G'Day all!

[HammerOfEden]

Firstly, just want to say a quick hello to you all. I'm a brand new member after having stumbled upon this forum the other day and thought I'd join the fun!

Secondly, I do have a serious question..... My apologies if this is in the wrong forum, or if an answer already exists.

I recently bought Silent Hunter IV and absolutely loving it. I used to play Silent Service I @ II as a kid and stumbled across the Silent Hunter series with great delight, but more about that another time.

As I said, I bought SH4. I own a Toshiba laptop, and whilst the game seems to be right on the top end of my graphics capability, the game runs quite smooth, despite a once in awhile crash to desktop.

I had never really given SH3 much thought because I had never really had the desire to "play as the Germans" so to speak. I have been reading plenty about the game though and I have to say I am becoming very much interested.

So question, firstly, is SH3 worth buying if I already have SH4? Is there a great deal of difference between the two?

And more importantly, will it run on my laptop. I ask this, as though SH4 seems to run relatively smooth on my laptop, the Steam page specifically states:
"Nvidia® GeForce™ 3/4/FX series (GeForce 4 MX NOT supported)ATI® Radeon® 8500/9000 families or newer
Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. These chipsets are currently the only ones that will run this game"

This has just made me want to try and do a little more research before going and buying it blind only to find I've made a $10US mistake. I've done a fair bit of searching around over the last day or so and all it did was confuse me, so I thought I'd post my specs below and see if any of you could give me some advice either way.

My operating system etc which I am confident is fine
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_r9.150322-1500)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: Satellite S50-B
BIOS: 2.00
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8108MB RAM
Page File: 2031MB used, 7355MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.17415 64bit Unicode

and more importantly, my graphics:
Card name: AMD Radeon R7 M260
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x6900)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Type: Render-Only Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6900&SUBSYS_F9231179&REV_00
Display Memory: 5879 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2039 MB
Shared Memory: 3840 MB
Current Mode: n/a
Driver Name: aticfx64,aticfx64,aticfx64,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticf x32,atiumd64,atidxx64,atidxx64,atiumdag,atidxx32,a tidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a,atitmm64
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1315 (English)
Driver Version: 14.301.1005.0
DDI Version: 11.1
Feature Levels: 11.1,11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.3
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Discrete
Power P-states: Not Supported
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/8/2014 08:01:48, 1339152 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: n/a
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x6900
SubSys ID: 0xF9231179
Revision ID: 0x0000
Driver Strong Name: oem8.inf:cb0ae41453f62405:ati2mtag_Topaz:14.301.10 05.0:pci\ven_1002&dev_6900&subsys_f9231179&rev_00
Rank Of Driver: 00DA0000
Video Accel: n/a
DXVA2 Modes:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
D3D9 Overlay: n/a
DXVA-HD: n/a
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

Thankyou in advance for any advice as it would be much appreciated.

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome To The Subsim Community > HammerOfEden
Subsim <> How To Donate <> See The Benefits <> Support The Community

[Onkel Neal]

Yes, definitely SH3 is worth a try, none of these games cost much money so that should not be in the decision process. If SH4 runs on your laptop, I would say SH3 will too.

The German campaign has a unique flavor from the American submarine war. A different set of strengths and challenges. I strongly recommend both SH3 and SH4 for your collection.

[HammerOfEden]

Thankyou all, and I certainly will give SH3 a shot. I remember finding SH3 some time ago, but didn't take much notice as there was absolutely no chance of my old laptop running it.
Just out of random interest I googled Silent Service for a bit of fun and was shocked to see it on sale on Steam along with it's sequel and via that found the Silent Hunter games. Definitely glad I did!

[bstanko6]

SH3 Spoiler alert! The Germans lose the war.

[Aktungbby]

HammerOfEden!

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by HammerOfEden

And more importantly, will it run on my laptop. I ask this, as though SH4 seems to run relatively smooth on my laptop, the Steam page specifically states:
"Nvidia® GeForce™ 3/4/FX series (GeForce 4 MX NOT supported)ATI® Radeon® 8500/9000 families or newer
Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. These chipsets are currently the only ones that will run this game"


and more importantly, my graphics:
Card name: AMD Radeon R7 M260
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

There is another here on subsim running it on a Radeon Mobility HD4530...

I'm running on a R7 370 (desktop), my brother ran it on a R7 260 (desktop), so unless there is a major difference on the R7 mobility chip/card, you should be ok.
It appears that you have more than enough ram too.

Barracuda

[HammerOfEden]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

SH3 Spoiler alert! The Germans lose the war.

Nah! Not if all of us had been born in 1920s Germany!

Ofcourse after the war we'd have had to stage a U-Coup to overthrow the nutter in charge of Germany, but that'd have been a piece of cake. The Fuhrer's ME-262s would have been no match!


Barracuda that is really good to know, and thankyou all again for the welcomes and the help.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Eden