Understanding System Requirements

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Wiggles

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May 22, 2008
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Can some one please help me in understanding system requirements? I've bought a couple a games now where according to the minimum requirement I should be able to run them but when I play these games they're almost unplayable due to low fps or mouse lag.

Edit: I also plan on purchasing a new graphics card.Would any of yall recommend a reasonably priced video card?
 
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You know what is easy for the layperson?

This!

It'll look at your machine and compare it to the system requirements to give you a decent idea if you can play a game or not.
 
Can you run it, or Can your unit (hehe) works most times, however if you barely beat min requirements for a product, you should most likely upgrade your computer so that you are in a comfortable area. I remember buying TF2 after checking the requirements, and I could barely plat it. Turns out my intergrated gpu was really bad and using 1gb of ram didn't help much either lol.

Eventually I built another computer and now it runs fine :)
 
According to Can you run it easily. I can run portal 2 but when I play the game I get serious mouse lag and frame rate drops.
Hell it says i can run crysis 2 and I doubt I could play that when I can play barely play age of empires 2 with no problems.
Website says I'm also way past the recommended for l4d2 and I crash all the time in that game
 
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Lt. Wiggles said:
According to Can you run it easily. I can run portal 2 but when I play the game I get serious mouse lag and frame rate drops.
Hell it says i can run crysis 2 and I doubt I could play that when I can play barely play age of empires 2 with no problems.
Website says I'm also way past the recommended for l4d2 and I crash all the time in that game
Click to expand...

lol what are you system specs, you're all over the board from what I'm seeing. Also what are you video settings in portal 2?
 
Seriously I've gone through all the games I've ever played on this computer and most say I'm way past the recommended. When i play them though I generally have low fps and other serious problems.

System Specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
NVIDIA Geforce 9500 GT
Realtek High Definition Audio
2GB of RAM
(Just copied whatever the website told me I had)
 
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Lt. Wiggles said:
Seriously I've gone through all the games I've ever played on this computer and most say I'm way past the recommended. When i play them though I generally have low fps and other serious problems.

System Specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
NVIDIA Geforce 9500 GT
Realtek High Definition Audio
2GB of RAM
(Just copied whatever the website told me I had)
Click to expand...

I see the problem, its your video card! I'm not saying the card is bad but.....there is much better on the market. You get mouse lag and such because its struggling to perform. You should think about buying another video card, probably something around the mid-upper Nvidia 200 series, or mid upper 4000 series. Both series are very good for the price, plus some cards don't require too much power from your power supply (the 9500gt was pretty low power, so I'm assuming your psu doesn't put out too much power).

Currently I am using this card: http://tinyurl.com/662d7vw
Its pretty low power, stays pretty cool and very cheap. For mid range resolutions, I can play the majority of my games on high settings without any mouse lag, frame drops, freezing, etc. I just checked my video settings on Portal 2 and I have everything at high, very high, 4xAA, at 1440x900 res. I get over 50 fps constant :). Like I said, this card is pretty good for the price. A good example of what the 4000 series can still do, even though the 6000 series is getting off the ground.
 
I knew it was the graphics card. I had a really nice one but after a lesson on why you should always use a surge protector on your computer it broke and I had to buy the cheapest card I could get.

Quick question? Are you running it in crossfire?
 
Lt. Wiggles said:
I knew it was the graphics card. I had a really nice one but after a lesson on why you should always use a surge protector on your computer it broke and I had to buy the cheapest card I could get.

Quick question? Are you running it in crossfire?
Click to expand...

Nope, only have one, since I only have one PCIEx16 slot :cursing:
Wait, how do you break a card learning to use a surge protector?
 
power outages burned out my old graphics card and some other stuff back before I had a surge protector on my computer
 
Could I get a couple of other people to comment on the graphics card he's recommending before I buy?
 
Well, what graphical settings are Rathion and Wiggles trying to do?
 
I can run portal 2. The problem is that there are serious performance issues such as mouse lag and low fps in some areas. I play as the lowest setting the game would let me. At the setting the game recommended for me it would take 12 sec to turn all the way around because of the mouse lag.

What I want to be able to do is play majority of new games at a reasonable performance level, not barely able to play the game.
 
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have you tried lowering the hardware acceleration?

contol panel/display/settings/advanced/trouble shoot

lowering the hardware acceleration can help with unresponsive mouse and video lag. Do it 1 step at a time until the issue is resloved.
 
the 9500 GT should run the games just fine. I have an 8600 GT in a backup PC that plays all source games just fine on high graphics plus Crysis and the like.

I do see that you only have 2Gigs of RAM... that may be an issue.

also, have you gone to the nVidia website and updated your vid card drivers? If not.. that would be the first place to start.
 
If you're on 2GB of RAM, that might also be the problem.

If you have stuff running in the background, it might put pressure on your RAM and you end up having less available for games.
 
Updating the drivers made portal 2 work perfectly fine. Thanks everyone who helped.
 
Problem solved :). Sorry I couldn't help your further, started to rain 2 nights ago and last night, and water was starting to flood into my basement :( Had to get my computer out as soon as possible. Also for those who said 2gb was a problem, I played portal 2 with 2gb of ram at high settings before I upgraded to 4 :)
 
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