Need Computer Help

[Darth Sithari]

Howdy, I'm trying to get help with a computer problem, but I can't seem to get an answer from "official" sources, so I thought I would try here.

 

My computer is this: http://www.clearanceclub.com/depot/quelle_...?sku=3515#specs

 

The game I want to play has these system requirements:

 

Edited September 4, 2009 by Darth Sithari

[Purkake]

You have 256MB of RAM shared with the integrated graphics card?

 

Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

I'd say no.

 

Also we have a forum for tech stuff over here

Edited September 4, 2009 by Purkake

[Humodour]

If the integrated graphics is Intel I'd say you're boned. If it's nVidia, I'd say it's worth trying.

 

Edit: It's Intel. You're boned.

Edited September 4, 2009 by Krezack

[Hurlshort]

You can play games in the 8-10 year old range. Those are pretty low specs. I haven't seen a Pentium 3 chip in a long time. Does XP run well on it?

[Darth Sithari]

You can play games in the 8-10 year old range. Those are pretty low specs. I haven't seen a Pentium 3 chip in a long time. Does XP run well on it?

 

Yes, it runs fine, as far as I can tell.

[Purkake]

You can get a decent desktop for pretty cheap these days, especially in the States.

 

Should you want to, of course.

Edited September 4, 2009 by Purkake

[Fionavar]

Off to Skeeter's ...

[Walsingham]

I used to have no luck whatever trying to run 3d games on a built-in chip. What is the game, anyway?

[Darth Sithari]

I used to have no luck whatever trying to run 3d games on a built-in chip. What is the game, anyway?

 

VTM: Bloodlines.

[Gorth]

I used to have no luck whatever trying to run 3d games on a built-in chip. What is the game, anyway?

 

VTM: Bloodlines.

Ouch...

 

That game is horribly unoptimised. I used to have a P4 2.8Ghz / Nvidia FX5900 Ultra / 2Gb ram desktop, and it was sluggish on that one. It might be possible to get it to run, but I doubt that it will run at a playable speed, i.e. it might not be fun.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I would tend to agree with Gorth, the Source build Bloodlines uses is an older beta -blame Valve for not wanting to overshadow Half Life 2- and thus is more buggy than other games that use the engine. Still, it's worth a shot.

[Humodour]

You can play games in the 8-10 year old range. Those are pretty low specs. I haven't seen a Pentium 3 chip in a long time. Does XP run well on it?

 

Nah, you could get a way with a few 5 year old games on it quite easily (E.g. Bloodlines, HL2). But it won't be running anything new.

 

Edit: And I just realised Bloodlines is exactly what you're trying to play. lol

Edited September 5, 2009 by Krezack

[Humodour]

I used to have no luck whatever trying to run 3d games on a built-in chip. What is the game, anyway?

 

VTM: Bloodlines.

Ouch...

 

That game is horribly unoptimised. I used to have a P4 2.8Ghz / Nvidia FX5900 Ultra / 2Gb ram desktop, and it was sluggish on that one. It might be possible to get it to run, but I doubt that it will run at a playable speed, i.e. it might not be fun.

 

Something tells me it was a conflict with an individual component or driver on that machine because, while I accept that Bloodlines isn't terrific at optimisation, I got by fine with it on my Tablet PC which was a 1.4 Ghz Intel Centrino M with a Geforce 5200 @ 32 mb, with 256mb of CPU RAM. Framerate became sluggish at times but it was always more than playable and generally smooth.

[Purkake]

I used to have no luck whatever trying to run 3d games on a built-in chip. What is the game, anyway?

 

You can run lots of older 3d stuff on a netbook with an atom processor and an intel graphics chip. For example AvP 2, Max Payne, NOLF2, Age of Mythology etc.

[Darth Sithari]

Ok, went ahead and installed it. Ran a test to see if everything was compatible, game opened fine, but frame rate stuttered horribly and then stalled during the opening movie. However, I'm hopeful this was due to the 256mb RAM and the game running almost entirely on Virtual Memory (the entire computer was sluggish after I boosted it, and it never actualy crashed) rather than a hardware issue. My 1GB stick is supposed to arrive on Friday, so I'm keeping fingers crossed that the stick does the trick.

Edited September 7, 2009 by Darth Sithari

[Deadly_Nightshade]

That should help. If not then post again and either I or someone else can get you a list of .ini tweaks that might help.

[Purkake]

If the graphics chip can't push the pixels, it won't ever no matter how much ram you give it.

[Darth Sithari]

If the graphics chip can't push the pixels, it won't ever no matter how much ram you give it.

 

Started her up again, and let her run all the way through the movie this time, after it was over the game ran very smoothly. Loading times were horrible and the frame rate needed time to "catch up" once a level was loaded, but I'm pretty confident those were due to the Virtual Memory since I could hear the hard disk spinning and chugging, and once it stopped it was smooth sailing.

 

Found out I made a mistake, but it was a good mistake: the RAM I ordered was a package deal, I'm getting two 1GB sticks so I'll have 2GB of memory, all free!

 

Final update tommorow!!!

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Hope that helps.

[Purkake]

If the graphics chip can't push the pixels, it won't ever no matter how much ram you give it.

 

Started her up again, and let her run all the way through the movie this time, after it was over the game ran very smoothly. Loading times were horrible and the frame rate needed time to "catch up" once a level was loaded, but I'm pretty confident those were due to the Virtual Memory since I could hear the hard disk spinning and chugging, and once it stopped it was smooth sailing.

 

Found out I made a mistake, but it was a good mistake: the RAM I ordered was a package deal, I'm getting two 1GB sticks so I'll have 2GB of memory, all free!

 

Final update tommorow!!!

 

That's interesting.

 

Enjoy the awesomeness that is Bloodlines then!

[Darth Sithari]

I believe it was a wise man that once said "#$@#$@#$% SON OF A #$@#%@#& #$@#$@#$$ING #$%#@&%@#% #@#$@!$!@ PIECE OF @#$@#$ #%@%@#%@%%"

 

When I ordered my RAM, I made sure to match the type, speed, and number of pins. Unfortunately, I missed the damn DDR number!!! So I ended up with a stick of DDR2 which didn't fit. Now I had to reorder a different stick and will have to wait another day for it to arrive! Plus, I'm going to have to ship back the other stick for a refund!

 

Damn!

[Purkake]

If it's a laptop it takes SO-DIMMs, but you know that right?

 

DDR is getting rarer these days.

[Darth Sithari]

Ok, got a correct 1GB stick in today. Game is running pretty good. Cutscenes still slug, but nowhere near as bad as before. Loading times are great, and only occaissonal framerate drops in certain areas. Not bad for a laptop I bought on sale for school.

 

Thanks everyone for your help!