Need Some advice

[irish1958]

My computer has a cpu of pentium 4 @2.68Ghz. I have 1 Gb of DDR2 RAM (PC2700) and a my video card is ATI 9800SE with 256 Mb of RAM.
I cannot play this game because of terrible mouse lag and low frame rate with all options turned off and my video card set to maximum performance.
Is there any way to upgrade this setup so the game can be reasonably played?
My video card is supported but it is about 4 years old.
Or should I leave my door uplocked and hope someone steals it so I have to get a new one?
Any advice would be helpful and appreciated.

[AVGWarhawk]

Well, I run a AMD 3200+ and 1 gig of RAM. I did install a new X1300 512mb vid card. I have all checked but vol fog/sun glare. All sliders at full. Mouse does lag some but all in all 15 FPS at worst 50 FPS at best. I'm adding more RAM and this should help my small bit of mouse lag.

[Snuffy]

http://www.tigerdirect.com

Good luck.

[TDK1044]

Double your RAM to 2 GIGs. Your video card is old and not that fast, but an additional 1 GIG of RAM will make the game playable for you.

I have a mid range system; P4 3.0 processor, 2 GIGs of RAM and a GeForce 7600GT pci-e video card. I run this game at the highest graphical settings. It looks and runs great and I get 50fps plus within the sub, and between 27 and 40fps external.

[SteamWake]

I only see mouse lag in two conditions.

When the game is first loaded it really takes 5 to 10 minutes to "settle down" and at high rates of time compression.

[irish1958]

If I upgrade to 2Gb of RAM and a mid range video card (9600 nvidea or 1650 ATI), would my P4 2.68Ghz CPU be a bottle neck?

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by irish1958

If I upgrade to 2Gb of RAM and a mid range video card (9600 nvidea or 1650 ATI), would my P4 2.68Ghz CPU be a bottle neck?

Not really, I think this set up would be sweet and run the game just fine!

[irish1958]

Thanks, NobleBird!

[Nightmare]

As everyone has stated, get another gig of ram and that will help. Another big improvement would be to upgrade your video card. Since you appear to live in the US, I recommend Newegg as a good online vendor to purchase from. However they aren't the cheapest online, but they beat the price of anybody locally for me (that's with shipping included) and they have an excellent reputation.

[Skipbo]

I'll second those comments to take a look at newegg.com, I got a 7900GS from them a few weeks ago which runs SHIV extremely well and as of a few moments ago is still listed at under $150 shipped with the rebate............Skipbo

[Cap'n Crabs]

Don't forget this setting guys...

Irish, go into your sh4 folder > \data\cfg Look for a "main.cfg", open with notepad, make sure you don't set it to always use notepad to open the file, that is, uncheck that little box.
After you open the file, look for this section near the end...

[DEVELOPING]
DevDebugEnable=Yes
DevEditEnable=Yes
MiniDump=Yes

Change the "yes" to "no" and save. Those default settings were killing my framerates.
In your video card properties, make sure you turn off "fast writes", those are a no no for Ati cards.
Also try setting your video settings for direct 3d to "application preference". Mainly to start out and see if the framerate improves. If it's better, then start bumping things up.
Hope that helps, I was playing with 1 gig of ram and the game was still playable, but I do have a little newer video card. Good luck
Btw, I'm not knocking anyones recommendations for more ram, more would be better, but I'm hoping Irish will be able to at least play until then.
A good bunch of guys here. Helped me with a few issues.

[macky]

i had that video card with 1.5gb ram (2.9g cpu P4). Upgraded to a 512mb 7600 SE and never looked back (AGP too). Would recomend the 512mb and not the 256, but I can run between 15-50fps too now with the majority of settings at full whack

[irish1958]

Thanks again everybody
GWX rocks in SHIII; I hope SHIV will get to be as good and we get some great supermods. I am sure when the GWX guys get going it will be. I want to be able to play it now and participate in the development, as I have in SHIII in a VERY small way as a tester.
This has to be the best of all forums on the internet.

[momo55]

hi all

i run a AMD Athlon 3500+ skt 939 ; Powercolor Radeon X800 256MB PCI-E ;
2 Gb of RAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) CL 3 ; Powersupply 650W Big Fan 24 pins ;
ASUS A8N-SLI DELUXE ; etc.....(a modest lowmid-range maybe for a optimist :hmm

Fog is off ..all the rest on and FPS external between at sea 25 - 30+(in harbor 16 -20 )...internal 50 and way above depending the station.

Makes it a difference wath mouse you are playing with i wonder ?...because ..when i play battlefield 2 i set my mousespeed low for more aimingaccuratie and when i play SH3 GWX or SH4 i put the mousespeed high . (no mouselag so far over here )
I have a razer copperheadmouse

Keep those feet dry sailors

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Crabs

Don't forget this setting guys...

Irish, go into your sh4 folder > \data\cfg Look for a "main.cfg", open with notepad, make sure you don't set it to always use notepad to open the file, that is, uncheck that little box.
After you open the file, look for this section near the end...

[DEVELOPING]
DevDebugEnable=Yes
DevEditEnable=Yes
MiniDump=Yes

Change the "yes" to "no" and save. Those default settings were killing my framerates.
In your video card properties, make sure you turn off "fast writes", those are a no no for Ati cards.
Also try setting your video settings for direct 3d to "application preference". Mainly to start out and see if the framerate improves. If it's better, then start bumping things up.
Hope that helps, I was playing with 1 gig of ram and the game was still playable, but I do have a little newer video card. Good luck
Btw, I'm not knocking anyones recommendations for more ram, more would be better, but I'm hoping Irish will be able to at least play until then.
A good bunch of guys here. Helped me with a few issues.

I changed the development deal to NO and unchecked the fast writes. It got me about 4 more FPS and my mouse seems a little much better and free