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First Impressions: I have a very low end system...
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RPGDot Forums > Morrowind - General

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Slachkey
Guest
First Impressions: I have a very low end system...
   

Hey everyone.

Ok, I got Morrowind today around 10am. I went home at lunch and installed it.

My system is a P III 800, Voodoo 5 5500, 384 megs ram.

Pretty low end to be running Morrowind.

First thing I noticed was that cutscenes are not working. Not sure if I have the latest drivers though, may be due to that. I had about 30 mins to play, just kinda ran around chatting with npc's. Seems to run decent, I have all settings set hella low though. Can be a bit choppy when a lot of npc's moving around. It is definitly playable on my system though.

Well, just wanted to let anyone who has a low system like mine that they will be able to play it. I can already tell this game will consume my frigging life for a while.

Question...should I upgrade my video card or processor first? Thinking about the Geforce 4 Ti 4200 that's coming out soon.

Thanks, have fun playing.
Post Thu May 02, 2002 7:18 pm
 
Rendelius
Critical Error
Critical Error




Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria
   

Do both. Get a Geforce 3 Ti 200 if you are short on money, but get a faster processor, too. Morrowind is processor intense. What really helps is to overclock the Ti 200 - standard is 175/400, I have mine at 200/450 and that really gives me some more smoothness...
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Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com
Post Thu May 02, 2002 7:24 pm
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Slachkey
Guest
   

Rend:

Ok, thanks for the advice on the system. I will look into getting a new vid card in the next week or two. Then, maybe a month from now I can upgrade the processor.

Well, 3 1/2 more hours of work, then a solid 6 or 7 hours of Morrowind.

Take care all!!
Post Thu May 02, 2002 7:29 pm
 
Khocane
Guest
   

Thanks Slach, now I don't feel so bad about my setup..(1ghz PIII,GeFo 2, 512 ram).. just need the game now
Post Thu May 02, 2002 9:31 pm
 
Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Where’s my Banana?!?!




Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green
   

Just thought I'd add my experience of the game. (I have a low end system too)

I am running the game on a laptop, which means I have slightly less performance than someone with identical specs on a standard PC. (My HDD runs at 4400RPM's etc.)

System specs are:

Windows XP Professional
PIII 1Ghz
512MB SDRAM
1024MB Permanent Size Swap File
GeForce2Go (Equivalent to GeForce2 MX)
ESS Maestro Sound (Crappy, but hey, what choice do you get with a laptop)

Now this system is tweaked to death. I get approx 2100 3DMark 2001 points. (just so you can compare to other systems)

I did a full Norton Speeddisk on the system BEFORE installing Morrowind. (This ensures best performance in data retreival from the hard drive) I advise you to do this at night, the day before you get morrowind as it takes quite some time.

Game settings:

1024x768 32Bit
Full View Distance
No Shadows
Obviously no nice water due to GeForce2

I get 100% silky smooth gameplay in interiors. and some VERY slight slowdown in CROWDED exterior areas. I have to say that I am VERY impressed with what bethesda has done with the engine. It means nothing if it looks great and needs a silicon graphics workstation to run, but as you see it runs excellent on my very modest system.

I am gonna be upgrading to the GeForce4Go soon (GeForce4 MX Equivalent. No GeForce4 Ti equivalent for laptops I'm afraid), which should make the exterior silky smooth too.

So good news all round I think!
Post Thu May 02, 2002 10:21 pm
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Danicek
The Old One
The Old One




Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic
   

Thanks Chekote, now I really feel much better with my 800 Mhz + GForce2 GTS.
Post Thu May 02, 2002 10:43 pm
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GreyWolf
Guest
   

I installed Morrowind today on my p3 800, Geforce 2 Ultra, and 640 megs of ram system. For the most part it runs OKAY. Indoors areas are fine but crowded outdoor environments can get pretty bogged down. I was also kind of turned off when i realized that you cant really fine tune you video options: e.g. texture detail, model detail, etc.. From my first impressions, Morrowind is the type of game that is so absorbing and beautiful that it is difficult for me to play with less than the best possible graphics,.....it is a shame that to do so, you must own a GOD MACHINE.
Post Thu May 02, 2002 11:43 pm
 
Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Where’s my Banana?!?!




Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green
   

You DEFINATELY dont need anything like a god machine. I am running around outside in the wilderness now and its running like silk.

Just a few extra side notes:

Sound:
Some serious problems with sound in the CGI into etc. I keep getting a delay every few seconds. Dont know why yet. Also in game, when running down steps in dungeons, a popping sound (I presume its my footsteps) keeps continually sounding and wont stop unless I quicksave and quickload.

Crashes:
1 Crash to desktop when loading a save game.

Misc Bugs:
Ran into a cave while being chased. The door closed behind me and the enemy was attacking for a while. He gave up eventualy and tried to walk away but was stuck to the door. Couldnt get out of the cave. Once again this was resolved by quicksave then quickload.

I regards to the graphics. They are very very nice. The only bad thing is the fog is quite close. (EXTREMELY close when compared to gothic). But I think the style they have used for the graphics has made it seem a lot further than it actually is, and it doesnt bother me at all while playing the game.

Another thing to note is the world looks very organic. Pretty much every rock and hill is all nice and curvy, not jagged like Gothic. Which I presume is the reason for the close fog. Also the landscape (Rocks, trees, plants, pools) etc is a LOT more dense than Gothic. about 90% of the land I have come across so far is just slightly less dense than the Gothic woods.
Post Fri May 03, 2002 12:26 am
 View user's profile
Guest
   

quote:
Originally posted by Rendelius
Do both. Get a Geforce 3 Ti 200 if you are short on money, but get a faster processor, too. Morrowind is processor intense. What really helps is to overclock the Ti 200 - standard is 175/400, I have mine at 200/450 and that really gives me some more smoothness...


Could you tell me where I could find information on overclocking and how to do it? I'm running a Cyrix iii/800 w/ 192MB RAM and an NVIDIA TNT2 (32MB) card. Plan to upgrade the card to the Ti 4200 once it's released, but in the meantime I'd like to squeeze as much as I can out of the TNT. I'm also running Win98, so I'm hoping that'll be more forgiving to gameplay than the Win XP that needs twice the RAM.
Post Fri May 03, 2002 1:00 am
 
Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Where’s my Banana?!?!




Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green
   

Windows XP gives me a SERIOUS boost to performance. But that maybe because NT operating systems are better for Laptops
Post Fri May 03, 2002 1:11 am
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Slachkey
Guest
   

A few more thoughts after 5 hours of play last night.

The game is running just fine on my machine. I have shadows off and view distance set to half. I have only witnessed slow down when first coming into a town, takes a few seconds to load up the structures, but it is not that annoying.

Quests so far have been a real treat. Not the usual assortment of fedex quests. It really shows how much time and effort they have put into the game.

Dungeons are really cool. I have found a few that are quite large.(More like caverns I guess then dungeons) One that I found last night took about 2 hours to go all the way through.

Combat is really starting to get fun. It took me a while to get used to, but once I got it down I was loving it. Very intense and very fun.

Spells. Well, just awesome. Love that conjuration line!!

Oh yeah, I checked on pricewatch and found a GeFo 3 Ti 200 for 100 bucks. Not sure if anyone has found one cheaper, but I think I'm going to order that one.

Good luck everyone and have fun playing this awesome game.
Post Fri May 03, 2002 2:49 pm
 
Khocane
Guest
   

Slach:

Are you having any clipping problems when running around. I am getting little white lines and spots every now and then.

Any one else with this problem???

Thanks all
Post Fri May 03, 2002 9:49 pm
 
Guest
P3 System
   

P3-850 OC's to 900
ATI RADEON 64M DDR (AGPx2)
256K RAM
WIN 98

Running smoothly at:
1024x768x32
View Distance: Full
Shadows: Off
AI: Far

No AA, took quite a hit when I turned it on. I really can't notice much of a differance with no shadows - IMHO pick View Distance instead of Shadows.

PS - my 3DMARK2001 score is around 2850 - just for comparison.
Post Fri May 03, 2002 9:55 pm
 



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