Whats the bottleneck in my system?

I have an emachines as a second computer and I rarely play on it, but when I do I have to go to the lowest settings and it still is crap. It teakes forever to load the graphics and maps. Since it is only my second computer I am not really looking to spend too much on it. I realize onboard graphics suck, but I played it on a laptop(1.4 CeleronM, 512mb and intel onboard graphics) and it is no where near as bad. It is actually quite descent.

Emachines:
Celeron D 2.93ghz
768mb PC2700 ram
intel 82865G onbaord graphics 96mb

Is there anyone else that plays with a smillar system and it is not as bad. The whole computer just seems slower than it should. Also I can't seem to find the right driver for the video. The one off the intel site says it can't install and windows update doesn't have anything newer.
Thanks.

hello

hello

hello

You should look into fixing those problems.

for a useful answer i would say the onboard graphics may be the biggest block.

if it has an AGP slot any cheap direct x 8.1/9 video card will do wonders as it will free up a lot of shared ram the processor can use on the game instead of graplics.

if only pci slots there are cheap pci cards as well.

DO NOT CONFUSE PCI-EXPRESS (NEW) WITH THE OLD PCI AS THEY DO NOT MIX

Thanks for your useless post, next time I will make sure to ask that only people who feel like making a helpful post reply.

I realize that this is not an ideal computer for it and was wondering if anyone else had better luck on a celeron based machine. That way I could say definately that a new video card would help and wouldn't waste time and money only that celerons are just not capable of running this game smoothly.

You asked for the bottlenecks. Currently you have three (well two but seriously emachines are a waste of time and money).

Celerons are generally utter trash for gaming. AMD Athlon 64's are getting cheaper these days.

And any onboard video is probably going to suck too. I'm not going to get into an ATI/nVidia debate, but both of them are easily better than an onboard Intel card. Depending on your mainboard, however, I don't know whether to recommend an AGP or a PCI-E.

It has neither port or I would have just gone that route. I realize that celerons suck for just about anything, but I am just wondering why a laptop with similar bottlenecks plays GW so much better.

Loviatar is right, it's the video card as your worst bottleneck.

In regards to laptops, newer laptops are coming with Nvidia / Ati mobile video cards that will play existing games nicely. (mind you still issue with future games). Budget laptops tend to have the Intel on-board video and would still have the same issue.

Upgrade Video card 1st, then add more memory (as much as your board will take up to 1gb), then maybe? (may not be possible) cpu Pentium (highest you can go).

here is a possible pci slot choice for less than 100 including S&H

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814145087

Deez Kakumei is right about e-machines. They are perhaps the least reliable systems on the market. Super cheap = super cheap components. Sorry
Celerons aren't made for gaming BUT they can play GW just fine. I built a celeron system for my inlaws. 2.53 GHZ 512 MB Mem and a cheap ATI 64MB video card...runs just fine. Your best bet IMO before you buy anything is to REBUILD your system. I'm assuming you bought the e-machine from a mojor retailer. They load a crap load of junk on there and the system will never run up to spec unless you wipe it all out and start over. Just make sure you get all the necessary drivers first before you do that. You will be surprised just how much better your system will run afterwards. If it's still not to your liking then go get a new videocard from newegg.com.

Based on your specs that machine should run GW just fine at lower detail levels. The video card is far less than ideal, but it wouldn't have anything to do with your long load times. Long load times usually have to do with one of the following:

• Under 1GB of RAM (you have under a GB, but it shouldn't make the load times incredibly slow)
• Slow internet connection or slow/messed up LAN connection on the computer
• Adware/spyware/malware mucking up your system

Of course, it's also possible that they put a really slow hard drive in there or you have some hardware that's on its way out (dying). I would check for malware first -- especially since you think the computer is overall slower than it should be. I don't doubt that emachines put a 4200 or 5400 RPM hard drive in your system, which would also make it slow.

pegasux's suggestion of re-installing Windows is not a bad idea either. That would tell you if you're looking at a hardware or software problem.