Plan on getting the game, and a bit concerned

First of all, here are my system specs.



Now, I'm not much of a computer person. However, I have been able to run fairly new games with these specs. The biggest of which would probably be World of Warcraft. However, I had frequent problems with freezing and crashing, and I've read here that some people have similar problems.

My question is this: What should I do, what tinkering with my settings, to ensure optimal performance when I pick Guild Wars up? I don't really care about running it on the highest settings possible, I just want it to look easy on the eyes while keeping freezing/crashing to a minimum.

Thanks in advance.

RAM upgrade is one the easiest, cheapiest things to do to improve the performance of your machine.

I've been thinking of a RAM upgrade for awhile. However, whenever I actually get a message about my computer crashing, it says that the display drivers for my video card are the problem. I always have the latest drivers from ati.com downloaded.

I just don't want to go out and buy more RAM, only to have the problem still here. I'm just concerned and a little paranoid I guess.

My PC build is very similar to yours in most respects with the exception of my video card being a 9700 Pro.

I can run this game with no lag at all, whatsoever. I know all systems are different, but I have never had any BSOD or random crash of any kind while playing this game.

I got err-7? I think, one time, but I was alt+tabbing like crazy trying to talk to a friend of mine, so I probably caused it.

On another note, if it keeps telling you your video card drivers are bad, maybe you're aren't completely uninstalling them? Before you install new ones, make sure to remove all old drivers. I think there is a utility I saw posted on this board actually, that removes old drivers to make sure nothing is conflciting.

Or forget about trying to fix the drivers problem and buy an NVidia card Had a 6600GT for a while now not a single problem, even with the memory overclocked to 1.2ghz. Was stuck with a Radeon 9000 for a while before that, after my GeForce2 GTS blew up lol. Horrible cards radeons are. Driver support is sketchy at best too. Funny how games "Designed for ATI" often work better with an NVidia card.

Hi there Durahan, from your system specs I think you'll be able to run Guild Wars just fine. I've run it on less myself. If you have any problems you can always come back here and poke us for fixes.

Yeah I second that, from what you show on your screenies you should be able to run it, time go to find out I would say

Should run just fine!

You would run the game fine on normal settings, my suggestion is to buy another stick of 512 and you will be doing great. The video card is great for the average gamer. I always suggest 9600's to people looking for an affordable card.

"However, whenever I actually get a message about my computer crashing, it says that the display drivers for my video card are the problem."

Now see, this was important information not mentioned in your 1st post.

Guild Wars is taking around 70-250 MB of RAM for me, so RAM shouldn't be your problem. I wouldn't bother upgrading RAM on your system anyway since your 1.6 Ghz P4, 512 MB RAM and Radeon 9600 make a pretty balanced system. So upgrading one of the components won't give you a thaaaaat big performance boost. 1024 MB RAM would be overkill compared to your CPU.

As for the crashes ... i'm pretty sure there is no upgrade that could guarantee you're not getting the "funny" BSOD/reboot problem. So you just can wait and pray

I bet a lot of people say that about "The way it's meant to be played", too
The Radeon 9000 was simply a cheap budget card and not was meant for playing 3d games at all, it's not surprising you were disappointed.
The 9500/9700 (and later 9600/9800) series are the cards that made ATI competitive in the 3d card market again, the 9700 Pro was even FAR ahead of any nvidia card when it was released.

He doesn't need more memory. What he has right now is more then enough for the game, even with some side programs running.

Can you give me a quick step by step progress of what happens up till when it crashes on you?

There is a suggestion made by SK to use a drive cleaner program found @ www.guru3d.com after uninstalling the drivers to make sure there are none left just incase. Reinstall them afterwards and see if the error still comes up.

Durahan,
i suggest updating your directx api to directx 9.0c (you have 8.1, which is outdated).
And the Omegadrivers (for your video card) are worth a try (they are very stable and reliable).
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

/Gives Toureg a high 5.

I use omegadrivers on my pc too, have done so for a few years now, and 9 times out of 10 they are superior to any others. Not only that but they come with a bunch of extra features and utilities usually also. Big thumbs up there.

I didn't say he needs it, but I suggest it in general.

I got this until updating to SP2.

Hey guys. Thank you for all the help and information, the positive feedback is making me feel better about how this game will run. To answer the question of what usually happens when I crash, it's typically just a freeze up or the screen turning black. I'll get the game next month and if the problem occurs, I'll try that suggestion where I completely remove all old drivers.

Thanks again, and see you in June. Now all I need to do is think of a surname for my character.