[fruithead]

this is a cry for help to all you tech genius'. in the past few months i've had to shelve games like scratches and paradise because they are just too slow on my system. i can't play the sims anymore for the same reason. dreamfall i couldn't even begin.

i really need a new computer so i can feed my adventure game habit and while i'm pretty good with computers what i really want to know is if it's worth upgrading my system (ie new video card, more memory) or if i'm just better off getting a new computer.

here are my specs (nothing fancy):
Microsoft XP Home Edition
Intel Celeron Processor 2.8 GHZ
256MB PC3200 (400 MHz) DDR SDRAM (expandable)
40 GB Smart III Ultra Hard Drive

any suggestions? pm me if you'd like.

thanks!

[skurken]

Whats your video card?

[fruithead]

this is going to sound stupid but i don't know and i'm not sure where to find that information. i've searched around my computer but can't find out. where do i find it?

[Terramax]

go to search on the windows start menu and search 'dxdiag'. This should scan and analyse your computer specs.

EDIT: in anycase with a computer as low as that you'll probably not be able to upgrade to very high. At least not enough to play Dreamfall on average specs.

It sounds lame, but buy the best you can afford. Or at least go to a P.C. store (that you trust), explain what type of games you play and they'll give you a P.C. with a standard graphics card, and a machine that'll be upgradable in the future if needed.

[Agustin]

Hi fruithead,

You shouldn't have shelved Scratches at all with that system. Please, let me know which is the video card you are using. What you probably need to do is update its drivers, at least to play Scratches.

[bysmitty]

Originally Posted by fruithead

here are my specs (nothing fancy):

Microsoft XP Home Edition
Excellent, No problem here.

Intel Celeron Processor 2.8 GHZ
This is still fine for now but you will find this to be a bottleneck for gaming within the next year or so. Basically, it should not limit you for current games but future ones will suffer. I would leave this alone for now but look to overhaul the whole system in a year or two.

256MB PC3200 (400 MHz) DDR SDRAM (expandable)
Big prob here. 256mb is barely enough to run winXP alone let alone resource intensive games. When windows runs out of available memory, it uses hard drive space as virtual memory to make up it but at a significant performance hit. You should definitely look to add at least 512mb to this computer to get you to around a game-able level.

40 GB Smart III Ultra Hard Drive
40gigs is low but it all depends on how much you use. As long as you have enough for your games, files, and still leave a few gigs free for breathing room, this should not be an issue.

any suggestions?
When it comes to gaming, the big wild card is the video card now-a-days. Games like paradise have 3d elements that need a dedicated video card in order to run properly. Depending on what video system your computer has, this may be another reason for poor performance in games. Something like this is a decent graphics card that will bring you up to date for current games. Before buying a video card, you need to find out what graphics port your computer has. They come in PCIe, AGP, and PCI flavors. Judging by your CPU, I would put my money on AGP but you should verify that before shelling out for an upgrade.

Feel free to post back here or here with any questions.

...bysmitty