max settings, I don't get why you guys have such problems

**freefree** · September 16, 2007, 07:52 PM

I've been reading around here quite a bit and have been noticeing alot that people with twice my specs are having such hard times running this game on anything but the lowest settings? what's the deal.

I run the settings on max, and can handle 3 armies on the screen with just
winXP
1.8ghz Sempron 3100+
1gig ram
geforce7600gs (AGP8x not PCI-e)
widescreen 1440x900 resolution

Yet I see posts with people running 3ghz core duos, 4gigs ram, and an geforce8800GTX, and have problems running it on medium??? I'm puzzled.

**Quink.NL** · September 17, 2007, 07:54 AM

The spec's of my partly brand new system:

Asus P5N32-e SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2,67Ghz @2,8 Ghz
2*7800GT SLi
4GB 800 Mhz memory (OCZ Platinum) @ 845 Mhz
2* WD Raptors in RAID 0

As you can see just a minor oc on a already pretty fast system, still figuring out temps, stability and all that...

Tried Vista 64 bit, performance sucked. After one day, nVidia driver control panel broke down (could not be started anymore, event viewer said "driver not compatible", but it was the Vista 64 bit driver:hmmm

, then, after Windows Update, Vista was all ********d up (onle bootable in safe mode). So, after one day, it was goodbye Vista. At least until SP1.

So a fresh XP 32 bit installation (yes I know, no use with 4GB RAM). With this specs, I am still not able to play M2TW on max settings in SP. Unit scale on High instead of Huge, and Vegetation and Grass detail to medium. And still, on a siege battle or when lots of knights are involved, it still has that "sluggish feel" if you know what I mean...

I suppose the Total War series just isn't build voor dual cores. RomeTW also ran faster on my old AMD Athlon 3200 than on my AMD 3800x2 64. I also never noticed any improvement with SLi enabled, btw...

**Spartan_Shame** · September 17, 2007, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by freefree

Yet I see posts with people running 3ghz core duos, 4gigs ram, and an geforce8800GTX, and have problems running it on medium??? I'm puzzled.

lol, if I had a GTX and I couldn't run a game on medium graphics, I would be pretty ticked off about that particular game.

**Quink.NL** · September 17, 2007, 10:24 AM

Well, I don't have the 8800GTX, but I am a bit ticked off. I think CA could have done a better job in making the game run smooth on dual cores. With the Rome game, I can understand that it doesn't, since dual cores were not around that much on the consumer market back then, but M2TW really should run better.

I also noticed that it becomes laggy especially when a lot of bodies are scattered on a small area of the map, for example at the gate during a siege battle. Even at the point that the battle is being fought out at the city center, when the gate is in view, with a few hundred bodies near it, the game lags like hell (That's prob. the reason why in games like Company of Heroes (which runs well on max settings) bodies dissappear after some time).

**PurpleScotch** · September 17, 2007, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by freefree

I've been reading around here quite a bit and have been noticeing alot that people with twice my specs are having such hard times running this game on anything but the lowest settings? what's the deal.

I run the settings on max, and can handle 3 armies on the screen with just
winXP
1.8ghz Sempron 3100+
1gig ram
geforce7600gs (AGP8x not PCI-e)
widescreen 1440x900 resolution

Yet I see posts with people running 3ghz core duos, 4gigs ram, and an geforce8800GTX, and have problems running it on medium??? I'm puzzled.

I have a similar PC, just different brands...the different thing is, unlike you I get 1 FPS if I put everything on high

, 10->15 with medium settings and not much men...only thing I can say...

TELL ME YOUR SECRET!

**Garnier** · September 17, 2007, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by freefree

I've been reading around here quite a bit and have been noticeing alot that people with twice my specs are having such hard times running this game on anything but the lowest settings? what's the deal.

I run the settings on max, and can handle 3 armies on the screen with just
winXP
1.8ghz Sempron 3100+
1gig ram
geforce7600gs (AGP8x not PCI-e)
widescreen 1440x900 resolution

Yet I see posts with people running 3ghz core duos, 4gigs ram, and an geforce8800GTX, and have problems running it on medium??? I'm puzzled.

Please post the contents of your medieval2.preference.cfg file (in the M2TW folder). Open it with notepad.

Unless you do this, or show a screenshot of how it looks, I won't believe you are playing maxed out with that computer. In fact, the 7600 isn't capable of running on max. You can't run extreme shadows or 8x adaptive antialiasing. And then what about unit size?

**Hereward** · September 17, 2007, 02:09 PM

Core 2 duo 6550 2.33ghz
2 gig RAM (667)
geforce 8800gts (320mb)
vista premium 32bit

Usually runs fine with everything maxed, huge units (except I don't use anti-aliasing). Most large battles range from 18-50 fps, though once in a while during a multi army seige battle while duking it out in town square it has gotten into single digit fps (I think as low as 6 once) which perturbs me just a little.

**freefree** · September 17, 2007, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Garnier

Please post the contents of your medieval2.preference.cfg file (in the M2TW folder). Open it with notepad.

Unless you do this, or show a screenshot of how it looks, I won't believe you are playing maxed out with that computer. In fact, the 7600 isn't capable of running on max. You can't run extreme shadows or 8x adaptive antialiasing. And then what about unit size?

the only change to the config file was to remove, banners and the green unit markers, and my unit scale is at high (so i guess not completely maxed out settings) my GPU is overclocked (sucessful for 2 months with two extra case fans, one points parrallel to the GPU)

Originally Posted by OTZ

I suspect he gets a slide-show version of the game on max settings. I call BS.

Originally Posted by Hereward

Core 2 duo 6550 2.33ghz
2 gig RAM (667)
geforce 8800gts (320mb)
vista premium 32bit

Usually runs fine with everything maxed, huge units (except I don't use anti-aliasing). Most large battles range from 18-50 fps, though once in a while during a multi army seige battle while duking it out in town square it has gotten into single digit fps (I think as low as 6 once) which perturbs me just a little.

maybe its vista:hmmm:

**Garnier** · September 17, 2007, 05:23 PM

the only change to the config file was to remove, banners and the green unit markers, and my unit scale is at high (so i guess not completely maxed out settings) my GPU is overclocked (sucessful for 2 months with two extra case fans, one points parrallel to the GPU)

Could you show it anyway please? I'm not suspicious of anything in particular, except that you probably don't have 8x adaptive antialiasing and extreme shadows which are required for anyone to boast max settings. No, I can not play with them on either - I use high shadows and 4x normal AA.

**_TubbZ_** · September 17, 2007, 02:58 PM

yeah and i run the game maxed out with every setting with just a tin can, a hamster wheel and a frog...

Seriously as stated above you can't be running it maxed out with that pc...

**Garnier** · September 17, 2007, 03:51 PM

Usually runs fine with everything maxed, huge units (except I don't use anti-aliasing)

That's a contradictory statement there. You shouldn't say maxed unless you mean maxed. Antialiasing hugely increases the look of the game, and also hugely decreases performance.