Empire Total War: Running slow and limited graphics options

[Mussels]

Your main issue is the integrated video card, you will not be able to play any current games at an acceptable level without a dedicated video card. Not any dedicated video card but a decent one. Even with a good dedicated video card your processor (E3300 dual core) @ 2.5GHz is only borderline.

£500 is enough to to max out games, but not if you're buying in stores, you'd have to build your own computer to get anything decent for £500 and if you're not computer literate you'll struggle to do that without a few weeks/months of learning.

As for a solution:

A.) Buy a dedicated video card in the £100-150 price range - Except medium visuals at 720p, but you'll be able to play games.
B.) Return the system, learn to build your own with that £500 budget and build something alot better.
C.) Keep your rig and don't play games.

Edit: If you decide to go with A.) here are the video cards to buy at minimum. 5670, 5750, 5770, GTX460 (might require new PSU + could bottleneck)

Sapphire HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 HDMI DVI VGA PCI-E.. ...
XFX HD 5750 XXX 512MB DDR5 DUAL DVI DISPLAYPORT HD...
HIS HD 5750 iCooler 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Por...
XFX HD 5770 850MHz 1GB DDR5 HDMI Dual DVI Display ...
PALIT GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 VGA DVI HDMI Out PCI-E.....

he cant go with A, did you look at the system?

 

[Dent1]

he cant go with A, did you look at the system?

The OP should be able to drop in a 5670 in there, he/she will still be stuck with medium visuals but the frame rate will be much better?

But yes IMO abandoning this rig altogether is probably best. Maybe the OP can claim a refund on the grounds that he/she was mislead by the staff at the shop into thinking games will play?

Some games, have their specs really and i mean really underestimated.

I actually find threads like this heart breaking. Seriously.

It comes back to games developers not telling the truth about their specifications and shops exploiting naive customers just to make a sale. Its sickening really. I wish the OP found this forum before buying the computer, we could of helped him/her put together a pimp AMD quad core even on that shoe-string budget.

I feel sad.

 

[CraigyBL2]

Even with a good dedicated video card your processor (E3300 dual core) @ 2.5GHz is only borderline.

Does this mean that even if I do buy a video card that the game may still run painfully slow and buggy?

Edit: If you decide to go with A.) here are the video cards to buy at minimum. 5670, 5750, 5770, GTX460 (might require new PSU + could bottleneck)

New PSU? Bottleneck?
Thanks for your help by the way.

 

[Mussels]

The OP should be able to drop in a 5670 in there, he/she will still be stuck with medium visuals but the frame rate will be much better?

his PC is built into the monitor. it has no expansion ports, its basically a laptop with an external keyboard.

to answer your questions above:

games require GPU and CPU power. some modern games will be fine with that CPU, some will not - so even after upgrading your video card to the most powerful one that exists today, your CPU will stop some of them from being playable.

the PSU could be a problem cause it cant output the wattage needed for a video card - this is made irrelevant by the fact you have an AIO (all in one) PC where its all built into the screen... you cant upgrade it anyway, so it doesnt matter.

 

[CraigyBL2]

I feel like a complete idiot now, the fact that it was labelled up as an excellent media computer and the fact that it was a touch screen were extremely enticing.. I've ended up with a system I don't even want now, and I can't even return it.

 

[Dent1]

Does this mean that even if I do buy a video card that the game may still run painfully slow and buggy?

No

If you buy a dedicated video card you'll will have access to the "high" settings in the game's options and in less intensive games you'll enjoy high settings without issues and without it running slow. However on really intensive games i.e. Empire Total War, GTA, Crysis series BFBC2 series they'll need a beefier processor (E3300) to run it well so you'd have to except a a mixture of medium and low detail however the games frame rate will be somewhat smooth opposed to laggy or slow as with your current integrated video card.

New PSU? Bottleneck?
Thanks for your help by the way.

PSU is the power supply unit, some video cards like the GTX 460 require a good power supply unit to run efficiently. However you might get away without one if you buy one of the "other" video cards I listed.

From a moral standpoint, you've spent £500 already, that will sharply rise to £600-650 once you factor in the dedicated video card, ethically £600 can build you a computer way faster. Like a quad core processor, better video card that can actually run games at high, maybe 8 GBs of ram with better upgradability. I wouldn’t feel right recommending that you buy a dedicated video card even if it solves some of your issues as the PC will still not be worth the money put into it.

I feel like a complete idiot now, the fact that it was labelled up as an excellent media computer and the fact that it was a touch screen were extremely enticing.. I've ended up with a system I don't even want now, and I can't even return it.

Media systems are not gaming system. Multimedia is still graphics and video, with a little light graphic manipulation (Photoshop) and web development packages essentially it’s a rig that can play HD movies, has lots of connectivity and do some light work related tasks.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Empire Total War is graphics and cpu intensive! Sadly, your Celeron will struggle at high resolution. You will want to upgrade that as well.

 

[Lionheart]

Welcome to TPU bro, sux you have to deal with this shit, but its happened to me as well but anyways thats return policy of theirs is complets BS, you should be able to return even if they say you can't, thats complete BS to me, theres alot places & companies like that in Australia that do that type of crap, no return policy but I read up about it, and apparently its illegal to that type of crap, apparently alot douche bag companies get away with it, but thats in Australia I guess so I don't know what its like where you live but I would still give it a try and take it back, make up some BS, thats what I usually do and if that doesn't work, I guess you can try ebay

 

[MilkyWay]

Celeron CPU E3300 @ 2.50GHz = Culprit
This game needs a powerful cpu, even with say a 5770 it would struggle with a Celeron.
Whoever suggested 8gb of ram you do not need 8gb of ram for gaming that's straight up garbage.

Most if not all stores in the UK (assuming you live in the UK as thats where ive heard of PC World) work on a returns policy that is timed to a certain number of weeks or days, even then once you open some stuff the policy only allows for returns on certain terms. Its just the way it is over here.

Sorry you thought you could game on that computer, next time you may want to look up (research) the specifications even the crappy pc world staff would know if it could light game or not which unfortunately it cant. I can see it now they tried to push the fact it was all in one and had a cool useless touchscreen. Media is like Movies Internet and Music ect that doesn't exactly cover gaming.

A lot of online e-tailers do custom builds, pre builds but not factory built which are slightly better if someone is wary of getting people to build one or DIY a system, especially when warranty on parts is individual and system analysis is by yourself.

 

[ShiBDiB]

No

If you buy a dedicated video card you'll will have access to the "high" settings in the game's options and in less intensive games you'll enjoy high settings without issues and without it running slow. However on really intensive games i.e. Empire Total War, GTA, Crysis series BFBC2 series they'll need a beefier processor (E3300) to run it well so you'd have to except a a mixture of medium and low detail however the games frame rate will be somewhat smooth opposed to laggy or slow as with your current integrated video card.




PSU is the power supply unit, some video cards like the GTX 460 require a good power supply unit to run efficiently. However you might get away without one if you buy one of the "other" video cards I listed.

From a moral standpoint, you've spent £500 already, that will sharply rise to £600-650 once you factor in the dedicated video card, ethically £600 can build you a computer way faster. Like a quad core processor, better video card that can actually run games at high, maybe 8 GBs of ram with better upgradability. I wouldn’t feel right recommending that you buy a dedicated video card even if it solves some of your issues as the PC will still not be worth the money put into it.




Media systems are not gaming system. Multimedia is still graphics and video, with a little light graphic manipulation (Photoshop) and web development packages essentially it’s a rig that can play HD movies, has lots of connectivity and do some light work related tasks.

For the record.. seeing how he's failed to acknowledge being wrong in his previous posts. Everything he's sharing with you wont help you with the.. pardon my french.. piece of crap PC your currently on.

 

[Dent1]

struggle with a Celeron.
Whoever suggested 8gb of ram you do not need 8gb of ram for gaming that's straight up garbage.

Nobody suggested 8 GBs of ram?

For the record.. seeing how he's failed to acknowledge being wrong in his previous posts. Everything he's sharing with you wont help you with the.. pardon my french.. piece of crap PC your currently on.

Elaborate.

 

[ShiBDiB]

You current PC cant be upgraded or altered in any way that will make the actual upgrade worthwhile. Your probably limited to hard drive upgrades, and if your lucky RAM upgrades. But your 2 main problems are your CPU and GPU which cannot be upgraded in the system.

 

[Dent1]

You current PC cant be upgraded or altered in any way that will make the actual upgrade worthwhile. Your probably limited to hard drive upgrades, and if your lucky RAM upgrades. But your 2 main problems are your CPU and GPU which cannot be upgraded in the system.

You are talking about CraigyBL2's computer and not mine, right?

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yes he is if u paid attention craigs pc is an All in One aka screen with parts behind it nothing else much like a laptop in that it cant be upgraded with a new shiny gpu etc

 

[Dent1]

yes he is if u paid attention craigs pc is an All in One aka screen with parts behind it nothing else much like a laptop in that it cant be upgraded with a new shiny gpu etc

You can not blame me getting confused, ShiBDiB's sentence structure is terrible (no disrespect) lol

CraigyBL2, try your luck bring it back to PCWorld or wherever you got it from, usually if you're swift i.e. within 1-14days of purchase they'll give you a refund using their discretion. I took a look at the link you posted earlier, it isnt a standard ATX case so you can not upgrade the video card. Sorry.

 

[GENTLEMEN]

Since, from what I understand in OP's previous posts, his pc is an all-in-one pc, the only possible upgrades are cpu, ram, and HDD. And, none of them will help his pc run modern games. Try to return that pc (even a partial refund will do, maybe like 75+%) and we can start from scratch here.

 

[j.col70]

did you buy it instore or online?
if online, you can return it under the distance selling act.
http://www.out-law.com/page-430
but you have to inform them within 7 days

edit. just seen the dates of other posts. please ignore