Newby to SS4

[Sea wolf 7]

Hello. I'm brand new here, having just bought the SS4 game and found this forum. I hope I'm posting in the right place.

I really like your site and am looking forward to browsing all the information and downloads.

Question: I have 2 G hard drive, 1.5 G ram, and a GeForce 5500 video card. Do I need to upgrade anything, or should the game play OK on what I have?

(The game arrives Wednesday - Gold version).

Any info and help is deeply appreciated!

Sea Wolf 7

[Captain von Keldunk]

Hello and wellcome to the forum:DL
I have a ati card 3870 but it is a personal taste I think Here is a link to
Nvidia cards, problems, tweaks etc, hope this helps:salute:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517

[Lagger123987]

uhhh SS4? Silent Service 4?

[Peto]

Welcome Aboard Sea Wolf!!! If you could post a few more details regarding your computer specs you'll get more well-informed responses (CPU?). Is it a stock computer (Dell, HP, eMachine--Model)?

You'll get help here!

Cheers!

[Sniper31]

Hello. I'm brand new here, having just bought the SS4 game and found this forum. I hope I'm posting in the right place.

I really like your site and am looking forward to browsing all the information and downloads.

Question: I have 2 G hard drive, 1.5 G ram, and a GeForce 5500 video card. Do I need to upgrade anything, or should the game play OK on what I have?

(The game arrives Wednesday - Gold version).

Any info and help is deeply appreciated!

Sea Wolf 7


Well, assuming that your are talking about Silent Hunter 4 (SH4) and not SS4 ( not sure if a Silent Service 4 exists...lol), then here is the system requirements as listed when the game was released:
Win XP/Vista
2 Ghz Cpu (3 ghz Cpu recommended)
128 Mb Ram video card (256 Mb Ram recommended)
**nVidia GeForce cards supported: 6200 and newer**
Hard Drive with a least 6 Gb of free space

Now these system requirements may have been tweaked since the game was released a few years ago, BUT, if so, requirements will not be too much different. If your system can run this game, then it is likely that it will not run it very well, and probable that there will be some graphical issues. Sorry for the bad news my friend, but if you can afford to upgrade or even better yet, get a whole new system than now might be the time to go for it. There are LOTS of newer generation technology components out there than your current system, and for very decent prices.:salute:

[Sonicfire1981]

Dont be so mean to newcomers. (Welcome to the show, btw)

Im running SH$ somewhere on the minimum requirements, FPS might be little low sometimes and aiming for the "Torpedosettings"-button can be tricky, but its running. Dont expect an Anna Netrebko (awesome-looking-wise), thou.

A new graphics-card might be a good start. (take a 512 Ram. the animation of the water is totally worth it...)

[Lagger123987]

Dont be so mean to newcomers. (Welcome to the show, btw)

Im running SH$ somewhere on the minimum requirements, FPS might be little low sometimes and aiming for the "Torpedosettings"-button can be tricky, but its running. Dont expect an Anna Netrebko (awesome-looking-wise), thou.

A new graphics-card might be a good start. (take a 512 Ram. the animation of the water is totally worth it...)

THere you go again, SH$? Silent Hunter Dollar? Sorry, can't help it, so boring at my place right now.

[Akula4745]

Sea Wolf,
Sounds like your system is a lot like my old one... I could run the game but just barely (graphics options turned all the way down) and had some serious lag in the gameplay at times. I ended up ordering a whole new system to upgrade to where I could play SH4 with the graphics maxed out.

Welcome to the forum, sir... you're gonna love this game!

Akula4745

[Rockin Robbins]

Welcome to Subsim! I wouldn't try playing the game with anything less than an nVidia 7600GT. I think the price difference between it an lesser cards just doesn't give any benefit to finding ways to make them work at all. With the 7600GT I can run graphics settings wide open and get about 25 fps on exterior camera looking at the submarine, more fps everywhere else.

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

I'm playing with a much worse setup than yours (well, the video card is worse anyway), and I have to play with minimum settings; but play I do! You won't regret getting involved with the ultimate (so far) Silent Hunter!

[Sea wolf 7]

Thanks for all the replys! Very helpful. My machine is a home made, and I need to update this dog of a machine anyway. So it looks like I'll add a couple gigs of ram, get a much larger hard drive (Tigerdirect is selling a 250 GB Seagate for $99.00), and a 9800 GeForce (another $99.00 bucks). Hopefully that'll solve the problem.

Sorry about the "SS4", can't get Silent Service out of my head (think SH4, SH4, SH4).

Any other suggestions?

Sea Wolf

[Sniper31]

Thanks for all the replys! Very helpful. My machine is a home made, and I need to update this dog of a machine anyway. So it looks like I'll add a couple gigs of ram, get a much larger hard drive (Tigerdirect is selling a 250 GB Seagate for $99.00), and a 9800 GeForce (another $99.00 bucks). Hopefully that'll solve the problem.

Sorry about the "SS4", can't get Silent Service out of my head (think SH4, SH4, SH4).

Any other suggestions?

Sea Wolf


Don't sweat the SS4, I was just ribbing you...and besides, I never know, maybe there was an SS4 that I did not know about...lol.

Anyhow, with that 9800 GeForce card, the big thing to check on you system is the power supply. Chances are that if your current power supply is as old as your system seems to be, than it will not have enough power (or the right plugs) to run a 9800 card. The newer cards are more power hungry, big time. If you are looking at Tigerdirect (I love them...order stuff from them all the time!) than check out the detailed power supply requirements for that video card and compare to your current power supply. If it looks like you need to upgrade the power supply also, then you want to get a name brand one, and its a good idea to have 200-300w over what you actually need. Ultra and Corsair are my two favorite power supply company's, but there are other good one's out there.

[GulfXray]

Don't sweat the SS4, I was just ribbing you...and besides, I never know, maybe there was an SS4 that I did not know about...lol.

Anyhow, with that 9800 GeForce card, the big thing to check on you system is the power supply. Chances are that if your current power supply is as old as your system seems to be, than it will not have enough power (or the right plugs) to run a 9800 card. The newer cards are more power hungry, big time. If you are looking at Tigerdirect (I love them...order stuff from them all the time!) than check out the detailed power supply requirements for that video card and compare to your current power supply. If it looks like you need to upgrade the power supply also, then you want to get a name brand one, and its a good idea to have 200-300w over what you actually need. Ultra and Corsair are my two favorite power supply company's, but there are other good one's out there.

I can help a bit - just bought a 9800 GT and it required a 400w system PSU -- soooo, I bought a new 550wat PSU to go along with it! :DL

[Sonicfire1981]

Yeah, SH$, damn caps... whatever.

As the hardware seems to be discussed, check
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=146795
if you havent already. You'll be an elite-skipper in no time.

when it comes to mods, there are a couple of really good ones. Both Trigger Maru and Real Fleet Boat are very good, although I like RFB more. It makes ship-damage far easier to understand. But with it you shouldnt try surface-shootouts with DDs or even Gunboats. You'll loose, and badly.

The RSRD also is a "Must Have" in my oppinion. Much clearer Missions, although I never had to recon harbors, rescue pilots and the like anymore.

Try Operation Monsoon if you want to play SS§ (SH3 ;) ) Netrebko-style.
http://www.monstersandcritics.de/downloads/downloads/articles/14342/article_images/image5_1183511042.jpg
If you do and like an intense Kriegsmarine-flair try Spaxx (install first) and Poulsen (install second) Soundmod. If youre not german (RealWorld) R.U.I.M. adds much flair to your crew. I promise you will use the F2-kea more often.

[Arclight]

A good thing to check is if the card you have now is PCI-E. I'm guessing it's AGP since it's so old. Not gonna be able to plug a 9800 in an AGP slot.

[old_tex]

You have the bare minimum for playing the game. The video card will support the requirements for SH4, but you may run into slow updates when things get crowded (like when there are a number of enemy ships around, etc.) But, you will be able to see how the game plays and you will wind up buying a new system to play it. :up: Old_tex

[Sniper31]

A good thing to check is if the card you have now is PCI-E. I'm guessing it's AGP since it's so old. Not gonna be able to plug a 9800 in an AGP slot.


Good point! I missed that one.:know:

[Webster]

Welcome to Subsim! I wouldn't try playing the game with anything less than an nVidia 7600GT. I think the price difference between it an lesser cards just doesn't give any benefit to finding ways to make them work at all. With the 7600GT I can run graphics settings wide open and get about 25 fps on exterior camera looking at the submarine, more fps everywhere else.


my 7600GS worked very well so that card is ok too

[PaulH513]

Welcome aboard
Try this link, it will tell you what you may or may not need.

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

[Sea wolf 7]

Thank you to all who have helped me here. The game actually came a day early.

New computer shipped yesterday. 500 GB HD, 4 GB Corsair memory, GeForce 8300, 500 fan, (I forget the processor speed) - should be enough to move subs about 100knots.

If I have any problems, I'll be sure to search the posts.

Once again, thanks.:yeah:

Sea Wolf

[Peto]

Thank you to all who have helped me here. The game actually came a day early.

New computer shipped yesterday. 500 GB HD, 4 GB Corsair memory, GeForce 8300, 500 fan, (I forget the processor speed) - should be enough to move subs about 100knots.

If I have any problems, I'll be sure to search the posts.

Once again, thanks.:yeah:

Sea Wolf

Have Fun!!! Congrats on the new system!!!

:yeah:

[Akula4745]

New computer shipped yesterday. 500 GB HD, 4 GB Corsair memory, GeForce 8300, 500 fan, (I forget the processor speed) - should be enough to move subs about 100knots.


Sounds like you got a good system coming, Sea Wolf. Let me know about the 100 knot part, ok? <G>

Akula4745