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Low Requirement Games

wilska

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I am kind of in a rut here with my computer. It is almost impossible to upgrade without spending a fortune thus limiting the games that I play to older, lower computer requirement games. I am able to play CS 1.6, Civ IV (on High) and Wc3 (on High) without any lag. However, I cannot play CoD4 and WoW (on low graphics) smoothly at all.

What I am really looking for are games that I could purchase, that would run relatively well on my current computer. I don't care about graphics or genre, just the overall performance of the game. Any suggestions would be excellent :)
 

hat

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yeah looks like you've got quite a hole in your wallet if you decide to upgrade. You don't have to build a $1500 Dell computer, I can pick out parts for you that will total under $500 and play games (including Crysis) just fine
 

troyrae360

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War Craft 3 : Dawn Of War series, not DOW2. : Call of duty 4 should work! : theres lots try crysis in low settings, rome total war(low settings) medival total war (low settings)
 

Reventon

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I'm sure you can play more games than that with an x1650.
 

troyrae360

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need for speed, battle field 2, never winter nights. assisns creed
 

JC316

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The problem comes in with the CPU. That X1650 is essientially an X850 Pro, which ran Oblivion fine for me.
 

troyrae360

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can you overclock that cpu? thats probly a weak point in your system, and get another 512 stick of ram for it (it might be just as cheep to get a one gb stick or even 2x1gb sticks)
 

FordGT90Concept

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Oblivion ran on my Intel integrated graphics card with an update from Intel. It looked like crap but it ran. Ooo, you could get the TopWare collectors pack which has 6 games from circa 2000 including Earth 2150. Mafia is great too.
 

hat

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The problem comes in with the CPU. That X1650 is essientially an X850 Pro, which ran Oblivion fine for me.

I believe it lies more in his 512mb rdram
 

JC316

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I believe it lies more in his 512mb rdram

I ran Oblivion, Quake 4, Doom3, and Fear at 800x600 all high on the following:

Athlon XP 3000+
1gb DDR 266
X850 Pro.
 
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I would save up on a new system.
 

Kursah

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I had an oooold P4 Socket 423 1.4ghz with 512mb of RDRAM800 with a Geforce 2 MX440, then a GB 9600PRO agp. LoL, that system makes for a good word processing/web browsing rig, but aside from that it was almost useless for gaming. Though I did manage to have Guild Wars working well at 1024x768 lol.

Really depending on the kind of budget you could come up with, and the abilities of building a system yourself, and if you don't mind used parts, you could build a very nice rig for a few hundred bucks that would handle most of your games much better than your current rig. Though if that is not an option at this point, web browser games, maybe source based games on low, etc might be your ticket. But a decent C2D (the e6xxx series is cheap, OC well, are solid for gaming, 2GB-4GB DDR2 800, a p965/p35/p45 motherboard with a 9600GT/GSO, HD3870, would treat you very well in many modern games at decent resolutions.
 
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How much do you have to spare?
You said its impossible for upgrading without spending alot of money, but even tho i don't build computers, i am pretty sure you can buy parts from newegg and spend about 400 on it altogether, maybe less then that.

Or just buy a prebuilt computer or just a new video card. I take it you have PCIE?
 
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Go dig @ Computer Recyclers places. In Toronto you can buy a socket 775 P4 3.8Ghz, PIC-e 256Mb videocard, 2 Gb ram and 120Gb HD for $200.00 canadian dollars! :eek::eek:
 

hat

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How much do you have to spare?
You said its impossible for upgrading without spending alot of money, but even tho i don't build computers, i am pretty sure you can buy parts from newegg and spend about 400 on it altogether, maybe less then that.

Or just buy a prebuilt computer or just a new video card. I take it you have PCIE?

he doesn't have PCI-E. I garuntee it.
 

Reventon

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I suggest you get 2GB of RAM. RAM is really cheap nowadays, especially DDR.
 

wilska

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Thank you guys from the replies. My main limitation would be my memory type. For 512mb more rdram, it would cost ~$100. Buying a new motherboard could work, but then I would have to buy new memory, just adding more to the price. I would overclock, but the BIOS has no support for it. I only have an AGP and a few PCI slots.

As for the games, CoD4 barely runs on with low in-game settings, and low hardware settings. I also forgot to mention that Fallout 3 was impossible to play due to huge studders while exploring in the open wastelands. I will definetly try DoW, I totally forgot about that game :laugh:
 

Reventon

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Wow that sucks. I got my 4GB of DDR2 DIMM RAM for like $45.
 
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RDRAM is probably worth its weight in... well cut cubic zirconia? Idk, its just very expensive.
Go dumpster diving for any old Dell Pentium 4 computers, you'll either find one better than yours (in terms of processor speed and RAM type/amount) or one with matching RAM.
You X1650 should play older games fine, my friend plays Oblivion on a 9600 Pro! Make sure you have the latest drivers, or even try a fresh install of Windows.
Other than that, save up $500 for building a new comp. You'll need all new parts, except for the DVD and HDD drives, but it will certainly be worth it.
Alternatively, I do have a 2.66 GHz 478 and matching RAM for your computer; make me an offer via PM if you're interested, I'd be willing to part with them fairly cheap. Not sure about shipping to America though...

As for games you can play on it; Half Life 2 is an excellent game and shold work on it, and Quake II is a fun old game if you want a bit of legacy fun.
 

wilska

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I will have to frequent a few swap meets here in SoCal. I know there is the TRW Swap Meet and the Pomona fair. I would much rather buy a whole new computer but if I could find a killer deal on some parts, then why not. I will have to download an Oblivion demo to be sure I could run it smoothly. Push comes to shove ill clean install Windows to see if it makes somewhat of a difference.
 
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For a while when I was stuck with my old P3 laptop (Asus A1000, PIIIE 1Ghz, 512Mb PC133 SDRAM and a SiS630 32Mb shared memory video card) I used to play real old games. Mechcommander 2, Baldur's Gate and I found a real gem of a game (well, an opensource clone of a game I played a long time ago):

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe

Oldie, but addictive :toast:

As for your computer, you need to save up for a new rig. No upgrade you can do to it is worth the money that it will cost, and a new 300$ system will be a massive leap forward for you.
 

Eagleheart666

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can you overclock that cpu? thats probly a weak point in your system, and get another 512 stick of ram for it (it might be just as cheep to get a one gb stick or even 2x1gb sticks)

if it was DDR3 ram i got 2x 2gb sticks for about $75
 

wilska

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Unfortunately rdram is some of the most expensive ram per mb on the planet. However I have found a few games that could keep me occupied. Age of Empires III and Oblivion that you guys have mentioned.
 

Eagleheart666

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Yeah AoE 3 is a fun game
 
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