If you have a moment (comp. specs)

**Eodez** · April 03, 2009, 12:43 AM

Now before I go running out and buying new hardware I was wondering if someone could take a look at the list below and see if there's something in particular I'm missing.

Windows XP
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.20GHz
3.19GHZ
1.5GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT 512MB memory, Nvidia driver 182.06
Aureal Vortex 8810 Audio (WDM)

Now the only game I have trouble with is Empire, general slowness, especially during battles, selecting/using navial units, and end turns. Gets really bad to the point of being unplayable around 1740. Haven't had any crashes yet.

**Mohamad** · April 03, 2009, 01:01 AM

You look fine overall but your Ram is low. I don't know much about PC but from experience my inspiron 1420 Dell laptop has 2G ram and its pretty

compared to my dell XPS studio which has 6G of ram.

So i would look into upgrading your Ram maybe if it doesn't cost a fortune of course

**Brusilov** · April 03, 2009, 05:39 AM

It's been pointed out to me that a Celeron means laptop - there is less scope for improvement than a desktop. More RAM is possible depending upon how many memory slots are used up. I've had laptops where there is only two memory slots. At least memory is a lot cheaper than it used to be. You may have to junk all your memory and buy SIMMs with more memory on them.

**eddie291** · April 03, 2009, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by Brusilov

It's been pointed out to me that a Celeron means laptop

Actually, there are Celeron CPUs for desktops. There is a mobile version for laptops, but having a Celeron does not automatically mean he has a laptop.

More memory would help, but upgrading your CPU or video card would help a lot.

**irishron** · April 03, 2009, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by eddie291

Actually, there are Celeron CPUs for desktops. There is a mobile version for laptops, but having a Celeron does not automatically mean he has a laptop.

More memory would help, but upgrading your CPU or video card would help a lot.

When Intel first released the Celeron cpu, it was advertized for laptops without some of the bells and whistles to conserve power. Even in desktops, they are probably still the same chip,just sold differently very quietly. One of the things left out of the first Celerons? Math coprocessor.

**mandalore9** · April 03, 2009, 08:56 AM

Your RAM is hardly enough and you need a new graphics card. The game only works on single core and mine only runs at 1.8ghz and runs well. sooo your cpu should be ok.

**Eodez** · April 03, 2009, 09:30 AM

Yeah I was thinking it was my RAM and video card that needed upgrading, and yeah its a desktop Celeron.

I was looking at a Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB video card atm, think that would be ok?

**eddie291** · April 03, 2009, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by Eodez

Yeah I was thinking it was my RAM and video card that needed upgrading, and yeah its a desktop Celeron.

I was looking at a Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB video card atm, think that would be ok?

What PSU do you have? You need at least a 450w PSU to run that card.

**Brusilov** · April 03, 2009, 09:41 AM

Yes, it will be an improvement over your Nvidia GeForce 7600GT.

Also consider more memory - 2Gb should be fine. Remember that 32 bit operating systems can't use more than 3.5Gb.

**Spaxspore** · April 03, 2009, 09:50 AM

dont confuse celeron with centrino.

Yes they made a celeron processor for desktop and laptops but they havnt made a celeron processor for most laptops in 3+yrs.
( they did make the last one in 07 but it didnt last, people were complaining that it had problems runing vista and lagged horribly doing simple tasks so it was quickly sheleved.)

Either celeron is for a very hard budget IE- bottom barrel performance. Made for just light office work and so forth.

Thus in later games its getting slower and slower.

From wiki

-"Celeron processors can run all IA-32 computer programs, but their performance is somewhat lower when compared to similar, but higher priced, Intel CPU brands. For example, the Celeron brand will often have less cache memory, or have advanced features purposely disabled. These missing features have had a variable impact on performance. In some cases, the effect was significant and in other cases the differences were relatively minor. Many of the Celeron designs have achieved a very high "bang to the buck", while at other times, the performance difference has been noticeable. For example, some intense application software, such as cutting edge PC games, programs for video compression, video editing, or solid modeling (CAD, engineering analysis, computer graphics and animation, rapid prototyping, medical testing, product visualization, and visualization of scientific research), etc.[1] may not perform as well on the Celeron family. This has been the primary justification for the higher cost of other Intel CPU brands versus the Celeron."

So its a single core, budget processor from 5yrs ago...

Im surprised it got to 1740 to be unplayable.

Congrats