Is this computer going to be good enough to play

[ellna]

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB DDR RAM 3200
200GB Hard Drive 7200
DVD +R/-R Drive
256Mb nVidia Geforce FX6800
V90/V92 56K Modem
10/100 Network
7.1 Surround Audio
Windows XP Home SP/2

[dazman76]

I'll take a stab at this one, as I think I've had this problem before

Firstly, are you using an nVidia graphics card? If you are, which model is it, and which version of the drivers do you have? I had this problem with my old GF4 ti4600, and I think it was version 45.23 or something (this was quite some time ago...), and I used to get a message box when starting ryzom about AGP memory - I clicked to continue (and skipped any messages about updating drivers) and the game worked fine.

It's generally worth updating to the latest drivers whichever version you're running, although I'm an ATI user now, so I won't advise on NV drivers Also, I use the Omega drivers rather than the stock ATI ones - because they tend to be better, faster and contain fixes before ATI themselves release them. Omega also 'fix' nVidia drivers - however, I don't recommend Omega unless you have proficiency with PC tweaking They are generally very stable, but they are none-standard, and present a slightly more advanced interface for tweaking your video settings.

The actual extent of this problem depends on your video card model, and more specifically the amount of memory it has. I'd say if you have 64MB or more, and have configured Ryzom to use only the amount you have, the lack of 'AGP memory' won't cause you problems. AGP memory is generally bad, because it means the video card is being forced to use system memory to store some of it's resources - and it's never as fast as accessing it's own on-board memory.

[ellna]

Sorry i am green to computers how do i check my vidoe card model and it amount of memory

[dazman76]

Right-click on your desktop background and choose 'Properties', then click the 'Settings' tab - you should see a drop-down box labelled 'Displays' or something similar.

[ellna]

Ok it's a 3D Prophet 4000XT TV out wat know ???

[dazman76]

Eep, I'm not actually sure if that card is supported I'm afraid That's roughly equivalent to a GeForce 2 MX - I tried looking at the ATI site, but the latest drivers don't seem to include a 4000 series at all...

Could anyone confirm if this card is supported?

[ellna]

If this card is not suppoerted wat do i do ? get a different card if so wat should i get?

[dazman76]

Actually, it's not ATI either - it's an old PowerVR chipset on that board.

Well, the advice of how to upgrade is difficult to give. Mainly because of the age of the video card, the rest of the machine may well be as old - is that the case? This could mean your AGP slot (for the video card) could have a max. speed of 4X or even 2X - you need 8X really, in order to use most AGP cards still on the market and get the most benefit. You could probably use an 8X card in a 4X slot and get half-decent performance, but I wouldn't bank on it.

So the problem is that your motherboard/mainboard may also need an upgrade - if you're lucky enough to have a friendly local computer shop, they may be able to advise you what to do, based on how much you want to spend - it could be that your mainboard is fine, but be prepared for potential added upgrades when replacing a video card. Also remember, the newer the card, the faster your CPU needs to be to keep it going

Upgrading old PCs can be a minefield sometimes to be honest, which is why I'm avoiding giving too much advice

[ellna]

Thank you a lot i'll look into it at my local ''friendly'' computer store please could you tell me the minium requirments that i'll need to get for the computer to run ryzom

[dazman76]

No problem You'll need to look in the manual for the specs - http://ryzom.com/?page=game_documentation