newbie need help

[Technophobe]

ok.. i know extreemly little about computers and would like to bug you good ppl for some information..

I got some games for my pc and it says 'requires 64mb shader capable 3d card'. and something about directX 9.

I got my pc from dell and it says this about the graphics card:
The nVidia 7900GTX and nVidia 7950GX2 are double-width cards that occupy the adjacent PCI slot, reducing the total number of available PCI slots by one
256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro PCI Express graphics card

According to my 'schedule of equipment' i have a 'graphics card single 256mb Nvdia GeForce 7900GS'

Firstly i dont know what the **** any of that means, and secondly i tried one of the games and it struggles to work, and some scenes wont play. I'm presuming my graphics card isnt good enough, so could someone please tell me what i need to buy and roughly how much it will cost.

Thankyou in advance.....

 

[GoodNews101]

That 7900GS is a very good card. I think it is something else What we need to know is the following:

Your cpu: Intel or AMD, probably Intel. What is it's speed?

RAM memory: How much RAM do you have? 128, 512, 1 gig, 2gig?


Is this a new computer or have you been using it awhile? I ask because I want to know if you have defragged the harddrive lately.

We'll help you as we can.

Also: I would see if the administrators could transfer this post to Troubleshooting because you'll get more help there rather than this forum.

 

[Technophobe]

Thankyou for replying goodnews...

Its a brand new computer, only had it 3 weeks.
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz
2046MB of RAM

Its got Vista which ive been warned is a bit troublesome.

 

[jonny_uk]

since you were abit vague about your graphics card do this........
Press start bar, click on "run" then type in Dxdiag, hit enter and a box will appear, wait for a few seconds for it to load up then hit "print screen" key on your keyboard.
Open windows paint which is on programme menu on the start bar, then click on "edit" then "paste" save the pic and post it on here(i assume you know how to do that).
Then on that same box click the "display" tab at the top and this will show what graphics card you have, agian hit print screen..........(see above)
Then we will have 2 pics complete with all your system info 100% correct, theres no point giving any further advice if were not 100% on everything.
Also what particular game cant you run?

 

[Oreo]

Thankyou for replying goodnews...

Its a brand new computer, only had it 3 weeks.
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz
2046MB of RAM

Its got Vista which ive been warned is a bit troublesome.

I have a similar pc, E6300, and 2GB Ram, and an ATI X1950Pro (same speed ruffly as your 7900GS). And i am telling you now, your pc should not be ''Strugling''with any games really. Unless its FEAR or Oblivion at max settings, your pc SHOULD be fine.

 

[jonny_uk]

I have a similar pc, E6300, and 2GB Ram, and an ATI X1950Pro (same speed ruffly as your 7900GS). And i am telling you now, your pc should not be ''Strugling''with any games really. Unless its FEAR or Oblivion at max settings, your pc SHOULD be fine.

Hence my reply above, something clearly isnt listed correctly or he has copied and pasted the wrong information, if he does what ive said above and shows us some screen shots then we can see exactly what he has/hasnt got

 

[Technophobe]

i'm only trying to play csi, but it sticks , then loads, then sticks then loads etc etc and there are 'movie clips' that it wont play the screen just goes white

 

[GoodNews101]

Do you have any other issues other than when you try to play this game? You've got the video card, you've got the RAM, and you've got the processor.

I am wondering if it is your power supply. Power supplies are the backbone to any system and if they aren't purtting out the system suffers especially when doing something like playing games. The load demand can increase significantly. Is it possible for you to supply this information on your power supply?

Also, have you tried to uninstall the game and then reinstall it? With your hardware there is no reason at all that you shouldn't be able to play this game.

Does anybody know if CSI has issues with dual core processors? Could it be a driver conflict with Vista? People are having issues with this OS and gaming.

By the way, nice set-up you have there.

 

[Technophobe]

where can i find out about my power supply?

i will try re-installing it.... i opted for the part installation option to save memory, should i have selected full installation?

ive only had this pc for 3 weeks and its giving me nothing but headaches.. cost me £1k from dell...none of my old stuff is compatible with vista, thought i would treat myself with some games and i cant get one to work properly.. i bought Fable but i'm scared to install it cos that wants more than the little csi game i bought and i cant get that to work properly... oh woe is me

p.s. he is a she so i am totally playing up to the 'girl who knows nothing about computers' lol

 

[jonny_uk]

lol sorry i shouldnt have used "he" or "she" when the name doesnt give the gender away.

Anyway that processor with 2 gigs of ram and the graphics card can run any game out today, maybe not the highest settings but it would certainly run something like FEAR or battlefield 2142 on medium settings, and those are top games that require alot of power to run.