The M2TW hardware thread: please post all hardware queries here

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:

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.

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gallicflair

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?

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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.

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...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sapi

What video card have you got?

If it's an integrated one, as I suspect, you probably won't be able to run it.

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I think it is so crap :computer:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sinan

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 ?

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this 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.

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:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sapi

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:

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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 ~;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sinan

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.

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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.

How has this thread remained here instead of the hardware and software forum is beyond me.

Quote:

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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.

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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/gr...6/25417_g1.jpg

Quote:

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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

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Its certianly alot better than what your getting although i dont know what your budget is.

LINK

Quote:

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How has this thread remained here instead of the hardware and software forum is beyond me.

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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...

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 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

This is the new PC I just ordered:

Code:

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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

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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. =)

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riadach

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?

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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.

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...

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hoplite7

I'd say low settings, the 7300 is a pretty weak card.

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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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr

This is the new PC I just ordered:

Code:

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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

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Do you think it will be able to run M2TW at the max settings?

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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 ~;)

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...

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.

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.

Here's the pic, sorry it wouldn't let me post one right away.
https://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...orse/00041.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by firedragom

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.

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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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ForgotMyOldNick

Dr_Horse: use photobucket or some image hoster for your pics mate.

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Photobucket is where that pic is hosted. Why, can't you see it?

Sorry mate. Internet silliness today... and it's my day off !


Nice map hehehehee

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr_Horse

Here's the pic, sorry it wouldn't let me post one right away.
https://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c...orse/00041.jpg

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Looks a bit like overheating to me.

What's the temperature like where you are?

Quote:

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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.

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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.

Well I have been playing it with hyperthreading enabled, Ill try it disabled, see if I notice a difference and I will post back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sapi

Looks a bit like overheating to me.

What's the temperature like where you are?

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...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...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr

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.

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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...

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr

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...

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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

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Moose85

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.

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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?

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

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.

Quote:

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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.

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RAM is a right pain to diagnose, many many times Ive been stumped by RAM issues, glad you got it fixed!

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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 ?

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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)

Quote:

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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.

Quote:

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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:

Quote:

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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)

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?

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.

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sapi

This may sound like an odd question, but is it hot where you live?

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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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by irishron2004

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.

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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...

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...

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Archungel

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

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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.

Quote:

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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.

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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)?

Quote:

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Heat? This room hasn't even hit 70 degrees and it's 32 outside.

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I'm in Australia - today's a very mild summer's day, at 26 or 27 degrees Celsius :grin2:

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.)

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?

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

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/...1204gg4.th.jpg

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.

@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

I have 500 watt power supply with the horses needed. I made sure before spent this kind of upgrade money.