Installed Vanguard, managed to play a total of 30 minutes before I got too frustrated and gave up. My system just can't handle it, despite being above the min system specs. Talked to their tech support, they froze my trial period until I upgrade.

So now I'm trying to figure out the cheapest (yet effective) way to upgrade and be able to play the game with a decent framerate and make it not look like total shit. Buying a brand new computer and all the parts and stuff would probably be $2,000+ so I was hoping I could use some of the current parts and just upgrading the areas I need help in to keep the expenses down.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8N_Neo_Platinum&class=mb is my current motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ 2.01 GHz, 1 GB of RAM split over 2 512 mb chips, and a Nvidea GeForce FX 5900XT video card. I also have a WDC WD740GD Raptor harddrive thats probably fast enough as my primary (where the game is installed).

Vanguard's min system specs I'm over somewhat slightly in the RAM department but behind in the processor, but their recommended is Intel 3.0 GHz / AMD 3500+ or higher, 2 GB of RAM, and I probably need a new graphics card. I believe I can throw a 1 GB chip of RAM in the 3rd slot giving me 2 GB total, or buy 2 1 GB chips and putting one of the 512 in the 3rd slot if its not too expensive ... but I don't really understand hardware and was hoping someone could help me figure out if my motherboard is gonna be able to get upgraded enough that the game is playable (and the whole setup won't be obsolete in a few weeks time), what kinda items I'd want to pick out that'd keep the price down but have the best performance for the buck, etc.

I paid 1700 for my dual core amd 5200+ processors dual 320 gig hard drives,2 gigs of ram , Nvidia Geforce 7950 512mb Video card all from www.abs.com

I upgraded my other comp with 2 gigs of ram ( 2 1gig cards) for 170 bucks at www.newegg.com I ordered em on wednsday morning, they were here thursday afternoon.

Hmm.... yeah, you should be OK dropping a gig chip in there. I was going to say you might have a problem if you were running Dual Channel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture) but that MoBo doesn't support dual channel.

If you're going to do that, first find out the speed of your current RAM. Your ram will all run at the same speed, no matter how fast the fastest chip is. Thus, if the gig that you have now is DDR333, then getting a 1 GB DDR333 chip would do you the same good as getting a 1 GB DDR400 chip.

Thats not to say that if you find a better deal on a DDR400 chip than you can on a DDR333 chip you shouldn't get it... just don't pay extra for the higher speed chip if you don't have to.

Your video card selection is going to be somewhat limited by the fact that you only have AGP 8X. Most of the current generation cards are PCI-Ex16.

Upgrading to a better vid card and more ram will improve performance, but you may end up having to upgrade the whole system (MoBo / CPU / Ram) to get the performance you want.

A shot in the dark, but you could look for Bios updates for your MoBo and Firmware updates for your hardware. Sometimes such updates resolve issues with certain applications and games. The can also, at times, improve performance due to updated compatability with your other hardware. Always read patch notes on Bios / Firmware updates and don't install them unless you identify something that looks like it could help you with issues on your system.


~Akom

Just bought the wife and Geforce 7600gt for like 175$..... AGP card for her older comp. Works great.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814122009

Hell I played EQ/WOW/EQ2/SWG with 1 gig of ram and when I went to 2 gig I couldn't believe the improvement.

I suggest adding that 1 gig then go from there Kelraz.

Fandros

Yup 2 gigs is pretty much a requirement for most games today.

I dropped $600, bought a new mobo and graphics card and 4 gigs of ram and a lot of other stuff. Sighs.

You should be in decent shape now. I'm playing it on a laptop acceptably well.

I dropped $600, bought a new mobo and graphics card and 4 gigs of ram and a lot of other stuff. Sighs.

Sounds like you have a new hot rod! :)

What sucks though is I just spend $14,000 on a brand new MAC - and was hoping to not have to buy any more computer equipment for a while.

LOL...well...good thing is you should be set now in the computer department for a while. hehehehe

What sucks though is I just spend $14,000 on a brand new MAC - and was hoping to not have to buy any more computer equipment for a while.


That had better be one hell of a Mac...

So here's the weird thing. Completely different chipset video card, perfectly different motherboard, perfectly different RAM ... and didn't have to reformat or anything. It all works pretty much perfectly from what I can tell.

Any reason why I should reformat anyway?

And yeah, the MAC is a beauty. Dual 3GHz Quad-Core processors, 16 gigs of ram, 4x500 gig harddrives, and 2 ATI Radeon x1900 512mb video cards. And then all the editing stuff and a video capture card which was $5000 just itself. Though part of that I bought 2 21" samsung monitors and a $700 KVM switch so I'll share sound system, dual monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc. with the PC. But, it doesn't play Vanguard and if I wanna keep writing it off can't technically play on it, it has to be for work only :(

But, it doesn't play Vanguard and if I wanna keep writing it off can't technically play on it, it has to be for work only :(

And they are going to find out you play a computer game on it how? ;)

Actually for some reason the IRS really likes to pick on people in my field and I guess most small business owners. Most of the guys I work with have been audited in the past 3-4 years.

Meh, I wouldn't call it "Gaming" as so much merely a "System Diagnostic Tool for checking Bandwidth, as well as Video and Audio Fidelity".

This is usually the point where 90% of people who work in government departments would start to drool as their eyes glaze over. :D

And then they fine you just because they can.

ok what makes that video card worth 5 grand?

Video Capture Card, not video card. Basically we use these cards to import video uncompressed, where the prosumer versions would use a firewire cable or USB2 which would compress it. The card is pretty wild, it has SVideo, Composite, Component Standard Definition 4:3, Component Standard Definition 16:9, Component High Definition 1080i and Component High Definition 720i imputs all on 1 card, as well as all of the above as outputs, and then it also imports and exports analog and digitial audio up to 12 channels, and then it came with all the codecs and drivers and shit to use it with Final Cut Pro.

What used to cost $100,000+ or even more, I have the exact same system they edited a number of feature films on OR better ... for $15,000.