I am playing BM 2 and enjoying it but it is very sluggish. Among other things, the game takes a long time to load and after every conversation there is about a 10-15 second delay. I know that my computer is probably pushing the limits to play this game. I had to stop playing and delete Still Life 2 because the gameplay on my computer was bad, but this game is playing better than that one.

I turned on the sub-titles and when I did, I got the message "this resolution is supported but a lower resolution (1280 pixel width) is recommended". The screen resolution looks the same with the sub-titles enabled. What does this mean and how do I change the pixel width? Could this be causing my halting gameplay?

I am playing on XP. With the game installed. I have 2.62 GB free. My total size is 69.7 GB.

Thanks.

If you only have 2.62 GB free out of 69.7 GB hard drive space, you need to clear out more space on your hard drive or install a second hard drive to store things on. Computers will run slower if their hard drive is that full.

Thanks Jenny,

I have deleted everything that I feel comfortable deleting. I am going to have a computer person look at it to see if anything else can be done. What did the message I got about the pixel width mean? The picture doesn't look any different with the sub-titles on. Should I turn them off?

Maybe I will have to start pricing new computers. I only need the tower and nothng else so maybe the price won't be too bad. A new computer isn't really in my budget but I want to be able to play these good games!

You could always swap out the old drive for a new one - a new 500GB drive is only $54.00.

InlandAZ,

I contacted Best Buy and they said that I can add an extra hard drive (as Jenny suggested) if I have a slot for it. Not sure if I have that. My computer is a Dell Dimension DIM 5100and I am using XP. My video card is ATI Radeon x300/x550/x1050 Series.

I am not sure how many GB of Ram I have or if anymore can be added. If Best Buy does this, I will spend abiut $350.00. I can save quite a bit if I can re-install the operating system myself but I don't want to try that. They didn't say anything about swapping my hard drive (as you suggested), so that might be the best option if I don't have a slot for an extra one. I am sure that my video card is outdated so maybe I can update that, as well? Since it isn't a newer computer, I don't know how much updating it will accept.

When I first heard the cost I thought, that if I am spending that much, I might as well look into the price of a newer one but the prices are considerably higher if I want to get a PC that can play games. They have a Gateway computer with 6 GB Ram expandable to 8 GB with 1 TB for just over $500.00. I thought that sounded pretty good until I researched the video card (Intel Graphics Media Accelarato5 x4500HD). It appears that this is a low end video card and won't work well for gaming.

I started pricing one at Dell and the price came out to $1300.00! So, if I can update my old one (at a reasonable price) so that I can play the newer games, I think that is what I will try to do.

I just hate to put too much money in an older computer in case something else breaks down on it.

You have 2 drive bays - no problems there.



The PC can accommodate up to 4 GB of System Ram. To see how much is currently installed, just start the System applet under Control Panel. You'll see it listed on the General Tab (near the bottom).


Here's your system specs -

Dell™ Dimension™ 5100 Service Manual

What video card do you have? Adventure games don't need "the latest" video card. Newer cards aren't necessarily faster.


A full hard drive is not something that broke down. Once you get the new drive installed, you can move the files you want to keep to the second drive, leaving enough space on the C: drive for Windows to have decent sized virtual memory.

Jenny,

My video card is ATI Radeon x300/x550/x1050 Series. However I just looked at the manual for my computer that InlandAZ directed me to and it has the video listed as Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (GMA950). I don't know if they are the same thing or why I found two different specs for it.

I just checked my system info and it says 2.79 GHz and 1.00 GB Ram.

I'd recommend getting another two GB of RAM.
Two sticks of RAM, each 1 GB, would probably be best.

Your video card is low end. You have the card it says you have in Device Manager or dxdiag, which is probably the ATI Radeon x300, x550, or x1050.

Your motherboard may have Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 built into it, but if you have the ATI card in the computer, it would be using the ATI card and not the Intel graphics.

Upgrading the video card would give you better performance and allow you to play the adventure games that require Shader 3, but you'd be limited in how powerful a card you can use by your 305W power supply -- unless you wanted to upgrade the power supply too. I'm unsure if it's a proprietary power supply in your model Dell. Maybe Inland knows.

Your processor is adequate for most adventure games, assuming you made the other upgrades. But it's getting borderline. It's up to you if you want to get a new computer. If you're going to have to pay Best Buy to upgrade the computer, you'll have to ask them what they'd charge.

As luck would have it, last night when I came home from work, there was an advertising flyer in my mailbox for a computer repair business in my area that I didn't know about. I had already called Best Buy but I called this company today and gave her my computer specs and explained what I am hoping to do with my computer. I asked about an extra hard drive, more Ram, and possibly updating my video card and power supply. I told her that I recently bought an external hard drive but that it is very confusing to use, and she had several ideas.

She is going to price an extra hard drive, more Ram, price using my external with more Ram to free up space for games and price an updated video card. They will also check out my PC to see what other programs can be removed that I was afraid to remove.

So, depending on the cost, and I think that she will be cheaper than Best Buy, I might do some or all of it. This will buy me some time until I have to replace my computer and allow me to better play some of these new games. At least I hope so!

I'm so glad to hear that, gatsbygirl! In a lot of cases, the local repair shops are much easier to deal with than the big box stores.

Draclvr,

I appreciate that. I will see what the estimate is but I always like to support local businesses whenever possible. I also appreciate all of the tips and suggestions that I have recieved in this forem. It has allowed me to adequately articulate what I want to do, I think. You guys are the best!!!

I got the estimate from the PC people and
I am considering adding 4 GB Ram and adding an extra hard drive. I am trying to decide about my video card because I don't want to put too much money in an older PC. I know that my video card is low end but if I do the other things, how necessary is it to upgrade my video card? Games seem to look fine right now.

When you said "Upgrading the video card would give you better performance and allow you to play the adventure games that require Shader 3...", What does that mean? They won't display properly? My problem with a couple of the newest games has been with the sluggishness of them but the picture has been fine.

What is Shader? I have seen that mentioned here but don't know what it is. How do I find out if I have it or if a game requires it? When reading system requirements I don't remember ever seeing that listed on games.

Thank you!

Meant to say that I am considering going up to 4GB Ram from the 1 GB I now have.

The additional Ram is probably not a good idea (XP won't see the entire 4GB) and it really only requires 2GB for optimum performance.

An additional hard drive should work, but I'd opt for a large single drive, each drive pulls approximately 25 watts and you've got a fairly small power supply.



The video card should provide the biggest bang for the buck - but you'd probably need to replace the PSU. Even those in the modest range recommend a 350 to 400 watt power supply.



Shader Model 3 means that the card is DirectX 9.0c hardware compliant. Most newer game require it. Some games will play, but many may have issues if the hardware doesn't support it.

InlandAZ,

Just when I think that I am getting some kind of a handle on this technical stuff, I realize that I don't. I have DirectX 9 now. Even though my computer can be upgraded to 4 GB, it is't a good idea? I thought that would make it faster?

You said that "an additional hard drive should work, but I'd opt for a large single drive, each drive pulls approximately 25 watts and you've got a fairly small power supply". What is a "large single drive"and how do I update the power supply?

Although a new PC isn't in my budget, I am thinking that if I am contemplating spending $300-400 on upgrades, maybe I should look at newer computers. I have found some that are more affordable but the video card isn't the best. Can most computers accept a better video card? What is the optimum amount of Ram that a PC should have to run the newer games?

If you're running the 64 bit version of XP you should be able to address all of the memory - but those operating systems were generally installed on business machines, not gaming rigs (I assumed it was the x86 version).

Running the DX 9.0c runtime modules doesn't mean your hardware supports those specific features. Many newer games require hardware compatibility.



Each physical drive can consume up to 25 watts no matter what the storage capacity is. A single hard drive will give you more capacity and draw half the power of two.

I'd say a 500 GB drive is a large drive by today’s standards, but some may say 1000 GB.

Replacing the PSU isn't difficult, but unless you're very comfortable with your hands inside the case, its best left to someone who is.

As Inland says, your XP operating system can only recognize about 3.5 MB of memory. 2 MB is plenty to run XP.

Ask this local shop about getting a single 500 GB hard drive and having them put the contents of your current smaller drive on the new one. Then you would only have one drive pulling power from your power supply (which is only 305 watts).

But, like Inland mentioned, upgrading your video card is the piece of hardware that will give you the best chance of being able to play newer games for a bit longer. And that's the item that may require a 350 watt - 400 watt new power supply.

You just have to weigh the pros and cons of doing the upgrades to keep the old computer capable of playing new games for a couple of years against getting a new one. Sometimes these local shops will build one for you and you can get a pretty decent one built by ecollege pc for less than $600.

Lots to think about. What we don't do to play our games!

Having DirectX 9 installed on your computer is not the same as having a video card that can make use of all DirectX 9 functionality. I could install DirectX 9 on a computer with a 10 year old video card. Does that mean it will work with a game that requires a DirectX 9 video card? No. The card needs the new functionality that the game requires.


Up to a point, more RAM helps. 2 or 3 GB is enough for adventure games though. My old Dell came with two 512 MB sticks of RAM in it, which is 1 GB total. I added two 1 GB sticks of RAM for a total of 3 GB. I could also have added two 512 MB sticks for a total of 2 GB, but the price wasn't that different and since I sometimes run Virtual Machines, it was worth it to me to get the 3 GB.

4 GB is wasteful on a computer with a 32-bit operating system. The system will only be able to use between 3.25 and 3.5 GB of the 4 GB, depending on the motherboard. 3 GB is more than you need for adventure games with XP anyway. I don't know if you'd see a difference between 2 GB and 3 GB, but the RAM isn't the limiting factor here anyway.


He means transfer your data to a new, large hard drive and remove the other one from the computer. If you had a power supply with more wattage, it would have enough wattage for two hard drives and you wouldn't have to worry about removing the old drive.


Most computers bought in retail stores have weak power supplies and cannot accept a video card that's much better than what's already there -- not without upgrading the power supply anyway. The problem with upgrading the power supply is that some computers take proprietary power supplies that don't come in higher wattages. If you have your computer upgraded by a professional, they should be able to tell you if upgrading the power supply is possible.

If your power supply can be upgraded, you can get a much better video card. Along with a new hard drive (2.62 GB free is really pushing the limits) and 1 or 2 more GB of RAM, your computer should be able to handle any adventure game you want to play on it.

If you can't upgrade the power supply, you can still upgrade the hard drive and the RAM, and will see some improvement out of that. You'll have to remove the old hard drive and have your operating system and files transferred to the new one in order to conserve wattage for the power supply. I'm unsure about your options for a video card if you can't upgrade the hard drive. At one time I would have recommended a Geforce 7600GT or 7600GS, but they aren't sold any more and the newer cards seem to take more power.

Lots of helpful info from all of you. I am going to call the computer people back tomorrow and want to make sure that I understand all of this:

1) I should ask about replacing my old hardrive with a new single 500 GB drive and ask them to transfer the contents of my old hard drive to it.

2) I have 1 GB Ram now but should add 1 GB, possibly 2 GB of additional Ram.

3) Check to see if my computer has a proprietary power supply that won't allow me to upgrade. If it doesn't, then update the power supply, if possible. If this is possible, chcek to see if my video card can be upgraded.

Did I leave anything out?

Thanks for your help.

If you're not able to get a new power supply with more wattage, you should certainly ask them to move your data over to the new drive.
If you are able to get a new power supply, it isn't that important whether you have your data moved or not because the new power supply should be able to support two drives.


Yes. Either 1 or 2 GB. Check the price difference. Also, you'll probably want to add a matched pair (either 2 512 MB sticks or 2 1GB sticks). From ***these instructions on adding memory to the Dell 5100***, you'll need a matched pair. It doesn't have to be exactly the same as the pair of memory sticks that are already in the computer.


If the power supply can be upgraded, then you should definitely upgrade the video card. The low wattage of your power supply is what's holding you back from getting a good video card.

Even if you can't upgrade the power supply, you might see if there's a newer card that doesn't require much wattage but would still be better than what you have.

Find out what video cards the person doing the upgrading has access to.

Thanks Jenny, great explanation and that is helpful since I am trying to understand all of this. I have given the info to the computer repair company and am awaiting their estimate.

I have to purchase the hardware and they will install it. They can order the parts and install them but it will probably be cheaper if I buy the components. If I can't upgrade my power supply, how will I know what kind of video card upgrade (that doesn't require a lot of wattage) will be compatible with my PC?

You computer experts are so patient with those of us who don't know much about the inner workings of our computers. I am very appreciative of all the help I get on GameBoomers. What a wonderful group of people!

We'd have to look around. Hopefully you'll be able to get the power supply upgraded.

You can get the parts at Newegg. Their prices are usually a lot better than what you can find locally.

It is going to be pretty pricey to upgrade my computer since I have to have a PC technician do the installing. I was looking at affordable options and saw this PC at Best Buy:

Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Athlon™ II X2 Processor / 4GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive
Model: CM1630-0

The reviews of it are pretty good and it is very reasonably priced. One reviewer said that he replaced the power source and added a better video card for about $100.00 more and games play really well on it. This person was playing games like World of Warcraft that I think need a much better video card. Is the power source on it too low for what I want to do without having to upgrade it right away?

Should I hold off and wait till I can buy a better pc or would this one be a good choice to play games?

Thanks.

From ***here***

It has


Bad bad choice.

No indication of what the power supply is. It's probably barely enough to support that weenie of an Intel graphics.

So if you get this computer, expect to pay more to upgrade the power supply and video card.

It may be a fine computer for office use, but unless you upgrade the graphics and probably also the power supply, it's not for gaming.

Jenny,

It is under $500.00 and if I update the power source and video card for $100.00, it seems like it might work for gaming. It is going to be close to that amount to upgrade my older PC with the things that I need to do to play these newer games. I know that "you get what you pay for" so maybe I am grasping at straws because of the price? I appreciate the input from all of you knowledgeable gamers.