Can I run Sins of a Solar Empire on my laptop?

Does my video card pass muster?

from Sins Forums

Okay, so I've gone to the standard "will my computer run X" sites, but they're giving me conflicting information, so I figured I'd come to the source.

So here goes: I've got a Compaq presario R4012US laptop.
Windows XP home installed with Norton Antivirus 2006
AMD athlon 64 processor 3200+ capable of running at about 2GHz
512MB of Ram installed
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M series graphics card with 128MB of memory running DirectX 9.0x
Conexant AMC Audio card

Based on these numbers I believe I should be able to run this game, albeit with settings turned down.  The problem is that I've bought other games that the numbers lied to me and I wound up with a set of very expensive coasters instead of game discs.  (Knights of the Old Republic, not to drop any names.)

The problem, I think, traces back to the graphics card.  KOTOR required support for a kind of shading that the Radeon 200M couldn't handle, though that wasn't clear to me from reading the box.  Does my setup have what it takes to run SOASE?

Thanks

technical
6,712 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
This game has constantly and consistently proven to run on a wider range of systems than even the developers expected. So... maybe. Personally, I'd wait for the demo (its supposed to be coming out "soon").
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I'm running this on the below laptop so check those numbers and see what your sites say.

Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.70GHz
Memory: 2038MB RAM
Page File: 2954MB available
Audio: Realtek AC97 Audio
Video: Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
DirectX 9.0x

i haven't touched the ingame settings which default to high and it plays smooth, on and off line. i'm even running it in a window and tabbing to other applications (opera, open office) and returning without a hitch.

Not to say the games bug free, but i know stardock and the dev team's really on the ball.

Dude, if you can, do
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
This game will probably run on a freakin P3. There is very little that is graphically taxing in this game unless you really turn things up.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I'm running this on the below laptop so check those numbers and see what your sites say.Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.70GHzMemory: 2038MB RAMPage File: 2954MB availableAudio: Realtek AC97 AudioVideo: Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express ChipsetDisplay Memory: 128.0 MBDirectX 9.0xi haven't touched the ingame settings which default to high and it plays smooth, on and off line. i'm even running it in a window and tabbing to other applications (opera, open office) and returning without a hitch.Not to say the games bug free, but i know stardock and the dev team's really on the ball.Dude, if you can, do
End of quote



I'll probably need a RAM upgrade to run it-- you've got four times as much as I have. But it looks like it might be worth picking up. I can always save it for my next computer.


Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
i'll check how much it uses when i get home.

that aside, RAM's pretty cheap and easy to install. i upgraded mine a couple of months back, 2GB (2 x 1GB, best to by the same modules rather than mix and match) was 30 pounds of ebay.

it'll also improve the overall performace of you laptop. with stand-by and hibernate turned on i can cold boot into XP in about 30 secs, fully functional!
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
This game runs on an Intel 9xx integrated graphics chip? Wow...I really had no idea.
This game will probably run on a freakin P3. There is very little that is graphically taxing in this game unless you really turn things up.
End of quote

It already is. ;) (Assuming P3 means Pentium 3) The older Pentium M CPU's like mine and the one above your post are iterative updates to the Pentium 3 under a new name.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
The game really seems graphically no different than Homeworld or Homeworld 2 which came out years ago. So I would think you'll be okay ... hard to tell though. I play on a laptop, but it has 2 gigs of ram 256MB ATI video card and a 1.6Ghz Core duo processor. Graphically I can't play a lot of top of the line games from the last few months, but it plays older, less graphic intestive games at fairly high settings just fine (GW, WoW, SupCom).

I would think that RAM would just be the limiting factor due the sheer number of units and zooming in and out required.

To be honest this game could easily have no graphics at all .. I usually play zoomed out so that I only see the icons of ships ...

Goes to show you don't need to have high-end graphic requirements to be a great game. Good ole Diablo 2 is still a great game despite its 8+ year old graphics.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
i've just hosted a couple of games and process explorer is tell me the peak private bytes is 563,172 k.

not too sure want that means, but hopefully it gives you an idea on RAM usage.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
My main box for playing Sins on is an IBM ThinkPad T60. Not exactly a mega machine.