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thuddriver
Member Posts: 9 Arc User
I've had a running discussion with the support team over the issue of my computer crashing while in the Protector's Enclave. They had me give them detailed info of my system and ran several diagnostic programs. The result: lower my in-game video settings. They also stated that it may be due to too many players in that location. So I lowered the video settings but it had no effect - the game still crashes. Note: my system exceeds both the minimum and the recommended system requirements for this game. So I asked an obvious question: Shouldn't you either raise the recommended system requirements or adjust the game so that it accommodates players with systems such as mine?
Here's what I'm running: XP SP3, Intel core 2 quad Q9450 @ 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, NVidea GeForce 9600GT
My guess is the system requirements are not accurate but they keep it low to attract more players in hopes it will work out for them. It may but in my case it didn't.
It appears that nothing positive will come out of this lengthy tech support issue so I'm posting this so all could see what at least one player is faced with. Good luck to all.
Here's what I'm running: XP SP3, Intel core 2 quad Q9450 @ 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, NVidea GeForce 9600GT
My guess is the system requirements are not accurate but they keep it low to attract more players in hopes it will work out for them. It may but in my case it didn't.
It appears that nothing positive will come out of this lengthy tech support issue so I'm posting this so all could see what at least one player is faced with. Good luck to all.
Post edited by thuddriver on
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The minimum system requirements call for an nvidia 8800 GT or better.
Your 9600 GT is slightly worse: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
I know that's counter-intuitive; both NVIDIA and AMD have notoriously hard-to-understand naming and numbering schemes. But them's the breaks. Your card is newer than the 8800 GT; that's what the 9 means. The 6 means it's less powerful. They're both very old cards, though.
EDIT: None of the above is to say that your rig is incapable of playing Neverwinter. It might be able to chug through on minimum settings. But your rig technically doesn't meet minimum requirements.
Of course it goes without saying that hardware specs aren't the only reason the game could crash. Unfortunately, tech support people of all stripes tend to latch onto the easiest explanation, because they're used to dealing with people who don't know anything about computers. I have no experience with PWE's tech support people, so take that with a grain of salt. It's just been my experience that tech support is a waste of time, generally.
Hope it works out for you, OP. Maybe you could get some help here if you post some more information.
I don't know any details as to why this happened or when it will be resolved but I have an extremely powerful machine (as in it can run any game at max settings with no lag) and I have had a hefty amount of graphic lag quite often in Protector's Enclave for the last two weeks.
Sadly these things happen when changing any software and I suspect that when the graphic lag most everybody is having in Protector's Enclave is resolved your situation will improve.
For the record, using this same PC, I've played City of Heroes for years and never had a crash. Also I fly flight simulators and receive good frame rates and no crashes. So if this is the only game where my system crashes why do the support people keep telling me it's my PCs fault? What is it about the lower level of the Enclave that my PC doesn't like? I say lower level because most crashes occur there and not on the upper levels where Sgt Knox is, although a few have ocurred there as well.
However to give you further insight on your card check out the benchmarks.
Yours: GeForce 9600 GT753
Recomended: GeForce 8800 GT 605
Mine (I have two of these): Radeon HD 6850 2233 (x2)
And my graphics cards are now quite out of date and pretty cheap. While you do meet the recommended settings those don't generally mean it will run completely smoothly and you will likely have to remain on fairly low settings. So part of the problem is indeed your PC but certainly not the full problem.
Furthermore when you're talking about playing different games you have to take note of a few issues:
First of all newer games need to be fine tuned. People often come onto the forums and say 'I have the best PC in the world it's not my computer's fault I am lagging' and that is often half true. Just because a computer is capable of running software doesn't mean it will work. There are many, many problems with can occur that can cause even the strongest computers to be unable to run certain programs. These will be ironed out with time but certain hardware having stability issues with new software is simply a part of software development.
Secondly the age and graphical demand of the game you're refering to. Flight similators need a fair amount of CPU power but graphically they are really, really incomparable to Neverwinter.
Here's the CoH minimum requirements card GeForce FX 5600 compared to the Neverwinter bare minimum GeForce 6800. In a nutshell Neverwinter requires 10x more graphical processing than City of Heroes just to run (and it will probably run poorly). Comparatively here is their recommended card.
Overall the ability to run City of Heroes well does not mean you will be able to play Neverwinter without issues. Basically you're talking a game that was released roughly ten years ago. In terms of modern technology it could probably be run on a wrist watch sized computer if somebody took the time out to develop it. The average smart phone has more than enough computing power to run a game from that day in age.
You're crashing becuz you're prolly using XP .