Gear XPS up for Rome: Total War 2

MetalJarhead

Hello,

I am looking for some guidance to a problem I've had and for some info for a possible upgrade. Currently, I have a dell xps with the current stats:

XPS 9000/ Intel Core i7-920/8gb ddr3 SDRAM/ATI Radeon HD 5870

A problem I've had in the past to use as an example is with Medieval Total War 2, I was able to run mostly on high. Had to scale back some things such as fire arrow effects etc, but here's my main complaint. Whenever I would have a reinforcing army it would give me a message saying I need to scale back my settings in order to accommodate them. Or when my main army starting losing units, the reinforcing units would filter in versus just being able to have both at once like your supposed to. So, I would scale back and scale back to a point and I didn't like losing quality. Ideally, in those games your supposed to be able to have all those units at once and I understand how burdensome that can be on a system, but I never could figure out how to tweak my settings to make it work minus completely going to the lowest.

Jumping forward I am wanting to get suggestions as to what I need to upgrade to fix that issue and set my pc up for Rome: Total War 2, which will have increased graphics and detail etc. I switched to console gaming a few years back as my primary form of gaming so I'm a bit out of the loop for pc. Would an upgrade to my graphics card help or do I need to consider other things? I can't imagine needing more memory since I have 8gb already and there is not much on my pc aside from music and a couple other games.

This XPS and my previous one performed like a champ otherwise with games like Crysis on high etc, but seems to struggle with the Total War games due to having thousands of little units on the screen, but I'm not sure what to upgrade to help with smoother game play.

Greatly appreciate any advice I can get.

Eboggles

MetalJarhead wrote: »

Hello,

I am looking for some guidance to a problem I've had and for some info for a possible upgrade. Currently, I have a dell xps with the current stats:

XPS 9000/ Intel Core i7-920/8gb ddr3 SDRAM/ATI Radeon HD 5870

A problem I've had in the past to use as an example is with Medieval Total War 2, I was able to run mostly on high. Had to scale back some things such as fire arrow effects etc, but here's my main complaint. Whenever I would have a reinforcing army it would give me a message saying I need to scale back my settings in order to accommodate them. Or when my main army starting losing units, the reinforcing units would filter in versus just being able to have both at once like your supposed to. So, I would scale back and scale back to a point and I didn't like losing quality. Ideally, in those games your supposed to be able to have all those units at once and I understand how burdensome that can be on a system, but I never could figure out how to tweak my settings to make it work minus completely going to the lowest.

Jumping forward I am wanting to get suggestions as to what I need to upgrade to fix that issue and set my pc up for Rome: Total War 2, which will have increased graphics and detail etc. I switched to console gaming a few years back as my primary form of gaming so I'm a bit out of the loop for pc. Would an upgrade to my graphics card help or do I need to consider other things? I can't imagine needing more memory since I have 8gb already and there is not much on my pc aside from music and a couple other games.

This XPS and my previous one performed like a champ otherwise with games like Crysis on high etc, but seems to struggle with the Total War games due to having thousands of little units on the screen, but I'm not sure what to upgrade to help with smoother game play.

Greatly appreciate any advice I can get.

I actually can't see why Medieval II would go like that, it isn't that difficult of a game to run and your i7 isn't exactly a slouch.

However, an overclock of your CPU wouldn't be a bad idea, but to do that you'd have to get a case with better airflow.

What's your budget?

MetalJarhead

Yeah, I couldn't figure it out. Did it on my previous XPS and my new one (well from 2010). I thought about an overclock, but figured some better hardware might be the answer. I don't really have a budget as of yet, pretty open, but I paid $1400 for my newest XPS so it would have to be within reason. Too high and I might as well get another pc, which I got a good 5 years out of my last one and it was perfectly fine, I just wanted the new i7 processor and they came down in price a lot since my first one so figured I'd upgrade.

Eboggles

MetalJarhead wrote: »

Yeah, I couldn't figure it out. Did it on my previous XPS and my new one (well from 2010). I thought about an overclock, but figured some better hardware might be the answer. I don't really have a budget as of yet, pretty open, but I paid $1400 for my newest XPS so it would have to be within reason. Too high and I might as well get another pc, which I got a good 5 years out of my last one and it was perfectly fine, I just wanted the new i7 processor and they came down in price a lot since my first one so figured I'd upgrade.

So are you looking for a whole new build, or just to improve on the components you already have?

By the way, what resolution do you play at?

MetalJarhead

Just to improve since it's relatively new and I can't remember the resolution, want to say 1280x720, but I'd have to check when I get off work. I haven't been on the game in a good while so can't remember.

Eboggles

MetalJarhead wrote: »

Just to improve since it's relatively new and I can't remember the resolution, want to say 1280x720, but I'd have to check when I get off work. I haven't been on the game in a good while so can't remember.

If you're playing at 1280x720, there is no reason to upgrade. Your i7 and 5870 (which is still a great card btw) should be sufficient.

What sort of FPS are you getting in battles?

MetalJarhead

I'll have to get back to you on the FPS and I'll double check the resolution. It's been a good 6 months since I last played that title. Mainly just Diablo 3 these days. I'll shoot a reply out when I check it out later. Thanks.

ShadowHearth

You sure you talking about medieval 2? Not shogun 2? Medieval 2 is not even out yet.
If thats shogun 2, them I can see your system not being able to run it on high settings as that game destroys stuff.

Your CPU is still beefy enough. You could upgrade gpu though. The new 660ti looks like a best bet. That's if you got around 300eu.

Eboggles

ShadowHearth wrote: »

You sure you talking about medieval 2? Not shogun 2? Medieval 2 is not even out yet.
If thats shogun 2, them I can see your system not being able to run it on high settings as that game destroys stuff.

Your CPU is still beefy enough. You could upgrade gpu though. The new 660ti looks like a best bet. That's if you got around 300eu.

Medieval 2 was released in 2007?

MetalJarhead

Yeah, Medieval 2. It came out in 2006. Rome: Total War 2 is the one not out yet, but I provided that problem with Medieval 2 as a reference for what I'd like to avoid on the upcoming Rome TW2 by possibly upgrading. I'll check into the 660ti. Thanks

ED E

Totally may not apply but is it possible its only running on one core? I've seen that with modern games so its hardly too unlikely for an '06 title.