A little help from my friends

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:06 am

Hi there. Can someone tell me what I need to upgrade in order to play the likes of The Witcher or something like that on my PC. Here are my relevant system specs.

Intel Core2 Duo CPU E7300 2.667 GHz
3GB RAM
Nvida GeForce G100

I have a fair idea that these 3 are a bit below par. I think my main problem is the GeForce G100 though. I bought this computer over 3 years ago for £300 and it came with all this stuff as standard and a 16" plasma screen so i realise it's not the best PC in the world.

Edit: Whoops! forgot to say thank you in advance. Silly me Laughing

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:52 am

http://www.gamefront.com/the-witcher-sets-demanding-system-requirements/

Your video card has the ram, but im not sure if it has the "pixel shading abilities" required i think it does tho as it supports directX 10, and min requirements are directX9

Here are the Statistics:

Minimum requirements:

Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 +2800
1 GB RAM for Microsoft® Windows® XP / 1536 MB for Microsoft® Windows® Vista
128 MB Video RAM or greater with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/ Pixel Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 or better)
8.5 GB available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
DVD-Rom

Recommended requirements:

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or AMD X2 5600+
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or ATI Radeon X1950 PRO
8.5 GB available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
DVD-Rom

via The Witcher Official Website
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

to upgrade the video card will probably require a bigger power supply as well

Your Video Card
http://www.ascendtech.us/nvidia-geforce-g100-512mb-video-card_i_vc512gforceg100.aspx

Nvidia GeForce G100 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Half Height Low Profile Video Card. This Nvidia Gforce 512MB DDR2 PCI Express video card features the NVIDIA GeForce G100 GPU which is essential for watching Blu-ray movies on a PC! An HDMI port lets you connect a Blu-ray DVD player or a game console so you can make the most of your PC experience. Microsoft DirectX 10 with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects! Connectors such as DVI-I and HDMI make the G100 ideal for a multiple monitor setup!

Features and Specifications:

nVidia GeForce G100 Recertified Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce G100 GPU
512MB DDR2 memory
PCI Express interface
Graphics clock: 567 MHz
Processor clock: 1400 MHz
Processor Cores: 8
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec): 8.8
2-Way NVIDIA SLI-ready
HD NVIDIA PureVideo Technology
NVIDIA PhysX-ready
Microsoft DirectX 10 support
OpenGL 3.0 support
OEM Packaging / Video Card Only

Connectors:

HDMI
DVI-I (dual-link)

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:35 pm

From what i can see your card does meet the min requirements - but not by much. Since the card is 3 years old it is possible its started to flake out. Another concern is the PCIe slot on your mobo, some budget mobos from that time only had a PCIe x4 slot. I had one board that defaulted to x1 on the PCIe slot and you moved a jumper to get the x4. Its doubtful this is the case but it would be good to get the mobo model# so we know what were working with

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:33 am

So I'm playing the Witcher on low settings. It's a bit laggy on cut scenes. I want to get a new video card but my comp is an acer aspire x1700 and it has a lot of restrictions. I need a low profile graphics card because they are the only ones that fit!

While i realise that the low profile cards are a bit crap the best of them will do me fine as i plan on keeping my computer for a couple more years! Also I think (but i'm not sure) that my computer spares 75W for the graphics card.

With this information can anyone recommend me a card? I've google searched cards for this model but I'd rather hear from a trustworthy source(I.E you Very Happy

)

P.s Forgive my lack of sentence structure but I'm baked at the minute.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:44 am

the one i linked to some others is only around 6 3/4" - 7" long and should work.i put it into a couple store bought pc's.

however we do need to know the wattage of the power supply.the card may work on less but a 400W is recommended by the manufacturer.it will bring your windows experience index for the card up to a 7.1,with the rebate i paid 80US. you could maybe find it cheaper or find a less powerful card altogether that will work.i just like this one because it's not so old that i couldn't add it to the hpe-460z i gave my nephew and will play most games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121442

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:52 am

You could give gamebooster a try, on some systems it makes a big difference, others not so much. It really comes down to what all you have running in the background. This program turns off all the unnecessary stuff running in windows, allowing more resources to be used for what ever game your playing. You open the program click optimized and then your ready to game. When your done gaming click the button again to restore your original settings. It's freeware, so worth a try.

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:39 am

220W I think Neph. Not very good, I know. but i'm sure there are loads that are better than the G100!

I'll give games booster a try but is that not really used for memory issues? Which i don't have! But i'll try it anyway.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:51 am

A Shaved Wookie wrote:

220W I think Neph. Not very good, I know. but i'm sure there are loads that are better than the G100!

I'll give games booster a try but is that not really used for memory issues? Which i don't have! But i'll try it anyway.

yeah the power supply is pretty weak.if your AV has a gaming mode did you try turning it on or just turning your av off while playing the game.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:45 am

AV? I used the gamebooster if that would give the same effect, but it didn't help much

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:40 am

AV = anti-virus , most are resource hogs and turning them off while gaming on weaker pc's will often allow a game to run more smoothly.

for example my laptop would have some lag or have slow load times while trying to play rage.i didn't see a gaming mode option in norton 360 which is what was on that pc so i turned the AV off and the problem went away and the game was easily more playable.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:15 pm

iamnephilim wrote:

the one i linked to some others is only around 6 3/4" - 7" long and should work.i put it into a couple store bought pc's.

however we do need to know the wattage of the power supply.the card may work on less but a 400W is recommended by the manufacturer.it will bring your windows experience index for the card up to a 7.1,with the rebate i paid 80US. you could maybe find it cheaper or find a less powerful card altogether that will work.i just like this one because it's not so old that i couldn't add it to the hpe-460z i gave my nephew and will play most games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121442

That card wont fit

we also need to verify the PSU ive never seen 220 watt PSU, and if thats what you have its a huge problem, it means you need a PSU and GPU 430 watt min on the PSU is a good rule.

we also still need alot more info: mainly model# of PC or motherboard, no one can give proper advice without that.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:25 pm

cbilljones wrote:

iamnephilim wrote:

the one i linked to some others is only around 6 3/4" - 7" long and should work.i put it into a couple store bought pc's.

however we do need to know the wattage of the power supply.the card may work on less but a 400W is recommended by the manufacturer.it will bring your windows experience index for the card up to a 7.1,with the rebate i paid 80US. you could maybe find it cheaper or find a less powerful card altogether that will work.i just like this one because it's not so old that i couldn't add it to the hpe-460z i gave my nephew and will play most games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121442

That card wont fit

we also need to verify the PSU ive never seen 220 watt PSU, and if thats what you have its a huge problem, it means you need a PSU and GPU 430 watt min on the PSU is a good rule.

we also still need alot more info: mainly model# of PC or motherboard, no one can give proper advice without that.

curious is it a height thing because i think they are the same length as the g100 according to nvidia and according to acer it is supposed to have a 220w,would have thought a 250w myself.

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireX1700/AspireX1700sp2.shtml

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:31 pm

oh now i see he did post model#, im pretty sure he said he needed low profile card, but ill double check to confirm

yup see the back panel pic here, need low profile

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/acer-aspire-x1700-u3700a/4505-3118_7-33508017.html

i need to read rest of specs still

it is indeed 220 watt, we need to replace that if we replace video card - and i dont think a regular size PSU will fit. Those slim PCs always suck for upgrades Sad

dammit, look at the 3rd were you can see the video card, it offers NO room for air, i honestly would not upgrade the PC..

[edit]
Only way i would upgrade that is if case was replaced with a proper atx case. So you could buy a cheap case for say $75 that would include a crappy PSU - but that crappy PSU would blow your currant one away, then you could buy any video card you want, like the one neph linked for example. Then in a few months buy a proper PSU, 650 watt is a good start

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:39 pm

okay yeah they really jammed everything in there.if you use the zoom you can barely make out the 220w on the PSU.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:52 pm

I cant find any info, but i have some suspicions that the slot isnt running x16 trying to find specs for the mobo