System Reqs

[joey11223 0]

well what exactly is the graphics card responsible for? yesterday, in RA3 i lowered the res to 800x600 and upped some of the graph qualitys and it runs just as good. im gonna raise it today probably too - see how much i can get away with.

 

EDIT: DD 3000 isn't that bad depending on how much you wanna spend. i mean i built a HQ machine on the big consumer sites like DELL and ALIENWARE and they were double that.

 

the graphics card is responsible well for.. the graphics, everything you see basically, the units and their movement, the shine and movement of the water(beautiful on ultra-high) etc. Games need them, it's basically the most important thing for games, but since when you buy a dell they assume you don't want to play games( or will just lie and say it can, yeah maybe pacman) the graphics card they give is either very old/cheap or they just don't give you one(internal chip on motherboard instead).

 

Yes if you use a custom site it will always be at least $200-300 over making it yourself, with dell and alienware(which is also dell) they rip you off anyway so yes it will be like double. If you don;t want to build it yourself then try googling custom pc or something and see what the best quotes are. I'll have a go at some for you.

 

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/, this is one of the best custom build companies, it;s in many gaming magazines and i have heard great things about it from UK and US people(has a Uk site too). It's prices are reasonable for a custom PC site. I just made up a PC similiar to mine and i came to around $1400, now that's a pretty good rig right there but if you wanna push to $2000 you could make something really mega.

Edited November 5, 2008 by joey11223

[rEdaSbLood 1]

THANKS! well i asked what the graphics card does because i have a dual core and good RAM so im sure that helps a bunch when it comes to gaming...i just dont know how a graphics card behaves in a system..ill wiki it one day :lol:

 

ill update you guys on how my machine runs once i up the graphics a little more, see how far i can push it.

 

this way people can see what a machine like mine is capable of, maybe help them make certain decisions

 

EDIT: ive asked this a million times before but cant seem to remember the answer... which processor is better for gaming AMD or INTEL???

Edited November 5, 2008 by rEdaSbLood

[BioBen 3]

The above question will contain the same results as:

Mac vs. PC

Console vs. computer

 

But we'll see

Edited November 6, 2008 by BioBen

[Alphabear 11]

Currently Intel is all over AMD

[joey11223 0]

thing is though with you turning down the resolution to like 800x600 it makes it so not as much(like how many units and buildings etc) you can see on the screen at any one time, basically your view is smaller and a higher resolution generally helps make the game look better, as well as the in game settings, so really it's best to try and play on the highest resolution you can. Like i said though basically graphics is anything moving, all the shadows and lighting effects,they all have to be rendered and processed but when it comes to graphics your graphics card does that not your processor.

[rEdaSbLood 1]

so having a higher res DOES slow the game though?

[Doctor Destiny 41]

It can, but it's all dependent on your hardware.

[joey11223 0]

yes it does a little, obviously if you have a good graphics card it wont matter too much but like i said you should try and use the highest resolution possible as it will give a bigger viewing area in the game and does help improve the looks a tad.

 

I just tried 800x600 and 1280x1024. If you try them both after each other and compare it's easier to see the main differences in a menu like the skirmish menu(were you select map and all that). The writing on 800x600 is slightly blurred and doesn't look as smooth around the edge of each letter then in 1280x1024. Then in game it looks a little more blurry in general(because you have less pixels used to smooth it out).

Edited November 6, 2008 by joey11223

[rEdaSbLood 1]

but was there a difference in game speed?

[joey11223 0]

I honestly couldn't tell you since with my PC I never see any slow down at all no matter what the settings. :lol:

 

however logically you are right a lower resolution should make the game run a bit more smooth as it lowers the detail a bit.

Edited November 7, 2008 by joey11223

[Sonic 293]

On my PC, consisting of a Core2Duo @3.0 Ghz/2GB RAM/Geforce 9600GT RA3 runs everything on max details with no problems what so ever. My settings below.

 

 

As you can see my system exceeds the games requirement according to Windows Vista.

 

[hagren 0]

I do come across slowdowns with the same card and memory size due to my rather slow processor (C2D 2.13 Ghz).

[rEdaSbLood 1]

Sonic where can i get that rating?

 

EDIT: apparently my comp ranks 3.8 =/

 

this means it wont run on full capacity

Edited November 8, 2008 by rEdaSbLood

[joey11223 0]

Sonic where can i get that rating?

 

EDIT: apparently my comp ranks 3.8 =/

 

this means it wont run on full capacity

 

well to get that rating you need a better pc like his.

[sith_wampa 6]

My friend just recently bought a Dell XPS and it runs RA3 sooooooo much more deliciously than my computer can... /jealous

[sith_wampa 6]

My friend just recently bought a Dell XPS and it runs RA3 sooooooo much more deliciously than my computer can... /jealous

[rEdaSbLood 1]

well i think i identified the problem...

 

playing with the graphics settings, the only thing that causes a real slow-down is the water effects...

 

medium is as high as i can go without it getting laggy...

 

gonna have to experiment more...