Little advice on specs.

311

Hello ,just looking to see if I'm wasting my time buying games like Fallout 3 for the pc. With specs like mine.
Vista SP1
1.8 Duo core
3GB Ram
8600GT

Hogzy

Well it depends on your standards of a good gaming experience. Youll probably have to turn down the settings a bit!!!!

PogMoThoin

8600Gt is not very powerful, what size is your monitor? 8600Gt is actually slower than a 7900Gt which is even older

311

Thanks for the replies ,the monitor I'm using is a 20widescreen.
The 8600GT .http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=334591

If what I have is too slow ,I just won't bother buying the games. I'd rather organise a new machine at some stage in the future.

PogMoThoin

It'll prob play them all right, but just at low/mid resolution & settings.

Stephen

Try some demos of recent games and see how you get on with them.

311

Stephen wrote: »

Try some demos of recent games and see how you get on with them.

Good thinking batman.

I've been using a steam account ,so shouldn't have trouble getting some.

Cheers:)

311

Sorry ,fallout demo not available

Is there anything that would be the norm now ,that I could test my machine with ?

RoosterIllusion

311 wrote: »

Sorry ,fallout demo not available

Is there anything that would be the norm now ,that I could test my machine with ?

Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Company of heroes, all intensive graphically.

PogMoThoin

311 wrote: »

Sorry ,fallout demo not available

Is there anything that would be the norm now ,that I could test my machine with ?

Try this, its the only one I can think of, although I don't think they're giving out more beta keys

311

I'd be a newbie to all this ,thanks again. Getting a 1.8GB demo of crysis at the moment ,so that should be chunky enough to open mine eyes

Nice one.

311

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Try this, its the only one I can think of, although I don't think they're giving out more beta keys

I will try that one ,once I've tried crysis.

I've priced specs on komplett and have a machine priced at around a grand. So this is not in vain:)

Thanks again.

tman

311 wrote: »

I will try that one ,once I've tried crysis.

I've priced specs on komplett and have a machine priced at around a grand. So this is not in vain:)

Thanks again.

Crysis is a horrible game to demo anything but a high end system with. Even more recent titles like FarCry 2 ran a hell of a lot better.

Think there's a Tomb Raider Underworld demo out as well, might be worth giving that a shot

PogMoThoin

tman wrote: »

Think there's a Tomb Raider Underworld demo out as well, might be worth giving that a shot

I could've suggested that but its so terrible i didn't bother. It runs so easily it was obviously made for consoles. Not a great test.
COD-WAW is prob the best demo to give You an indication, gimme a shout if You can't get a beta key, I've finished with mine

311

When I installed crysis and tried loading ,the drive light would flash while the screen was blank ,then it would stop and nothing happened.

PogMoThoin ,I might try COD later. But I've a sneaky feeling that I'm heading for a new machine.
It's a dell E520that I have and the card is the max it can take ,so I can't upgrade it.
I was looking a quad 2.6 with a 9600GTX card.

311

Sorry ,not sure if this post should go into another forum.

I eventually got cod waw beta on my machine. keep getting an error message when loading ,should I do anything special within vista for the game to work?

PogMoThoin

Yes, you'll have toallow it thru your firewall. Your gonna need a beta key also to enable you play online, you got one?

311

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Yes, you'll have toallow it thru your firewall. Your gonna need a beta key also to enable you play online, you got one?

Yeah nice one, got a key everything was straight forward enough.
The crysis install was a bit of a mess in comparison ,no start up menu placing and I had to route for the .exe file in a sub directory within the game one:rolleyes:

Edit: Not to worry ,just downloaded directX10 and it's sorted.

Cunny-Funt

I'm playing dead space on my dell vostro atm. Runs great on medium to high settings. Specs: Core 2 duo T7300 @ 2ghz. 2gb ram and a 8600m GT.

Fallout 3 will run. You wont MAX it out but it will run on medium anyway.

PogMoThoin

311 wrote: »

no start up menu placing and I had to route for the .exe file in a sub directory within the game one:rolleyes:

I gotta do that for all my games
Just right click it, select send to desktop (create shortcut)

311

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

I'm playing dead space on my dell vostro atm. Runs great on medium to high settings. Specs: Core 2 duo T7300 @ 2ghz. 2gb ram and a 8600m GT.

Fallout 3 will run. You wont MAX it out but it will run on medium anyway.

I'm glad to here that about fallout 3 ,I have deadspace on the ps3 and it does me:).

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I gotta do that for all my games
Just right click it, select send to desktop (create shortcut)

Activision have a slot on the program menu ,which is grand. I had a quick go of cod and it seems to run fine ,although I think it would look better on a better machine.

It runs glitch free and doesn't keep lagging.:)

Thanks for all the help ,I was looking forward to getting a new machine ,but the one I have is fine for now:)

TerrorFirmer

I doubt the 8600GT is the best card you can use, check out the new 4670 from Ati, low power consumption and almost 9600Gt performance - actually exceeds in some games - more then twice as fast as an 8600GT and suitable for most of the latest games at mid-high settings at 1680x1050 downards. The E520 has a 305w PSU and Dell supplie's are always underrated.

For example - check out the Call of Duty 4 test.

34FPS at 1600x1200, maxed out settings, 4xAA and 16xAF. Not much to laugh at there for a mere 80 euro is there? Much, much faster then an 8600Gt, for which you'd get about 35 euro 2nd hand.

TerrorFirmer

Another thing is that you might want to invest in a slightly faster processor, something like this would be fine, and you'd get about 40 quid back on that as well....your CPU is actually fine when easily overclocked, but you won't be able to do that in your Dell.

So total cost: E5200+4670 = 160
Cashback on replaced parts = 75

So for 100 odd euro factoring in postage, you'd have a very nice upgrade that'd make a huge difference in games.

311

Thanks terrorfirmer.

The chip in the dell is actually the E6320 1.86 4MB cache . I'm actually happy with the machine as it is ,apart of course from the gaming aspect.

I'd rather keep the machine and use it as a family machine for the net and stuff. Buy something decent from komplett.
I've never actually had an unbranded pc

TerrorFirmer

It'd easily hit 2.5Ghz without any effort on the stock cooler and be fine for games, but 1.86Ghz is slightly on the slow side for the latest games and with your Dell you can't overclock. With the E5200 and 4670 you'd be able to enjoy games at decent levels for a very modest price - much, much cheaper then buying a new machine (maybe 20% of the cost).

311

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It'd easily hit 2.5Ghz without any effort on the stock cooler and be fine for games, but 1.86Ghz is slightly on the slow side for the latest games and with your Dell you can't overclock. With the E5200 and 4670 you'd be able to enjoy games at decent levels for a very modest price - much, much cheaper then buying a new machine (maybe 20% of the cost).

My fears of doing this is because I've never changed anything other than drives. I was hoping not to start messing with cpu's until I get a proper pc.

The other machine in the house at the moment is a 6 year old Dell 2GHZ pentium with rambus ram ,sounds like a dishwasher when it's running.
I was thinking of recycling that machine and using the e520 there instead.

311

Got fallout3 today and it runs no problem ,the game itself chose the highest settings for the graphics.

PogMoThoin

311 wrote: »

Got fallout3 today and it runs no problem ,the game itself chose the highest settings for the graphics.

At what resolution tho? You'd manage med/high settings at a low resolution. Get a free program called Fraps to display your framerate, anyhting under 30 isn't playable and is considered stuttering, lower settings till you have a nice steady 40+ (some recommend 60+ minimum for constant smoothness)

311

Got it set to medium at 1152 x 864
Was getting up to 59 on fraps. left it screengrabbing as I was running around shooting.
I wreckon this screenshot is just below average of what I was getting.