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Best video card for Medieval Total War? |
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Byzantine Emperor 
Arch Duke 
Kastrophylax kai Tzaousios Joined: 24-May-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 1800 |
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 Topic: Best video card for Medieval Total War?Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 14:53 |
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Hey, I have a question for those of you with technical knowledge and/or who play Medieval Total War. I am playing Medieval Total War with the Viking Expansion. My computer has a hard time handling all of the graphics and sound of the game. I have tried time and time again to decrease strain on my PC when I play by closing all the excess programs on the desktop, reducing the screen size, decreasing the graphics and sound detail in the game, turning off the music, downsizing the unit sizes for armies, etc. All of these measures help some, but the same thing always ends up happening. After fighting in about three 3-D battles, the game speed slows down so much and gets so sluggish that I have to save and restart my PC. I am thinking that I need a better video card because all my video resources are being sapped by the game and my present card cannot handle it. My present video card is the factory one that came with the PC. I already have an extra memory card installed, so I don't think that is the problem. My finances do not permit me buying a new computer right now, so I'll have to try the new video card. Any recommendations? What PC specifications do you have that allows Medieval Total War to run smoothly? Here are my PC specifications: Gateway 2000 AMD Athlon Processor 798 MHz, 384 MB RAM Creative Audio PCI sound card factory video card (came with the Gateway) Thanks! |
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cattus
Arch Duke
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 02-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1803 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 15:33 |
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Any of the nvidia geforce series will do the job. Im using a gf3 500ti I bought in 2001 on RTW at a decent rez. You can get older ones pretty cheap used or new even.
Exactly what card do you have, is it in an agp slot? |
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Imperator Invictus
Caliph 
Retired AE Administrator Joined: 07-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3151 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 15:41 |
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Shopping for video cards is tricky because there are numerous series of
video cards, each having low, mid, and high performance
variants. Sometimes, you can find a better performing video card for
less money, and usually a low-end model of newer series runs worse than
a high-end model of an older one. So the first thing is to know which
card is better than which. The next step is to buy the best combination
of performance and price.
For Radeon: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon The Geforce cards is a little tricker becuase they have so many series, each with overlapping capabilities. For starters, you might want to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geforce |
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Byzantine Emperor
Arch Duke
Kastrophylax kai Tzaousios Joined: 24-May-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 1800 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 20:21 |
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I was actually looking around my PC to see if I could get the exact name of my video card. In my display properties it says "EV 700 on NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 / Model 64 Pro (Microsoft Corporation)". Could this be my video card type? What is an "agp slot"? Please forgive my ignorance, I don't know much about video settings!
Thanks Imperator, I will definitely check those out. I think my requirements are really pretty simple. I am not looking for a real souped-up card that I can play all of these detailed first person shooters or RPG's on. It is basically just for Medieval Total War, which I am sure is primitive compared to Rome Total War. The two games I play the most these days are MTW and Age of Empires II: Conquerors. AoE works fine with my present setup; it is Medieval Total War that is giving me the trouble. Any other suggestions? |
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cattus
Arch Duke
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 02-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1803 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 20:46 |
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Ok, go to this site and download the lates drivers for TNT2. Then after that, check in the performance options in your card to see if it gives you access to lower your PCI texter memory.
This can be lowered to improve performance without taking a big hit on the little eye candy the game has. If you find this, drop it down to 5 or 10mb PCI texture memory. |
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Bishop
Shogun 
Joined: 08-Jun-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 223 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 25-Sep-2005 at 22:15 |
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Video card isnt you're only problem. You're processor is to slow to run the game smooth and you dont have enough ram.
Nvidia is the best for Medievil. I had a Radeon and the game wouldnt run on it. Video is very important for the game thats for sure. My 3200 AMD with 512 of ram with a 64 meg Nvidia TNT didnt run Rome good until I put a new video card 128 meg Nvidia TI 4200. Computers are cheap, before you plop down 150 to 200 bucks on a new video card you should consider a computer upgrade. You are way over due, way way over due. |
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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cattus
Arch Duke
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 02-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1803 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 26-Sep-2005 at 00:20 |
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His system actually doubles the minimum system requirements for the game, but that of course may not amount to "smooth gameplay". I agree with you Bishop, he is loooong overdue for a new rig.
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Byzantine Emperor
Arch Duke
Kastrophylax kai Tzaousios Joined: 24-May-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 1800 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 26-Sep-2005 at 01:33 |
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Trust me, I know I need to get a new computer. I am going to once the funds are there. In the meantime, is there anything at all that I can do without buying a new PC? I will definitely download those TNT drivers and see what happens there. My friend has the same kind of computer (Gateway 2000) and has not installed a new video card, Medieval Total War runs pretty well on his system. There are slow spots but he does not have to restart the PC after 3 battles, though! I really don't mind slow spots in gameplay; and I don't mind decreasing the graphics detail and sound some either. I just can't stand having to restart the computer five times during a game! |
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Bishop
Shogun
Joined: 08-Jun-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 223 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 26-Sep-2005 at 02:43 |
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You can easily over clock an AMD, is the speed you listed a over clocked speed already?
You can also over clock youre video cards as well. I remember having problems with frame rates in Medievil and the solution was in system set up. You have to change the alloted memory to your video slot. Mine was an AGP slot card so I changed the memory rate until I got a good frame rate. I remember more didnt mean faster. The options was 32 64 128 256. I cant recall but it seems mine ran the best on 64. This was a windows 98 OS. Do any of you guys remember doing this? Maybe you can explain it better. |
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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cattus
Arch Duke
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 02-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1803 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 26-Sep-2005 at 17:24 |
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Always been scared to over clock my card, might try it before a new one though.
Byzantine, it is not just about the drivers but the option to change your PCI that they give you. It does in higher-end cards atleast. If you have Viking Invasion, I think it gives you the option to do this in the game options itself. Try it. |
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Byzantine Emperor
Arch Duke
Kastrophylax kai Tzaousios Joined: 24-May-2005 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 1800 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 29-Sep-2005 at 22:41 |
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Ok, how do I physically change the memory alloted to my video card (I will look for the in-game option)? I didn't think this was possible because each memory card has a fixed amount of memory. I thought the whole point in buying a new video card was to get a higher amount of video memory. I think I found the exact specifications for the card that I have now: NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 / Model 64 Pro Integrated RAMDAC Memory size: 32 MB Therein might lay the problem. I think this is a primitively small memory amount. I think the smallest upgrade you can buy nowadays is 128 MB. Do you think this is the problem? I did some searching and found some decently priced Radeons and GEForce cards at Best Buy, so I might go with one of them; they were 128 MB in size. |
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Illuminati
General 
Joined: 08-Dec-2004 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 949 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 03-Oct-2005 at 01:26 |
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I would say wait and buy a 256 megabyte card. 128 megabyte cards
suck now. Every new game on the market will work witha 128 mgb
card, but you will not be able to raise the graphics very high.
I had a 128 ATI Radeon 9500 Pro and it was starting to struggle with the new AOE 3 demo. I'd say wait and save up more money. I just got a 256 mgb ATI X800XL and it destroys games like no tomorrow. With a 128 mgb card, you're going to find yourself wanting to upgrade again in a year or so. Games wills till have their minimum requirements at 128 mgb cards, but that doesn't eman that they are at all designed for cards that are that inferior. I guess that if youa re only looking to play Rome: Total War than a 128 mgb card is good, but if you plan on getting more advanced games such as AOE 3 and ones down the road than a 256 mgb card is the way to go. and as far as RTS games go.........RAM is very very essential. there is so much going on in RTS games that you need atleast double the minimum amount to run the game withouth problems Edited by Illuminati |
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