Really Worried/Sad

ive read many places and have seen many times people saying that NTW is better for graphics and it runs much better on slow machines. unfortunately thats not the case for me

loading times have gone from 3-4 minutes on ETW to about 10 minutes in NTW

im having to run lower settings than ETW to avoid lag

and most importantly, im being dropped from ALL MP game i try to join after about 20 minutes of loading after i suspect everyone else in the battle has been playing for a while. even hamachi doesnt seem to help it either

1.83 GHz Dual Core
1 GB RAM
nVidia GEFORCE GO 7300

yes i know its a laptop. yes i know its . but unfortunately i dont have the money for a new comp. the only setting i dont have off the lowest is unit detail which is on medium
i also read that apparently NTW took greater use of multi-cored processors.
anyway. just wondering if anyone else has these problems and wondering if anyones gonna donate some money for a new comp

More memory should speed up the loading process - 1GB is hardly enough now-a-days (especially if you've got Vista).

Originally Posted by Brusilov

More memory should speed up the loading process - 1GB is hardly enough now-a-days (especially if you've got Vista).

i think 2GB is the minimum for vista anyway

i do have XP

main point of this thread though is why NTW is running worse than ETW. it shouldnt!

aussiedigger I sympathise certainly. But really that rig will not run a lot of games these days.
I have a 6gig quad6600 woth an 8800gt and thats getting long in the tooth these days.

i have the same problem,i dont expect great gfx on my machine but atleast better gfx than mtw2,or at least for it to run as good as etw

Its a sad fact my friend, but you do need a better machine. I know they are expensive, but start saving now and it won't be long before you can afford a very respectable machine. My advice would be to build your own. Its much cheaper and you'll get a faster machine for the money you spend. Also building a comp is not at all hard. There are instructions online. I've built two and I'm hopeless with DIY!!

I use Game Booster, it helps for a bit. Just google it

As Neoton has suggested - try Game Booster. It can put your PC into 'gaming mode' where a lot of Windows services are shut down - more than can be achieved using msconfig.

Although the NTW game engine is similar to NTW it's not the same - it may be that NTW expects players to have multi-core machines. When ETW was first released it was hardly optimised - I was getting the 'not sufficient vodeo memory' and I was running a pair of GTX280s at the time......

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

You need more memory to boost your loading time. Use memory cleaner if your loading time is increase while you are playing or simple save the game a lot and restart.

Mem cleaner:
http://www.koshyjohn.com/software/memclean.html

That computer is one big Ol' turtle....So give it up man, newer games just ain't meant to be played on that machine.

Originally Posted by TheAussieDigger

ive read many places and have seen many times people saying that NTW is better for graphics and it runs much better on slow machines. unfortunately thats not the case for me

loading times have gone from 3-4 minutes on ETW to about 10 minutes in NTW

im having to run lower settings than ETW to avoid lag

and most importantly, im being dropped from ALL MP game i try to join after about 20 minutes of loading after i suspect everyone else in the battle has been playing for a while. even hamachi doesnt seem to help it either

1.83 GHz Dual Core
1 GB RAM
nVidia GEFORCE GO 7300

yes i know its a laptop. yes i know its . but unfortunately i dont have the money for a new comp. the only setting i dont have off the lowest is unit detail which is on medium
i also read that apparently NTW took greater use of multi-cored processors.
anyway. just wondering if anyone else has these problems and wondering if anyones gonna donate some money for a new comp

Try to find some things you don't use anymore or don't hold on value (to you), and sell them on Ebay to raise money for a new computer

Im getting dropped seconds after entering a MP game as well.

And I have a high end system.

It started ever since I installed Windows 7 last night.

As far as I know all windows firewall ahs been turned off. Router settings are the same as they were.


Anyone know what causes it?

Well, these games have always been somewhat awkward online. ETW was awful at times, never finding any nice servers with good ping,´which caused a lot of dropouts for me. No change in NTW sadly. I don't even know if CA uses dedicated servers or if the server is being run on the client PC. Whichever this needs to be fixed. I'm avoiding MP until decent servers is out.

Originally Posted by Brusilov

As Neoton has suggested - try Game Booster. It can put your PC into 'gaming mode' where a lot of Windows services are shut down - more than can be achieved using msconfig.

Although the NTW game engine is similar to NTW it's not the same - it may be that NTW expects players to have multi-core machines. When ETW was first released it was hardly optimised - I was getting the 'not sufficient vodeo memory' and I was running a pair of GTX280s at the time......

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Originally Posted by Langoss

You need more memory to boost your loading time. Use memory cleaner if your loading time is increase while you are playing or simple save the game a lot and restart.

Mem cleaner:
http://www.koshyjohn.com/software/memclean.html

ill try both and see how it goes

The machine is just dreadfully underpowered. Performance is better, but it seems more CPU dependent, so I don't think your going to see that end of it.

If you can get some ram in there it may help.

I don't presume to know your finances, but building a decent gaming machine is insanely cheap compared to purchasing one, especially if you went socket 775.

I was in the same boat as you. I was using an underpowered laptop and it ran Rome fine, but struggled on Medieval, and downright wouldn't run Empire. I made a decision that I liked this series too much not to get a rig.

I went to the Basement area of this site and kept posting specs as I don't know too much about gaming rigs. Some guys chimed in on one unit and said go for it and I got a pretty decent used rig on Craigslist for $400. which included Vista. It was custom built, was only 1-2 years old and it runs Empire and Napoleon fine on high settings.

I asked for money for my birthday instead of gifts and recouped $90. I'm cutting back in other areas and I've already justified the cost after 2 months. I'm very happy I went for it and get to enjoy these wonderful games. I hope this may inspire you to go for it should you like these games as much as I do.

My $400. rig:
- Full size Gloss Black Thermalake SopranoRS custom case
- MSI M/B K9A2CF- F AMD 790X
- Processor is AMD2+ ...2.2GHZ.. Agena (Quad Core)
- Ram Fatality 800 ram set to run at 1066
- Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 250 Sata HD
- DVDRW/CDRW drive
- 450W BFG PSU
- NVIDIA PNY 9800GT 1GB video card with NVIDIA Control Suite Panel Software (dual DVI out)
- Vista included

i bought my new machine 3-yr agp to play age of empire 3 and updated a bit since etw and it handles ntw very well until now

dual core 2,4 Ghz
4 Gb RAM (max it, you will have enough of these)
ATI HD 4625 with 2 Gb graphic RAM (shop for a card with a large graphic RAM)

so pal max your RAM on your mother board and put in a newer graphic card. it won't cost your a fortune.

It's a laptop, so it's more obnoxious. I wouldn't put much into it besides some budget RAM.

Ezekielen, you got a good deal. I just bought a GTX 280 from a guy on a computer forum I go to for 190 dollars.

If you're on a budget you can find good used components and it's a real boon.

haha, i have to play on my desktop, laptops... are just too underpowered

our house does have a desktop, but to give u an idea of how bad it is, it has a worse processor, less RAM and no graphics card