system req

[prince of tarrentum]

hey empire total war lovers
GRAPHICS CARD?? .i am a huge fan of total war so when etw came out i was over the moon however!! I was wondering if my com could manage a game such as etw. Ive checked the system reqs and it all matches apart from the graphics card. I am not a whiz with this sort of thing and was wondering if a "Intel(R)82945G Express Chipset Family " would be sufficient to play etw and if not are there any quick upgrades or solutions to update it so that i can play it. will som1 plz plz get back to me asap!!(btw i can play rtw rtr bi and al i can also play microsoft flight simulater 2008 all on my com if that helps!)

thx. so so much

[The Hedge Knight]

Im afraid intergrated graphics (what you have) will not play the game...

[karamazovmm]

Go for this thread it should answer your question. Please people something that is sticky is NOT THERE FOR SOME SILLY THING
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=316586

[prince of tarrentum]

thnx MM and jost . I found ur guide MM very helpful. I was just wondering another com in my house that has a "NVIDIAGeForce FX5500" graphics card. I know how 2 transfer graphics cards so could this graphics card(which was bought especiallly to play som kind of game?ask my brother)!Be sufficient for etw?

I would be very grateful if som 1 could get back to me asap!!!

thnx.

prince of tarrentum

[karamazovmm]

The Nvidia FX5500 is not for gamin purposes, it's a very expensive graphics card for 3D work. The one you have is very old, it's a model from 2004. It should play etw at something something settings. Although you are warned, that this card might no fit in your pc, it uses a AGP connection. The AGP connection is an old format of connection that was disputing with the PCI format, which the latter stickied and the other died a horrible death

[prince of tarrentum]

so shall i give u the model of my com! so u can tell me wether it will fit into my com. Well the model of my com is:OPTIPLEX GX520. btw th graphics card is currently installed in a com that is less than 2 years old if taht helps.

[prince of tarrentum]

if i can play etw could i play it at high graphic settins all would it ctd or somthin?!?!?

[karamazovmm]

I need your motherboard specs. Go into my computer right click in it and choose properties from the drop down list. Now go into device manager and see the motherboard part.
I have googled your pc, but it has 3 different form factors, and they are the ones that define your motherboard

[prince of tarrentum]

ok i have done that and here is my model.(i didnt know how much u wanted so i just put it all down! soz if som of itis useless)
specs:
operating sys:Microsoft windows xp pro (5.1build2600)
manufacturer=Dell Inc
sys model=OptiPlex GX250
BIOS=Pheonix ROM BIOS PLUS version 1.10 AO3
Processor=Intell(R)Pentium(R) 4CPU 3.00GHZ (2CPU's)
Direct X version=DirectX9.0c(4.09.0000.0904)

thnx 4 all ur help and consistancy in replying especially as i am new to this forum as u can probally see by my measily 5 posts!!

[karamazovmm]

you have to go into the device manager so I can see what motherboard that you have, these things are not the droids that I'm looking for.

[irishron]

The Dell BIOS number is over 8 years old.
You pull up Dell's specs and it is a AGP slot.
Will Empire run if you plug in one of those cards? My bet is not good if at all.

[prince of tarrentum]

on device manager the first drop down is com and that says=ACPI multiprocessor PC
if thats not what u want plz explain in ur next post thnx.

[prince of tarrentum]

thnx though 4 ur effort so far it has been a tremendous help 2 me as i have no knowledge in this area!!

[prince of tarrentum]

i think i get it now after reading carefuly irishron says that i can transfer graphics card. so will it be an improvment !?

[irishron]

For most things it will be an improvement but being able to play Empire with it? I don't think so but put it in, install the drivers for it and prove me wrong. I've been wrong before on weak systems like this.

[prince of tarrentum]

ok that sounds gd just 1 more thing. Could u tell me or direct me to instructions on how to install a graphics card and install the drivers? as i have no instructions because it was installed when by a Nvidia electronic!
thnx so much

[karamazovmm]

Thanks Ishiron, didn't thought about seeing the BIOS number (idiot).

prince of tarrentum:
Here are two videos showing how to install a graphics card
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hows...card-video.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ILrq7lMe-0

and for the drivers
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
[IMG][/IMG]
Choose the same options as stated in the picture and choose your OS (windows Vista, XP, 7), then download and run the installer

[prince of tarrentum]

well i think thats me sorted thnx so much 4 all of ur hard work!!!

[prince of tarrentum]

any 1 else got any problems???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????