New PC - Terribel lag

[SteffHermans]

I bought a new PC last week. I did install Medieval II correctly without any problems. Except the game is very very lagging during battle, map, ect.

This is my new PC:

• Windows 8 64

• AMD A6-6400K processor
• AMD Radeon HD 8470 grafic card
• 4 GB DDR3
• 500 GB 7200 rpm ATA

How can I fix this problem?

[irishron]

Nothing. It's how the game only uses one core of your processor and it's not optimized worth a damn.

I have a little better one than yours and I still get lag scrolling the campaign map.

[SteffHermans]

But this lag is terrible. I didn't have this on my older PC until a few weeks ago.

Then it suddenly started to lag and after I installed it on my new one it still lags like hell.

[irishron]

In windows, do you have it set for Maximum Performance with screensaver and other goodies set to Never?
also be sure it's not trying to use the integrated graphics on your apu. If it does, it can cause problems.

You can't run the 8470 on as high settings as I can my 6770 for anything resembling smooth. Even two years older than yours it still has more power.

Desktop or laptop/notebook?

[SteffHermans]

In windows, do you have it set for Maximum Performance with screensaver and other goodies set to Never?
also be sure it's not trying to use the integrated graphics on your apu. If it does, it can cause problems.

You can't run the 8470 on as high settings as I can my 6770 for anything resembling smooth. Even two years older than yours it still has more power.

Desktop or laptop/notebook?

It's a desktop.

I haven't changed anything. Kind of a noob in PC skills.

[Aeratus]

On Windows 8, after starting M2TW, try going to task manager, then the "details" tab, then set the priority of the M2TW .exe file to "real time." See if that does anything.

Also, it's not clear how laggy exactly is your lag and what exactly your settings are. I'm sure anybody can come up with some setting that can make even the most high end computer lag.

[SteffHermans]

On Windows 8, after starting M2TW, try going to task manager, then the "details" tab, then set the priority of the M2TW .exe file to "real time." See if that does anything.

Also, it's not clear how laggy exactly is your lag and what exactly your settings are. I'm sure anybody can come up with some setting that can make even the most high end computer lag.

Setting it on real time didn't improve the performance.

My settings are standard. I didn't change anything after bying it. My settings in M2TW are the lowest I can select.

My lag is constant. Everything is slow: moving on the map, battles, my characters, ...

[irishron]

Did you hit the spacebar of which can speed up characters on the campaign map?

Did you set the computer to Maximum Performance in Windows? Autodetect or power saving are your worst enemies gaming.

Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Adjust Power Settings > High Performance. In Change Plan Settings, I also have Turn Off Display and Put Computer to Sleep set to Never.

Curious, post your dxdiag. What you're describing can also be drivers.

[SteffHermans]

Where can I find my dxdiag?

I guess the launcher for the steam is closed.

[Aeratus]

Did you switch to a steam version of the game? The steam version includes a resource-hogging launcher program that needs to be closed by the task manager after starting M2 if the launcher doesn't crash by itself. The launcher program might be lagging your computer.

[irishron]

Click Start,
In the box above it, type didiag > enter,
The next box, bottom buttons, click Save All Info,
Save it to your desktop,
Attach or copy paste its contents in your next post.

[SteffHermans]

dxdiag is in the attachement.

[irishron]

Not too bad for a prebuild. AMD's apus of the same speed still won't do what Intel's i5 will. It's the way game developers "optimize" the code and optimization for either is real bad.

Remember, the game only uses one core of your six for everything including graphics rendering before the graphics part of the chip even sees a byte of it. One reason for slowdown/lag on just about any computer. My old 9800GT would do better than your integrated and it would be older than Empire Total War. Newer is not always better for old things. It may do better on the newer games but from some of the reviews I would not hold my breath.

One reason why I have built about every computer of mine for the last 20-odd years, I know what's in it and its limitations.

[UndrState]

Not too bad for a prebuild. AMD's apus of the same speed still won't do what Intel's i5 will. It's the way game developers "optimize" the code and optimization for either is real bad.

Remember, the game only uses one core of your six for everything including graphics rendering before the graphics part of the chip even sees a byte of it. One reason for slowdown/lag on just about any computer. My old 9800GT would do better than your integrated and it would be older than Empire Total War. Newer is not always better for old things. It may do better on the newer games but from some of the reviews I would not hold my breath.

One reason why I have built about every computer of mine for the last 20-odd years, I know what's in it and its limitations.

Irishron - if you had to build a computer for M2TW to get the very best out of it, what would you consider essential. (whenever I ask this question, I get told "ah, you shouldn't build a computer for one game", but damn it that's what I want to ). Is it even still possible to get good condition older (appropriate) componants?

[irishron]

Irishron - if you had to build a computer for M2TW to get the very best out of it, what would you consider essential. (whenever I ask this question, I get told "ah, you shouldn't build a computer for one game", but damn it that's what I want to ). Is it even still possible to get good condition older (appropriate) componants?

IF I had the money, I'd probably start with a Haswell i5 and an aftermarket cooler that can do some serious overclocking. A 1gb graphics card like a 6770 or 6850 should be enough without bottlenecking it too bad and still may need to turn down shadows and the like. The game won't use anymore on a card. 8gb of ram for Win 7 64bit is a nice fit. During the end turn and the game making horde units for Mongols, I've seen kingdoms.exe use 1.3gb of ram in Task Manager.

[UndrState]

Ah, thank you - so you don't think it's worth it to get an older processor, something with less cores, I assume because even a single core from the I5 is better - right?

[irishron]

The way Intel has their chips set up to use threads, an i5 will beat an older chip even with only one core.

[AntonisTheGreek]

Open the game,go to options,then go to video settings and click auto detect and apply.The auto detect finds automatically the best settings for the game to work without problems.

[irishron]

Open the game,go to options,then go to video settings and click auto detect and apply.The auto detect finds automatically the best settings for the game to work without problems.

The default settings are usually good but I can usually tweak it a little better. Some detail settings can be fps killers even scrolling the campaign map.

[UndrState]

LOL I thought he was being sarcastic.

Suffice to say, I have not had an instance in any PC game where I was satisfied with the "detected" settings.