About RTW system requarements

[SlyConqueror]

I suppose that if i buy a better video card like GeForce 5200 128 bit 64/128Mb i wil still have problem with running RTW in this PC. The fps ratio will be bad nad the quality poor. am i right?

[boot]

yeah dont spend anymore money on your old pc mate it will be a waste, keep your Money towards a newer one...realy i know how you feel but dont chuck good money away.....i often look in the papers and see good second hand pc which will run RTW at a decent price.....good luck.

Boot

[Medieval Assassin]

It.runs.very.well.on.my.pc.

[castle]

if your monitors ok just get a new base unit

[Red Harvest]

SlyConqueror,

That machine is obviously pretty dated, what motherboard chipset does it use? Does it have an AGP slot? My guess is that it will be an old KT133 based system (KT133A would be good!) Assuming it has an AGP slot, and is KT133 based or similar, then you could probably find an older 100/200 FSB Athlon that would work with it. You could upgrade memory, and you could put in a new vid card. Obviously, this all costs money, and you are putting it into an obsolete system. However, if it is your only option at least you could do it in stages (Christmas is around the corner...) You would probably end up with a machine with about two years of life in it before it becomes utterly obsolete again. This assumes nothing big fails, like the motherboard, or PSU, or hard drive.

If it is based on the KT133 and there is a motherboard BIOS to support it:
1. CPU wise you could try up to a 1.4 GHz Athlon with the 14x100 multiplier (it will be listed as 200 FSB.) On Pricewatch these are expensive @ ~$130, but you can get a 1.3 or 1.2 for around $60. So I would steer that direction. This would be huge step up in performance for you.
2. Memory wise you probably have a single 128 and a single 64 MB stick of PC100 (or PC133) SDRAM. If it is a KT133 motherboard, it will only be able to run 100/200 FSB, so the PC133 works but provides no additional benefit. You could probably get by with pulling the 64 MB stick and adding a single 256 MB stick (technically below spec, but not too bad.) However, a full 512 MB probably wouldn't cost much more so I would lean that way.


If instead, it is KT133A based and you can find an appropriate BIOS from the manufacturer, the board would probably support an Athlon XP 2100+ and 133/266 FSB operation. (You would REALLY notice the performance improvement from that CPU.) This would let you add/replace with 512 MB of PC133 SDRAM. My wife's machine is equipped like that and is still quite useful (although it is not used much for gaming anymore and I haven't tested RTW with it.) It is still plenty fast for all but high end gaming. Going from 100 to 133 FSB is noticeable even at the same CPU speed.

For vid card selection, check the Apothecary, there are threads on this about once every two weeks. ATi 9600 series are probably the lowest I would consider installing as a new card, I can't remember where the best break point is on the lowest end NV card to consider (one that actually supports DX9 like the 9600 without software emulating.)

Now there are some gotcha's about a very old system...the power supply (PSU) might not be able to hack it, meaning you have to keep that in mind as a potential budgetary item. Also, case cooling could be a problem for a system that has never had a hot processor and decent vid card combination.

[dlundie]

I have a KT 133A board running a Athlon 1700xp on 512 PC 133 and a fx5200. It runs the game quite well at medium settings with all the eye candy enabled. The board can be updated and later cpu's installed via a bios update. However it doesnt support the full FSB of the newer cpu's