Empire Total War system requirements

[beatoangelico]

you just happen to have one of those laptops with huge, high resolution screen and old (or crappy) video card. you have only to blame your system because it's really unbalanced, and either reduce drastically the resolution and live with it or save money to get a decent desktop.

[Dalthius]

I actually have the laptop connected to an external monitor. It's a great laptop (purchased as a desktop replacement) but unfortunately I bought it right before the DX10 cards came out. I was leaving for Iraq in a week and didn't have time to wait for the release, which means I have no one to blame but myself. It was hyped as a "modular" laptop, but they failed to mention that the mobo was NOT modular and I pretty much screwed myself. Only way to upgrade is to send it back, pay for a new mobo and new card.

Crap.

[AussieGiant]

Well all I know is the game runs like CRAP. I'm running a Quad Core (see my stats page a few posts up), but I think a lot of my problems are due to my 7950 GTX.

I can't seem to find the proper balance with my resolution, either. 1920 x 1200 is just way too much for my crappy card to handle. I'm running somewhere around 1600 now, but I'm not happy with it. The game is certainly playable, but I have everything on low and it looks TERRIBLE. The campaign map still stutters slightly, the occassional video is almost unwatchable (duelling videos I can't watch, and the last video in the RtI campaign....but all the others are fine, weird), and every now and again I get lag in battles.

When I was toying with settings, the game looked GREAT on high but was just unplayable.

Other than sending the computer (laptop, Sager) back for a %^&*#$@ $900 upgrade or building a desktop, anybody have any recommendations for settings?

Dalthius,

You are crushing that card of yours running this game on 1920x1200. What size monitor do you have?

You're about where you should be I'd say. You need a better GPU. The rest of you machine is great but the GPU is the single most important component when it comes to games these days and yours is 4 generations old. You can expect anything else I'm sorry.

The other option is to run at 1920x1200 drop everything down to low settings and then start with 2xAA and then begin with some of the check boxes like HRD, Hardware shadows etc etc.

You can pick up the latest cards for around 150 USD equivalent...my recommendation...do it.

[beatoangelico]

I actually have the laptop connected to an external monitor. It's a great laptop (purchased as a desktop replacement) but unfortunately I bought it right before the DX10 cards came out. I was leaving for Iraq in a week and didn't have time to wait for the release, which means I have no one to blame but myself. It was hyped as a "modular" laptop, but they failed to mention that the mobo was NOT modular and I pretty much screwed myself. Only way to upgrade is to send it back, pay for a new mobo and new card.

Crap.

well thanks for the explanation but that doesn't change much. Your video card can't support those resolutions with this game, maybe you can try something like 1440x900 but probably you'll still have problems. To be honest I don't know any laptop video card that can run recent games in 1900x1200, maybe only some SLI configuration, and anyway it would cost you really a lot.

[a-e]

My laptop is running the game on high/ultra at 1900x1200 and it just has one card

[Terry]

Everyone talks about maxing out the game, but for those of us who have to tweak the settings, I would interested in what order to turn up or down the settings. Which is the most intensive use of system resources etc...

Terry

[Potocello]

i am able to run it with the new 13" in macbook that has
2.0ghz core 2 duo
2 gigs RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB
Windows 7 beta

sure, it runs on low but it's definitely playable.

[Galain_Ironhide]

From what I have read I think my computer should be able to handle this. (Although still a while away from buying - M2TW is fine for now)

The only thing I am worried about is the processor. Can somebody please confirm that this may handle the game?

Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
Processor: 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU ( I heard the Duo's are ok is this true?)
System Memory: 3.5GB Ram
Graphics Card: 640MB NVIDIA 8800GTS DirectX 9.0c
Plenty of free space on my hard drive ( over 230GB)

Cheers.

[A Very Super Market]

Yep, dual-cores are fine.

[beatoangelico]

Everyone talks about maxing out the game, but for those of us who have to tweak the settings, I would interested in what order to turn up or down the settings. Which is the most intensive use of system resources etc...

Terry

this is the official word from CA about this http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/2009/...ics-work-shop/

SSAO is by far the biggest FPS eater and the first thing to drop. I've had good success reducing of the grass and particle effects. The depth of field option is another one that can be turned off with little side effects.

[Camulodunum]

I am just about to get a new desktop and Dell here in the UK have the following in their XPS range. Do these specs look ok for ETW?

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Core Processor Q8200 (2.33GHz, 1333MHz, 4MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English
20in S2009W WIDESCREEN UK Black (1600 x 900)
512MB ATI™Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card
3072MB 1067 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [3x1024]
640 GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 Rpm)

Thanks in advance.

[Mete Han]

Now I have to buy a new pc but how am i supposed to do that during this credit crunch? i hate economic crisis... at least i still have medieval 2....

[YouYesu]

I'm on a laptop and i downloaded the demo from steam and it ran decent. I was wondering if i buy the game will it run just like the demo did? My laptop specs are:


AMD Athlon X2 64 Dual-Core QL62 2.00GHz
2GB of RAM running Vista
Nvidia GeForce 8200M G

[Potocello]

I'm on a laptop and i downloaded the demo from steam and it ran decent. I was wondering if i buy the game will it run just like the demo did? My laptop specs are:


AMD Athlon X2 64 Dual-Core QL62 2.00GHz
2GB of RAM running Vista
Nvidia GeForce 8200M G

from a thread i started, people said that the full game actually runs better than the demo! i had the same question, hope this helps!

[Monarch]

My computer should easily handle this game, 8800gts, Intel Quad Core 2.4, 3gigs of ram. And yet...it's not. I've had some kind of weird slow down where every so often, regularly enough so that it's annoying me alot, when I click a city the game basically freezes for 10 seconds before letting me access the city options. In addition, I've had three crashes, one where it said something like "out of video memory" and two more where I got a generic "empire total war stopped working" error.

I admit, I've not been keeping the computer in shape (as it's got all sorts of useless crap on here thats accumulated in the past 18 months.), but still...what the hell? I've ran all my anti-spyware and antivirus and it's all fine. After a very quick google I found someone else had the out of video error...I'm going to update my drivers now. Hopefully it'll help)

[Derfasciti]

I've got a

Microsoft XP
Media center edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

an HP Pavilion
AMD Athlon(tm) 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 3800+
2.00 GHz, 1.00 GB of Ram

here's my DxDiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/9/2009, 16:06:35
Machine name: YOUR-4DACD0EA75
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP Pavilion 061
System Model: ER900AA-ABA a1430n
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 839MB used, 1619MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: None
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode


Think it'll run it ok?

[gardibolt]

Intel 5250 (1.5G) Core 2 Duo, 3 gigs RAM with a 8600m GT (256mb) will not run the game at all, even on low/off settings. Well, it runs for about five minutes and then dies.

Kind of disappointing since it ran M2TW fine on high. Guess I'll just have to shelve the game for a couple years until I buy a new system.

[Terry]

Thanks beatoangelico, that was very helpful...

Terry

[Meph]

Hi everyone.

I've been a bit of a lurker on these boards for a while now, but would find it really helpful if anyone could answer this question about hardware:

I'm looking to buy a new laptop that is portable enough to be carried round libraries easily (I'm a student). However, I'm also pretty keen to run Empire!

I've found one candidate, which has:

Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology T6400 (2.00GHz) 800MHz FSB with 2Mb Cache
Display: 12.1” WXGA (1280x800) SuperBright© Gloss LCD TFT
System Memory: 4Gb (2x 2Gb) DDR2 800MHz (Actual Capacity 3.2Gb)
NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS (256Mb)

Is this good enough to run Empire? I don't mind low settings but obviously if it's really jerky/painful then it's a waste of money.

Thanks

[AussieGiant]

You are on the edge there Meph. You really need a better card and a better processor.

[Meph]

You are on the edge there Meph. You really need a better card and a better processor.

Hi, Thanks for the advice. The problem is that as processor speed and graphics capability go up, portability goes down, so I guess I'm pushing the boundaries a little to try and get both satisfactory performance and portability with a single machine. I'm prepared for the fact that it'll be slow... but if it's still enjoyable then I don't mind. Any more thoughts?

[AussieGiant]

You've hit the nail on the head there with laptop limitations.

Time to buy and try!!

[Meph]

I might just do that!

[Prodigal]

Edit: The following specs have the game running like a dream on high settings...And it was worth every penny buying pretty much new(ish) everything

Specs are:

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium
System Model: P5QL PRO
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7400 @ 2.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 1155MB used, 7081MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Display Memory: 2417 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1009 MB
Shared Memory: 1407 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)

[Biggley]

help!

ive installed the game. naval battles and main campaign map run ok.

land battles were a bit rubbish low res etc - then i cranked it up to med settings.

now when i run the game i get the front page of credits then its black, bar the curser, and i still have audio.

WTF?!

help!

these are my stats - any help?

I can run Fallout 3 ok and warhammer online ok if thats any help.

here is my stats

System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2009, 16:52:23

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.080814-1233)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Apple Computer, Inc.
System Model: iMac5,1
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7400 @ 2.16GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2032MB RAM
Page File: 711MB used, 3214MB 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

[Prodigal]

help!

ive installed the game. naval battles and main campaign map run ok.

land battles were a bit rubbish low res etc - then i cranked it up to med settings.

now when i run the game i get the front page of credits then its black, bar the curser, and i still have audio.

Try waiting, for a really long time, hit Esc a few times at launch to bypass the sega, intel etc. intro's if the sounds going it should load the main screen eventually & then go straight into options & change your settings back down to low.

Been playing around on my system this morning, by running in a window with a reduced display the games running very smoothly.

[Biggley]

thanks for the tip but it did not work :(

any other thoughts any one?

[Zim]

The game goes faster running in a window? I've always avoided that because I thought it slowed things down.

Try waiting, for a really long time, hit Esc a few times at launch to bypass the sega, intel etc. intro's if the sounds going it should load the main screen eventually & then go straight into options & change your settings back down to low.

Been playing around on my system this morning, by running in a window with a reduced display the games running very smoothly.

[Terry]

According to the etw graphics article on the blog,

"you will get better performance versus windowed mode, and your graphics card will have exclusive access to the available video memory."

Terry

[Prodigal]

Biggley, sorry but you thought about reinstalling it? Maybe the easiest option.

Since posting about the window I changed the PC's power consumption to burn rainforest & now have full screen running really well on high, think I could probably manage highest, but just want to play atm.

As Terry said, the info on the window's off the official site, it certainly helped get low setting running well, judged on flag movement being smooth, no scrolling delays, buttons activate immediatly when pressed etc. The in game movies were still lagged to the point where they weren't worth watching, but the game ran well. Also if you're having to reduce the display size its generally less fuzzy in a window