Potential new player with some technical questions

[CoolHand18]

Hey everyone I've been followin this game for awhile and am finally thinkin about gettin it, however I'm not sure my computer will be able to handle it.

Processor - Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU 1.60GHz
RAM - 2GB
Video Card - Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator

and I have vista

I've tried downloading the benchmark program off of the FFXI website however it's not working, and I believe vista is the cause.

Will I be able to run the game smoothly, even if I have to turn all the graphic options down? I hate lag more than anything else and I'd probably rather not play than play with a lot of lag

If not would installing XP and playing on it make the game run any smoother?

Thanks for any answers you can provide

 

[tanls]

The game should run fine. There are some vista patches available to help it run better. I think that there is a post linking the information on the second page.

 

[Trish]

I think you should be ok. I think what you have is most definitely better than a PS2, and they work, lol... I have 2.6 dual core running 32 bit Vista with no problems. I have a friend running 64 bit Vista. Be sure to update all your drivers, though. Maybe that'll fix your problem with the benchmark test.

 

[Drumguy074]

Actually, my guess on this would be your graphics card. It looks like you have an integrated graphics card which, I found out the first time I tried to play, are not compatible with FFXI. If you don't have a dedicated graphics card the bench program won't run and you'll usually get a bunch of gibberish when you do try to run it. Easiest fix would be to run out and buy a cheap graphics card and install it. Bench program should run and you should be good to go.

 

[Trish]

That's a good suggestion. I keep forgetting people actually USE their onboard graphics. lol

 

[tanls]

I've got an integrated graphics card on my Dell notebook, benchmark ran fine. I also play the game on it just fine too, so that's not the problem. You have to remember that the game has not been upgraded from the original PS 2 platform as far as graphics are concerned. You do need to insure that you have the latest and greatest drivers. You might have to delete the drivers you have first, then upload the latest.

 

[jamison]

Intel video cards... aren't all that great. If this is a desktop, get something decent like a midrange Radeon card (9600 is cheap and works wonderfully)

Vista is a pain in the rear, software does not always work right if you do not install it as the true admin. In vista the admin account is disabled by default. Yes I know that your username says Administrator, but it's lieing. You'll need to enable True Admin in order to get that active and then install software via the proper login.

Fun eh? Oh and don't forget to authorize all 8 trillion checks... say no to any of them and you're going to have to start all over.

Or... get XP and be done with it. You'll notice that Dell now installs PC's with XP with a free disk for Vista, it's because Vista... is... Vista? (I don't want to give any 'official' opinion...)