Talon-X- Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 I was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction for a video card I can get to run Flaming Cliffs 2 for my pc? I have an AMD Athlon 5000 Dual Core, 4gigs of ram, nvidea geforce 6150 LE built in graphics(most likely this crummy shared graphics is why I can't get the game to run). It has a 300w power supply. I am running Windows 7 32bit home premium edition. I can barely get LOMAC to run on it too. It will stop responding if there's too many things going on at once. I've installed all the needed patches and still have problems with it. My guess is the graphics card again. Any help would be appreciated. I also have a seperate question about Flaming Cliffs 2. I installed it anyway knowing it will not likely run properly. My question is: what is the launcher.exe error all about? Do I need to update the starforce drivers I've read about in the forums or is it something totally different? Again, any help would be appreciated.
Jinro Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 Definitely need a dedicated card. Integrated graphics like that have to tap into the CPU for the graphics, which hurts performance.
EtherealN Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 You definitely need a better card - depending on budget I'd say either 460 or 560. If budget is really tight you can go for something like a second-hand 9800 or 260. However, you will also need a new PSU to support that. I'd recommend a modular unit from Corsair - 700watt units or thereabouts should be right (it won't drink 700, but they are easier on your electricity bill if run around half capacity). Also note that running 32-bit, you will not be able to make use of all your RAM. 32-bit OSes can only adress 4GB, and 2GB for each process unless tweaked, which includes GPU vRAM. So if you purchase a 1GB graphics card (which is what I would definitely recommend) your machine will only have 3GB system memory available. Regarding the launcher.exe error, difficult to say without further information on the specific error. It is not starforce drivers though, for two reasons: 1 - Launcher.exe is not protected. It does not speak to starforce at all. 2 - The Starforce solution in FC2 (and DCS:BS and DCS:A-10C) does not have any drivers. The Starforce issue only affects FC1, which you do not need for FC2. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Daniel "EtherealN" Agorander | Даниэль "эфирныйн" Агорандер Intel i7 2600K @ 4.4GHz, ASUS Sabertooth P67, 8GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600MHz, ASUS GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB, Samsung 830series 512GB SSD, Corsair AX850w, two BENQ screens and TM HOTAS Warthog DCS: A-10C Warthog FAQ | DCS: P-51D FAQ | Remember to read the Forum Rules | | | Life of a Game Tester
rattler Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 Might i suggest that you look at MSI and their n460 cyclone 1gb gddr5. It should be had for a good price and performance is outstanding. Lots of people here have this card. I for one. Yes buy all means increase your PSU. Most cards of that type will draw at full capacitiy somewhere around 400watts. Can never go wrong with a decent power supply anyway. Basically what E has mentioned in the previous post. Solid info. Cheers.:)
Talon-X- Posted February 26, 2011 Author Posted February 26, 2011 Thank you for the replies. I will look into all the above mentioned. I may just go the route of getting a newer pc. Mine seems to be getting outdated and before I shovel out any $$$ on it I might as well look for something better. Being on a tight budget, I'm wondering if I should just try my hand at building my own and use some of the components that I have in my pc to save a few $$$(Lightscribe DVD rom drive, multi card reader, tv tuner...etc), and just add the other components(cpu, gpu, ram, power supply...etc). Or would I be better off getting a new pc already put together? I'm handy with tools so swapping out motherboards and such is no big deal. Problem is, where do I start? Any links? What cpu/gpu to get? Power supply(450,500, higher)?
EtherealN Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 I'd personally say: build your own. There are deals available (especially refurbished machines) that can be cheaper than building your own, but to me the craft of building a machine is a reward in itself - and it has been a major source of learning for me in how computer work which has aided me a lot when I have run into troubles. It takes fairly exotic issues for me to have to ask someone else for help thanks to this habit. :) If you list what you believe you can keep from your own machine, and a budget for the rest, we should be able to come up with something. On the specific note of the power supply, I'd say: bigger is better. Assuming you pay your own electricity bills, you'll be rewarded for not being cheap on the power supply. Generally you want a quality modular PSU that has a wattage rating roughly double what your machine is expected to use at load. (Because they are their most effective at 50% load.) Over a computer lifetime of a couple years this can easily cover the added cost of the PSU compared to cheaper or lower-wattage units. Quality PSU is also a safeguard against other random issues that can befall a computer if components are being fed "unclean" voltage. This can manifest as anything from just power inefficiency to random bluescreens, and in extreme circumstances (i've seen it happen) completely fried components. Never, ever, go cheap on the PSU. :) [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Daniel "EtherealN" Agorander | Даниэль "эфирныйн" Агорандер Intel i7 2600K @ 4.4GHz, ASUS Sabertooth P67, 8GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600MHz, ASUS GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB, Samsung 830series 512GB SSD, Corsair AX850w, two BENQ screens and TM HOTAS Warthog DCS: A-10C Warthog FAQ | DCS: P-51D FAQ | Remember to read the Forum Rules | | | Life of a Game Tester
Talon-X- Posted February 26, 2011 Author Posted February 26, 2011 I'd personally say: build your own. There are deals available (especially refurbished machines) that can be cheaper than building your own, but to me the craft of building a machine is a reward in itself - and it has been a major source of learning for me in how computer work which has aided me a lot when I have run into troubles. It takes fairly exotic issues for me to have to ask someone else for help thanks to this habit. :) If you list what you believe you can keep from your own machine, and a budget for the rest, we should be able to come up with something. On the specific note of the power supply, I'd say: bigger is better. Assuming you pay your own electricity bills, you'll be rewarded for not being cheap on the power supply. Generally you want a quality modular PSU that has a wattage rating roughly double what your machine is expected to use at load. (Because they are their most effective at 50% load.) Over a computer lifetime of a couple years this can easily cover the added cost of the PSU compared to cheaper or lower-wattage units. Quality PSU is also a safeguard against other random issues that can befall a computer if components are being fed "unclean" voltage. This can manifest as anything from just power inefficiency to random bluescreens, and in extreme circumstances (i've seen it happen) completely fried components. Never, ever, go cheap on the PSU. :) Great advice! Thanks. I've decided to build my own and use the secondary components from what I have(dvd drive...etc) and add cpu/psu....etc and go from there. Time to get down to business and start researching. Thanks again for the advice -Rob
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