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this PC good enough? (was forum=10)Follow

#1 Feb 07 2007 at 10:22 PM Rating: Decent
PIII 733, 292 mb ram, 32mb riva tnt video card, 20 gig ATA 100 7200RPM HDD, ASUS CUSL2 motherboard?
#2 Feb 07 2007 at 10:24 PM Rating: Decent
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2,746 posts
Even if it, by grace of God, did run, you wouldn't beable to play FFXI very well.
#3 Feb 07 2007 at 10:28 PM Rating: Decent
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608 posts
Eh, I play on a P3-800mhz, but I have a geForce 3 Ti500. /shrug

It's fine aside from Al'Taieu where I can hardly move if there is more than a couple people near me.

I sort of doubt that your video card will allow you to run it, though. Of course, upgrading it shouldn't cost more than $30 if that's what it takes, since odds are you won't put a top of the line graphics card in such an old pc anyways.

Other than some concern over the video card, the worst you can do is try it and see.

Edited, Feb 8th 2007 12:30am by SnickySnacks
#4 Feb 07 2007 at 10:35 PM Rating: Decent
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868 posts
Ye gods, I'm reminded instantly of the days when people were upgrading their computers to play Unreal Tournament. Yes, the first one.

Unfortunately, FFXI's minumum requirements include a Pentium III with at least 800Mhz, so you're going to have to upgrade.

Even if you made the requirements, it wouldn't run particularly well on low settings. I ran FFXI on a Pentium III 866Mhz with 512MB RAM and a 128MB ATI Radeon 9200SE and it had slowdown like crazy.

My AMD Athlon64 3200+ (2.0Ghz) with a 256MB Nvidia GeForce7600GS and 1GB RAM was an improvement, but it still slowed down some with about an alliance-worth of players or in places like Lower Jeuno and Whitegate.

I have yet to try it out on my new Athlon64 X2 4600+ (2.4Ghz dual-core) with the same hardware as listed above, but I assume it won't be that much better, simply because the game's not optimized for a PC.

Anyways, your CPU is going to make the most difference with FFXI due to how it was made, or rather ported from PS2, which lacks the powerful GPU that most PCs have. All your video card really needs is to be able to handle hardware TnL, which any modern card will do pretty much.






Edited, Feb 7th 2007 10:36pm by JediKitsune

Edited, Feb 7th 2007 10:38pm by JediKitsune
#5 Feb 08 2007 at 1:35 AM Rating: Decent
I'm not really sure what kind of load your CPU carries for this game.The fact is, most CPU's generally run at or around 800mhz anyway(untill a program needs more).

I'd suggest getting a good video card,and some more ram,before replacing your CPU.Otherwise, you may just want to buy a brand new PC.Replacing the CPU wil probably mean a new mobo as well.
#6 Feb 08 2007 at 4:08 AM Rating: Decent
Tenfooterten the Irrelevant wrote:
I'm not really sure what kind of load your CPU carries for this game.The fact is, most CPU's generally run at or around 800mhz anyway(untill a program needs more).

I'd suggest getting a good video card,and some more ram,before replacing your CPU.Otherwise, you may just want to buy a brand new PC.Replacing the CPU wil probably mean a new mobo as well.


In general, CPU/RAM upgrades will help FFXI more than GPU upgrades will. Under normal circustances, FFXI is not very taxing on the GPU (though certain effects, such as bard songs or sandstorm weather can chew through fill rate); I'm using a Radeon 9550, and it runs the game very well at 1280x1024 (with 3D rendering also at 1280x1024), and the 9550 is discontinued...

JediKitsune wrote:
Anyways, your CPU is going to make the most difference with FFXI due to how it was made, or rather ported from PS2, which lacks the powerful GPU that most PCs have. All your video card really needs is to be able to handle hardware TnL, which any modern card will do pretty much.

The PS2 GPU isn't actually all that bad. It's fill rate, relative to it's resolution, is relatively enormous; 20x overdraw at 60fps, 640x480, is easily doable (i.e. not even close the the unrealistic theoretical maximum). It's only real drawbacks are the lack of multitexturing and pixel shaders (though to be fair, pixel shaders will still cutting-edge technology when the PS2 came out) and the paltry 4MB of embedded RAM (though to be fair, the main memory -> VRAM bandwidth on the PS2 is also extremely high).
The main reason why the PC and PS2 versions perform differently is not a matter of raw processing power; it boils down to the two systems having, not just different architectures, but completely different design philosophies, as I'm sure anyone who has had to port a PC game to PS2 can tell you.

Anyway, with regards to the OP, this
Quote:
PIII 733, 292 mb ram, 32mb riva tnt video card, 20 gig ATA 100 7200RPM HDD, ASUS CUSL2 motherboard

simply will not do. For starters, that video card is horribly outdated (and was horribly out dated when FFXI came out...) and simply will not work. The CPU is under the game's minimum requirement (P3 800 MHz) and I certainly wouldn't want to try playing with that little RAM. HD should be fine, but you may want a bigger one if you plan to do much of anything other than FFXI; the game currently takes up 7.65 GB of HD space. I'd also recommend a new motherboard; the one you have only supports RAM up to PC133, which is IMO to little memory bandwidth to play the game acceptably.

Luckily however, the needed upgrades should be relatively cheap; a top-tier (for FFXI) system can be built for under $750 after all.

Granted, you can TRY playing on that comp; after all, the Riva TNT is (barely) DirectX 8.1 compatible, and that CPU is only 9% below minimum spec. If you want to know for sure if it'll work, you may want to try the official benchmark program.
#7 Feb 08 2007 at 11:39 AM Rating: Decent
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89 posts
A Short answer:
Yes, it will run it, But barly. Spend 40-50 bucks, get a slightly better vid card, and it will work, beit not at high graphics, you'll have to tone it down some, and you'll have some lag. I have a second computer with near identical stats runnging it for muleing, and my Fiancee plays on it sometimes. Good luck!

Edited, Feb 8th 2007 2:40pm by Agaeris
#8 Feb 08 2007 at 12:26 PM Rating: Decent
I run this game on a P4 1.6gig, 2gig ram, 128mb viddy card, all effects I can possibly turn off, off. I get 5fps in alzahbi, and like 15 if I'm lucky in the Mire.

Short answer for you? No.
#9 Feb 08 2007 at 4:25 PM Rating: Decent
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65 posts
It....may run it. But unless that was a godly mobo for the time, it'll be aggrivating to play like that.

I once got this game to run on a Celeron 533Mhz with a comparable card, 256 Megs of RAM, at playable speeds, barely. It was most annoying to play, and it looked like crap, but it played.

Go buy a GeForce 4 MX 4000 or something for like 30 bucks and it just might do it. Or, a GeForce 4Ti4800 SE. :D

Edited, Feb 8th 2007 7:27pm by VinceantMurdoc
#10 Feb 08 2007 at 5:12 PM Rating: Decent
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5,339 posts
It's good enough for Minesweeper.
#11 Feb 08 2007 at 5:34 PM Rating: Default
Umm... To the OP did you miss the last 5 years of computer technology?
#12 Feb 08 2007 at 6:34 PM Rating: Decent
I don't think you can put more than the original game on that HD, lol. Expansions, no way.
#13 Feb 09 2007 at 4:55 PM Rating: Decent
hey hey hey, easy buddy, I didnt miss the last 5 years, I just havent cared, I only use my computer to check my email, buy my crap from ebay, research car audio/performance parts and do some online banking. other than that I have played games on my PSX, PS2, XBOX. now I only have a PS2 slim, which wont work cuz I have only seen how to play games off of a USB HDD, but not how to utilize a USB HDD to play a game like FFXI. I did play some games when I got my pc back in maybe 01 or so, but they included soldier of furtune, worms armageddon, unreal, doom, etc... they all worked fine but they were also 5-6 years old, now I dont play games on PC, I like watching them on my TV alot more than a little 17" monitor. I just wondered about the PC because that would be my way around buying an XBOX 360 or an older used PS2 just to get online with this game. if I was to spend the 750 like someone mentions to upgrade to a better PC to play it Id rather buy a PS3 and buy the Ps2 version of the game, or buy a 360. using my PC woulda been free. Ill just not play the game most likely. its just a bunch of people I know are getting online and playing so I figured id check it out but not for several hundreds of dollars.
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