The "Would my PC be able to run M2TW?" thread (all such queries here pls)

[JR-]

My new hardware came and after building the pc i tried the demo and it run perfectly on all the highest settings at 1280x1024.
core duo e6660
asus i975x
2gb ddr2ram
7950gt oc
audigy

nice, similar to what i have just built:

C2D 6600
Gigabyte DS4
1GB PC6400
XFX 7950
Silverstone LC16-M case

i think we'll do fine with M2:TW. ;)

[Bob the Insane]

nice, similar to what i have just built:

C2D 6600
Gigabyte DS4
1GB PC6400
XFX 7950
Silverstone LC16-M case

i think we'll do fine with M2:TW. ;)

NO FAIR!!!

Please send money...

[maestro]

You guys should be running at 1600x1200 with that setup, to be running at 1280x1024 is an offense to that hardware

[*Ringo*]

Not really too surprising that the demo works with the latest hardware!

[Marius Dynamite]

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...cID=4733.topic

I'm sure this is flying around here somewere but I guess I should mention it in this topic. Sorry if its already here.

[Nicolas]

I have AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2400+
2.00 GHz, 256 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Can I play the game??? The demo not start, can be some of my computer???

[mfberg]

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440

I have the same card, thats one problem I think.

I just got that graphics card to stop the stuttering on MTW, now I have to get a new one with shadowing to run MTW2. Well it's been 3 years since I've looked at graphics cards, what are the minimums on Graphic RAM, makers, and capabilities.

mfberg

[Nicolas]

[QUOTE=mfberg]I have the same card, thats one problem I think.

I just got that graphics card to stop the stuttering on MTW, now I have to get a new one with shadowing to run MTW2. Well it's been 3 years since I've looked at graphics cards, what are the minimums on Graphic RAM, makers, and capabilities.


So do you say me that I have to change my video card or the MB of Ram or Both????

[GeneralMikeIII]

I've been looking to buy a new computer for about 6 months, and M2 is going to be the thing that finally makes me go out and do it. I went to the Dell website and came up with this. I didn't buy it yet, but it is what I am looking at.

XPS 410 (model)--very important for price, see below
C2D E6400 (2.13 Ghz) (processor)
2 GB (memory)
ATI X1300 Pro (graphics card)

It's been awhile since I was up to date with the hardware stuff, but I think this should have no problems running it, right? That is the kind of feedback I get from reading this thread, plus my rather out of date knowledge.

For those interested, It also came with a 19" monitor, 320 GB Hard Drive, and a CD/DVD burner. Price is about $1350 (US) b/f tax and any rebates you can get (I get a discount from my college, for example, but there are other ones a person might be eligible for). 3-5 day shipping is free. Quite a reasonable price, I'd say. If you go with a XPS 700 model, with everything else the same, it comes out to an extra $500 or so.

:Crosses fingers and hopes that he does still know what he is talking about with this kind of stuff:

[Barkhorn1x]

I have AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2400+
2.00 GHz, 256 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Can I play the game??? The demo not start, can be some of my computer???

Nicolas;

Sorry to have to tell you this but you have problems across the board:
a. Your CPU does not support SSE2 so you can't play the demo - and the full game will be pretty sluggish at best.
b. Your RAM is too low - you need AT LEAST 512 MB - 1GB would be better.
c. Your MX 440 was a budget card when it came out about 4 years ago and I you won't be able to even play the full game - at any speed - on that card.

Barkhorn.

[Lord ZORO Savage]

my computer supports just SSE2 is it enough?

[Dracula(Romanian Vlad Tepes)]

is SSE enough or i need SSe2?

[Barkhorn1x]

You MUST HAVE SSE2 to play the demo. If you do your are fine. If not, then not. To find out downloand this freeware app. and look on the CPU tab, "Instructions" line.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Barkhorn.

[Nicolas]

Tell me one thing, what is SSE2, what function does in my computer??? I have SP2.

[Barkhorn1x]

Tell me one thing, what is SSE2, what function does in my computer??? I have SP2.

SP2 is Windows Service Pack 2 - a patch that basically corrects many of the scew-ups in XP on the part of M$.

SSE2 is an instruction set for your CPU:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2

Barkhorn.

[Dracula(Romanian Vlad Tepes)]

Can i get SS2 from the web?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

now ive tested M2TW on my Intel Graphics Card which not to my surprise didnt work. (probably didnt have SSE2)
so can this work?:
site and info of specific graphics card

[Barkhorn1x]

Can i get SS2 from the web?

Nope. SSE2 is an instruction set imbeded in the CPU architecture. The chip either has it or it doesn't.

Barkhorn.

[Barkhorn1x]

now ive tested M2TW on my Intel Graphics Card which not to my surprise didnt work. (probably didnt have SSE2)
so can this work?:
site and info of specific graphics card

Keep in mind that SSE2 is part of the CPU architecture - not the GPU.

That being said, you should be able to play the full game on that card - at less than the full level of detail - assuming your CPU and memory can handle it.

Barkhorn.

[GeneralMikeIII]

Sorry to be obnoxious, but I was hoping to get some feedback on this. I posted this earlier, but I haven't gotten a response, and I definately want the opinion of someone who is a little better educated than I in this area. This is what I put:

I've been looking to buy a new computer for about 6 months, and M2 is going to be the thing that finally makes me go out and do it. I went to the Dell website and came up with this. I didn't buy it yet, but it is what I am looking at.

XPS 410 (model)--very important for price, see below
C2D E6400 (2.13 Ghz) (processor)
2 GB (memory)
ATI X1300 Pro (graphics card)

It's been awhile since I was up to date with the hardware stuff, but I think this should have no problems running it, right? That is the kind of feedback I get from reading this thread, plus my rather out of date knowledge.

For those interested, It also came with a 19" monitor, 320 GB Hard Drive, and a CD/DVD burner. Price is about $1350 (US) b/f tax and any rebates you can get (I get a discount from my college, for example, but there are other ones a person might be eligible for). 3-5 day shipping is free. Quite a reasonable price, I'd say. If you go with a XPS 700 model, with all the other specs the same, it comes out to an extra $500 or so.

:Crosses fingers and hopes that he does still know what he is talking about with this kind of stuff:

[JR-]

You guys should be running at 1600x1200 with that setup, to be running at 1280x1024 is an offense to that hardware

1920x1200 with max settings on my dell screen. :)

[JR-]

I've been looking to buy a new computer for about 6 months, and M2 is going to be the thing that finally makes me go out and do it. I went to the Dell website and came up with this. I didn't buy it yet, but it is what I am looking at.

XPS 410 (model)--very important for price, see below
C2D E6400 (2.13 Ghz) (processor)
2 GB (memory)
ATI X1300 Pro (graphics card)

It's been awhile since I was up to date with the hardware stuff, but I think this should have no problems running it, right? That is the kind of feedback I get from reading this thread, plus my rather out of date knowledge.

For those interested, It also came with a 19" monitor, 320 GB Hard Drive, and a CD/DVD burner. Price is about $1350 (US) b/f tax and any rebates you can get (I get a discount from my college, for example, but there are other ones a person might be eligible for). 3-5 day shipping is free. Quite a reasonable price, I'd say. If you go with a XPS 700 model, with everything else the same, it comes out to an extra $500 or so.

:Crosses fingers and hopes that he does still know what he is talking about with this kind of stuff:

CPU is great
Memory is great
GPU will work, but with low/medium settings as it doesn't have too much grunt.

should be fine all told. :)

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Keep in mind that SSE2 is part of the CPU architecture - not the GPU.

That being said, you should be able to play the full game on that card - at less than the full level of detail - assuming your CPU and memory can handle it.

Barkhorn.

CPU and Memory is great..
so i guess its good!

[GeneralMikeIII]

CPU is great
Memory is great
GPU will work, but with low/medium settings as it doesn't have too much grunt.

should be fine all told. :)

Thanks a lot for the response, Peregrine.

Alright, on the GPU then, the other thing I was looking at was a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card for about $550 on tigerdirect.com. Have you heard anything negative about it, or is that a pretty good deal? I tried to check it out, but all I understood was that 1GB is a big number for a graphics card. Also, if I get the 7950, I'd still have the ATI that I could sell or something.

[Basileus]

Thanks a lot for the response, Peregrine.

Alright, on the GPU then, the other thing I was looking at was a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card for about $550 on tigerdirect.com. Have you heard anything negative about it, or is that a pretty good deal? I tried to check it out, but all I understood was that 1GB is a big number for a graphics card. Also, if I get the 7950, I'd still have the ATI that I could sell or something.

I would suggest the 7900GTO which is a 7900GTX underclocked card which you can overclock if you so wish, it costs almost half the price of the GTX so its a good deal and a great card. Depending where you are from prices may vary but i reckon it will be cheap:er then the SLi card atleast heh..would fit teh rest of your set up good.

Btw you could always wait until mid november and go for the new nvidia DX10 cards :D heh

[Belgolas]

I have a...

2.8 GHz Pentium D
3gigs of ram
Sapphire X700 256mb gpu

The demo runs better than RTW. I love the demo. I can run it on high for unit detail and the rest on low to medium except for shadows. To my surprise the demo runs better than RTW. I also don't have the problem like in RTW where I would have to under clock my GPU to run it without crashing. If M2TW full version will run even better I will be so happy.

I think I will upgrade my computer when Direct X 10 comes out.

It will most likely be a
Quad Core Intel
And a
DX10 Very high end GPU

Or for $2000(Canadian) I could upgrade my current computer now and get a
2.66 Core 2 duo Conroe
ATI Redeon X 1950 XTX
X-FI sound blaster
A new mobo

NCIX.com or tigerdirect.ca
Buy parts online because at stores they jack them up by a few hundred dollars. I have seen some things $500 more at a store than online at best buy and Future Shop.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Originally Posted by GeneralMikeIII
I've been looking to buy a new computer for about 6 months, and M2 is going to be the thing that finally makes me go out and do it. I went to the Dell website and came up with this. I didn't buy it yet, but it is what I am looking at.

XPS 410 (model)--very important for price, see below
C2D E6400 (2.13 Ghz) (processor)
2 GB (memory)
ATI X1300 Pro (graphics card)

It's been awhile since I was up to date with the hardware stuff, but I think this should have no problems running it, right? That is the kind of feedback I get from reading this thread, plus my rather out of date knowledge.

For those interested, It also came with a 19" monitor, 320 GB Hard Drive, and a CD/DVD burner. Price is about $1350 (US) b/f tax and any rebates you can get (I get a discount from my college, for example, but there are other ones a person might be eligible for). 3-5 day shipping is free. Quite a reasonable price, I'd say. If you go with a XPS 700 model, with all the other specs the same, it comes out to an extra $500 or so.

:Crosses fingers and hopes that he does still know what he is talking about with this kind of stuff:

Please don't put that graphics card in that system. It's such a waste. Stretch your budget a little and get the x1900 or 1950.

[GeneralMikeIII]

Please don't put that graphics card in that system. It's such a waste. Stretch your budget a little and get the x1900 or 1950.

Yeah, that's the way I was leaning too, but the 1900/1950 seemed like a too-good-to-be-true kinda deal. I was afraid there was some horrible problem with them, like melting all over the inside of the computer or something, and they had to knock the price down just to sell them. I know that isn't very likely either, but I'm in college; I can't afford to take many financial risks right now. Looks like I'm leaning towards the 7900GTO.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[AlJabberwock]

Some info about current and recent Video Cards for the layman...

I make PCs as a hobby, for home, friends and for work (though I am not employed as a PC builder). I am NOT a proffessional developer/manufacturer by any means, and any error or ommission in these comments is lamentable but possible and not intentional. I have been doing it for years and have had to stay on top of many of the dizzying changes in technology. I have had to read the white papers at Dell, M$, NVidia, ATI, AMD, Intel, and elsewhere. So you don't have to (unless you like that sort of thing-not that there's anything wrong with that!), here are a few basic ways to understand what you have, want, or need in video cards...

(A summary at the end is provided as an opinion-laden shorthand if you are not interested in the details listed here ad infinitum).

As another poster intelligently specified, I am an adherent of one of the two dominant video card producers. This is important to know about yourself if it is true since it means you 1) may have a bias severe or slight, 2) probably know more about one maker than another. I know more about and concentrate on NVidia cards, and for specific reasons, but will give some info on ATI cards as well. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable about ATI cards will post a sensible comment with greater detail on ATI chip products.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

V Card "generation"

There are "generations" that can be more or less defined as "stages" in the battle for supremacy or competitiveness between NVidia and ATI. I will not try to trace the lineage of ATI cards or individual stages of where the frontline was in each of these stages between the two makers. Which generation you have or are looking to buy will give you a good indicator of what you can expect its functionality will be for M2TW. Convenienetly recent Nvidia card generations can be more or less defined by the first number in their designation or the number after the "GeForce" name. Ergo, 4's , 400's 4000's etc. are pretty much 4th generation, 5's 5000's (many with the "FX" designation in front of them) are 5th generation, 6000's are the last generation, and 7000's are the current generation (at least for a bit longer!).

If you have a 6th or 7th generation NVidia card, you probably have no worries unless it is a budget card (or in some cases a "LE" or low energy card) which may have some limited support issues for the cooler textures and shaders, limited ram or energy issues. Although Rome TW can run great with most eye candy turned on even with an "FX" or 5th gen. if you have no other bottlenecks, (5500 OC or better is reccommended), it is not clear this will be sufficient for M2TW. It does provide a cutoff of sorts, insofar as it seems to me that it is unlikely demands will be less than they were for RTW. So, less than a mid-level 5th gen definitely calls for an upgrade, and BTW, the current price for video cards will vary by the "interface type" as well as what generation and bells and whistles they have so read below... this is important also for those thinking of upgrading since you may have to change you mobo (motherboard) and pretty much everything else depending on how high you reach and what your budget is may be very important.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

V Card Interface type

The loveable, friendly brown AGP 8X "state of the art" interface (the way in which your vid card fits into your mobo) is pretty much history. Mobos with AGP graphic slots and the vid cards that go into them are now going the way of the Dodo, and while temporarily cheaper, will eventually become scarce and provide the twin advantages of being both "more expensive" and "less fulfilling"!

The reason they are going away, is because a new standard called "PCI-Express" (or PCI-E) is faster and cheaper to scale up. This means vid cards can reach new heights, and be less of a bottleneck because of the way in which this new interface type widens the signal (like bandwidth does for your internet connection as a bad example...). Unfortunately it also means most new cards and eventually all new cards, will fit into these PCI-E slots and NOT into your AGP slots (they're completely incompatible... big surprise there from the office of planned obsolesence!). This is equally true of ATI and NVidia cards.

There are a number of different speeds of these PCI-E slots (not to be confused with regular PCI slots... where you put other cards like USB or modem cards...) 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x.... There are also now boards with two 8x or 16x slots so you can run "crossfire" (ATI) or "SLI" (NVidia) video card setups which are two cards operating simultaniously. If that isn't enough craziness, NVidia has a card called the 7950GTX which is actually two "GPU's" or video chips on one card, and you can have two of THOSE things running although there are only a handful of programs that can take any kind of real advantage from all this incredible increase in video signal width and increased computing power on the vid cards. As with dual core CPUs, extra cards and/gpu's help in some tasks and programs just like a second person helps when you are trying to move your couch, but you may not need them (or indeed want them around at all) when you are doing your undies at the laundry...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Vid Card Memory

Memory on video cards comes in DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 forms. DDR3 is theoretically faster, but certainly less than 256megs (of whatever kind you have) will restrict the rendering rate and cause any other advantages your card has to be diminished because of the "bottleneck" caused by the card waiting around while the dimwitted ram gets the picture ready. While this can be radically different for different programs and different systems it is highly effected by whether the software relies more on the CPU (your computer's brain- like AMD or Intel) or the GPU (your video cards vid chip-like ATI or NVidia) to handle the load of rendering etc, and what the limits are of and how you set your BIOS (that blue screen you can get to by madly pressing the F1 or Delete key as your 'puter starts up) to handle the tasks or limits or overclocking on your individual components.

Cards in the upper price ranges have 512 megs of gddram, and depending on the system and the task it definitely has an impact. I have, with difficulty, found the edge of where a single 7900GTX OC w 512 megs can function with no visible strain, at least in some programs. I don't have a large enough monitor to find the edge for two of them working in tandem for any program that I possess.
On the other hand, with prices ranging from $400 to $500 @, well, you get what you pay for...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Non Vid Card hardware impacts on video performance

The better your CPU, and the greater your Ram speed and quantity, in general, the better your video performance... although by how much will vary based on your settings and the way a particular software is engineered. Also to be considered is your "front side bus" (now described in terms of hyper transport speeds and soon to be based on the same physical concept that has given us the PCI-E). Not so well known is the makeup of your Ram sticks... Your system in general will run better with more ram than less, however, fewer "big" sticks, are better than more "small" sticks. Obviously the most recent drivers for your CPU, "chipset" (the chips on your mobo other than your CPU), vid card and oddly, your sound card are also adviseable.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Summary and Shameless Opinion for Vid Cards for M2TW

ATI cards hands down win anti-aliasing contests in most cases that are fair fights with NVidia cards (anti-aliasing being loosely defined as the way in which your video card can and will "round sharp edges" and make a computerized picture look the way we see reality with our eyes). On the other hand, many of these differences can rarely be seen without stop-motion still comparison between frames from the different systems- the same can be said of the texturing and or shading advantages that may be gotten from NVidia cards in certain conditions and programs. In all cases I am also talking about the maximum resolutions that most people will never need or use unless they have monitors in excess of 24 inch-viewable.

I like the NVidia driver architecture better and a few other things that are strictly opinion and based on personal experience... For me, in general, NVidia cards are smaller and less hot and more reliable IN MY OPINION. Your mileage may vary and has to do with conditions, uses and systems and a number of other things... Buy an upper-end product from either maker and you will probably be quite satiesfied if it represents a significant step up from where you are.

Keep in mind that programs can be more CPU or more GPU (vid card) -intensive. If you are buying a new system, keep this in mind... and you might be buying a new system if you want an upper end card that uses the new technology based on PCI-E. As time progresses, PCI-E cards may NOT be the more expensive, so check to make sure you are buying the right kind of card! (PCI-E is NOT the same as regular PCI! Read above).

A 6th or 7th generation NVidia Card is adviseable (6000's or 7000's series). GTs, are usually faster than standard, GTXs faster still, and OCs (meaning overclocked) are faster than the stock setting of whatever gpu they are based on... , and maybe worth the price if they are waranteed by a good manufacturer like BFG or XFX and the like who specialize in these types of products. It is unknown whether an FX series (the 5000's series) will be adequate to run M2TW with anything like joy, so if you own one, or the ATI equivalent, you may need to start taking evasive action.

Any one of the following cards should easily handle M2TW at high or highest on most settings...
Fastest in the 6000's series: 6800gt... unless there is an OC version of the 6800gt. Second best 6600gtocx or similar 6600gt.
Fastest in the 7000's series: 7900gtx OC, although the 7800gtx 512 in some versions is a tough second, and there is a lot of talk about the straight 7950gt but I have no personal experience with it.
The 7950 gx2 (or the dual gpu vid card) is a one of a kind unit and is the only thing I have seen that is as large or larger physically than the 7900gtx (which is itself absolutely the hugest thing I have ever seen standing upright on my mobos...). One of these alone would probably laugh at the demands placed on it by most monitors playing M2TW.

Current price check online today shows the follwing price range:6600s can be had for as little as $100 us in the PCI E version, less in the AGP versions. 6800s are in the $130 US range. 7800s are around $2 to 300 US, with 7900s in the $400 to $500 US range. GX2's are around $600 a piece. Keep in mind almost any of these except the 6600s will probably also call for a PCI E capable board. Sorry guys, I wish they were less, trust me, they are way less than when I had to buy a bunch of them a couple of months ago. Wait another month or two and they will come down again. There are new generations coming out soon!

Al Jabberwock

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Would My Radeon X1300 256MB Card be ok? it can Run BF2, which is 1.5 GHz,512 RAM (comp is 2.8 GHz,512 RAM) with no ploblems. I have about 10-15 seconds of lag at start of a MP game,then it goes fine. SP game on BF2, no ploblems at all..