Question About My Specs/SH3

[princelightftw]

Hey guys, Prince Light here, and I'm new to the forums, so please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this. Here are my specs for my current machine (I had a laptop but the stupid hard drive crashed, I can't use it anymore so these specs are for my desktop). I was wondering if my machine will be able to run SH3 without any problems, the only problem I had was the frame rate dropped REALLY badly when I went to the bridge or external camera.

Specifications on Optiplex 745 Desktop:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
2.8 GHz Performance Rated at: 3.36 GHz
8.1 GB RAM
Intel(R) Q965/Q963 Express Chipset Family <-- This is where it gets confusing. What the heck is a chipset express family? O_o

That's all I need to post as far as specs go. Any help on getting SH3 to run flawlessly (I already have hi-res fix) would be wonderful! I want to get back into the action ASAP! Thanks again! :ping:

[GreyBeard]

.......without any problems........

Those are the key words. :D Time will tell. Is that pc connected to the internet? If yes, you might want to check out this website: http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Welcome to SubSim! :salute:

[Pisces]

Sounds like you already have SH3 and this machine. So only one way to find out.

The GPU is on one of the chips on the motherboard. So that may be a limiting factor in performance. (I do not know the details of these chips) If it doesn't run smooth on minimal graphics settings (and possibly low resolution, so you may need to forget about widescreen res), then you may need an extra GPU card to handle it.

There is also a system requirements check application that comes with SH3. But maybe not with the download version. Try that.

[princelightftw]

Thanks guys, I already tried CRYI and it said Fail but I can still run it when I'm in the sub. Weird I know. And I'll see if I can run it minimal settings and windowed mode, is there a way to change the resolution on it to like 800x600?

EDIT: Just tried it with Synch on, particles 0, windowed, 1024 x 768 still lagging really bad when I'm in attack periscope or on the bridge. But it doesn't lag in the map or in the command room.

EDIT 2: I give up. What else can I do? I am thinking about just buying a new video card altogether, but I don't know what I should get. I found this which is 30 dollars, but I don't know if it'll play hardly anything or not: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7717577&CatId=3585

[Mittelwaechter]

Welcome aboard, princelightftw.

Your rig is a business computer, but with the exception of the intel onboard graphics pretty powerful to run SH3.
The graphics is good enough to show low animated scenarios like the nav map or the command room, but is way too weak to deal with the highly animated SH3 outside.

Your choice of video card will do the SH3 job, but don't expect it to run sophisticated actual games on high settings.

Check your mainboard documentation to ensure the card fits in.
I have no experience with passive graphics coolers.

[brett25]

Intel(R) Q965/Q963 Express Chipset Family

this is your "graphivs card" but its integrated, meaning you dont have a graphics card. As others have pointed out this is your bottle neck.
Even with the most basic card you will see a great improvement, Entry cards can be had for $59 to a hundred dollars and a fairy powerful card for $150-200 and up

maybe someone on here who uses a lower end card can chirp in on the kind of performance they are getting. You just need a low end (if money an issue) PC slot video card

the minimum specs for silent hunter 3 is "64MB nVidia GeForce 3 or ATi Radeon 8500 Class Video Card" or eqivalent, if that helps

recommened specs is :128MB nVidia GeForce 3 or ATi Radeon 8500 Class Video Card

the Radeon is a desent choice, but they are hard to find, probaly your better off finding an equvalent newer card

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000630TE/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

if you buy at amazon dont forget to go through subsim portal

[princelightftw]

I think I found the perfect video card! And I think it'll plug in just fine! It was PCI express 2.0 (x16) and looking at the motherboard, it looks a lot like the connector for the video card. Thanks again guys! Happy hunting! :ping: