory--the only system in our roundup to do so. It also came configured with an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card. This system produced the best graphics performance of any cheap PC on our gaming tests, making it a good choice as a versatile, low-cost gaming system.
The large, imposing case has plenty of room for expansion, with five open externally accessible drive bays (one of which is a 3.5-inch bay) and one open internal bay. The system's construction improves on previous Micro Express models: Cables are tidily bundled inside the case with reusable ties that prevent them from blocking fans and airflow.
Our only major complaint involves the system's paltry 380-watt power supply, which could become overloaded if you add several hard drives or optical drives.
The MicroFlex 66B came with a 17-inch ViewSonic VP720b LCD monitor that rendered graphics adequately but produced text lacking in sharpness and rather difficult to read at smaller font sizes. Peripherals include a comfortable wireless keyboard and mouse from Microsoft.
Micro Express describes the system as Vista-capable and offers Vista upgrade information on its site.
The fastest cheap PC we reviewed, the MicroFlex 66B is a great value. It's well worth considering if you're on a tight budget and need to perform intensive tasks like video or graphics editing.
-- Richard Baguley
Features
Very Good: 80
Basics
CPU 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo E6600
System Memory 2048
Video & Display
Graphics Adapter ATI Radeon X1600
Graphics Board Type PCI Express
Graphics Board RAM (MB) 256
Graphics Board RAM Type DDR2
Monitor Model ViewSonic VP720b
Monitor Type LCD
Monitor Size 17
Storage
Hard Drives 1
Total HD Size (GB) 250
RAID Type none
Optical Drive Type DVD±R DL/DVD±RW
Optical Drive Speed 10
Other Storage Four-in-one media-card reader
Expansion
PCI Slots 3
PCI Express Slots 4
Open PCI Express X16 Slots 0
Open PCI Express X1 Slots 2
Open Slots 4
External Drive Bays 7
Open External Drive Bays 5
Internal Drive Bays 3
Open Internal Drive Bays 2
Ports
Serial Ports 1
Parallel Ports 1
Front USB Ports 2
Rear USB Ports 4
Front FireWire Ports 1
Rear FireWire Ports 2
Other
Audio Adapter Model Integrated Realtek HD
Audio Channels 7.1 surround
Network Adapter gigabit network adapter
Case Type Midsize tower
Operating System Windows XP Home
Other Included Hardware S-video cable
Included Software CyberLink DVD Solution, Power DVD, Nero Express
Support & Reliability
Labor Warranty (years) Four
Parts Warranty (years) Four
Weekday Support Hours 24
Saturday Support Hours 24
Sunday Support Hours 24
Toll-Free Support Yes
Its certianly alot better than what your getting although i dont know what your budget is.
LINK (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127980-page,1-c,desktoppcs/article.html)
How has this thread remained here instead of the hardware and software forum is beyond me.Because most M2TW players don't look there.
As for the computer, I'd strongly advise against an AMD processor in favour of Core 2, even at that price range...
I Am Herenow
05-26-2007, 12:07
Hello :)
Which PC should I get to be able to play M2 with 10,000 (or whatever the maximum is) units on the field all at once, at the highest graphics setting, without any lag?
I found this (http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=205212) one on the net - if I get it with the best possible features (Core 2 Extreme 6800, GeForce 8800 etc.), will that be enough to run M2 on the best settings smoothly?
Cheers! :D
Rhyfelwyr
06-25-2007, 11:31
This is the new PC I just ordered:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.00GHz Dual Core CPU
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Award winning OCZ Revision2 2GB Ultra PC2-6400 CAS4 (2x1GB) Dual Channel Kit
500GB Western Digital Enterprise 16MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
NVIDIA 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 VIVO HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) DirectX 10Graphics Card
Antec 650W Next Generation Power Supply
Do you think it will be able to run M2TW at the max settings?
Depending on the resolution, yes, it should.
Hi,
Could I get some opinions about the following specs and how it would work with MT2W;
Acer Aspire E380
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core 5400+
2048 MB (2x 1024 MB)
256 MB ATI Radeon X1650SE PCI-E
Windows Vista™ Home Premium
If someone could tell me at which settings it would work it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot. =)
Lurker on the Threshold
07-26-2007, 14:46
OK all I an a technical idiot so bear with me. I recently was given a 05 Gateway computer. I suspect it has an onboard video card. At work right now and don't have the specs. I tried running MTW2 and while it ran ok on the campaign map the battle screens were very choppy. I trolled the forum and ran the Canyourunit program and as suspected it told me the video card failed to meet requirements but everything else passed. The reason I suspect it was an onboard card is that it listed only 64mb in the failed field. Can this be upgraded with a new video card and if so what would be a good card to get. Mind you all I am only looking to get something to play this game with and not for any other reason so I don't need or want all the bells and whistles (and expense). If I need be I can post the info from a dxdiag later. Thanks in advance and awaiting your replys.
I've a laptop intel core 2 duo t5500 1.6 ghz
2046 mb ram
160 gb rom
Nvidia GeForce go 7300 how would it fare if at all?
Hoplite7
08-04-2007, 17:25
I've a laptop intel core 2 duo t5500 1.6 ghz
2046 mb ram
160 gb rom
Nvidia GeForce go 7300 how would it fare if at all?
I'd say low settings, the 7300 is a pretty weak card.
as the games been out a while and hopefully the price of PC,s have fallen acordingly as well. could someone please give me an idea on how much i should expect to pay for a new system to run the game on as an example on the highest settings. with out me resorting to flogging of one of my internal organs to pay for it.
trolling through previous posts
one previous poster was on about paying 1700 quid for a set up:dizzy2: :dizzy2: thanx but no thanx.
ForgotMyOldNick
08-07-2007, 10:07
Just wondering if someone can help me with a problem in setting my gpu properly, thanks.
I used to have an asus 5200 gpu 128 mb and it could play RTW fairly ok but I knew I would need a new GPU for MTWII. So I bought an nvidia XFX 7600 GT 256mb as it was recommended to me by a gamer stating that the actual architecture is better than the GTS models so ... I did.
Anyway, after taking nearly 12 hours to find the right drivers :S I finally got everything up and running But something a bit new to me that I haven't had to deal with before is the bios setting where you allocate the ram or memory or something as I hadn't needed to deal with it before and the old gpu served me just fine so never needed to get into this stuff.
My MB is asus p4p800, yes I have an old configuration for a pc but it does everything I need so I'm happy. In BIOS it says settings of 64mb, 128mb, 256mb, 512mb too I think. So I need to change this setting in bios right? I read a few articles on the net but they don't really come to a conclusion they just say figure in your available ram etc... (I have 1gb Kingston ram).
So to get to the point after the facts: Do I need to set that MB option in BIOS to 256mb? And could someone please tell me what it actually is?
Thankyouverymuch :)
From my experience, it shouldn't be necessary to touch the BIOS...
I'd suggest that you post up your dxdiag report (start > run > dxdiag) which should tell us if the GPU is using all avaiable RAM, and if it is, forget the confusing BIOS setting...
ForgotMyOldNick
08-07-2007, 11:56
Ahhah! of course :S
Thanks again Sapi I will have a look and if it's too confusing for me I will post it here.
I'd say low settings, the 7300 is a pretty weak card.
Anyone else have any opinions on this? It can play Rome on highest settings.
I've a laptop intel core 2 duo t5500 1.6 ghz
2046 mb ram
160 gb rom
Nvidia GeForce go 7300
Rhyfelwyr
08-07-2007, 22:40
This is the new PC I just ordered:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.00GHz Dual Core CPU
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Award winning OCZ Revision2 2GB Ultra PC2-6400 CAS4 (2x1GB) Dual Channel Kit
500GB Western Digital Enterprise 16MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
NVIDIA 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 VIVO HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) DirectX 10Graphics Card
Antec 650W Next Generation Power Supply
Do you think it will be able to run M2TW at the max settings?
Apparently, this PC won't run M2TW very well at any settings. CTD's, blue screen, unspecified error messages.:no:
I have patched to 1.2, installed the lateset drivers, fiddled around with setting such as anti-aliasing etc. I even read somewhere RAM could cause problems, so I removed 1GB with no improvement. I have no idea what the problem is.
The OS is Vista BTW, but everyone else says its works with M2TW for them. Anyone here got any ideas?
Very odd.
A few questions, then:
What exactly are the errors, and when do they occur (both in game terms, and real terms)?
Did you follow the arduous install procedure for nvidia drivers on vista correctly (ten million restarts and all that :grin2:)?
Have you installed dx9 manually?
Can't think of much more for now; if I do think of anything/when you get back, I'll try my best ~;)
Rhyfelwyr
08-08-2007, 23:33
Done all of the above. The crashes occur both during the campaign and in battles.
One thing though now you mention it. Battle for Middle Earth also crashes on my new PC, and a couple of times it gave me an error message related to DX8, which doesn't make sense since I definetely installed DX9. My PC shouldn't be having problems with DX9, its even DX10 compatible.
Hmm - maybe try a reinstall of dx9 (you should be able to grab a 'redistributable' version from the microsoft website; that seems to be the only one in my experience that overrides the 'earlier version installed' trigger in Vista) and see if that solves things for you...
firedragom
08-09-2007, 17:41
I am curious because I know some games run faster with hyperthreading, and some actually run slower. I am curious to know which it is. Anyway, thanks.
Dr_Horse
08-10-2007, 00:19
Hey guys, what componant is breaking when the program starts doing this and then crashing at increasingly regular intervals. Or is it just program instability of Stainless Steel 4.0? Cheers.
Dr_Horse
08-10-2007, 00:25
Here's the pic, sorry it wouldn't let me post one right away.
https://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c328/dr_horse/00041.jpg
ForgotMyOldNick
08-10-2007, 01:09
I am curious because I know some games run faster with hyperthreading, and some actually run slower. I am curious to know which it is. Anyway, thanks.
Yeah... 'Hyperthreading'... I read several articles about it and the only two games I play are RTW/MTWII and Dawn of War (Due to time mainly and most other games suck!). DoW required me to disable hyperthreading in BIOS to play as the sounds where stuttering etc after 2 clean installs ...then it worked fine.
Sort of annoying because I payed good money for this cpu way back when and I can't use a feature of it for one of my favourite games at least. (forgot all about this so gonna try it later with MTWII !)
Considering I haven't used hyperthreading since I switched it off for when I mucked around with DoW I am thinking maybe there would be an actual improvement if I reactivated it.
So maybe just experiment ?
Dr_Horse: use photobucket or some image hoster for your pics mate.
Dr_Horse
08-10-2007, 01:46
Dr_Horse: use photobucket or some image hoster for your pics mate.
Photobucket is where that pic is hosted. Why, can't you see it?
ForgotMyOldNick
08-10-2007, 02:09
Sorry mate. Internet silliness today... and it's my day off !
Nice map hehehehee
Here's the pic, sorry it wouldn't let me post one right away.
https://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c328/dr_horse/00041.jpg
Looks a bit like overheating to me.
What's the temperature like where you are?
I am curious because I know some games run faster with hyperthreading, and some actually run slower. I am curious to know which it is. Anyway, thanks.Very few games take advantage of multiple cores (of which hyperthreading is a virtual simulation); but M2TW should have little to no performance loss from using it.
firedragom
08-10-2007, 16:52
Well I have been playing it with hyperthreading enabled, Ill try it disabled, see if I notice a difference and I will post back.
Dr_Horse
08-10-2007, 23:28
Looks a bit like overheating to me.
What's the temperature like where you are?
...I can't believe you just used the "t" word.
Basically, a few month ago I got a warning in the bios at start-up saying "low cpu-fan speed". When i continued to windows, the asus software i have to monitor temperatures and fan speeds said everything was normal. I did a few benchmark things to work the processor, still no problems.
After a bit I got sick of the warnings and thought I had better change the cpu-fan just in case, which I did, with a beast of a tower fan that was better than the one I had before.
Shortly after this upgrade the bios warnings about the cpu-fan started again, but this time when i got to windows, the asus software was telling me that the power fan wasn't working. A visual check confirmed that it was working fine, so i just assumed that the sensors were faulty or something.
The thing is I've used overheating computers before, and medieval is the only program having any problems (it runs company of heroes for hours in full spec with no problems). Also, the asus software reckons the temperatures never get any higher than 40 on the chip and 45 in the case. BIZARRE AND FRUSTRATING. It's a nice rig. I've had it over 2 years now and it can still run new games (does M2TW in full detail, huge units with no hassle) and I don't want to retire it just yet.
any ideas?
Hmm - no ideas, then - a temperature problem would, as you say, show up in multiple games...
Rhyfelwyr
08-11-2007, 12:19
Done all of the above. The crashes occur both during the campaign and in battles.
One thing though now you mention it. Battle for Middle Earth also crashes on my new PC, and a couple of times it gave me an error message related to DX8, which doesn't make sense since I definetely installed DX9. My PC shouldn't be having problems with DX9, its even DX10 compatible.
New development here. I have 2 1GB RAM sticks in my PC. I took the one in slot 2 out, tried playing with just the slot 1 RAM. Still crashes. So I put the slot 2 RAM back. Then, I tried swapping the two RAM sticks around. This left M2TW crashing as normal, but also gave me blue screens when doing things like browsing the internet, even starting the PC up once.
The reason I am doing this with the RAM is that I heard blue screens tended to be caused by faulty RAM. So, my last plan is to remove the RAM that was originally in slot 1 (now in slot 2), and put the RAM currently in slot 2 into slot 1. This may prove that the RAM beginning in slot 1 was faulty. I will try and see...
firedragom
08-11-2007, 20:42
If it still does not work, try asking the experts at computing.net, I have not had a problem they couldn't figure out yet. Seems like a better place to be asking about crashing errors and things like that than in a gaming hardware forum.
Anyway, do what you wanna do, but I imagine you'll get better results from computing.net, probably quicker too. Not downing any people here who have serious knowledge of computers and all that, just saying, a lot of these people work in IT for a living and do this in their free time.
Try it out if you want.
Rhyfelwyr
08-14-2007, 21:01
New development here. I have 2 1GB RAM sticks in my PC. I took the one in slot 2 out, tried playing with just the slot 1 RAM. Still crashes. So I put the slot 2 RAM back. Then, I tried swapping the two RAM sticks around. This left M2TW crashing as normal, but also gave me blue screens when doing things like browsing the internet, even starting the PC up once.
The reason I am doing this with the RAM is that I heard blue screens tended to be caused by faulty RAM. So, my last plan is to remove the RAM that was originally in slot 1 (now in slot 2), and put the RAM currently in slot 2 into slot 1. This may prove that the RAM beginning in slot 1 was faulty. I will try and see...
Having removed the RAM that was originally in Slot 1 completely, and having put the RAM originally from Slot 2 into Slot 1, the game has run now for a few days with no crashes. So bizarelly this seems to have fixed the problem. All that trouble over a dodgy RAM stick.:shame:
I think I'll have to contact Overclockers UK and get a replacement 1GB RAM
Hi,
I observe severe decrease in game performance when in siege battle. It seems to be linked directly with city panorama: when the camera sees only units its movement is smooth but as soon as I catch any piece of a wall in the field of view framerate drops to few frames per second.
My rig is:
Athlon XP 3200
1 GB RAM 400 Mhz
NVidia GeForce 6800 GS 256 MB
My settings are 1280x1024, AAx2, AFx4 (both forced on driver not set in game), everything maxed out.
Does anyone observe similar effect?
Thanks in advance, best regards
Marek
rezizter
09-04-2007, 04:41
Greetings everyone. I have been a mad keen TW fan since Shogun and have finally ordered a computer capable of playing MTR:2. the best thing is, work are paying!!! I have ordered a dell notebook with following specs:
Dell Inspiron 1520
Intel Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa) T7300 processor ( 2.0 GHz, 4MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
3GB Dual-channel 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 dedicated graphic memory
SATA performance hard drive
Can anyone give me some idea of what type of settings I should be able to play on? Cheers in advance
lorduzi check FactionHeir's signature (EDIT: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?p=1502871) he's got some wall texture reductions, also check the downloads at twcenter, they have a mod there as well to improve siege battles, forgot what it's called (I know that does'nt really help but it's there whatever it's called).
rezizter I'm guessing that with that rig you can max everything and you'll be fine.
Ok.. my turn..
I just bought a VAIO, mainly as a work machine BUT !!!! ofc ...
-3 GiG DDR2 (gonna make it 4).
-8400 GT 128 Dedicated 387 shared.
-Core 2 Duo 1.8 (forgot the rest of the specs)
What do you guys think ? Medium or would I be able to do high settings ?
Ok.. my turn..
I just bought a VAIO, mainly as a work machine BUT !!!! ofc ...
-3 GiG DDR2 (gonna make it 4).
-8400 GT 128 Dedicated 387 shared.
-Core 2 Duo 1.8 (forgot the rest of the specs)
What do you guys think ? Medium or would I be able to do high settings ?[/QUOTE]
The CPU and Memory are great, but the 8400GT, from the reviews I have read: It is not extremely efficient in handling 3D games... So my guess is that you won't be able to max all the graphic settings out and still have a good frame rate (like 25 f/s minimum at all times).~:(
Then again, the reviews might be wrong, you'll need to try it for yourself to be certain. :beam:
Hi all ,
I've been wanting to play M2TW ever since it came out but my crappy old DELL couldn't handle it.
Now I finally have enough money to buy a new systeem and i wonder if it will be able to run the game at decent settings.
Samsung HD 200GB SATA-2 7200rpm 8MB
Motherboard Intel Asus P5KPL
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 (2,33/1333/4MB)
VGA EVGA Geforce 8600GT 256MB PCI-E
2x 1024 MB DDR2-RAM PC5400/DDR667
Any comments would be helpfull.
Galain_Ironhide
10-23-2007, 07:52
Hi all ,
I've been wanting to play M2TW ever since it came out but my crappy old DELL couldn't handle it.
Now I finally have enough money to buy a new systeem and i wonder if it will be able to run the game at decent settings.
Samsung HD 200GB SATA-2 7200rpm 8MB
Motherboard Intel Asus P5KPL
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 (2,33/1333/4MB)
VGA EVGA Geforce 8600GT 256MB PCI-E
2x 1024 MB DDR2-RAM PC5400/DDR667
Any comments would be helpfull.
Hi Moose85,
It sounds like it should be able to handle the load that M2TW gives a computer.
To give you an idea, just recently I purchased myself a computer also just to handle M2TW and also what ever else I can throw at it.
Forgive me but I am not a computer whiz but this is what my system is:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor LGA775 2.4ghz
FoxConn LGA775 Motherboard
4GB (4096mb) DDR2-RAM
Seagate SATA2 320GB Hard Drive
16x DVD-Dual DVD+/-RW DVD Burner
NVIDIA 8800GTS 640MB Overclocked Graphics Card (to my knowledge the NVIDIA 8800 series cards are the best)
The Computer guy who I had build this for me said this was overkill for most current games, but I wanted something that wasnt going to be outdated as soon as it left the shop. All up the tower cost me around $3000 Aussie Dollars.
(Much to my woman's digust, she thought it may have been better spent on our wedding! A mans got to have his toys I reckon)
Also I found this on a website: (actiontrip.com)
Medieval II: Total War Review (PC)
publisher Sega
developer Creative Assembly
genre Strategy
ESRB rating T
homepage www.totalwar.com/
release date Nov 13, 06 (released)
minimum requirements:
PIV 1500, 512MB RAM, 11GB HDD, 128MB video card
Hope this Helps! Good Luck :2thumbsup:
Anyway... i'm buying a new computer and I really can't make the decision over whether to go Quad Core with a Q6600 or just stick with a E6850
From what i've read, the E6850 will give me better performance now, but the quad core will be more of an investment for future games.
So, basically i'm stumped. Especially considering that they cost exactly the same, although i'm leaning more towards the Q6600. Any suggestions?
How does M2TW run on a Q6600?
Lord Dazed & Confused
11-20-2007, 14:44
My old 6800gt agp card has just died and I'm thinking of replacing it with an ATI x1950 pro or if I can get one an Nvidia 7950gt, I'm guessing that either card will be a marked improvement on the 6800gt.
If any one has either of these two cards I would be interested to know how well they perform with M2TW especially if you have a similar CPU and RAM. The rest of my system spec's are an AMD64 3.2 with 2GB of RAM.
Thanks in advance:2thumbsup:
LDC
vindalonda
12-07-2007, 18:22
Hi,
Dont know wether this is the right place or not but here goes! After reloading mtw2 after a long absence i was surprised to encounter a message saying "mtw2 has experienced an unspecified error and will now exit", i have never had any problems before and since the game has installed flawlessly and gets to the start up screen i am baffled ? Is this a graphic card problem? i have also had a message with another game "city life" which tells me it "cannot find a direct 3d device". I have a radeon gcube x700 (256mb) with updated drivers etc. and have had many a happy hour on mtw2 till now???
Any help greatly appreciated,
Cheers.
Hi everybody, new here, and dont even currently have M2TW installed, but since i know my way around the inside of a computer (I am a computer network admin by trade), i thought i would offer any advice i can, but sorry if im answering things that I dont need to.
Having removed the RAM that was originally in Slot 1 completely, and having put the RAM originally from Slot 2 into Slot 1, the game has run now for a few days with no crashes. So bizarelly this seems to have fixed the problem. All that trouble over a dodgy RAM stick.
RAM is a right pain to diagnose, many many times Ive been stumped by RAM issues, glad you got it fixed!
Ok.. my turn..
I just bought a VAIO, mainly as a work machine BUT !!!! ofc ...
-3 GiG DDR2 (gonna make it 4).
-8400 GT 128 Dedicated 387 shared.
-Core 2 Duo 1.8 (forgot the rest of the specs)
What do you guys think ? Medium or would I be able to do high settings ?
As Pchoi said, the rig should be fine, I also think the Geforce 8400 should be fine for the more advanced settings. The 8000 series is the newest Nvidea range, with the 8800 being the ultimate. The 8400 should be roughly equivilent to the best cards of the 7000 (7800 and later the 7900) series if history is anything to go by, which if memory serves me correctly would have been the ultimate cards when M2TW came out.
Incedently I wouldnt bother with that extra gig of RAM, I *think* that normal versions of windows can usually use roughly 3.5GB - its a limitation of "32 bit" operating systems, even Vista wont help you that much, but hopefully moving on to the future we will have 64bit operating systems become the norm. Even if im wrong and the limit is 4GB I dont think the extra GB will help you that much, unless you are running alot of memory hungry apps at the same time (Like maybe playing 2/3 game simultanously =p)
Anyway... i'm buying a new computer and I really can't make the decision over whether to go Quad Core with a Q6600 or just stick with a E6850
From what i've read, the E6850 will give me better performance now, but the quad core will be more of an investment for future games.
So, basically i'm stumped. Especially considering that they cost exactly the same, although i'm leaning more towards the Q6600. Any suggestions?
How does M2TW run on a Q6600?
Koval, go with the dual core all the way. They will give you better performence, and by the time quad cores match it AND game developers are making games for multi-core machines youll be wanting a upgrade anyways =p most apps cant use more then one core of a CPU, so having four is a bit of a waste unless your using some of the programs that can use them.
My old 6800gt agp card has just died and I'm thinking of replacing it with an ATI x1950 pro or if I can get one an Nvidia 7950gt, I'm guessing that either card will be a marked improvement on the 6800gt.
If any one has either of these two cards I would be interested to know how well they perform with M2TW especially if you have a similar CPU and RAM. The rest of my system spec's are an AMD64 3.2 with 2GB of RAM
You're right Lord, it will bring a marked improvement, but I cant help you with the comparrison (beyond what reviews have said) as ive never had an ATI card. :sweatdrop:
Hi,
Dont know wether this is the right place or not but here goes! After reloading mtw2 after a long absence i was surprised to encounter a message saying "mtw2 has experienced an unspecified error and will now exit", i have never had any problems before and since the game has installed flawlessly and gets to the start up screen i am baffled ? Is this a graphic card problem? i have also had a message with another game "city life" which tells me it "cannot find a direct 3d device". I have a radeon gcube x700 (256mb) with updated drivers etc. and have had many a happy hour on mtw2 till now???
Any help greatly appreciated,
Cheers.
Hi vindalonda, thats a very generlised error, and could mean almost anything. I wouldnt think its nessercarilly a problem with your hardware, and if youve played M2TW on it before then its deffinetly capable. If I were you I would get a tech savvie freind to help you out, or even run a repair of windows (if you know how to do that yourself)
Worldbeing
12-19-2007, 23:50
Hey
Just got M2TW after becoming totally hooked on Rome. But it's really slow (frame a second or less) even on the lowest settings.
Processor and memory are OK: Core 2 Duo, 2x 1.86GHz and 2GB RAM
I now suspect it's my excuse for a graphics card, the Intel GMA X3100.
Is it worth persevering with trying to run M2 on this machine?
Barbarian
12-20-2007, 00:34
It really is the graphics card, the rest is fine. GMA is not very suitable for games. If you can get a better one, from GForce or ATI, I suggest to do it.
irishron2004
12-25-2007, 22:57
I have manged to crash the graphics on the vanilla M2TW version 1.03 at end of turn with 90 regions controlled. I ran task manager on the last one to check memory usage. The chages in medieval2.exe were with the graphics. In the Russian steppes it was about 295,000kb. In the mountains and western Europe it went over 300,000kb. It was the only one I noticed changing.
At the end of the last turn, two of the symbols down thw left side were corrupted. I hit alt-tab to check memory usage and nothing that i had not seen before. I re-entered the game to finish the turn and the video corruption had gon through the campaign map, minimap, building queue, and the rest of the end of turn symbols. When I clicked on a couple of them, the info was corrupted.
I tested this machine with your analyzer in the first post and it passed everything. MY specs are:
cpu: AMD 64 2 core 4600
video: ATI x1950pro 256mb ddr3
memory: 3gb
OS: Win XP SP2, .Net2.0, dx9.0.c
Harddrive: 160gb
dvd: 20x
All drivers are up to date. Registry cleaner has been run. Hd defragged.
Now why can I not take every region without this happening? What is causing it? Is there a program to fix it?
I was always able to take the whole map in the original MTW, and all of the Mundus Magnus map in RTW, so why not M2TW unmodified?
This may sound like an odd question, but is it hot where you live?
irishron2004
12-26-2007, 15:44
This may sound like an odd question, but is it hot where you live?
Being central California, lows in the 30's and 40's whether it's raining or not, highs in the 50's. Typical winter weather.
Being central California, lows in the 30's and 40's whether it's raining or not, highs in the 50's. Typical winter weather.
Okay, that rules out overheating (I don't think we ever get down to your 'high' of 10 degrees over here :laugh4:)
Try uninstalling your current graphics drivers, then replacing them with the latest ones from the relevant manufacturer's website...
irishron2004
12-27-2007, 06:27
I forgot about centigrade. Mine are in farenheit. In fact, outside my bedroom window right now it is 39 degrees farenheit.
Did the driver thing when I put the new card in. In fact I went through this on Microsoft's vga drivers to get rid of anything that smelled, looked, or felt like nVidia before installing ATI's. I did not then nor do I now need the conflict. In fact after using both, O consider it a personal choice. I have had good luck with both.
Now, may I please bear upon you to let me in on what it would take to prove that this is a memory/resource issue? If your team there has a test that I can install and run on my machine I would love to prove me wrong and you right. That is all I am asking and I don't consider it the end of the programming world.
Well I really don't know about the memory issue; it could be unreleated (I certainly don't have a team here, I assure you, totally unofficial here :grin2:)...
The only problems I've seen myself that commonly lead to graphics distortion are a) overheating and b) malfunctioning graphics drivers, though someone else might have some more ideas for you...
irishron2004
12-27-2007, 17:03
This is the reason I say memory.
One of people in another forum said to check for memory leaks using task manager. I did this for a couple turns before my campaign graphics crashed.
Every few regions of updating the building queues, I would check it. The only thing I saw change was the medieval2.exe itself.
After clicking the end -of-turn button, the symbols start dropping down the left side as programmed. I noticed two of them getting corrupted so I hit alt-tab to check task manager.
While I am checking the running processes, the harddrive starts to work and I notice the .exe memory jumps from 305meg to 307meg and the commitcharge jumps from 809meg to 813meg. I hit alt-tab to get back in the game and my screen is one layer of symbols. No more campaign map, no more minimap, no more building queue, no more rightside controls, no more faction button. The only way out is reboot the system.
Heat? This room hasn't even hit 70 degrees and it's 32 outside.
I would be willing to take this offline and either pm or email discuss this further just because I could do it in the same place with the same amount of factions and units whether high graphics setting or bare minimum. I am old enough to remember memory leaks in the first games written for cga.
Archungel
12-29-2007, 05:55
so i have a GeForce 7600, 3.2GHz processor pentium 4 and 2GB of RAM. i can play kingdoms main map fine and some battles at medium quality. but for some reason i cant play any battle with a settlement in it(even at low quality). it just has a unknown error and the game crashes/closes. do ya'll think its just a hardware problem. another thing is that i cant load v1.03 onto my main MTW2 game bc every time i do it it cant find some data file of some sort(one thats been been recorded to ave problems in other threads). my regular MTW2 vanilla never had a problem of any battle at high resolution. and i bought both at stores in america
so i have a GeForce 7600, 3.2GHz processor pentium 4 and 2GB of RAM. i can play kingdoms main map fine and some battles at medium quality. but for some reason i cant play any battle with a settlement in it(even at low quality). it just has a unknown error and the game crashes/closes. do ya'll think its just a hardware problem. another thing is that i cant load v1.03 onto my main MTW2 game bc every time i do it it cant find some data file of some sort(one thats been been recorded to ave problems in other threads). my regular MTW2 vanilla never had a problem of any battle at high resolution. and i bought both at stores in america
Did you run the unpacker, perchance? There were a few files that you had to delete if you did that to stop a crash in settlements; take a look at its readme for more information, if you did run it.
This is the reason I say memory.
One of people in another forum said to check for memory leaks using task manager. I did this for a couple turns before my campaign graphics crashed.
Every few regions of updating the building queues, I would check it. The only thing I saw change was the medieval2.exe itself.
After clicking the end -of-turn button, the symbols start dropping down the left side as programmed. I noticed two of them getting corrupted so I hit alt-tab to check task manager.
While I am checking the running processes, the harddrive starts to work and I notice the .exe memory jumps from 305meg to 307meg and the commitcharge jumps from 809meg to 813meg. I hit alt-tab to get back in the game and my screen is one layer of symbols. No more campaign map, no more minimap, no more building queue, no more rightside controls, no more faction button. The only way out is reboot the system.
I would be willing to take this offline and either pm or email discuss this further just because I could do it in the same place with the same amount of factions and units whether high graphics setting or bare minimum. I am old enough to remember memory leaks in the first games written for cga.
Personally, I doubt a memory link would be causing graphics distortion, and think that the constant alt-tabbing could be doing more harm than good.
Small jumps like those you're reporting wouldn't be a surprise to me at all as new graphics and scripts are loaded as the game progresses.
Is this problem happening at a set position (say, as you hit end turn on turn no. 123 as the English) or after a set amount of time (say, 10 minutes playing)?
Heat? This room hasn't even hit 70 degrees and it's 32 outside.I'm in Australia - today's a very mild summer's day, at 26 or 27 degrees Celsius :grin2:
irishron2004
12-29-2007, 07:51
Personally, I doubt a memory link would be causing graphics distortion, and think that the constant alt-tabbing could be doing more harm than good.
Small jumps like those you're reporting wouldn't be a surprise to me at all as new graphics and scripts are loaded as the game progresses.
Is this problem happening at a set position (say, as you hit end turn on turn no. 123 as the English) or after a set amount of time (say, 10 minutes playing)?
Maybe alt-tab was doing more bad than good but it was doing it before that. I was using the cheats CA built into the game to see if I could crash it and I have proven it. If windows is for multitasking as advertized then I should be able to play any mod of M2TW, alt-tab out, start any mod of RTW, alt-tab out, watch a movie on this thing, and then go back to M2TW with no degradation of resources. If not, it's what some people would call false advertizing.
Right now I have a campaign going without cheats and see where it breaks if it does. Hopefully I can go Edinburgh to Baghdad without crashing. I'll keep in touch.
My 32 degrees is 0 to you. My days of 26 celsius ran out in October and won't be be back until end of March or April. For something to get used to, our average high temperature in August is in the high 90's (about 36 to you.)
Archungel
12-30-2007, 19:52
so by reading a bunch of different things and fiddling around some more i think the problems of having my settlement battles crash on me is bc i cant install v1.03 on my computer. every time i do i get the message that data_2.pack is invalid. i updated my installshield to 11 and my isscript.msi to 11 and i still have installation problems. what else do i need to do to install v1.03 correctly?
Archungel
01-02-2008, 00:27
so i went and deleted everything in my commonfiiles/installshield/professional folder and made sure all my drivers, installshield, and isscript were updated. then uninstalled everything and reinstalled making sure to defragment and restart after every install and version update and it worked. no invalid data_2.pack files or anything
irishron2004
01-03-2008, 22:49
I'm back and the news ain't good. Please read this as my first post as you will note the changes as you read this.
I totally uninstalled Kingdoms, totally uninstalled M2TW, used registry cleaner, defragged, and rebooted.
Installed M2TW, version 1.02.0001.
No mods, no unpacking, Pure original vanilla.
Fired up the game this morning and turn 62 (year 1202 on 2 years per turn) and the end of turn graphics on a couple of the symbols were getting corrupted.
Got a place to send a couple of last savegames to see if it happens to you?
Edit:
Here is what I get and it's not heat or graphics drivers:
<a href="https://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m2tw1202englishey1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://img510.imageshack.us/img510/882/m2tw1202englishey1.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>
I just learned how to take screen shots.
Update:
Here is the next turn: https://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2654/m2tw1204gg4.th.jpg (https://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m2tw1204gg4.jpg)
Quickening
01-09-2008, 11:56
Was just curious, my PCs specs are:
Processor:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.1Ghz
Memory:
1024MB RAM
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (taken from X-Fire)
I can run it perfectly with Unit Detail and Effect detail turned down a notch. Ive just ordered another gig of RAM and just wondered if I should be able to play with everything on max or whether a new graphics card would the the thing to get for that.
@irishron2004
I am not very experienced at this but:
are you overclocking anything in your PC, CPU or graphic card? This looks like the beginning of instability caused by it.
are you sure it is not overheating due to malfunction of any of your fans and not room temperature?
have you specified settings that your graphic card can handle, anti-aliasing or whatever options you have with M2TW video options?
try using some older drivers, sometimes the latest ones are not the best ones. Actually, despite how much I hate to say this, you could try to check Microsoft preferred driver release for your graphics card. Somehow things seem to work better with that option
Anyway, it does seem a hardware problem, and not software despite sometimes Windows does not really know what the heck it is doing. My computer could not detect any device when connecting it to its USB ports, even though memory sticks were accessible if connected before start-up. Tried everything, but to no avail. Switch off the computer for a vacation week, and came back planning on a full re-install. Surprisingly enough the USB ports worked fine. That is just Windows.
Lord Dazed & Confused
01-17-2008, 14:15
@irishron2004
Is your X1950 a Sapphire?
What PSU are you using as the x1950 pro needs at least a 450 watt psu with 30Amps on the 12Volt rails and one of the sympton's of the x1950 not getting enough power is texture corruption.
LDC
irishron2004
01-25-2008, 19:09
I have 500 watt power supply with the horses needed. I made sure before spent this kind of upgrade money.
irishron2004
01-25-2008, 19:11
Nothing overclocked.
Graphics settings default.
Game graphic settings default.
Nothing tweaked.
irishron2004: I agree that this looks like a hardware problem. However, those usually end up being solved with money, so you should try one last thing to make sure it's not a driver or software problem: format. I know it's a pain in the butt, but if you really want to make sure it's a hardware problem of some kind, you need to wipe the drive, install a fresh OS, install fresh video drivers, and then install a vanilla copy of M2TW. If the problem continues to occur after that, I would conclude that it is a hardware problem. The next steps would be running various tests to determine which hardware is the problem.
Also, try posting your problems in our tech forum, the Apothecary (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=15). It's far more likely that knowledgeable techies will see your posts there than in this thread.
irishron2004
01-26-2008, 15:58
I appreciate everybody's concern about it being hardware but here is the real answer: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=96757. Read this and find out what I did the hard way.
Hello all,
I was just wondering if this card that I'm buying will be able to run M2TW on medium settings. I doubt it will be able to work on high settings but I'm hoping for something. By the way, my system has 1 GB of RAM, I think that's enough. If you need any other specs, let me know and I'll get them. But anyways, here's the card:
Link (http://www.amazon.com/XFX-GeForce-6200-DDR2-Video/dp/B000CQ73PW/ref=pd_bbs_9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1202160486&sr=8-9)
Thanks for any help in advance.
Hi all. Could someone please help me with what graphics settings are best to get a balance of performance and quality?
Right now I have Anti-Aliasing off, Anisoptric filtering set to 2x and all other settings set to one less than the highest possible (except for building detail which is set to high). O, and I have vertical sync on and widescreen checked and the resolution set to 1920x1080. O and I have it on Shadow 2 with shadow quality set to medium.
I'm using an Intel dual core 2.2 GHz on Vista with 2GB of RAM and an 8500 GT (512MB dedicated with additional shared).
The game is playable but I'd like to know which setting(s) are most problematic in terms of performance. I don't want to use a different resolution however if at all possible.
Thank you so much, in advance.
I forgot to add that if there's any settings which can be increased with negligible performance loss, please tell. Thanks again.
Monsieur Alphonse
06-04-2008, 05:04
Turn vertical sync off. It slows down the game.
Prince Bondus
06-06-2008, 14:55
Hi guys, recently got a laptop to take to university in September, but I really know nothing about computers, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me whether I'll be able to play M2:TW on it? I hope these are the right details:
System Model: Inspiron 1520
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS Plus Version 1.10 A02
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5250 @1.50 Ghz (2 cpus)
Memory: 1014 MB RAM
Name: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset family
Manufacturer: Intel
Chip type: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset family
DAC type: Internal
Total Memory: 251 MB
Display Mode: 1280 x 800 32bit 61Hz
Sorry if these are the wrong details. Cheers guys!
FactionHeir
06-06-2008, 15:05
Hmmm Your processor and RAM should be sufficient to meet the minimum reqs, but your graphics card may be pushing it.
I think you may just be able to run it at absolute minimum settings, though I cannot say that for certain. All I do know is that the Mobile Intel chips are bottom rung.
palatinus178
06-19-2008, 11:46
Hi everyone,
I'm playing M2TW: Gold on a laptop. a Dell Inspiron 1420 to be exact. Despite how many people have said that laptop can't play it, I managed to play it quite smoothly. However, during large battles, i have to turn down all settings to low..lol.
My laptop comes with a Intel 965 express chipset (i dunnno what that means:dizzy2:) and I very very dumb with computers, I only use them for Uni/gaming (without the specs+research+upgrade part).:laugh4: What is a difference with all these graphics cards and the ones I have (Intel 965)?
Can i upgrade my laptop to a Nvidia or whatever that will enable to crank up my settings higher lil bit?
Any recommendations on improving my performance with M2TW? I'm obviously a newbie at computer specs/tech/info, so any suggestions?
Thanks for any reply.:2thumbsup:
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