PC Gaming help

Final Fantasy Online Forums > Community Discussion > The Dork Squad

12.31.2011 3:26pm

Thread Creator

Crono
Crono can cross dimensions too!

So the last major PC game I played was The Sims back in 2000. I've been getting back into it more with indie games lately and I've been thinking of getting a new rig at some point but for now I have an issue. I have a laptop and a desktop both of which are 4-5 years old and my gf has a 2 year old desktop. I tried running Super Meat Boy on the laptop and it didn't run right. everything was slow, mechanics like wall jumping didn't work right 75% of the time and MB would just fall through a wall and die on certain levels (1-4). It doesn't take much to run this game so I thought this was curious and installed to my desktop and it worked perfectly.

Here's the kicker. I put the game (along with Team Fortress 2 which is a little laggy) on my gf's desktop and it does the exact same thing as the laptop! I installed/updated directx9 and that didnt' seem to help at all. So my question is: what does my 4-5 year old desktop have that the other two rigs are clearly lacking? I'm wondering if the issue will hamper other games and if that's what's causing the lap in TF2 since I'm fairly sure her rig should be able to handle it. What can I do to possibly resolve the issue?

Currently Playing: Dark Cloud 2: 3 hours.
Also Playing: CT, FF VI, Solatorobo, Secret of Mana, Halo 4.
Just Finished: Fable II: 7 hours.

Jump to Post

12.31.2011 8:01pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

Could be a number of things, but the most likely candidate is video card. Dollars to doughnuts, your laptop and your GF's desktop are both running the cheapest integrated video the manufacturer could get away with, and your desktop actually has a real video card.

Other possible causes could be OS (if you're running XP and she's running Vista/Win7, which are much more resource-intensive), amount of RAM, etc.

RAM is cheap, video cards can be had for cheap, go scrape together $100 and give her desktop a mild upgrade. (check those links for compatibility before you buy)

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 12:43am

Som
Genitals are Funny

Would really help if you told us the specs of each PC.

But yeah as SC said it's most probably the gphx cards.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 1:01am

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

I also have to point out that I'm running a 5-year-old PC (Athlon X2 3.4gHz, 3 gb DDR2-800, Radeon HD3870) which was slightly outdated when I built it, and it's only in this past year that I'm running into games I can't play on it. Portal 2 ran like a champion. Sometimes it's just not worthwhile to upgrade.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 1:40am

amaron
No answer, must be that deaf bitch.

I can play Skyrim on my old Core2Duo with 3GB of RAM and a GTS 250.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 2:18am

Ashilyn
Career GM

Skyrim isn't thebest guage, actually. I can run it on Medium-High settings at 1440x900 at more than playable framerates on an Anthlon X2 3800+ and 7900 GTO. Same with Portal 2 - the Source Engine is remarkably flexible.

Better gauges for system performance imo are games like Deus Ex HR - recent, but not requireing top of the line equipment to run smoothly.

That said, isn't Super Meat Boy kind of a glorified flash game? Not as bad as THe Binding of Isaac, which IS a flash game, but SMB's always been on the lower side of optimisation in part due to it's Flash based roots. Your computer defintiely needs a new graphisc card, but SMB may just run like shit on older systems regardless.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 2:25am

amaron
No answer, must be that deaf bitch.

Ashilyn said:

Skyrim isn't thebest guage, actually. I can run it on Medium-High settings at 1440x900 at more than playable framerates on an Anthlon X2 3800+ and 7900 GTO. Same with Portal 2 - the Source Engine is remarkably flexible.

Better gauges for system performance imo are games like Deus Ex HR - recent, but not requireing top of the line equipment to run smoothly.

That said, isn't Super Meat Boy kind of a glorified flash game? Not as bad as THe Binding of Isaac, which IS a flash game, but SMB's always been on the lower side of optimisation in part due to it's Flash based roots. Your computer defintiely needs a new graphisc card, but SMB may just run like shit on older systems regardless.

I only used Skyrim as it was the newest game I have. DX: HR played well too, but I don't usually try to play at high resolutions anyways.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 3:52am

Thread Creator

Crono
Crono can cross dimensions too!

I'll post all my specs tomorrow when I'm home. I thought it could be her graphics card but I just didn't think such a simple game as SMB could be destroyed by anything made in the past 5 years and the stiking similarity in issues between my laptop and her desktop made me think the two systems were missing some kind of driver, update, or general software for gaming upgrade.

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 1:14pm

Indiana Jerico
Sinfully Delicious v2
Administrator

Like Ashilyn said, Flash-based games are notoriously non-optimized and will most likely stall a computer that can otherwise run polygon and 3D-based games without any problems. Case in point, my 1.0 Ghz C2D netbook can run Torchlight without any problem but balks big-time on FB Flash games.

===

"Plans? What plans? I'm making this up as I go!"

d e v i a t i o n �?� i m a g i n a t i o n

Jump to Post

01.01.2012 9:37pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

I've seen a lot of indie games using shaders, and shader support in integrated graphics is notoriously poor.

Take Minecraft for example. Why on earth it uses shaders is beyond comprehension, but it does, and runs like crap on Intel integrated graphics.

Jump to Post

01.02.2012 6:30pm

Thread Creator

Crono
Crono can cross dimensions too!

She has an Intel G41 (which I guess is actually a GMA X4500?) , The laptop has a Intel 945GM, and my 5yo desktop has a GEForce 6200 TurboCache. The specs on hers look pretty good (800mhz shader model 4) whereas my laptop and desktop are 400 and 425mhz.

Jump to Post

01.02.2012 7:11pm

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

Yeah, I was right. It's the videocard.

The thing about those Intel embedded graphics, they're complete shit. What you're not seeing is that half to 3/4ths of the supported feature set is software-supported, not running on the hardware. With the laptop (945GM), it's a 2D-only solution with some software hacks to support minimal 3D, lacking even hardware T&L (which debut back in '99 on the original Geforce 256/DDR). With her desktop (G41), there's just enough 3D support to run Aero and maybe a couple of old games. Both of them are soundly spanked by the Geforce 6200. Another case of the specs looking good on paper, and falling apart in real use.

Jump to Post

01.02.2012 8:34pm

Thread Creator

Crono
Crono can cross dimensions too!

Well now I know. It still amazes me that a graphics card that was made over 7 years ago can handle more than one (albeit a shitty one) made in the past two years. I've been thinking of parting ways with my desktop anyways; would it be to my advantage to rip out the 6200 and put it in hers or would that cause some of her stuff to go haywire?

It's been interesting to see what works well on what. I need to put Portal 2 on her PC and see how that does. I know my desktop was chuging at about 10fps with the first one. It almost meets the recommended specs (2.8ghz and 2 gigs of ram) of 3ghz and 1gb ram. Next experiment!

Jump to Post

01.03.2012 7:04am

Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you

I understand about limited funds, especially after Christmas, but this is really the time for an application of cash. Pick up a cheap mid-range video card from the previous two generations, plus as much RAM as the motherboard will hold, and you'll get another five years out of it, easy.

Jump to Post

Jump to