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Need advice on upgrade...

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IG-88:

One of my sons is wanting to play Age of Empires 3 on the game cab but the machine inside is a little outdated for it. (works great for mame). Heres' the specs:

# 2.5gig CPU
# 512mb ram
# on-board graphics (don't know the specs for it)
# WinXP home
# 2 open PCI slots
# 40 gig HD

The minimum specs for the game are:

# Microsoft Windows XP
# PC with 1.4 GHz equivalent or higher processor
# 256 MB of system RAM
# 2 GB available hard disk space
# 32x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
# 64 MB video card with support for hardware transformation and lighting

It would seem to be enough hardware-wise but when he installed the game it was un-palyable. (I'm assuming because of the onboard vid) My question is, should I upgrade to say a 128mb video card or maybe double the ram? Both?

By the way I have no idea as of yet whether the mobo will allow a vid card, or what the max ram it will take.

Any of you guru's have an idea or 2? What would you do? Anybody play this game much?


Kangum:

i think you should upgrade your memory. operating system is going to use a piece of it. especially if its xp. you wont have much left for the game. its cheap these days at newegg. i added a gig to my laptop for 30 bucks.

you should see a huge jump with dedicated video vs onboard graphics as well. it doesnt have to be overkill. i wouldnt spend more then 75 or 100 dollars.



IG-88:


--- Quote from: Kangum on September 23, 2007, 08:39:56 pm ---you should see a huge jump with dedicated video vs onboard graphics as well. it doesnt have to be overkill. i wouldnt spend more then 75 or 100 dollars.

--- End quote ---

Ok. I was looking at a 128mb PCI card for around $40 on newegg. You think I oughta double the ram too...?

markrvp:

Running graphics through the PCI slot is a bottleneck.  You will be much better off with an AGP video card.

MrMojoZ:


--- Quote from: IG-88 on September 23, 2007, 09:00:36 pm ---Ok. I was looking at a 128mb PCI card for around $40 on newegg. You think I oughta double the ram too...?

--- End quote ---

The amount of ram a video card is pretty much meaningless, the chip on the card is what determines the performance. So buying a "128mb PCI card" may or may not be much of an upgrade. Also for low end cards the interface doesn't matter as they aren't fast enough to push the slots anyway.

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