Computer Recommendations...

[Coran]

I just recently bought JK2. I had been eagerly awaiting its release for a long time now. I installed it but it is REALLY choppy. Like in the main menu whenever the lightsaber is selecting something there are weird boxes around it. The game is so choppy that its not even worth playing and thats when I have all the settings as low as they go. As you can probably tell I am no computer guru. I know its my low-end machine that is the problem. I pass all the minimum reqs but just BARELY. My computer has:

 

64 MBRAM

Intel Pentium 2 401

16 MB Graphics card

 

What do you think is making the game perform so poorly? The RAM? Graphics card? Do think I should upgrade or buy a new computer? Unfortunately I do not have a job because I am 16. I'm looking for one though:) Any advice is much appreciated.

[Valdarious]

Its all of them really, unfortunatly you are going to have to upgrade. For decent gaming computer you should look at getting at least around 1ghz proc, geforce3/radeon 8500 or higher, with about 256ram or more.

[Kataarn]

Eh, You don't need a 1ghz.

 

I've got an Athlon 900mhz (granted, it's about 1.1ghz pentium), Geforce 2, and around 256 or 512 mb of ram.

 

You don't need a GeForce 3, GeForce 2 runs JO fine. 256 mb of ram should be fine as well.

 

[Darthtoast]

I'd say you pretty much need a new mobo, processor, ram and vid card

 

Don't have to go crazy here, if you don't have tons of money you don't have to go for the newest things. If you give me a budget for those I can look around for something and see about what it will cost. (if you upgrade you might need a new PSU too)

 

Keep this in mind when you upgrade:

If you don't have huge budget, look around a lot for parts that are somewhat future proof. Like your motherboard, if you upgraded you should probably go for a socket a mobo that will take XPs. They're take Tbirds, durons and T-breds (when they come out). This will save you money in the long run since you can just upgrade one part (like RAM or CPU).

 

If you just play games I'd say go with 256mb ram, you really don't need anything more than that unless you do graphics in Bryce or 3dmax.

[Coran]

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep what you guys said in mind. I think I am going to go with a new computer. I'm thinking something along the lines of 1.4+ ghz, 256 MBRAM, and a 32 mb graphics card. Would that be good enough to play JO on 800x600 resolution and still run smoothly? I have a couple hundred I could scrounge up, and then get a job for the rest. Unfortunately I have no experience and that doesn't look too good on a resume, but I'll figure out something. I could be a bag boy! Would you like paper or plastic?

[Ham Yoyo]

I work at a grocery store and its not all bad. The money I made there paid for my new rig I that bought last month. It runs JKII smooth as silk.

 

Pentium 4 1.8 GHz Northwood

256 MB of PC 2700 333MHz DDR RAM

GeForce3 Ti 200 (get a 64meg video card)

Sound Blaster PCI 512 EAX Soundcard with 4 Cambridge Soundworks SBS52 speakers

Western Digital 30.7 GB hard drive

Windows 98

Panasonic E70i 17 inch monitor

[RiverWalker]

you can build a system like my current one that runs it great, for probably $600, if not more like four or 500, depending on where you get the parts

 

and remember, this is GAMING, you want an AMD if you want preformance.

 

coran, my system is a Thunderbird 750Mhz(usually running at 1050Mhz) currently running at about 800Mhz, 384mb ram, GF2GTS 32mb DDR(overclocked as well), and it plays it smooth at 1152x864, 16 bit color and textures, everything else turned on and set to high, with good FPS for single player, and I turn it down to 1024x768 for multiplayer, with all settings cranked up, only exception being the color depth and textures at 16 not 32, since that makes only very minor differences, with big preformance hits on sub-64mb cards.