test content
  • Games
  • Social
  • Arc News
  • Support
  • Zen
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Forums > Home› PC & Technical Issues
Options

Decent specs, low quality... help.

Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
edited January 2010 in PC & Technical Issues
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me off hand why my system seems to only be able to effectively handle the game at mid to low specs. anything above the mid range on graphics and the frame rate plummets. I've been able to handle games like Dragon Age Origins, and the Witcher just fine on medium high to high settings.

Here's what' I'm sporting.

Pentium D (Dual Core) 2.80 GHz 2.79GHz
2.5g Ram (DDR2(either 4200 or 5300, can't remember off hand))
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS. 512MB Dedicated, HDMI & DVI Output.

I do have 2 monitors running off of the card at the same time, and I could probably use a ram upgrade at this point; but I'm also broke.

If anyone has any guesses, suggestions, or whatever, let me know.

Thanks guys.
Post edited by Archived Post on

Comments

  • Options
    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    The good news is that you've got plenty of memory. The bad news is that you've got one of the slowest discrete video cards to release in the last three years, and even more recent integrated graphics might be an upgrade. But video cards are easy enough to replace, if your motherboard has a PCI-Express slot and your power supply can handle additional load.

    I'm not sure if your processor can handle the game, either. It's dual-core, and the game is threaded to take advantage of at least four cores if you have them, but it's also NetBust, and nearly the slowest dual-core desktop processor ever.

    Actually, if you were to upgrade both the video card and the processor, your power supply would be fine, as while something like a Radeon HD 4650 or 4670 (or maybe the 5670 that officially releases in about three hours) would use more power than the video card you've got, a (Wolfdale) Pentium would use far less power than the processor you have, while being about twice as fast. That would be around $70 each for the video card and the processor, though, and that's assuming that it's even possible to upgrade your computer.

    Champions Online is a pretty demanding game in terms of hardware requirements, at least if you want to turn settings up. If you're satisfied with the game performance at low graphical settings, you can just keep what you've got. But if you want playable performance at higher settings, you'll need better hardware.
  • Options
    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    Ty much. I assumed as much. The computer is a good 4 or 5 years old which in this day and age makes them ancient. Maybe next year I can finally aford to start building a new one.
  • Options
    Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited January 2010
    While you would highly benefit with a total system overhaul, you can weasel your way into some decent framerates by simply buying a decent video card off Newegg.com. A HD4770 should be able to run CO pretty close to maxed out depending on your resolution, and only runs at around $100.
Sign In or Register to comment.