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[wolfmat]

Check out Lugaru: http://www.wolfire.com/lugaru

It's pretty old and no graphics bomb, but a lot of fun.

 

[brain_stew]

1. You're in task manager, so your system isn't even handling constant game data flow right now.

2. You're using 73% of all system memory available. How much memory does your system have by the way? I'm guessing at least 3GB? Is he supposed to wipe everything short of Windows Explorer before he plays a game?

Great, you've just confirmed my suspicions that you don't have a clue how both Vista and W7 handle memory. I can safely ignore this silly argument now, cheers.

Back on topic, Unreal 2K4 is a good recommendation, still got a sizeable community, craploads of cutom maps, mods and the like, it'll run well on your machine and its only $10 DRM free from gog.com. Get to it.

Trackmania scales pretty well, download the free version off Steam and see if you like it, there's craploads of content but the upgrade to the full version is worth it.

 

[zoku88]

I don't remember if the 945 has the correct shader model version (needs 3.0), but try EUIII. It's more CPU/RAM intensive than it is gfx intensive.

There's a demo, so try that first. You can get EUIII Complete for something like $10.

 

[Minsc]

Negligible in the fact that newly released Windows 7 shows small improvements over service packed Vista, yes.

And again, 2 GB in a single application. So again assuming he's nuking everything else just to play a game.

I'm actually not even saying that Windows Vista is total shit. But as a gaming platform it is inferior to both XP and Windows 7. Vista isn't a massive handicap but its enough so that someone running on the edge of their system's capabilities doesn't want to give up the "negligible" performance hit when there are other options.

Wouldn't it just move the inactive stuff to virtual memory? I don't understand why you are arguing about this hard 2/3GB limit, when you can easily be using another 4+ GBs worth of virtual memory. Or did all that change with Windows 7?

 

[brain_stew]

I don't remember if the 945 has the correct shader model version (needs 3.0), but try EUIII. It's more CPU/RAM intensive than it is gfx intensive.

There's a demo, so try that first. You can get EUIII Complete for something like $10.

Its a 965 series card, it'll even support DX10. So yeah, EU3 is a great recommendation, especially for a Civ fan.

 

[zoku88]

Its a 965 series card, it'll even support DX10. So yeah, EU3 is a great recommendation.

Lol, thanks. I can never keep track of the Intel GPU names.

 

[Drek]

Great, you've just confirmed my suspicions that you don't have a clue how both Vista and W7 handle memory. I can safely ignore this silly argument now, cheers.

Yes, because the "in task manager the game is using X system memory, so WHY would you ever need more than that?" argument is so damn solid.

Especially when the system requirements call for more than that (1.5GB for Vista, 1GB in XP) and the recommended for Vista is more memory than his entire system has (4GB) while the recommended for XP leaves him enough room for basic apps and the integrated card (2GB).

He obviously won't be able to run DA but I'm pretty sure Bioware isn't absolutely fucking retarded that a game requiring only 0.9GB of system memory somehow got listed as needing 1.5, and recommending 4.

 

[zoku88]

Yes, because the "in task manager the game is using X system memory, so WHY would you ever need more than that?" argument is so damn solid.

Especially when the system requirements call for more than that (1.5GB for Vista, 1GB in XP) and the recommended for Vista is more memory than his entire system has (4GB) while the recommended for XP leaves him enough room for basic apps and the integrated card (2GB).

He obviously won't be able to run DA but I'm pretty sure Bioware isn't absolutely fucking retarded that a game requiring only 0.9GB of system memory somehow got listed as needing 1.5, and recommending 4.

32-bit apps can only access 2GB of memory.

Which leaves, at the minimum, of 1GB of memory for his system. Unless he's playing the game windowed and doing some other task that is memory intensive, it won't be a problem. The OS, seeing that there are programs requiring lots of memory running, will usually scale back to 300-500MB of RAM...

 

[Drek]

Wouldn't it just move the inactive stuff to virtual memory? I don't understand why you are arguing about this hard 2/3GB limit, when you can easily be using another 4+ GBs worth of virtual memory. Or did all that change with Windows 7?

I'm not arguing any hard memory limits. Just that he's not going to get optimal game performance out of his laptop if he sacrifices extra memory to Vista. Its not huge but if you're trying low budget laptop gaming its all about setting the specs on the edge of what will and won't run at an acceptable level (which is a moving target for everyone). Vista immediately brings that level down a notch compared to XP and Windows 7, at least from my experiences of riding that thin line of performance v. quality.

For the OP though, here's a godsend website if you want to know what will and won't run:
http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

 

[Drek]

32-bit apps can only access 2GB of memory.

Which leaves, at the minimum, of 1GB of memory for his system. Unless he's playing the game windowed and doing some other task that is memory intensive, it won't be a problem. The OS, seeing that there are programs requiring lots of memory running, will usually scale back to 300-500MB of RAM...

He's also got to feed the integrated card its share of memory, putting him fairly close to that 300-500MB of ram usage for the OS you're talking about. Not a lot of leeway if the OS wants a bit more ram to play with for some reason while he's gaming.

 

[eznark]

Check out Lugaru: http://www.wolfire.com/lugaru

It's pretty old and no graphics bomb, but a lot of fun.

furry

 

[wolfmat]

furry

:lol No. You punch furries dead in the game.

It's really fun, and although the game's not really intended to be modded, the community churned out some custom campaigns, I wrote a model, skeleton and (upcoming) animation converter via reverse-engineering.. Overall, it's just a fun game that's survived longer than anyone thought.

There seem to be a few furries in the community though, which, to be honest, weirds me out. But to each his own, I guess.

 

[eznark]

I was just giving you shit based on the screen shots. I will definitely check it out.

 

[ZZMitch]

For the OP though, here's a godsend website if you want to know what will and won't run:
http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

Are you sure this works? I just tried it with Civ4 and it said I failed to meet the minimum requirements when I can run it at the highest settings. :lol

 

[wolfmat]

I was just giving you shit based on the screen shots. I will definitely check it out.

Don't hold your breath though, it's not the second coming of Christ, just a neat little third person fighter in the tradition of Oni and similar.