TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

[Salad Snake]

I'm just wondering but does anyone run vista here?

I recently convinced a friend to buy TF2, I was sure he could run it since he had better specs then me, but it's extremely choppy when he's in-game.....

At first I thought it was RAM but he's got 1.5 gigs, not a lot, but it certainly doesn't justify this kinda performance.....

One thing I remember, in task manager, there was "windows desktop manager", and it took up more then half a gig of page memory!!! Is that normal for vista?

Edit (Yes I know this is probably a noob question): Just how important is it to defrag your HD? Would that justify 5-10 FPS? My other friend bought it, and he lags too (I haven't seen if it's as bad though, since he just got it). He runs XP (again better specs then mine), but with an almost full HD (<10% free space) and has never defraged it...... :hmm:

[iQue]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Vista user here, very good performance in pretty much all the games I play (including Crysis)

A defrag won't give you much more FPS but if you hven't done one in a while it can make the game go a little... let's just say a little less stable. There shouldn't be too much of an differencr though.

And yes, Vista eats up a lot of memory. You should have at least 2 GB before you think about upgrading.

[Oli]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Upgrade the RAM. To at least 2 GB. 3/4 would be best

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Defragging helps with sluggish load times etc etc

I have Vista x64 and TF2 runs perfectly with no problems

then again I have a rig that can easily handle the os, e6600, 4 gigs etc etc

Vista uses a lot of memory primarily for a feature called superfetch, which basically monitors what programs you use the most and partially preloads them into memory so they are ready to use and thus reduce hard disk use and load times etc

rest assured that superfetch drops the memory usage of the other queued programs the second another is loaded up.

Other than superfetch Vista does like memory, because it uses it, so it is advisable to have a pc comfortable with the reqs

oh and try updating his gfx drivers

[Namakan]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

I used it on both Vista x64 and x86 no issues, but I have a good system. Get at least 2GB of ram

[jake_]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

I agree with everyone else. You need at least 2Gb of RAM.

What are the rest of his specs, though?

[CaptainKirk]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

I has vista. I get headshots.

[Hawkers]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

I has hacks. I get headshots.

:shock:

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)




DO IT..NOW

[Salad Snake]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Thanks for the help guys, I had to do a lot of convincing to get them to try TF2, and I don't want it to go to waste.

I agree with everyone else. You need at least 2Gb of RAM.

What are the rest of his specs, though?

I'll go ask him later, but I think it's a 3 gigahertz processor....intel pentium. Along with an an nvidia card, forgot the exact one but dx9 capable for sure.

I think it's just too little ram, that and he needs to update drivers (I think my other friends had to as well, it worked for the one I mentioned in my edit, now he just stutters when there's lots of rockets & crap onscreen, that's probably just HD fragmentation)

rant:
It's so hard to get people into PC gaming when they don't even know how to get their specs....and they take sh*t care of their PC, just treat it like a magic box that fixes itself....

/rant

[iQue]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

I'll go ask him later, but I think it's a 3 gigahertz processor....intel pentium. Along with an an nvidia card, forgot the exact one but dx9 capable for sure.

If it's a single core pentium 4 it's not going to perform very well at all. Not even the dual core P4 is any good.

He needs a new processor I'm afraid.

[Salad Snake]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Damn valve and their misleading requirements....it says that's the recommended processor lol.

Hm, I'll remember to ask exactly which one it is, hopefully I was mistaken and it's not a pentium.....

I don't know if this matters but he's able to play CS:S on all-high, though I'm sure TF2's reqs are more then a bit higher.

BTW, just curious but I run an intel T2400 @ 1.83GHz. How would that compare?

[Smush]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

lies! I use a p4 2.8 just fine, along with 512 ram and an fx5200 Although i am not on vista, I seriously doubt it is the processor that is the problem, probs more to do with the ram, or drivers etc

[Skaggy]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

Played TF2 for a while with a P4 @ 3.2, 2GB of RAM and a 2600XT AGP card at pretty much all high (without AA/AF).

Got laggy at times but it was pretty steady most of the time.

I'm playing on Vista x64 at the moment and it's smooth as silk, load times are quick as well.

[jake_]

Re: TF2 and vista (What are the real requirements?)

3.0Ghz Pentium 4 is barely cutting it.
Make sure he's playing on the lowest settings, and lower the resolution if its at 1280x1024.

Also, check what perecentage of RAM is being used at idle, he could have a lot of unnecessary processes running too.

Final conclusion: this will probably be the last game he plays with that PC as it is. Upgrading the RAM will probably help for now, but a low-clock Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM are pretty much the standard these days. Also, with the GTX200's (latest Nvidia cards) coming out in July, DX9.0 cards are also old business. He'll be able to upgrade to a 8800GT for pretty cheap.

Time to make a trip over to the Tech Center.

BTW, defragging won't effect lag in game.