How Low Can U Go?

**Chernabog** · October 12, 2006, 08:17 AM

Hi There.

After finding out that my Athlon XP 3200+ pc wont run the demo I went in search of a pc that could ...

I managed to dig out an old HP Vectra VL420, P4 1.6Ghz Willimack, 640MB of SD133 with a Geforce 3 TI200 128MB (yes thats GF3 :tooth: ), all running on an ASUS P4B-MX (thats got a 4x AGP port).

I whacked on WXP SP1 and DX9c, installed the demo and ... it worked !

Not very well I admit, colours were all screwed, kinda like a shadow puppet movie but it still worked.

So, I thought that color graphics would be a good idea ... had another rummage and came up with an ATI 9250 64MB, whacked that in, set the stock drivers and gave it a go ... awsome, now got MTw2 in colour

All on low settings of course but it is (just) playable.

Its amazing that a realy naff motherboard, with a useless GPU, and ancient CPU and some very slow memory can run the demo, whilst my spankingly overclocked Athlon XP rig cannot :hmmm:

Still gonna put in my ATI 9800 AIW (oc'ed and softmoded to a 9800Pro) in to see what I can get out of it

Just wondering who else out there can run this demo on some very old and shaky rigs?

L8trs

**HoeHeetdieKnakkâh** · October 12, 2006, 08:26 AM

Well

I got a laptop ( only ) at home and put the demo on it. Its a intel 2.4/2.8 ( dunno exactly ) with 512mb ram and 128mb videocard.
I started it and guess what. Everything on medium and high with that Booms / Blooming or what was it called on and it runs flawless. Just wonderfull without any lag or stuttering. Even better than Rome Total War.

At work with a 2.8 / 1024mb ram (intel ) / 256mb videocard i cant even run it on everything low without shadows and the rest of the stuff. I can run it but without so much lag you cant zoom in normally or watch the video ( at start of a battle ).

So how glad can you be with a nice laptop with low specs......And if i read all the probs with those killer systems....damn

p.s. Sorry for my bad english

**DavidtheDuke** · October 12, 2006, 05:32 PM

Just like before the new 3D total war engine seems to very odd in its pickings and choosings of what it will run good on and what not it will.

**CIaagent11** · October 12, 2006, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by DavidtheDuke

Just like before the new 3D total war engine
seems to very odd in its pickings and choosings of what it will run
good on and what not it will.

We should find out what that is.
My rig ought to run Rome fine, but it doesnt.
And some people with a 64 MB craphics card play the Demo?!
So I guess im going with the rival hardware for my yet to buy M2TW machine.

Any Ideas? Like TW games like ATI or TW games like Intel?

**DavidtheDuke** · October 12, 2006, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by CIaagent11

We should find out what that is.
My rig ought to run Rome fine, but it doesnt.
And some people with a 64 MB craphics card play the Demo?!
So I guess im going with the rival hardware for my yet to buy M2TW machine.

Any Ideas? Like TW games like ATI or TW games like Intel?

Well I can tell you this, it doesn't seem to be running on Core 2 Duo machines well as it should by far (25FPS under heavy load). I've done some experiments, and it appears not to be taking advantage of the second core completely if any at all. It's not unplayable, and I don't know if it is/will be fixed in the retail version.

**OTZ** · October 12, 2006, 06:24 PM

It runs fine on my Atari 64, at least if I disable shadows.

@Chernabog - I am impressed that you could get it to run on such an old machine!

**ENSAIS** · October 12, 2006, 07:21 PM

My Emachine T2692 with 2.6ghz Intel Celeron and 512mg ram that I puchased for $200 on black friday 2003 (or was that 2002?!) from Best Best buy works just fine.

At the time the 512 mg vs 256mg stanadard cost me like 50$ or something. The only other upgrade is a Gforce fx5200 PCI video card.

And the demo runs... well quite a bit better than rtw (actually SPQR). BUT, I only play SPQR, and only on huge. Usually have no grass all other video options on minimum (except unit detail med, and desychronized animations).

For the demo, I have mostly medium settings... every once and a while there is a graphic hiccup, but overall the game plays pretty well.

... and I was just sure that I'd have to fork out about 1k for a new rig just to play that.

PS what do I do to know my FPS (frames per second, I guess?) so I can post that accurately?

**CIaagent11** · October 12, 2006, 07:28 PM

Use Fraps. fraps.com, I guess. If not, google.

**BeastG33** · October 12, 2006, 07:32 PM

Runs like a dream on my toaster.

Seriously, that's pretty sad. Hopefully there will be a patch regarding processors that are unsupported. Has there be any official word on the issue?

**DavidtheDuke** · October 12, 2006, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by BeastG33

Runs like a dream on my toaster.

Seriously, that's pretty sad. Hopefully there will be a patch regarding processors that are unsupported. Has there be any official word on the issue?

I don't think so, and there hasn't been either for the SSE2 issue as well.

**ENSAIS** · October 12, 2006, 07:45 PM

To my embarrassment, my rig is performing for all the $250 it was worth 3 years ago...

Fraps says I vary from 3 -13 fps... Maybe I am just a wee bit TOO understanding of the shorcomings of my machine.

Hey at least I can play the demo (if you can call it "play"ing)
and it looks pretty cool when paused.
LOL