Problem playing battles. (Terrible, terrible lag.)

[The Jaguar]

At first, greetings, since this is my first post here.

Well now,

I have been playing Rome: Total war gold edition, with no effort whatsoever.

Today, i got Medieval II Total war gold edition, installed it and eagerly went to play.
But! Once engaged in battle, or even in deployment, my pc lags terribly.
I've tried putting graphics on the lowest possible setting, of course this isn't fun to look at, but it seems to be the only way to slightly decrease the lag.

Campaign map is not a problem, but battles seem to strangle my computer.
I've got CCleaner, i just downloaded Game booster, so i am going to try that once it's done defragging, i ran a scan on the systemrequirementslab site, everything passes but CPU and the video card, which gives me these results:

Minimum
CPU Minimum: Pentium 4/Athlon XP You Have: AMD Sempron(tm) 3000+ PASS CPU Speed Minimum: 1.5 GHz (Celeron 1.8 GHz) You Have: 2.0 GHz Performance Rated at: 2 GHz PASS RAM Minimum: 512 MB You Have: 1.2 GB PASS OS Minimum: English version of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600) PASS Video Card Minimum: 100% compatible DirectX 9.0c 128 MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support and the latest drivers You Have: GeForce 6200 PASS Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card Required You Have Video RAM 128 MB 556.0 MB 3D Yes Yes Pixel Shader version 1.1 3.0 DirectX version Minimum: 9.0c You Have: 9.0c PASS Sound Card Minimum: Yes You Have: Unimodem Half-Duplex-audioapparaat PASS Free Disk Space Minimum: 11.0 Gigs of uncompressed free hard disk space You Have: 42.4 GB PASS DVD-ROM Minimum: 8x Speed DVD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers You Have: HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B

Recommended:


CPU Recommended: Pentium 4/Athlon XP You Have: AMD Sempron(tm) 3000+ PASS CPU Speed Recommended: 2.4 GHz You Have: 2.0 GHz Performance Rated at: 2 GHz Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations. RAM Recommended: 1 GB You Have: 1.2 GB PASS OS Recommended: English version of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600) PASS Video Card Recommended: 100% compatible DirectX 9.0c 256 MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 2 support and the latest drivers (NVIDIA GeForce 6800+ You Have: GeForce 6200 Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your Video Card does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations. Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card Required You Have Video RAM 256 MB 556.0 MB 3D Yes Yes Hardware T&L Yes Yes Pixel Shader version 2.0 3.0 Vertex Shader version 2.0 3.0 DirectX version Recommended: 9.0c You Have: 9.0c PASS Sound Card Recommended: Yes You Have: Unimodem Half-Duplex-audioapparaat PASS Free Disk Space Recommended: 11.0 Gigs of uncompressed free hard disk space You Have: 42.4 GB PASS DVD-ROM Recommended: 8x Speed DVD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers You Have: HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B


And so, my pc scores halfway the 'minimum-maximum' bar.
It tells you to 'click' here to see some recommendations but eh, it just sends you to a site where i could buy a new PC. (Like that is an option. )

I just read about turning down video options. (?)
So i am going to try and find that right now.

Anyone got some advice for me?

By the way, sorry if this thread is in the wrong section, and apologies for any misspelling or bad english, it's not my default language.

Thanks in advance.

[irishron]

To be honest, you have three choices.

1. Turn your monitor down to 800 x 600, no eyecandy, small unit scale, and pray, and odds are still will lag.
2. Leave as is and lag. Minimum specs will lag on many systems.
3. Upgrade.

[The Jaguar]

I see.

So far i've ran Game booster, put my settings on medium, unit scale to normal, and i ran a few quick battles, so far it runs almost perfectly, tommorow i shall try and move it up a little untill it starts to lag again, so i know what i can and can not achieve.

I am afraid upgrading isn't an option, exept maybe for the video card, the CPU is the motherboard as far as i know, i can do alot of stuff myself regarding soft and hardware but i don't want to go in there and destroy my pc. :X

But we shall see.
This PC is almost 6 years old, i'm gonna need a new one the upcoming year(s) anyway...

Also, at the video options, the lowest resolution was i think 1084 x something (don't remember) and i couldn't find a lower option to choose from.

But anyway, thanks for the advice so far!

[irishron]

Game Booster is good I have used at times.

I had one I bought for RTW and it would play Medieval2 good but not maxxed. I built one little over a year ago to play Empire on high. It will play Medieval2 maxxed.

Good luck.

[The Jaguar]

I'll be trying some more things to get MTW2 to work even better, since i do want to play the campaigns.
Normal battles do well now, just not on max settings, but that's something i won't be able to do anyway, i am content with just lagless playing really, rather than not at all.

Edit: As long as the units look good it's all fine, the rest, like details on buildings and such, i do not care much about.

[irishron]

There is a Reduced Building Texture mod to help with sieges if interested.

[The Jaguar]

Hello,

I've been playing it decently for two days now, it's not perfectly running with a bit of lag here and there (Especially when you want to put them in a formation, or charging, it will click only once instead of twice.) but other than that it's relatively do-able.

But yes, anything will help to make it run better, where can i find such a mod at?

Greets,

Jaguar

[irishron]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=270926

Good luck.

[The Jaguar]

Thanks a lot, Sir.

[irishron]

You're welcome.