Medieval II Computer & Hardware Recommendations

[irishron]

128mb is minimum for Medieval2 from my experience. SS and other mods are known to use high poly count textures and these could be your card's undoing. As old as your computer is, to replace the card would cost more than the computer is worth.

[Gogolometro]

Yes. You are right.

[floriangoetz87]

Hey, I was thinking about upgrading my graphics card to play Medieval 2 more smoothly. There are two I'm looking at right now GeForce 8400

GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB

[irishron]

A little overkill but it will do the job. What is your cpu? Anything older than second generation i5 will bootleneck it.

[floriangoetz87]

I have a AMD Athlon 7850 Duel Core Processor

[irishron]

The old card is more for the cpu. This cpu will seriously bottleneck your new card.

[floriangoetz87]

Also what would be a good AMD version of an i5? With the two graphics cards I suggested, you said they would be overkill. What would be more conservative, yet still play MTW2 at medium to high settings? I'm not trying to upgrade my pc to a gaming monster, just enough for MTW2 cause that's the most advanced PC game I have.

[irishron]

An old 9800GT or GTS 250 would do you with your cpu. 512mb card would be good enough. 1gb cards are more than plenty. I had a 9800GT before it went that could hold its own graphically.

[floriangoetz87]

I also have a 450w power supply, would that be enough for it, a 9800GT of GTS250 I mean. Also does your video card have HDMI capability? Would it make a big difference in the game, or be a waste in time and money.

[irishron]

I don't remember if it did or not. Your power supply, maybe not depending on the 12v side of things. You can still check its specs online.

[floriangoetz87]

So I checked online and found other people who were running power supply at 450W with the 9800gt, so I felt confident about my power supply. Just a couple of days ago the card came. I then bought a DVID cord for the my monitor and card. Right after I put the card in I didn't turn the computer on because I didn't have the right cord to run from the card to the monitor at the time. Couple of days later I got the cord, plug it into the monitor, and powered up. The computer came on like it usually does for me, it displays the motherboard logo and type. Then the screen went black and a loud continuous tone came from the computer. I held down the power button until the computer shut down. Waited a few minutes, turned it on, same thing happened. Only thing that I added was the graphics card and the cable. I have a ASUS M2N6B-AM Plus motherboard. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[irishron]

Brand and model of your power supply? If I remember right when I had my 9800GT, I ended up with a 600w power supply to get enough amps on the 12v lines.

[floriangoetz87]

I meant a ASUS M2N68-AM plus motherboard not an M2N6B, sorry.

[floriangoetz87]

My desktop is at home, I'm at work now. As I don't have internet at home, I'll have to get back you on the brand and model of my power supply tomorrow. If I end up needing to get a 600W power supply, do brands really matter or is one 600 just like any other?

[irishron]

Antec, Corsair, and Seasonic are good ones.

[floriangoetz87]

So I just ordered the power supply going for a 650W ATX. Should be here by Monday or Tuesday next week. Hopefully after the install everything will run smooth.

[irishron]

Good luck with it.

[floriangoetz87]

Good luck with it.

irishron, thanks for all your help so far, here is a bit of an update. So I got the new power supply installed last week. Good news is that the tone is gone, and the tower sounds like it did before. Start up sounds normal,but the monitor displays a list of different outputs and starts cycling though them a few times. Before the card it would go the the standard VGA. Now with the card in it just cycles through the list several times, not picking any output mode . The monitor then just goes into standby mode. Before I upgraded the card I got a HP Pavilion 23xi widescreen with dvi cables. The video card has a DVI-I Dual link port on it, and I bought a DVI-D cable for it. Why could this be happening?

[irishron]

There is always the possibility the card is bad. Does the monitor work as it should on the integrated port?

If so for some reason it could be the card. Have you tried uninstalling the old drivers and install a fresh download of your drivers since the new power supply?

[floriangoetz87]

irishron, sorry about the long delay. I was out of the country traveling and just got back. The thing with the power supply was that it was bad one as well. Ended up ordering another one, same kind and now works fine. I tested MTW2 with a one on one battle and what a difference! No lag. I put settings to max and still no lag. Battle speed is set to normal, but it's feels much faster without the stuttering effects. Then did a 4v4 battle. max number of units, just to push it the limits. I don't really like playing with that many opponents normally. There was a little lag, but nothing bad. Wanted to say thanks for all your advice and help. I really appreciated it.