A Lazy Question

[whisky_ed]

Evening Total Warlords, all!

I'll make no bones about it, as I lay here on my gilded couch, eating grapes from between my chubbypincer-like fingers with one hand & scratch my over-inflated belly with the other, I have registered on this right-royal eve in order to ask one lurkerish question and then to vanish *puff* to whence I came...

Here it is:

I just bought Shogun 2, haven't tried running it on my current set-up a) because its old & b) because the DVD drive gone done been broke.

I'd like to be able to run S2 smoothly and at a decent quality.
At the mo I've got a Athlon 3000 processor (2000mhz) 2gb of RAM and a Radeon 9800XT graphics card. (non pci-e mobo I think too).

What're my options? My budget is under £100 & I'm thinking simply of a graphics card upgrade.

Cheers, (not in advance)

'Run away!'

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Well my lazy answer would be as follows...

"looks at 100 euro budget, chuckles to self, walks away"


Otherwise the regular answer would be that your PC is outdated so bad that putting any money into that would be like attempting to supply your dog with water by crying over his water dish. No really, I'm serious.

Save up for a new PC or use whacha got.

[whisky_ed]

Darn, that creates a dilemma. Do nowt and end up crying into the dogbowl anyway when it runs at 1fps or sell my soul to get a new rig, (possibly not a bad shout after the ongoing death of the PSN from whence I have crawled back from - big thumbs).

Mind you, that said, I still need convincing that a small outlay won't bring back significant results. *Ponders. *and scratches a welt.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

AGP interface has been DEAD* for close to 7 years now replaced by PCI E that is now on revision 3.0

the best GPU you can buy in terms of AGP is the ATi / AMD 4670 which in terms of performance is lower then even the ancient Nvidia 8800GTS 320mb, which was slower then the 8800gt which came out in 2006, and can barely run new games effectively today, at anything higher then 1280x720.

your 2ghz single core CPU, will bottleneck newer gpus so bad it would be like running regular gasoline in a Jet engine, being utterly worthless, but dont take my word for it go find an AMD 3850 AGP gpu and hope the ancient power supply in your system can actually power the card without exploding, and no im not joking about the exploding.

most likely that ancient pc of yours is running an equally ancient 250-300w psu that dosen have PCIE power plugs and even if it did the voltage on the 12v rails would be so miniscule it couldnt power a modern gpu if it tried.

i mean hell the AGP 3850 cant even run Mass Effect at anything more then 40fps if lucky and the Unreal Engine is so old now most modern PCIe cards can crank out 100+ fps in most titles. some pushing into the 200-300fps range.

Your PC is what is effectively known as a Legacy rig in the tech world used for older games that do not run well on modern hardware and operating systems

To put it BLUNTLY, the 9800XT in your PC is so old and outdated todays Integrated onboard video with the cheesy cheapo motherboards is actually faster.

To put money into your current PC is the equivalent of taking all the money you have and settings it on fire.

example the AMD fusion Zacate APU which is a low power 1.6ghz Dual core + onboard 6310 gpu gives around 10,000 points in 3dmark 03, a 9800XT stock pulls in 6400pts overclocked the 9800XT pulls in 7000pts

what this means is a cheapo piece of that you can build yourself at around $300 is about 30% faster then what you have and its bottom of the barrely entry lvl, still not good enough for modern gaming but the fact is your system is so old, it cant even compete with the lowest of the low in todays technology, Most mobile smart phones are more powerful then your system.

and before anyone says im harsh its the truth and he asked for it so i delievered

[irishron]

The cpu is below spec, ram minimum for XP, and AGP cards will not run Shogun2. Is this good enough?

Check the specs at http://forums.totalwar.com/forum.php and you make the call.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

actually wrong AGP gpus can run shogun II

3850 agp 512mb and 4670 could but his pc would probably explode if those cards are added to his pc and driver support for them is pretty since they didnt sell much if at all. but its possible to run shogun II on say an old socket 939 dual core + agp gpu, but by todays standards it would be entry lvl and not up to the task.

[irishron]

Maybe so but the list of gpus is there and my 9800GT is almost on the bottom and it will do better than AGP.

You are probably right about the explosion. Parts that old under stress can do strange and terrible things.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

well its capacitor aging as a power supply gets older and older it becomes less and less able to give out its full wattage, not to mention the 12v rail probably has to few amps to power the system

dropping in a newer gpu using AGP again newest still being utterly ancient, would most likely put said power supply at its breaking point drawing more watts off the 12v rail then it can provide and do to age causing it to go POP, and potentially fry the entire system as older powersupplies didnt have the protections in place modern units do.

most likely a loud pop and or bang sound followed by smoke and or fire, with an acrid smell of burnt plastic and chemicals

[PoleCat]

well its capacitor aging as a power supply gets older and older it becomes less and less able to give out its full wattage, not to mention the 12v rail probably has to few amps to power the system

dropping in a newer gpu using AGP again newest still being utterly ancient, would most likely put said power supply at its breaking point drawing more watts off the 12v rail then it can provide and do to age causing it to go POP, and potentially fry the entire system as older powersupplies didnt have the protections in place modern units do.

most likely a loud pop and or bang sound followed by smoke and or fire, with an acrid smell of burnt plastic and chemicals

Well true enough. But that's assuming he sticks with the old PSU. He could upgrade the PSU to something newer that will carry the load and then try to add an old AGP card that will technically play Shgoun2. But in reality this is outside his stated budget.

@whiskey_ed - your system is on the far side of too-far-gone. Look to upgrade as there is no real practical way for you to modernize that system.

As for being a cast-off/refugee from the current PSN mess - change the credit card number associated with your game account. That's far more pressing a matter then figuring out a way to jury-rig your current system to play Shogun. Good luck!

[Bolkonsky]

I hope you haven't opened Shogun 2 yet. Return it and get Shogun 1. Though that's not very lazy.

[atraps]

I'd like to be able to run S2 smoothly and at a decent quality.

At the mo I've got a Athlon 3000 processor (2000mhz) 2gb of RAM and a Radeon 9800XT graphics card. (non pci-e mobo I think too).

My budget is under £100

Impossible.

Save your money for a new system.

[Darkpriest667]

Impossible.

Save your money for a new system.

x2


Get a second part time job and save some money.

[Thoragoros]

My advice, whisky ed, put down the whisky and do this

x2


Get a second part time job and save some money.

Sorry, but that's really your only option with that system.

[Samurai Warrior]

You need some more money, I bought one for 600 dollars, and you could definetly do better than that.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

a good complete gaming rig can be bought for around $650 if self built, $650 only because well windows is $100 for OEM version so you need about $500 to get good parts and $50 to cover shipping

[whisky_ed]

Cool, I am now convinced! Thanks to all of you for your helpful replies. Denial is more than just a river it seems....

@Crazyeyesreaper - thanks for the full breakdown, I wasn't completely aware how obsolete my system has become and the comparison with new entry level systems was useful.

Time to start budgeting for a new one and then I'll come online and kick all your asses!

Probably a good time to say goodbye to XP too...

Toodles!