What is Wrong With This Computer?

Posted by Castypher on March 11, 2011, 11:55 a.m.

I recently bought a new desktop, and it's not quite functioning the way I'd hoped. League of Legends, for example, slows down drastically if I so much as turn on shadows. Everything else I can crank up, but shadows are a no.

Other processes slow down if WoW has its graphics above halfway.

TF2 also gets a little choppy at times.

Here are the specs:

1 TB Hard Disk Space

6 GB RAM

AMD Phenom 6-core, 3.2 GHz

Windows 7 Home Premium 6-bit

Video: ATI Radeon HD 5450

The processor and RAM are great, so I'm going to assume the problem is in the video card. I can't seem to find the amount of video RAM, but this plays almost as bad as an onboard card. Any recommendations for decent video cards? Cost isn't much of an issue right now. The only thing I don't want is Crossfire/SLI, just because they aren't necessary.

Oh, here's another thing. I'm trying to set up a virtual machine to play an older game called Creatures 2. Microsoft VirtualPC is free, but doesn't support Windows 7 Home Premium, just versions above it. I'm trying VMWare Player now (have to find an XP installation now), but if anyone knows anything regarding it, feel free to share.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

Eva unit-01 13 years, 7 months ago

The only game I can run with everything turned up, including AA on its highest and still run at a nice close to max FPS is Battlefield 2.

Sorta wish UT2k4 had an AA option.

But in other games, it's almost impossible without a turbo beast of a machine. Not even necessary too lol.

PY 13 years, 7 months ago

That simply isn't true. A gaming card (Read: Not a 3200, which is a high end integrated chip (Read: Weaker than a weak card, better than nothing)) has very little performance impact from true hardware AA, and at any reasonable resolution it's very important, jaggies slap you in the face, ruining the scene.

Eva unit-01 13 years, 7 months ago

Maybe it's just a preference then. I don't mind jagged edges *shrugs*. Sometimes I actually prefer them.

PY 13 years, 7 months ago

I like jagged edges when they should be there, not when the line is meant to be smooth. I like those not-jagged, how they're actually meant to look.

Extravisual 13 years, 7 months ago

I hate jaggies on distant objects, where the object itself is only a few pixels in size. Those jaggies are painfully obvious and awful.