war's card requirements and upset gamers

zebedee

Member
Hey christian gamers,

There's a mass hysteria out there for people who are in my situation. I can't run the game! I was supposed to have all the requirements on the game box except I don't have one of those specific ATI, NVidia, or Intel Extreme cards. Even so, my Sony VAIO laptop is relatively new and I was sure at first that I could run the game.

But there's more to the requirements on the box that meets the eye. The video cards need to run Pixel Shader 'and' Vertex Shader and Hardware Transform and Lighting. My video card, according to Intel should have all of these.

But here's the kicker that has a lot of people upset like me. I just learned from Sony that they installed stripped down versions of video cards in their laptops so I ended up getting a video card that probably is useless for gaming. And I'm not alone - there are other laptops out there with the same predicament. I've done some web searches and people are making the same observations. Realistically, most computer buyers are not going to know what pixel and vertex shaders are and ask if their video card has them installed before making a decision to buy. My laptop was recommended along with a few other choices as a decent laptop for games and last awhile.

So anyone else having this problem in the guild? By the way, there are 2 other desktop computers in my house and none can run the game.

I'm gonna hang on to the game and hope to hear that they help people like me out. I can't buy an external graphics adapter for my laptop since they aren't in retail stores yet.

I was really hoping to level up with everyone. By the time I get on, I hope that you all don't have 50s and not want start over. Heh.

I have hope though. Mythic, EA can't just turn all these people away to go back to WoW? Or could they?

Zeb
 
Ouch, sorry to hear someone sold you a general use laptop saying it could play next gen games. General use laptops typically have shared resource video cards. They are stripped down to the point they even borrow your RAM for use as video memory all to conserve space and power consumption. My work laptop is like that. It can play WoW but it is not pretty and all those settings have to be at minimums to work.

Are you two PCs upgradeable at all?
 
due to heat and power considerations a mobility radeon 9600 is half the chip of a desktop card of the same model. The same goes for an nvidia go 9600gt...or any other video card. Meeting the minimum requirements for games these days is going to lead to frustration and issues..you always want to be ahead of the minimums.

Also trying to run any modern game an ony intel video chip is a lesson in futility and frustration.
 
There are a few external video cards out there that you can use. I know this is not a great suggestion, but its the only one that will allow you to play without gettting a new laptop.
 
actually the external cards don't' work well either as they are limited by the usb bandwidth. You need gigabytes of bandwidth to properly communicate with a graphics card..usb 2.0 isn't even a gigaBIT much less gigabytes.
 
Not that this helps much but until I recently built my new system I had a Sony and was really NOT impressed with it. I had nothing but trouble with it.

I feel for you. When WoW came out my PC met all of the req except process speed. But I couldn't upgrade my processor easily and it ended up being less expensive to build a new one then to try to upgrade what I had.

tigerdirect and zipzoomfly are good places to get parts if you decide to upgrade one of your pcs or build one.
 
I am not a fan of tigerdirect due to the heavy amount of rebates they use. Newegg and zipzoomfly and mwave or good..:)
 
I am in the same predicament (sp?) but with a desktop. According to min I should be able to run it, but the only time I can play is on a deserterd server at 3am.

I'm having to get a new desktop in Nov. to be able to play.
 
They have externals that use things other then the USB bus. Asus has one that uses an express card slot. Its the ROG XG station. I think there is one that uses the pc card slot too.
Here is a link to the one I am tallking about: http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=11426
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

That's better..but 2 gigabits is orders of magnitude below the gigabytes needed for full performance..especially considering the graphics chip embedded. In a pinch it will be a good device for lower end games but it's still highly bandwidth challeneged.
 
What are your specs Tath? For all of you that are unsure if your computer will run it, go here: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest


Athlon xp 64 3400+ (problem)
2g ram
geforce 8600 (problem)


using the site and running the test I pass no problem. During beta I even was able to play and only had lag when it was mass rvr. When it went live though I would log in on my new dwarf and it was a slideshow, at best it was like I was moving in water and everyone else was hyped up on Koolaid and skittles.

Really bummed atm waited a year, now gotta wait 3 more months lol, but gives me more time to lurk and get to know people :)
 
Your only issue is the cpu..the 8600 works fine(unless you want to run maximum settings). Even my lowly mahcine here(with a bit of an overclock) could do it on minimums. MMO's are highly cpu bound..graphics are secondary due to the massive amounts of calculations done with all of the toons running around. I would invest in a cpu upgrade..depending on your motherboard. Which motherboard do you have?
 
Mythic and EA have a real issue on their hands with the high end requirements. So many people will just stick with WoW and then be joyful when WotWK comes out.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080917164739AAXAvrn

FWIW, I spent 2 days researching if I could update the 2 desktops in my house and fell way short there too. The newest desktop, bought in 2005, has only a power supply max of 250. I'm not willing to buy a new power supply (and hope I can jam it into this probably non compliant ATX case) and a new video card at this point.

For us notebook users, external graphics adapters pose two problems. They are rare - you can't buy them in retail. And they are expensive. I'd rather just build a new system that has some modular performance upgrade potential. Woa - did I say that and did that make sense?

Plankeye, it was a big lesson learned about sales people's recommendations. I remember being specific about having a decent game laptop with 256+ video ram that will last me a bit and have upgradability with RAM. So I was sold on the upgradability to 4 gigs of RAM. Sadly, the tech and sales people need to learn so much and have to read up on the newest tech as fast as they can. I was at Staples today and the tech guy was adamant to tell me that video cards do not have power supply requirements but only ram and speed reqts. In spite of telling him a few times, he wouldn't listen and refused to look at the requirements on the box. I was like...whatever, it's staples...

My conclusion is to try and build a system with a good bang for the buck. I have one specd out using newegg and would love to run it by any gurus here. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the tech right now.

Any computer builder techs out there?

Zeb
 
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High end requirements = better graphics, overall I was never impressed with WoW's graphics whether I was on my old X1300 Pro or my new 8800 GTS... But WAR just looks amazing... Right now to run under 256 MB in your graphics card isn't going to play any new games coming out if you are a avid gamer... Building your own and NOT GOING THROUGH FACTORY BUILT COMPANIES (Dell, HP, Apple, Gateway, Acer, etc) is the BEST way to go in ANY situation... (Disclaimer: Many of the statements I have made above are my personal opinions, please bare this in mind)
 
Mythic and EA have a real issue on their hands with the high end requirements. So many people will just stick with WoW and then be joyful when WotWK comes out.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080917164739AAXAvrn

FWIW, I spent 2 days researching if I could update the 2 desktops in my house and fell way short there too. The newest desktop, bought in 2005, has only a power supply max of 250. I'm not willing to buy a new power supply (and hope I can jam it into this probably non compliant ATX case) and a new video card at this point.

For us notebook users, external graphics adapters pose two problems. They are rare - you can't buy them in retail. And they are expensive. I'd rather just build a new system that has some modular performance upgrade potential. Woa - did I say that and did that make sense?

Plankeye, it was a big lesson learned about sales people's recommendations. I remember being specific about having a decent game laptop with 256+ video ram that will last me a bit and have upgradability with RAM. So I was sold on the upgradability to 4 gigs of RAM. Sadly, the tech and sales people need to learn so much and have to read up on the newest tech as fast as they can. I was at Staples today and the tech guy was adamant to tell me that video cards do not have power supply requirements but only ram and speed reqts. In spite of telling him a few times, he wouldn't listen and refused to look at the requirements on the box. I was like...whatever, it's staples...

My conclusion is to try and build a system with a good bang for the buck. I have one specd out using newegg and would love to run it by any gurus here. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the tech right now.

Any computer builder techs out there?

Zeb
I am a tech and there are several others as well. Post your config here and you'll get our opinions..:) Also games makers are going to push a bit now. Technology has come so far in the past 5 years and prices come down so much that they can push for higher requirements and not hurt their bottom lines much at all. Considering you can build a decent machine that will play war and others without issue for around 1k..be expecting this trend to continue.
 
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Noooooo Zebedee!!!

=(

I was hoping to level with you too :(

This stinks!

I don't know of any technological thingies that can help you either :(
 
One of the best speed increases in this game is to turn off the grass, and make sure you have no anti-aliasing on. This should increase most peoples frame rates. Also make sure you have the newest graphics and chipset drivers.

As for new system specs, please post on here, many of us can make suggestions.
 
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