Will it run on my computer?

Hi there,

I don't have Guild Wars but I'm planning on buying it, but only if I can run it on my computer, so I'd need some advice.

Hardware:
* CPU: Centrino Duo T5600 (1,83Ghz)
* GPU: Ati Mobility Radeon X1600
* RAM: 1Gb

Software:
* OS : Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn"
(and 100% unwilling to switch to Windows or whatever)

So yeah, there's a twist on the software end. It seems there is quite a market on Linux systems, but most games are not available for this system; anyway, if Guild Wars can run fine in Wine, it will do.

The hardware specs you mention look like they'd run the game just fine.

I'm not so sure about your OS though. GW was designed to run on the Windows platform, so there's a good chance it won't run on your OS (and if it does, you won't be able to get any real customer support if things start crashing)

The hardware certainly is not a problem; I've had folks wrench decent performance out of much older processors, integrated graphics and smaller amounts of RAM. That said, most distributions of Linux probably won't run Guild Wars without some kind of compatibility layer. The best option is likely Cedega (which requires purchase), or the open project from which it forks, Wine (which does not).

Dual boot Windows/Linux. It's not hard and will offer you greater freedom when it comes to choosing games/software.

Best place to test your comp vs video games.
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

You'll probably have a better chance of running it with Cedega, rather than WINE-vanilla. Cedega officially supports Guild Wars. I've been running it for the past 6 months or so on Linux, no problems. So, if you can get your hands on Cedega, you're good to go

Unofficial Cedega Wiki, might help with just plain old WINE too
http://cedegawiki.sweetleafstudios.com

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm already Dual Booting, but as I figured out I did not use Windows at all since I switched to Ubuntu, I reduced its partition size to the point where I could not possibly install any more softwares. It's a laptop, not much room, and I'm starting to think that my Windows XP Pro SP2 is mostly wasting my HDD space, and thinking of removing it.

That's why I only mention Ubuntu as my system. I'm quite reluctant to go back to my Windows session, even if it's clean and all and runs great. Go figure.

I did not know Cedega officially supported Guild Wars - neat, even if there are a few glitches, as long as it does not slow anything down. I might even have a better option with a quite new Wine GUI designed for games, known as PlayOnLinux. Check this out:
http://playonlinux.ovh.org/scripts/show_repository.php
http://playonlinux.ovh.org/forums/see_topic.php?topic=8

Seems flawless... It will be my starting point; if it doesn't work, I'll just buy Cedega ^^

My French is mighty bad but from what I can tell, PlayOnLinux provides scripts which are used in conjunction with Wine. Probably applying the best runtime settings for each game. Speaking of which, Guild Wars _does_ work with Wine, in fact it works better with a lot of games than Cedega does, but when it comes to handling Direct X resolution switching, it's a bit of a pain. In any case, you shouldn't have any trouble with either when playing.

Oh, except for one thing, if you minimize Guild Wars, or switch desktops, while playing, when you move to a new area, the game tends to crash

I managed to "run" guildwars on a P4 2.4Ghz, Mobility Radeon 9600 laptop (3 years old)

Those specs will run it for sure, but its not reliable and thats what you need most in a game like this. So I'd suggest resizing the partitions again if you want to buy it

On a sidenote, i used the latest Wine, not Cedega. This was a while back and Wine implemented some new cursor system, so it actually ran better than cedega.