pc help

londonboi1985 · December 04, 2011, 02:01:16 PM

Hi can someone help. My pc is 5 years old and. I recently bought world of subways 3. The game eventually loads. After 5 minutes loading when it does it is really really slow and unplayable. The graphics seem fine just game is really slow to load and has a delay of 10secs per key press to do anything. Isit a case of me just upgrading my processor to get it running smooth to say 2.6ghz which is the recommended processor speed

poliss · December 04, 2011, 02:05:19 PM

You can only upgrade your processor if the motherboard will allow it. You'll need to check your system specs.

londonboi1985 · December 04, 2011, 02:19:21 PM

Ah right and how will I know that is there a way you could explain it to me so I can find out and post it here

MikeDunn · December 04, 2011, 02:25:46 PM

You don't give much information ... can you provide the minimum spec for the game, the recommended spec, and lastly what you're using ?

Basically - if you're not at the minimum spec - forget it. Best to be at recomended or above though.

And as to upgrading PC components like processors - if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it

poliss · December 04, 2011, 02:27:24 PM

What model is your puter and what graphics card do you have?
If you right click on 'My Computer' and then click on 'Properties' you'll see what processor you have.

poliss · December 04, 2011, 02:29:21 PM

Minimum System requirements for the game are:
Dual core 2.6 GHz

Windows 7, Vista, XP (SP3)
Graphics card: GeForce 9800 or comparable ATI
Soundcard
DirectX 9.0c

RAM: 2 GB

Free Harddisk space: 2 GB

londonboi1985 · December 04, 2011, 02:46:07 PM

Just turned it on ok in systeem properties its jaas

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 processor
3500+
2.20 Ghz, 448 mb of ram

Does that help. Nothing about graphics card but I know it has one as I have played games on it before

Also I have direct x9 installed

poliss · December 04, 2011, 03:03:19 PM

You need a load more RAM to run the game. Don't have enough info about you motherboard to see if it can take a faster processor. Most computers have a very basic built in graphics card.
I suggest using PC Pitstop to check your machine. http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/
Also download Belarc Advisor which will tell you the make and model of your motherboard. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

londonboi1985 · December 04, 2011, 03:05:28 PM

So would it be cheaper to just wait until this pc has had it and buy a knew one

poliss · December 04, 2011, 03:11:00 PM

With the price of PCs these days, probably yes. If you have a good monitor you could save money by just buying a bare bones system.

MikeDunn · December 04, 2011, 03:29:51 PM

448MB RAM ? I'm surprised anything is running, including WinDoze !

Get across to one of the memory sites & see if they can recommend any replacement RAM - or [url]http://www.corsair.com]http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner/?click=trueurl] or [url]http://www.corsair.com are good.

Also - confirm if you have a graphics card or not - if not, you will be using RAM from the system to power the (very poor) onboard graphics system (which, given how much RAM you have listed, I suspect is the case). If you don't have one, a decent one will cost about £100.

Mike

poliss · December 04, 2011, 03:44:38 PM

You'd need to know what kind of graphics card would be compatible. Mine takes an AGPx4 from memory.

Fratton · December 04, 2011, 05:15:18 PM

http://www.novatech.co.uk/

very good for cheap PC componants including RAM graphics cards etc also they have a flock of tamed geeks out back that are always helpfull when your not sure what you need,,,,,,

EtchedPixels · December 04, 2011, 07:00:57 PM

Quote from: Fratton on December 04, 2011, 05:15:18 PM
http://www.novatech.co.uk/

very good for cheap PC componants including RAM graphics cards etc also they have a flock of tamed geeks out back that are always helpfull when your not sure what you need,,,,,,

I can second Novatech for parts.

The three things I'd check are

1. How old is the motherboard, in particular is the graphics PCI-Express. If not I'd relegate it to a different rôle than serious gaming

2. If its PCI express then see what it'll take and price some memory - 8GB may well be the sweet spot. On older boxes with older types of RAM it can be cheaper to replace the board/cpu/ram than buy lots of now obsolete memory.

3. Then check out the video on it. When pricing video cards its worth remembering that there is a steep pricing slope for relatively low performance increases, they price them to milk the gamers for all they've got

. Going back a couple of generations saves you a ton !

The big issue with the motherboards is that they determine the type and thus speed of memory that can be used, and the sizes. That makes a big difference to performance and isn't really fixable other ways. In the Intel case in particular it also heavily determines the CPU choice.

MikeDunn · December 04, 2011, 07:47:35 PM

Quote from: EtchedPixels on December 04, 2011, 07:00:57 PM
2. If its PCI express then see what it'll take and price some memory - 8GB may well be the sweet spot.

Ahem !

8 GB may be fine & dandy - but if you're using a 32-bit system it's an utter waste of money ! 32-bit OS's cannot access above 3.5GB RAM (so plug 4GB in) ... You need a 64-bit OS for that.

Mike