SimCity. + Anno, Tropico and other Omnishambles - The Bear and Badger

Mod74

MinimumÂ Requirements

Â Â Â Â OS:Â WindowsÂ XP/Vista/7
Â Â Â Â Processor:Â AMDÂ AthlonÂ 64Â X2Â Dual-CoreÂ 4000+Â orÂ betterÂ orÂ IntelÂ CoreÂ 2Â DuoÂ ProcessorÂ 2.0GHzÂ orÂ better
Â Â Â Â Memory:Â 2GBÂ RAM
Â Â Â Â HardÂ Drive:Â 10GBÂ HDÂ SpaceÂ GraphicsÂ Card:Â ATIÂ RadeonÂ HDÂ 2x00Â orÂ better,Â NVIDIAÂ 7800Â orÂ better,Â IntelÂ SeriesÂ 4Â integratedÂ graphicsÂ orÂ better*
Â Â Â Â BroadbandÂ Internet:Â MinimumÂ 256Â kbpsÂ download,Â 64Â kbpsÂ upload

*MinimumÂ ofÂ 256MBÂ ofÂ on-boardÂ RAMÂ andÂ ShaderÂ 3.0Â orÂ betterÂ support.

WorKid

Enjoyed tropico.

Moto70

Right then that's the laptop ordered so tomorrow I can get playing some PC games* again.

*I know this ( Samsung 350E7C 17.3-inch Laptop - Intel Core i7 3630QM 2.4GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics, Windows 8 ) isn't going to run the FPS's on max but I presume it will still run games to a half decent extent?

WorKid

Only important question is- will it run Rome 2?
:-)

Looks decent to me, but I'm long past the time when I knew about that stuff in detail.

Tempy

i7 processors are good, and that is a decent one. What spec is the graphics card, or is it intergrated?

Also, where did you buy it from/how much did it cost Moto? I need to start planning to get one for when I go to Uni, and I intend to splash out.

mk64

i presume mine would run it? Its only simcity..

vicinity_of_pie

Moto70 wrote:

Right then that's the laptop ordered so tomorrow I can get playing some PC games* again. *I know this ( Samsung 350E7C 17.3-inch Laptop - Intel Core i7 3630QM 2.4GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics, Windows 8 ) isn't going to run the FPS's on max but I presume it will still run games to a half decent extent?

How well it'll run stuff depends on what graphics card it has but the important thing is it does have a graphics card so it should run most things pretty well.

A quick search suggests it comes with an AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 7670. Shouldn't be too many games you can't run with that as long as you aren't expecting everything on full settings (and clearly you're not).

Tempy

I don't even know which ones are good any =ore. I thought Nvidia were the best for GFX cards now, is that right?

mk64 wrote:

i presume mine would run it? Its only simcity..

But it's SimCity, not 3000, looks fairly hefty this time around.

Mod74

With SimCity though it's easier for them to add more or less detail/effects on the graphics without affecting the gameplay much. What res is the screen Moto?

vicinity_of_pie

Tempy wrote:

I thought Nvidia were the best for GFX cards now, is that right?

I prefer Nvidia myself, but for laptops they're just way too expensive.

AMD isn't too bad now, they used to have a bad reputation for crappy drivers but they have got better and bang for buck wise they probably surpass Nvidia in both laptops and desktops atm.

Mod74

I saw something the other day suggesting that if the PS3 and Durango use AMD chips then that'll be a shot in the arm for AMD, and developers might/will start optimising for the AMD chips, meaning the PC cards are going to be much more attractive than the Nvidia ones.

It'll be interesting to see what studios that are more in the AMD camp on PC (like Square) do compared to ones in the Nvidia ones (like, well, everyone else).

mk64

i've got this http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_350_-_Core_i3-3110M_6Gb_750GB_HDD_DVDRW_shared__win_8__NP350E7C-A05UK/version.asp

will it run it?

vicinity_of_pie

Hard to know for sure but i'm guessing not because it has integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card.

vicinity_of_pie

In fact, if you've just bought it might be worth returning and paying a little more to get one with dedicated graphics if playing games on it is a thing you're interested in. You can get an i5 with AMD graphics for around 530ish.

mk64

its not a biggie, it just would've been nice. Amazing though how you can spend 450 on a machine which can't play games..

Â I get why it wont etc but still suprising.

Tempy

It can play games, but it's not got a dedicated component for it, so it can't play new games as well as a console. A console, which is almost entirely dedicated to playing games, yet can't do image editing, sound editing, run popular software packages etc

Apples n pears.

mk64

yea. I do get that.

Are graphics cards over priced? Is the tech worth that much or is it the companies taking advantage of the necessity? (presumably a bit of both)

Tempy

I think they're reasonable, but as you get towards the higher end, you pay more for less performance. My graphics card cost me Â£100 and I can play most things on High/Very High without much slowdown. Knowing what to turn off to do that (8xAA, no need for me) is more important than the brute force of your card I think.

Nexx

So who is getting SimCity next week? I think you need to invite people to a region when you're setting it up (rather than being able to invite people once it is made) so would be good to get a few people in a region together.

Mod74

I'm getting it, though I haven't actually bought it yet.

My Origin name is Mod74

Curtis

Is it out on Tuesday?

Mod74

If you live in the colonies. Next Friday for proper countries.

Moto70

Tempy wrote:

i7 processors are good, and that is a decent one. What spec is the graphics card, or is it intergrated? Also, where did you buy it from/how much did it cost Moto? I need to start planning to get one for when I go to Uni, and I intend to splash out.

It is an AMD Radeon HD7670M 2gb, I'm a bit put off by a couple of negative reviews so I don't know whether to sign for it or not tomorrow?

Here it is, advice appreciated.

mk64

Are there tests you can do on origin to see if it will run before I buy the game?

vicinity_of_pie

Moto70 wrote:

i7 processors are good, and that is a decent one. What spec is the graphics card, or is it intergrated? Also, where did you buy it from/how much did it cost Moto? I need to start planning to get one for when I go to Uni, and I intend to splash out.

It is an AMD Radeon HD7670M 2gb, I'm a bit put off by a couple of negative reviews so I don't know whether to sign for it or not tomorrow? Here it is, advice appreciated.

Do you mean from the negative Amazon reviews? I wouldn't worry too much unless there is something specific you have a problem with.

For example

You'd think with the AMD Radeon HD 7670M graphics card you could play some game? WRONG!
This product isn't dedicated graphics as described, it is dual graphics and also relies on Intel HD 4000. Nowhere in the description is this included and I found this out to my horror.

This guy has no idea what he's talking about, it has dual graphics, meaning you can switch between the dedicated graphics when playing games or intels onboard graphics to save power.

The other review mentions changes to the bios that stop you being able to dual boot, which (assuming true) isn't a problem if you don't intend to do that anyway. He also complains about it having six partitions, which while odd if true, isn't really a problem.

Looks to me like a great laptop.

Mod74

No way it would have six partitions. He's probably looking at the the card reader letters.

Tempy

mk64 wrote:

Are there tests you can do on origin to see if it will run before I buy the game?

No but you can try
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri
For a rough estimate

vicinity_of_pie

Mod74 wrote:

No way it would have six partitions. He's probably looking at the the card reader letters.

It's possible that there are backups of the recovery but yeah, that guy is a bit mental and i'd take the review with a grain of salt.

If you don't mind having SIX partitions already set up on your machine, with god knows what kind of monitoring of all your activities being recorded in there, and being sent back to microsoft, then fine, go ahead.

Paranoid much?

If you go on to read the comments it seems the stuff he was saying about not being able to install other OS/boot from USB etc. is lies.

Moto70

So the Bear & Badger advice is to sign for it tomorrow and get Anno installed?

Mod74

Well I'd say so yes, there's nothing on paper that suggests it isn't anything other than a very good laptop.

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