Will Entrenchment run slower?

My computer already slows a bit during larger games, so will this increase this problem?

from Sins Forums

After just finishing a 12(inbetween the other 11 of Wow) hour game, I decided I need more of this in my already non-existant life, so buying Entrenchment is a given.

However, I did notice that it's claimed to look better, and that's of course a good thing, but one issue- I think my processor is a bit weak for larger games. The above mentioned map had 100+ planets, and the stars were completely frozen after a few minutes of the game, and when I had at least half the possible fleet fighting, it would start slowing a bit. As it stands now, it's not a big issue, but I do wish it would be possible to watch entire fleets face off, in non slide show form. I was about to buy Entrenchment, but then I thought it would be a shame if I ended up just un-installing it and going back to the Vanilla one, so can someone tell me anything from either experience or knowlage whether Entrenchment will run slower?

I have a Intel Duel Core and Nvidea 9600 GSO 1G, and I don't know which one causes the problem, if anyone needed to know. (And so anyone who isn't on a lemonade stand budget can laugh at my PC)

19,778 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hey,

     i think the specs for running entrenchment are the same needed for sins normal. I have a pretty basic machine too at the moment (and a small budget).

I started with:      Intel celeron E1200 Dual core at 1.6

                          1GB No name RAM

                          320GB HDD

                          Nvidia GeForce 7050 onboard graphics

                          250w PSU

                          1 Fan Stock cooling

                          Vista Home Prem 32

I now have:         Intel celeron E1200 Dual Core at 1.6

                         2GB Corsair matched Ram

                         320GB HDD

                         Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 512mb

                         GTX480w PSU

                         4 Akasa Fans doing various jobs

                         Vista Home Prem 32

I can play nearly all medium size maps on highest setting with 4 players on entrenchment. I can play online with 8 if i turn the settings right down. On huge maps with more than 4 players though i have to have all the effects turned off and near the end game it gets pretty bad for me. But this shouldn't put you off buying entrencment. It is a really good expansion and it's real cheap. You can just plod along and upgrade you're machine bit by bit and then compare the difference. My next purchase is a new proccessor. :erk:

Anyway hope this helps mate.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

RAM used to cause me problems.  It's cheap to upgrade now, so you may want to consider that. 

Also, what video settings are you running at?  My laptop (with integrated graphics :annoyed: ) can handle most games fairly well, but only with the video settings turned all the way down.  Also, if you're having trouble, eliminating the asteroid fields and dust clouds helped my computer quite a bit.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

 

Consider setting your games to Small fleet sizes to reduce CPU lag.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

It will be a little worse not because of the graphical improvements, but mines. On those huge maps you end up with many many mines andthey do eat up your resources.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I totally agree with annatar, i think the amount of resources used, and I have tested with this on other mods, it corelated to the number of meshes you have running at any given time, (time to render mesh, then render the textures, abilities, etc) probably is the cause for system lag ups

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Hmmm, well I think I've made up my mind anyway. Now I just need to get ahold of my mom's card and somehow make her believe I paid her ten bucks for it.;)

I really don't know what settings I'm running at. I think everything is turned all the way up because it normally runs really smooth, and my PC sets the graphics settings at what it thinks best, and it's never been wrong yet. So, I guess I might just stick to the Vanilla version when I feel like a HUGE map, but play Enchrenchment for medium and small maps, or when I'm in the mood to deal with it. (It's really not a big problem anyway) I guess if it really bothers me, I'll play around with the settings, but I would rather not deal with that, as it makes the faults stand out, and I'll notice it from that point on. I'll probably end up doing the same thing you did, DMC.

One moer question- is it my processor, or videocard that's the limiting factor?

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Processor and memory.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Well, I guess a Duel core isn't the best thing out there, but I have 2G of ram. I thought that was more then enough.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Is it 2gb on Vista? If that's the case, Vista eats too much by itself so out of that 2gb *maybe* about 1.4 is available to the game - and the game already pushes against 2gb when it has it, so that's a lot of swapping and it'll slow stuff down.

It's playable, before I upgraded I also had 2gb on Vista 32 and a dual-core, just have to know the limits and not expect the huge maps with 10 players to be silky smooth :)

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Well then, I'm figuring I might buy an I7 sometime this summer, and probably upgrade to 4G, maybe more.

Thanks to all of you! We're covered all I need to know here.