Can my girl friend play this?

[Shika_mech]

My girl friend can play Rome and M2TW and does really well in Rome. Puts up a very good fight. Im trying to see if she can play the others. I know its a stretch but here is her Dxdiag I know she wont be able to play Fots all I want to know is can she play Vanilla S2?

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System Information
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Time of this report: 1/19/2013, 13:10:20
       Machine name: PETRIE
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
       System Model: HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
               BIOS: InsydeH2O Version CCB.03.61.09F.17
          Processor: AMD A8-3520M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~1.6GHz
             Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 5610MB RAM
          Page File: 1768MB used, 9449MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode 

[Plan C]

Low - medium settings probably but I have found performance can vary surprisingly from system to system. Keypoint is that she has no dedicated gpu if I read spec correctly.

Either way she's a keeper dude

[Jokern]

Yes, your girlfriend can play the other games.

[eregost]

I wish I had a gf that played TW games. That's awesome.

[DeliCiousTZM]

I wish I had a gf that played TW games. That's awesome.

No you dont because she would suck, and you would wanna slap her in the face when she tries to blame the game and give up.

Ehm.. Just a hypothesis.

[Shika_mech]

No you dont because she would suck, and you would wanna slap her in the face when she tries to blame the game and give up.

Ehm.. Just a hypothesis.

Ah Ha! Yes you do! That was not the problem at first. In fact after three months of half casual play she was just on a winning streak till today lol
She had won 4 in a row as Carthege, I played as Germans Britannia and Spain, Greeks, I finally beat her as Greeks today. She was doing really well and is finally starting to get it.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Ah Ha! Yes you do! That was not the problem at first. In fact after three months of half casual play she was just on a winning streak till today lol
She had won 4 in a row as Carthege, I played as Germans Britannia and Spain, Greeks, I finally beat her as Greeks today. She was doing really well and is finally starting to get it.

Allegedly!Proof or it didn't happen.

[Shika_mech]

I know Fall of the Samurai is really resource heavy and a pain to most computers but could computer handle it?

[Plan C]

She had won 4 in a row as Carthege, [...] finally beat her as Greeks today. She [...] is finally starting to get it.

Yeah, I like that; your girl mopped the floor with you 4 times on the bounce and only now she's starting to get it

Back to your question - there's nothing stopping you from trying FoTS on that machine although I do have to warn you, that A8-3520M CPU is going to disappoint you both. Issue #1 - the CPU is good for casual activities, will be able to process video decoding and probably a casual game and browsing at the same time. However playing demanding games is not what it does best. In fact it is not going to do well at all. Issue #2 - there is no integrated GPU or graphics card. You know when people here on the forum bang on about nVidia and Radeon - they usually refer to dedicated graphics processing units which take care of (in simple terms) visual side of things, i.e. render landscape, polygons for all the soldiers, texture processing, shaders, Anti-Aliasing and so on. This is a hell of a job to do and without a GPU all that has to be done essentially by your CPU. Now, A8-3520M is from AMD Llano family, meaning that it has an integrated Radeon mini-GPU on the same chip as the processor, but if you have ever seen a high-end gaming GPU in the flesh you will understand immediately why an integrated GPU has simply no chance of producing the kind of performance you want for playing FoTS. I mean, my GPU (Radeon 6990M) has 2GB of GDDR5 RAM just to itself, 1120 x streams, 256 bit memory bus and that's juuuust about enough to deliver good experience in Ultra settings.

By all means try and let us know how you get one but I would suggest saving up (or mooching off the rents / grandparents) and getting a slightly more serious bit of gaming kit. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[Shika_mech]

Yeah, I like that; your girl mopped the floor with you 4 times on the bounce and only now she's starting to get it

Back to your question - there's nothing stopping you from trying FoTS on that machine although I do have to warn you, that A8-3520M CPU is going to disappoint you both. Issue #1 - the CPU is good for casual activities, will be able to process video decoding and probably a casual game and browsing at the same time. However playing demanding games is not what it does best. In fact it is not going to do well at all. Issue #2 - there is no integrated GPU or graphics card. You know when people here on the forum bang on about nVidia and Radeon - they usually refer to dedicated graphics processing units which take care of (in simple terms) visual side of things, i.e. render landscape, polygons for all the soldiers, texture processing, shaders, Anti-Aliasing and so on. This is a hell of a job to do and without a GPU all that has to be done essentially by your CPU. Now, A8-3520M is from AMD Llano family, meaning that it has an integrated Radeon mini-GPU on the same chip as the processor, but if you have ever seen a high-end gaming GPU in the flesh you will understand immediately why an integrated GPU has simply no chance of producing the kind of performance you want for playing FoTS. I mean, my GPU (Radeon 6990M) has 2GB of GDDR5 RAM just to itself, 1120 x streams, 256 bit memory bus and that's juuuust about enough to deliver good experience in Ultra settings.

By all means try and let us know how you get one but I would suggest saving up (or mooching off the rents / grandparents) and getting a slightly more serious bit of gaming kit. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Thanks you for the indepth review of her machine. Her computer is great for what she does in college. She didn't start playing any games untill she started dating me. I didn't think she could run Fots figured Id ask for my chances lol Yea I fully know that her comp not having a dedicated video card is a huge problem. Why I stick with Desktops. Thanks again

[Noif de Bodemloze]

You guys can run. I believe it can run well on Rome, Medieval 2 and maybe Empire. Shogun maybe on low-medium settings. damn AMD A8-3520M it sound poison in my food. I use also laptop/notebook too on play, S2 with all dlc, Mass effect triology etc... without any problems. Thanks for Lenovo y480.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Strange, usually FotS runs better than the Sengoku campaign, at least for me.

[Shika_mech]

Strange, usually FotS runs better than the Sengoku campaign, at least for me.

I have had nothing but issues with Fall of the Samurai. My friends could play S2 fine but the moment they got fots it went down hill even after telling the computer to increase Virtual Memory. Then my friends can't run it. I almost count play Any of the Shogun 2.

[Radzeer]

Question answered, off topic stuff cleared, thread closed.

[Shika_mech]

What's the secret to getting your GF to play games?

I dont know I was just like her try this game. So she tried it. Never really played video games before. Except like Mario cart. In retrospect I should of started her off on something easier. I got her Zoo Tycoon and Portal, She said she would of prefered to of started with those first. I mean lets be honest having Total war is kind of alot to be thrown in your lap if you have never played strategy games before. I guess start with something simple. My girlfriend also likes History so that might of helped with Jumping head first into Total war