My PC is good enough to play properly?

Say10 · Post by **Say10** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:57 am

Hi there! I'm just wondering is my PC allow me to play quite normally (on lower details). I read a lot about to high requierements, and I don't wata to b dissapointed after buing NVN 2.

Intel Pentium IV - 2 GHz
Radeon 9600 256Mb
640 Mb RAM PC2100
SB Live! 128Mb

This is max i could put on my motherboard.

Thnx 4 help.

m0rb1d · Post by **m0rb1d** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:10 am

Might be a little choppy. You have a better video card than I do. But the processor and RAM might be an issue.

But, you should be able to atleast play the game on minimal settings. Anything above that, iono.

Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows XP
- 512MB System RAM
- 2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
- 128MB Direct3D compatible video card with DirectX 9.0c compatible driver
- CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
- 4.6GB free hard disk space
- DirectX 9.0c (included)
- DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
- Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework for toolset (included)
- Broadband connection for multiplayer online play
- Keyboard, Mouse

m0rb1d

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:49 am

Since he meets the basic requirements, there's no need to repeat what m0rb1d has already stated. If you can add anything new to this thread, feel free; if not, let it lie. Thanks.

smass · Post by **smass** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:38 am

Just one quick comment - if you can, definitely add more RAM. I have a similar processor and the same video card as you. I went from 512meg to 1.5 gig ram and it made a world of difference with this game. The game runs smoothly at 1024*768 with details low to medium - and it looks pretty good at these settings.

De_Priester · Post by **De_Priester** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:27 pm

I think you can run it with a nice detail/resolution but try and keep textures like shadows and such to a minimum, those are the biggest memoryleech and need your ram. Now thing is your graphicscard should be able to handle a lot so it shouldn't run choppy at all but as soon as the RAM on your graphicscard is full it needs to use systemram so in order to minimize ramload make sure to remove all textures (or lower them) that are big and change very fast depending on say movement. So shadows, lighteffects put them down first. But I'd say you should be able to run it smoothly.

Try defragmenting your harddisk before installing, this might sound stupid and overdoing it but it might save you some performance.

Go for it dude and let us know how it runs!

Gromph · Post by **Gromph** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:34 pm

Since its going to be eating his RAM, it may also be a good idea to partition(if its not done already) off a part of the HDD for exlusive use for swap space(or page file or virtual memory, whatever you wish to call it). This will improve your usage of virtual memory(which background stuff will likely be using).

Also, before running I recommend doing a clean boot.

m0rb1d · Post by **m0rb1d** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:04 pm

Gromph wrote:Since its going to be eating his RAM, it may also be a good idea to partition(if its not done already) off a part of the HDD for exlusive use for swap space(or page file or virtual memory, whatever you wish to call it). This will improve your usage of virtual memory(which background stuff will likely be using).

Also, before running I recommend doing a clean boot.

Maybe I simply lack enough knowledge to grasp the idea, but, I see absolutely no reason to partition a part of your drive for page filing. Increasing it should be sufficient.

If you have a 7200RPM drive, with X read time and what not, it's not going to make it any faster by partitioning it. You drive is still limited to how fast the hardware can go.

But, if you do in fact want to increase your page filing, it's been a while, but im pretty sure the general rule is 1.5 x your RAM. So, if you have a gig of ram, your page filing should be 1.5 gigs.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:25 am

m0rb1d wrote:Maybe I simply lack enough knowledge to grasp the idea, but, I see absolutely no reason to partition a part of your drive for page filing. Increasing it should be sufficient.

If you have a 7200RPM drive, with X read time and what not, it's not going to make it any faster by partitioning it. You drive is still limited to how fast the hardware can go.

But, if you do in fact want to increase your page filing, it's been a while, but im pretty sure the general rule is 1.5 x your RAM. So, if you have a gig of ram, your page filing should be 1.5 gigs.

There are a couple of reasons why this is thought.
By making a partition the file will not move when being made larger/smaller and thus the OS will be able to find it faster and it is kept more clean as it is less likely to fragment. However the advantage is not terrible large.
The only real optimizing aspect would be to place it on another physical drive (possible used primarily for this aspect), which means less overhead for the harddrive because it doesn't have to move the read/write head as much.
But again - the advantages are minor at best, and should not impact much.

But we are moving off topic here.

@Original poster: I think your (lack of) RAM will cause issues with large load/save times and area transitions. Possible choppiness in combat.

Gromph · Post by **Gromph** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:59 am

m0rb1d wrote:Maybe I simply lack enough knowledge to grasp the idea, but, I see absolutely no reason to partition a part of your drive for page filing. Increasing it should be sufficient.

If you have a 7200RPM drive, with X read time and what not, it's not going to make it any faster by partitioning it. You drive is still limited to how fast the hardware can go.

But, if you do in fact want to increase your page filing, it's been a while, but im pretty sure the general rule is 1.5 x your RAM. So, if you have a gig of ram, your page filing should be 1.5 gigs.

Increasing your pagefile is just bad, since no matter what you do, paging will be slow. Seperate partitions, or as the above mentioned, a seperate physical drive mentioned, decrease the seek time a very tiny amount, but every little bit helps.

@Above - Just telling him he will play with choppiness doesn't help, and since his mobo is maxed, I posted something to help make use of what he DOES have.

@Poster - You can also make use of your ram better by closing down stuff you don't need running while playing(firewalls/antivirus while singleplayer for example).

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:50 am

Gromph wrote:<snip>
@Above - Just telling him he will play with choppiness doesn't help, and since his mobo is maxed, I posted something to help make use of what he DOES have.
<snip>

I doubt - irregardless of making pagefile larger, or closing down other running applications -he'll be able to play "normally" given his current set up, when viewing how many ressources the game draws on my set up. So I do in fact think it does help to avoid giving (false) hopes of otherwise.
I seriously think less then 1 GB of RAM will cause issues with amongst other the loading/saving times and when more things happen on screen then him walking around all zoomed in. I seriously think the game will be "choppy" at best -so whether that is deemed "normal" is up to the poster himself.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:03 am

Xandax wrote:I seriously think less then 1 GB of RAM will cause issues with amongst other the loading/saving times and when more things happen on screen then him walking around all zoomed in. I seriously think the game will be "choppy" at best -so whether that is deemed "normal" is up to the poster himself.

A strong second to that. You really need 1 GB RAM to play NWN2 effectively, unless you are willing to put up with the kind of visual stuttering that's been repeatedly described. If you can accept the latter, well and good. In that case, the game works for you. But if you can't, the only real cure (to me) seems to be more memory; though I suspect Xandax knows far more along these lines than I do.

Daeanor · Post by **Daeanor** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:14 am

I think the benefit of partitioning off your page file is limited, because the same hardware is still being used. It is certainly more efficient than it being on the same partition, but it's still going to be making demands on the same drive. Personally, I don't think the gain is worth the trouble.