System requirements issue

[Wolfieboy]

Hello people, I'm new to this forum! I just tried out the Leadwerks evaluation kit about a week ago.

 

After reading the system requirements, I was sure my computer could handle it, but for some reason Leadwerks runs quite poorly even after I turned everything to low in the options menu. I get about 10/15 FPS tops now, and thats quite weird seeing that my computer meets the system requirements posted on the site. Perhaps these requirements are outdated?

 

Here's my hardware:

Pentium Core 2 Duo, 3,2 ghz

4 GB RAM

512 MB GeForce 8400 GS

 

I'm also running Windows Vista Home Premium, 32 bit.

 

I don't mind upgrading my PC a bit, so please make suggestions what should be the most important thing to upgrade about my PC to make it run LW smoother.

 

I have two things in mind that I'd like to upgrade myself. The first thing is switching to a 64 bit OS, probably Windows 7. This would increase the RAM efficiency of my system. On the other hand, my videocard is outdated too, so I would like to get a videocard that gives me at least 1 GB of video-RAM.

I don't want to do both upgrades at the same time though, because my wallet probably can't handle that.

 

What do you guys think?

[Josh]

There are cell phones on the market right now that have more graphics power than your PC.

 

Just get this:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130534

[Wolfieboy]

Haha, ok thanks. Do you think that will solve my FPS problem with LW? Everything else runs fine in the program, the FPS just rarely gets over 20.

 

Edit: My motherboard is a E6600, do you think it supports that videocard?

[cassius]

With le 2 its graphics card power that counts.I use a geforce 9800gt which should be cheap by now. Its more than adequet. Everything else in your setup looks ok though windows 7 would be an improvement. on vista. Just upgrade the card and then check rather than spend money on mother boards.

Upgrading your graphics card can also mean upgrading your power supply.

[Pixel Perfect]

I believe it would, the problem here is definitely your graphics card. Leadwerks is shader intensive and requires plenty of parallel cores for processing, that's what will get your fps up, Your 8400 series has lower clock rates and reduced core counts, they are designed for budget systems. nVidia cards to consider as a minimum in decreasing age of manufacture would be:

 

9800

260 or higher

460 or higher

560 or higher

 

Progress from a 9800 upwards depending on your spending capability. Bare in mind you might need to upgrade your power supply too though!

[Wolfieboy]

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

Edit: Disregard that, I know what to do now! Thanks.

[Wolfieboy]

Alright, just a little update here.

 

This saturday I bought a new power supply of 500 watt, and I'm going to get my new videocard (a Sapphire Radeon 1 GB) early this week!

[Pixel Perfect]

... I'm going to get my new videocard (a Sapphire Radeon 1 GB) early this week!

Congrats but which model?

[Wolfieboy]

Congrats but which model?

 

I can't remember (I suck at remembering names, haha).

[Admin]

I can't remember (I suck at remembering names, haha).

And that is why the PC market fell apart. They sell garbage next to good products and make the customer discern which is which.

[Wolfieboy]

Nah, I know it was a good model. I wouldn't buy anything that I'm not sure of, I'm just not good with names.

 

Besides, I arranged that I can return the videocard if I'm not happy with it.

[Pixel Perfect]

And that is why the PC market fell apart. They sell garbage next to good products and make the customer discern which is which.

Whilst I agree they sell garbage next to good products I think you'll find the PC gaming fraternity has always been the most discerning of all when it comes to gaming hardware and most take pride in it. Consoles were invented for people who were not interested or capable of doing so

[cassius]

I would go for geforce, But good luck.

[Wolfieboy]

I've got a quick offtopic question though. I already asked this over the e-mail to support, but I haven't gotten any reply so I'll just try my luck here.

 

If I would like to continue working with Leadwerks, and purchase a license, would I be able to run LW on two systems? Because I'm working with a friend, who doesn't exactly live across the block from here, and we would both like to be able to run it and work as a team if we decide to go with LW.

[Pixel Perfect]

Leadwerks is licenced per user, so whilst there is not generally a problem with installing it on multiple machines so long as it is only the licencee who is using them I believe what you are describing would require two licences. Josh would have the definitive opinion on this though.

[Admin]

I've got a quick offtopic question though. I already asked this over the e-mail to support, but I haven't gotten any reply so I'll just try my luck here.

 

If I would like to continue working with Leadwerks, and purchase a license, would I be able to run LW on two systems? Because I'm working with a friend, who doesn't exactly live across the block from here, and we would both like to be able to run it and work as a team if we decide to go with LW.

The single-user license is for one person to use.

[Wolfieboy]

Thats a pity. I can possible manage 200 bucks for a license, but 400 would be a little too much for our budget. Isn't there any other option?

[Wolfieboy]

Just posting another update!

 

Today I got my videocard (its a Sapphire RADEON HD 7750 by the way, herp derp ), and after building it in my PC and installing all the drivers I ran Leadwerks again and... ITS FLYING! XD

 

I went from having barely 10 FPS, to an amazing almost constant 60 FPS! This is amazing!

[Canardia]

GeForce 8400 should run fine in a 640x400 window (widescreen format). Even my GeForce 570 OC can't run over 200 FPS in FullHD. It's all about the screen resolution, the card doesn't matter so much.

[Wolfieboy]

I'm sorry, but I do think the videocard matters. I've ran LW on lowest settings before, and still the FPS wouldn't get much higher than 10.

 

Today I ran UDK's example maps on DirectX 11 with my new videocard, and still the FPS was pretty stable throughout everything.

[cassius]

It certainly does matter. I get much better fps in my own game than in the editor.At first it was around 200fps but since adding a large terrain and a lot of geometry it is now down to 95fps with flip set to 1.Still pretty good.

[Benton]

No he means the resolution of the game matters. So you can have a crappy video card running a game on a low res, and it could be as fast as a 460 running at 1920 x 1080.

[Pixel Perfect]

Sure, but who is going to be designing or playing games at 640x400 these days, or would even want to. Pointless argument!

[Canardia]

Many games are more comfortable to play on smaller windows, to have a better overview, especially if the screen is over 22" in size.

Mobile games have also around that kind of resolution, and they look pretty good.

And hardcore gamers often quadbox WoW on one screen, so they have 4 windows tiled.

[Pixel Perfect]

So your advice for new PC users of Leadwerks is to set their resolution to 640 x 400 rather than update their graphics card

 

Oh look, I now get 30fps but geeez, I think I need some better Anti Aliasing as I have jaggies the size of Lego bricks