I've finally reached the point where computer upgrade is necessary--cant play BM2 and other newer games. I know there were earlier threads that dealt with this issue but I cant seem to find them. If anyone can recommend specs for a new gaming computer I would certainly appreciate...thanks

Does your computer have a model number that we can look up to find the specs?

If the power supply is good enough, you may be able to upgrade the video card without having to upgrade the power supply too.

But if the computer is really old, replacing the whole computer is probably best. Almost any new computer will have a good enough processor for adventure games. You want at least 3 GB of RAM and a good video card.

How tight a budget are you on?

Do you play RPG and Action games as well as Adventure games?

Im flexible on the budget. Its an old computer, one that was assembled from individual components. In the location I'm in, we normally purchase the power supply, motherboard, hard drive, processor, video/audio card, etc individually and have someone assemble-- not to much in the way of branded computers here.

Forgot-- adventure only, no rpg ect

There are only very few adventure games that will stress today's computers. Most adventure games are CPU limited, meaning you might have the best graphics card but the performance is the same with a lower end card as your Processor is limiting the performance of your pc. I am on a Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz overclocked to 3.0 GHz with 4 GB Ram (but only 3.25 are used since i am on 32bit OS) with a GTX280. For adventure games i have never had any problems running them at max details and at resolution 1680x1050 if it is supported.

If you are considering buying a new OS as well you might look into Windows Vista/7 although i would not recommend it if you are planning to keep some of your older hardware. Also if you are planning to buy 4+ GB of memory, you will have to go 64bit OS as 32bit OS only supports up to 4.0GB total (which includes your video card as well-more information here: Memory Limit for Windows Releases ).

Also i would consider it as a bad move in buying a brand new pc or parts just to play a specific type of game. It's better to buy a very good pc which might not be stressed completely at the moment but it will have the extra horse power in the future if necessary rather than buy a pc that only plays current games of only a specific type. If for whatever reason you want to switch or a new game comes out again which stresses your new pc (considering it is not powerful) you will have to do the whole thing all over again which will will be much more costly.

Spyros

I built my XP compuer maybe 6 years ago and it has done fine with games til I bought Black Mirror 2. I replaced the video card with an AGP ATI Radeon HD 3650 Video Card and, just to be sure, put a 400 Watt Power Supply in it and it works fine now. Not sure if it needed the old 300 Watt Power Supply replaced but had one handy so went ahead with it.

There is something I just learned about concerning the game and it has to do with "Shader" as part of the video card. That, I believe, was the main problem with trying to run Black Mirror. All the other requirements for the game were apparently already taken care of in my computer

$128 dollars for the video card was much better than the price of a new computer.

Butcher that is very interesting info about the differences between 32bit and 64bit and the usuable amount of GB of memory. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks to all for good information. I will try to distill all this and hopefully I will be able to assemble a decent gaming machine. I know its a little crazy to upgrade just to be able to play certain types of games, but hey, when you're hooked...!

I had a brand new tower built and stayed with XP - just so I could play games!!

And while you're pondering new computer components, if you haven't looked through the Windows 7 and Games thread here in Glitches, you might want to take a look at it. We appear to be having great success with games on 64-bit Win 7, both old and new.

Do you know the wattage of the power supply?
If it's high enough, you may be able to buy a fast new video card without having to upgrade the power supply.

If you don't know the wattage of your computer's power supply, you can open the side of the case and check the label on the power supply.

For example on the top picture on ***this website*** you see a power supply and label, where the 650WTN tells you the power supply is 650 Watts. You shouldn't need to remove the power supply to check the label.

The power supply must have enough wattage to support whatever video card you choose.

The problem with Black Mirror 2 that people are having is that it requires shader 2.0 or higher. Many old video cards just don't have shader 2.0 functionality.

Besides the video card, check that your computer has enough RAM (system memory). For adventure games, 2 GB should be fine. But if you have less than that you might consider adding more.

How old is your computer? It's fine if you want a new one, but even a 6 year old computer will work with adventure games as long as the video card is good enough and you have enough RAM.