next »

[xogrind]

My computer has the following specs
En9500Gt Magic (which is pretty much a geforce9500GT if anyone could tell me the difference between the two that would be great)
A Dual Core Pentium D processor @ 2.8 Ghz
2 Gigs of Ram

I can run company of heroes on full graphics as well as medival total war, but for some reason, I can't run the New Empire Total war Demo, and when I say I can't run it I mean not even on the lowest graphics, cause even then I get around 20-30 FPS. Can anyone tell me what to do cause I'm stumped.

[H-kon]

Welcome to H-kon.net

Your Magic card is clocked 50Mhz higher (600Mhz) than the regular version. The memory on it runs at 1,8Ghz instead of the regular 1,6 from what i can gather, so basically it's an overclocked version.

What kind of Pentium D processor do you have? Is this the E2xxx version, or is this the Pentium 4?

If in doubt, download CPUID here: http://www.cpuid.com/

Then we need to know the driver version that you use with your graphics card:

Start - Run - type in "cmd" without the quotes, then type "dxdiag".

In the display tab, it should say what the driver version is.

[H-kon]

Oh and the system requirements for the game is the following:



          o Supported OS: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™
          o Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel® Pentium® or greater or AMD® Athlon® equivalent CPU
          o Memory: 1GB RAM (XP,) 2GB RAM (Vista™)
          o Graphics: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible hardware accelerated video card with shader version 2.0 support, 256 MB video memory
          o Display: Minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
          o Sound: Directx9.0c compatible sound card
          o Hard Drive: 15 GB free hard disk space
          o Peripherals: Windows compatible mouse and keyboard

[xogrind]

my CPU is an intel pentium D 820 the driver I have is nv4_disp.dll, by the way when I press auto settings for the game graphics it puts it all at ultra, but I run the game super slow.

[H-kon]

Try installing the latest graphics driver from Nvidia and give it a go.

Do you run Windows XP or Windows Vista?

[xogrind]

I have XP and I do have the latest graphics card, by the way when I look up drivers from my graphics card it should be for a Geforce 9500GT right? not the EN9500Gt Magic cause that's not there.

[H-kon]

Yes, select the 9500GT from nvidia.com

[xogrind]

yup I have it, but the game still doesn't run well, is my computer supposed to handle a game like this or should I upgrade my pc?

[H-kon]

You should be able to play the game at medium to low settings if the system requirements are to be believed, but the weakest link is your CPU.

i would start checking task manager to see if there are any rogue applications that eats your cpu cycles.

How much memory do you have available according to task manager after a fresh boot?

Are there any other games you struggle with?

[H-kon]

Btw, 20-30 frames pr second is not bad at all for your system. It should be more than playable if you get those results. 30 frames = smooth.

Try checking the graphics options ingame and turn things off one thing at a time and see if it helps.

[xogrind]

I can only run 30 frames per second if the graphics are all put at the lowests, and even then the fights get me down to about 7, I don't know exactly where to look for to find how much memory I have available, but I saw this part on task manager that might be it, it says Commit Charge 543M/3333M. I don't struggle with any other games, I can run Company of Heros on full graphics as well as medival total war (the predicessor of this game). By the way what does the CPU have to do with gaming exactly and if I have a really good one will games run better?

[H-kon]

The cpu is the brain of your computer. The faster the cpu, the faster the computer is in general for daily use.

Gamingwise, you also need a good graphics card and enough memory to load most of the game into RAM so that you can feed your graphics card.

Having an Intel "SuperduperNewestShiny" CPU and a graphics card from 1998 won't even start the game, the same can be said if you have the best graphics card in the world, but an older CPU thats 5-6 years old, you won't be able to utilize the graphics card at all, and at best play at the bare minimum resolution with everything turned off.

Looking around, there are lots of people that do experience that the game likes a lot of resources, especially memory, but setting the graphics options ingame on "Auto" should make it playable.

You might be able to replace the cpu on a tight budget on your current motherboard, but before you do that, i will need the make and model of your motherboard or the model of your computer so that we can see if that is possible.

[xogrind]

on CPU ID it says some things about my motherboard:
Manufacturer: ECS
Model: Asterope3    1.1
Chipset ATI RS400/RC400/RC410 Rev. 01
Southbridge: ATI SB400
LPCIO ITE IT8712
I hope that was what you needed

[H-kon]

Great job thank you Excellent information!

This is what i have found:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00783614
(Scroll down for pictures).

The board is made by Elitegroup (ECS) and support the following cpu's as far as i can tell.

http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/motherboards/socket775/ecs_RC410-M_cpu.shtml

You seem to have a CPU that is close to the top of what the motherboard already supports so i don't think upgrading the CPU on your current motherboard with any CPU supported will gain you much in terms of performance. Maybe "Teal" here can chime in and give us his opinion on the Pentium 4 D.

To install a new cpu, it looks like you will need a new motherboard (that is if the motherboard i linked to above is the same as the one you got) as well and then we're off building a new computer which can be a difficult road if you haven't built your own yet.

I am not sure where you live, but if you live in either Canada or USA, Newegg.com seem to be the place with the best deals.

If this game is the only thing preventing you from enjoying your computer, i would try to tinker with the settings in the demo first to see if it makes a difference before rushing out for an upgrade.  Your system does meet the minimum requirements of the game, so you should be able to play at the minimal resolution (1024x768) with graphics settings at "auto".

[H-kon]

Reading some more about the game, i am discovering that people are having problems with the game with even more powerful systems than you have.

The bottleneck seems to be CPU related mostly, it also seem to eat graphics cards for breakfast.

I'll give it a whirl this weekend with my E8400 3.0Ghz running at 3,6 GHz and ATI 4670 512mb el cheapo card running Windows 7 Beta and see how it brings my system to it's knees