Frame Rate Issue

[Casey]

Hello All. I'm having issues with the game running at around 6-10 FPS. I've adjusted everything I can down to bare mins, and still my FPS runs 6-10. This is a replacement PC, after frying my "real" one. Didn't have the cash to fix it, so I settled for this crappy thing. I've attached a copy of my dxdiag. I really want to try MP. But, with frame rates this bad in SP. I'll most likely be wasting my time, and everyone else's if I try. Any help, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also play Medieval Total War 2, and I get around 25 FPS with medium to high settings, so I feel like I'm just missing a settings adjustment, or something simple. I've updated all my drivers, including my Chip set drivers, sound, graphics, and even my monitor, with no luck. Maybe a fresh set of eyes can pinpoint my issue. If not, I'll eventually figure it out, or throw stack and all out the window.

[Jim]

It is the video card. Shared memory video cards perform poorly with the game. We strongly suggest dedicated video cards for a reason.

-Jim

[Casey]

Thanks Jim. I realize the card is a piece of crap, however, I'm not sure I understand the difference. I'm not exactly good at PC lingo. Do you mean that the onboard video card it came with would work better? If so, that won't be a problem. I had this card as a spare for my GF's son's PC, and when I bought this thing, I installed it. If that is what you are saying, then I can just go back to the factory card. Either way. Thanks for the reply.

[Jim]

Actually the on board video would probably be even worse, but you can try it if you want. You can get a decent video card for under $100 but that is a lot of funds for some people just to play a game. Sorry we couldn't give you a better way to play.

-Jim

[Blaugrana]

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series video card. Would I be able to improve its SoWG performance by swapping (adding??) a better video card????

MTIA for any suggestions.

[Little Powell]

I played the game on an older laptop (onboard video) for 2 years. I was able to get it to run decently by reducing the trees to around 30% and also reducing the unit, trees, and overall sight distance. You can get the game to run on pretty much any PC made in the last 5 years or so by playing with the settings.. Yeah you won't get the maximum eye candy, and it may still slow down on the larger scenarios, but you can still play.. as I tested on it for years on a sub-par machine.

[Casey]

I think my biggest problem is that my gaming rig could pretty much run anything, and after it died, literally, lol. I had to settle for this thing. And if you look at my dxdiag, its basically a laptop, for the desk. And I've tried every configuration ingame, and its just stuck at around 6 or 7 FPS. And after hours and hours of googling, reading, adjusting, and cussing. I've finally resigned to the fact, its NOT the game at all, but just a very crappy PC, that I'm going to have to live with until I can afford to get my "real" PC back up and running. But I do appreciate the feedback, and want you guys to know, its NOT the game, its my setup. I've seen the game (unfortunately only briefly) on a good PC, and its great. I just don't think that at 6 FPS, that it will, or can, keep up in MP. But, later I plan to give it a try. I just don't want to mess up everyone elses game, by having to wait on me to move.

[Jim]

I would really suggest giving MP a try. I do most of my MP testing on a laptop and I am usually in the 5-10 range for the larger battles. Under 5 is an issue but most of the MP performance is set by the host system. Worth a try and the MP crowd is quite helpful towards new players.

-Jim