Minimum spec

I'm guessing this has been posted before, but I didn't see a search option or relevant sticky...apologies if I missed it.

I've seen the minimum spec as officially listed, but I think the official minimum is often misleading. I want the game to run nicely, not just run. I'm about to get the game and I need to know (from people with experience of the game) if (and what) I need to upgrade to make the game play well.

My current system:
XP2600
256MB RAM
ATI All-in-Wonder 8500DV

Well I'm hoping the processor's okay...I expect to have to upgrade the RAM, but to what? As for the video card, well I think it is listed as compatible, and it's not a bad card, but this game does look impressive...I'm not sure I'd be confident whatever card I have. So how will this card (and my system in general) run the game?

Should I make any improvements to my system, and if so, which ones?

What OS?
That may sound like a stupid question but here's a brief story-
I was about to shelve the game at one point because of very poor performance.
I'd spent hours playing with video drivers, tweaking obscure settings but to no avail.
I set all the video options in the game to the lowest (or off) except for large unit size (regular was somewhat better), but the game was extremely choppy and I frequently had to restart because of corruption in some of the graphics.
I'd resigned myself to the need for an upgrade, but on Sunday morning, I figured I'd go ahead and reload my copy of WinXP (I run Win2k) for grins and giggles and see what happens.
Well, after a couple hours and wee bit of finaggling with sound card drivers the moment of truth arrived.
Amazing!
I'd expected some degree of improvement, but this was just too much!
Slid almost every video setting to high and it's moving like greased sh ....um, well it's moving very nicely now.
Almost as good as Decisive Battles on the History channel.
Here's the kicker ...
P4 1.4 (1st generation P4) on an old intel motherboard (4x agp ...)
512 Rambus
GeFart 5700 Ultra (this is the key, i think)

I'd say bump your memory up to 512 and consider upgrading your video card (I still see 5700U's out there for about $100-130)

P.S. I love flaming arrows now!

8500 should be ok, get this to the apoth. for expert opinion. I personally have an old 5600XT, runs like greased lightning...(or not depending on what you call greased lightning) I mean at least 30fps. A5700 u Is usually not that worth it. A 9600 XT or 9800 is similar in price and will outrun it by a noticeable way. more ram is most definitely advised 512mb should be a prerequsite for many games if you want it smooth.

throw at 512 stick in your system - it'll run well then. my old system ran the game flawlessly with up to 2000 units on the field at High or Highest Settings:

Athlon XP 1600+
768 RAM
geForce 4200ti 128mb

If you want a cheap, good card get a used one like 5700U or 4200ti.

You probably can get by for awhile with the CPU, but you need to upgrade your RAM, and the 8500 is a couple of generations behind in technology.

What type of RAM do you presently have? What's your budget?

I'd suggest a FULL upgrade, as you need at minimum 512 megs of RAM. I assume that the RAM you have is probably a bit on the slow side, so why spend good money to buy more of it?

I'd get a new motherboard, which could take the lastest RAM. The problem is that you might have a hard time finding a next generation board that'll accept your CPU. See what I mean? Overall, you'd be best with a full upgrade, new motherboard, new RAM, PSU, CPU, and GPU.

If that's a bit more than you wanted to spend, then get a 512 or 1024 of RAM and depending on what you can spend, an ATI 9700 pro or 9800 pro. Depending on how well you shop, the price range for the GPU is US$125-200. Also, depending on the quality of RAM you choose, US$150-300. This will get you excellent RTW performance with all the goodies turned on.

Here's my present setup:

Abit IC7-G
Pentium 2.4c (12x250 1:1)
Thermalright XP-94 (Vantec Tornardo 92mm ~3000rpm)
ATI Radeon 9700 pro (357/343.5)
2x512 MB Corsair XMS 3200XL (2.5-3-3-5)
Addtronics 7890A (modified by www.coolcases.com)
Cornerstone p1700 (21")
Win2000pro SP4

I play at the highest settings, except AA at low/medium (I forget), and at 1600x1200x32. I have no performance issues (so far!).

Luck!

Upgrading RAM is probably the first step. The box says 256 MB RAM is the minimum but that's probably just to the game to actually run (not look good).

My system is a AMD 64 3200+, 512 MB, Geforce FX 5200. Runs great. I'm actually going to upgrade to 1 GB memory soon just because i have a lot of programs running on my computer and could use the extra memory.

Anyway if you're just wanting to upgrade to play the game, then i would go for upgrading the RAM and then video card if you're still having problems.

However, if you are willing to spend a little more cash and are ready for a new computer, i would find a good deal somewhere. I got my computer earlier this summer for about $700 and i haven't had to upgrade anything.

the Rome Total War box says these are the minimum requirements...

1 GHz Pentium III (or comparable Athlon)
256 MB Ram
8x CD-Rom drive
2.9 GB hard drive space
Dirextx 9.0b (included with game but latest version is 9.0c)
64MB Video card

Sounds like you meet minimum requirements. you could always check to see that you have all the latest drivers installed.

Processor is no problem.

There aren't many games these days that do well with only 256 MB of RAM. WinXP needs about 512 MB for proper operation anyway (if you want to run apps quickly that is.)

The 8500 is a good card but it is getting a bit dated. The regular retail 8500 was fully a match for any GF3 or GF3Ti. I doubt it will run the shaders at an acceptable rate, but I could be wrong. Still that should be adjustable. An 8500 is a half generation below a GF4 Ti4200, although the AIW you have used a lower clock and memory speed variant of the 8500 so it is taking an additional hit. If you are using the AIW features and want them in future cards, upgrade options get expensive.

The 8500 also isn't a DX9 card, which is what you need for the latest games.

Here's a slightly dated Chart outlining the basic features of several cards: VGA Chart III

This is the latest Chart, part of a comparision article: VGA Chart IV

I had a small LAN in my flat last week-end with friends.
We did some RTW network games, with usually between 3000 and 4000 soldiers in each battle.

If was laggy, but playable, on my second computer, which is :

1700 + underclocked (the MB can't run at 133 MHz, so it runs at 100 MHz, which means that the processor is roughly a 1400+)
896 Mo of RAM (SDR PC 100)
GeForce 2 Pro (yes, it's a GF2, not a 3)

All the graphical options were to the lowest setting (except for unit size, which was set to "large"), which is quite not as good as the highest one, obviously, but still much better than what I expected.

So, except perhaps for RAM, I wouldn't worry for your own computer ^^