Can someone check my PC spec please?

Evening all,

Ive got FM09 working but it is so slow, i mean seriosly slow after a game it takes 2-3 minutes to process all the other fixtures? Im not very technically minded but my computer is as follows

AMD Athlon XP 2800+

2.08 Ghz

512 MB Ram

Its years old, do you think its time for an upgrade for Chrsitmas - any suggestions?

You could try to add more ram before buying a new computer, would be cheaper and could help out more than enough.

Also depends on the graphics card

you should go out and invest in some ram, they are pretty cheap nowadays. 2 x 1gb sticks but make sure you get the right kind.

Thanks everyone!Its so frustrating!!!

I have an option to buy a 160 GB, 2.2Ghz 2048 MB ion a Laptop off my brother on the cheap - guess that might be an option to - would it be must faster then?

I have an option to buy a 160 GB, 2.2Ghz 2048 MB ion a Laptop off my brother on the cheap - guess that might be an option to - would it be must faster then?

What kind of processor (2.2Ghz) is that?

Would that be XP or Vista on the laptop? If XP then that's good enough RAM, if Vista you might want to have more than 2GB as that alone could eat a lot of it.

Also you should check if the video card is up to par for the game.

I have an option to buy a 160 GB, 2.2Ghz 2048 MB ion a Laptop off my brother on the cheap - guess that might be an option to - would it be must faster then?

You might struggle with Vista, as ReallyMadrid said.

Doubling the RAM should cost a pittance, and will be well worth it.

What kind of processor (2.2Ghz) is that?

Would that be XP or Vista on the laptop? If XP then that's good enough RAM, if Vista you might want to have more than 2GB as that alone could eat a lot of it.

Also you should check if the video card is up to par for the game.

Its got Windows Vista™ Home Premium and Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 358MB Shared Graphics Memory? Does this m,ake any sence to you?

The spec is below:

Audio Features Yes

Battery Life 3 Hours

Bluetooth No

Box Contents Acer Aspire 5720 Notebook, Power Adapter, Power Cord, Battery pack, Warranty Registration

Brand Acer

Built-in Webcam No

Card Reader Yes

Features of Product Powerful Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 processor combined with 2048MB RAM for demanding multi tasking environments. Sizeable 160Gb Hard Disk Drive for ample media storage. Play and Record CD and DVD with the DVD super multi opitcal drive. With wireless capability, always stay connected via the internet. Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium offers a seamless and easy to use operating system

Finger Print Reader No

Firewire Yes

Graphics Shared Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 358MB Shared Graphics Memory

Hard Drive Size 160GB

Hard Drive Type SATA

Laptop Colour Black

Memory Features DDRII

Memory Size 2GB

Number of USB Ports 4x USB 2.0

Operating System Windows Vista™ Home Premium

Optical Drive DVD Dual Layer Rewriter

Optical Drive Bluray Compatible No

Optical Drive HD Compatible No

Optical Drive Lightscribe Compatible No

Output ExpressCard™/54 slot, External display (VGA) port, Headphone/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support, Microphone-in jack, Line-in jack, Ethernet (RJ-45) port, Modem (RJ-11) port, DC-in jack for AC adapter, IEEE 1394 port, 5-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)

Processor Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Bus 800MHz

Processor Cache 4MB

Processor Model Number T7500

Processor Speed 2.2GHz

Remote Control Included No

Screen Size 15.4"

Screen Type WXGA Acer CrystalBrite™ TFT LCD

Software Load Microsoft® Works 8.5 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial, NTI CD-Maker™, Adobe® Reader®, Acer Empowering Technology, McAfee Internet Security Trial

User Model Entertainment Yes

Wired Networking Port Yes

Wireless Built in Yes

Wireless Features Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® solution, supporting Acer SignalUp™ wireless technology

Its got Windows Vista™ Home Premium and Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 358MB Shared Graphics Memory? Does this m,ake any sence to you?

The spec is below:

Audio Features Yes

Battery Life 3 Hours

Bluetooth No

Box Contents Acer Aspire 5720 Notebook, Power Adapter, Power Cord, Battery pack, Warranty Registration

Brand Acer

Built-in Webcam No

Card Reader Yes

Features of Product Powerful Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 processor combined with 2048MB RAM for demanding multi tasking environments. Sizeable 160Gb Hard Disk Drive for ample media storage. Play and Record CD and DVD with the DVD super multi opitcal drive. With wireless capability, always stay connected via the internet. Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium offers a seamless and easy to use operating system

Finger Print Reader No

Firewire Yes

Graphics Shared Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 358MB Shared Graphics Memory

Hard Drive Size 160GB

Hard Drive Type SATA

Laptop Colour Black

Memory Features DDRII

Memory Size 2GB

Number of USB Ports 4x USB 2.0

Operating System Windows Vista™ Home Premium

Optical Drive DVD Dual Layer Rewriter

Optical Drive Bluray Compatible No

Optical Drive HD Compatible No

Optical Drive Lightscribe Compatible No

Output ExpressCard™/54 slot, External display (VGA) port, Headphone/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support, Microphone-in jack, Line-in jack, Ethernet (RJ-45) port, Modem (RJ-11) port, DC-in jack for AC adapter, IEEE 1394 port, 5-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)

Processor Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Bus 800MHz

Processor Cache 4MB

Processor Model Number T7500

Processor Speed 2.2GHz

Remote Control Included No

Screen Size 15.4"

Screen Type WXGA Acer CrystalBrite™ TFT LCD

Software Load Microsoft® Works 8.5 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial, NTI CD-Maker™, Adobe® Reader®, Acer Empowering Technology, McAfee Internet Security Trial

User Model Entertainment Yes

Wired Networking Port Yes

Wireless Built in Yes

Wireless Features Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® solution, supporting Acer SignalUp™ wireless technology

ive got that laptop (posting from it now). runs football manager but the screen flashes sometimes when playing the game, (didnt do it in the demo) a later patch will probably fix it.

only problem i have is the touchpad, some times locks up or doesnt move the cursor properly (not just in the game).

how much can you get it for, mine cost me £350 from tesco a few months ago

I'm not an expert either, just read up a little with the idea I had of getting a new computer. (which will have to wait for now, but enough about me)

The processor is a duo one instead of only one core you have now. So while the speed isn't that much better of the cores (2,2Ghz vs 2,08....which doesn't say everything either actually, there's more things to look at) with this version of FM the double cores are used which should speed things up. (basically you should see it as 2 cores at the speed of 2,2 doing calculations at the same time, against only one doing it at 2,08) Be sure to turn on 'threading' in the game to take advantage of multiple cores. Also note this might not have been implemented perfectly in the game as I saw a thread discussing this. But the processor in itself is better, and should do better in the game. Wether it actually does depends how well SI made the game to take advantage of it.

Since it's Vista, 2 gig ram might not be perfect for the game. I think it should be enough to start and play, but you might not get that much of an improvement as opposed to having 512MB Ram in XP.

I don't know what the minimum requirements are for the video card, but the one in the laptop (Graphics Media Accelerator X3100) isn't that great. It might be enough for the game though, somebody else can maybe answer this.

Does your brother live nearby? The best option would of course be personal experience: try to run the game on his laptop and see if you think it improves by much.

Can i ask do you think it could be my processor that cause mine to crash on tactic screen?

Advent laptop with Vista

It's a Intel Core 2 DUO processor (1.8ghz)

Everything else is 3x over the min spec (3gb ram, 300HDD)

Nvidia GeForce 8400m GS graphic card as is only 6 month old

ive got that laptop (posting from it now). runs football manager but the screen flashes sometimes when playing the game, (didnt do it in the demo) a later patch will probably fix it.

only problem i have is the touchpad, some times locks up or doesnt move the cursor properly (not just in the game).

how much can you get it for, mine cost me £350 from tesco a few months ago

Ive just seen it on Tescos website for £349 i would buy it new but if it wont be perfect then id rather look around - all i need is someone to say but this one here and FM will fly basically?

I don't know what the minimum requirements are for the video card, but the one in the laptop (Graphics Media Accelerator X3100) isn't that great. It might be enough for the game though, somebody else can maybe answer this.

the cards alright as long as you use the 3d engine in the elevated mode, close up modes can be a bit choppy, only problem is the screen sometimes flashing during the game, other than that the graphics are good enough for the game

I'm not an expert either, just read up a little with the idea I had of getting a new computer. (which will have to wait for now, but enough about me)

The processor is a duo one instead of only one core you have now. So while the speed isn't that much better of the cores (2,2Ghz vs 2,08....which doesn't say everything either actually, there's more things to look at) with this version of FM the double cores are used which should speed things up. (basically you should see it as 2 cores at the speed of 2,2 doing calculations at the same time, against only one doing it at 2,08) Be sure to turn on 'threading' in the game to take advantage of multiple cores. Also note this might not have been implemented perfectly in the game as I saw a thread discussing this. But the processor in itself is better, and should do better in the game. Wether it actually does depends how well SI made the game to take advantage of it.

Since it's Vista, 2 gig ram might not be perfect for the game. I think it should be enough to start and play, but you might not get that much of an improvement as opposed to having 512MB Ram in XP.

I don't know what the minimum requirements are for the video card, but the one in the laptop (Graphics Media Accelerator X3100) isn't that great. It might be enough for the game though, somebody else can maybe answer this.

Does your brother live nearby? The best option would of course be personal experience: try to run the game on his laptop and see if you think it improves by much.

Ive also seen a 4GB laptop but it only has 1.8Ghz processor..........so so confused.........Im off shopping for a new laptop tomorrow i just want to be prepared so some smart a***d salesman doesnt do me over!!

Can i ask do you think it could be my processor that cause mine to crash on tactic screen?

Advent laptop with Vista

It's a Intel Core 2 DUO processor (1.8ghz)

Everything else is 3x over the min spec (3gb ram, 300HDD)

Nvidia GeForce 8400m GS graphic card as is only 6 month old

It might, I thought the game needs a 2Ghz processor for Vista.

Does your processor max out when you use the tactic screen? When you ctrl alt del you can see how your processor is doing, it's in the tab "prestations" (I've got the Dutch version, not sure how this would be called in the English version of any Windows)

If so, then that might be the problem. Have you turned on the threading option in the game, that might work to compensate for the lower Ghz speed (if that should be the problem to begin with) I'd turn it on anyway since it should only make the game faster with more cores processors.

It could be the problem, I'd post this somewhere where somebody from SI can comment on it as well to see if it's really the case.

I have done but they haven't replied and this was a few days ago... Id have though the 3gb ram would have helped it lol... how do i turn Threading on mate?

Right...........If im going to get a new PC i want the highest Ram and Processor my money can buy...i thinkthats about it..........wish me luck.

Ive also seen a 4GB laptop but it only has 1.8Ghz processor..........so so confused.........Im off shopping for a new laptop tomorrow i just want to be prepared so some smart a***d salesman doesnt do me over!!

Don't only look at the speed of the processor, a 2,2Ghz DUO processor will be faster than a higher speed 1 processor most any time. The Intel processors seem to be the 'best' at the moment considering speed and power usage as opposed to AMD processors. Quadcores might be good for this game (again, depends on how well it is implemented) but for everything else a good duo core will do more than fine, as well as for this game. And they are cheaper than quadcores. (are there even quadcores for latops I'm wondering now actually)

You can see one benchmark with how the processors stack up here: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2008-q1-2008/3D-Studio-Max-9,369.html (less = better)

There are other benchmarks where some will do better than others, but this should give a general idea. Again, not sure if this includes processors for laptops

If you get a Vista computer, 4 GB RAM should be more than enough. More than 4 is pretty much overkill.

If you only play Football Manager and no other (new) games you don't need the best of the best videocards. Mine is from pre-2000 and plays all kind of videos or whatnot, yet won't play FM. Just to show that you don't need an expensive card for everyday use.

I have done but they haven't replied and this was a few days ago... Id have though the 3gb ram would have helped it lol... how do i turn Threading on mate?

Here's things that could help, including threading, from one of the testing team guys:

There are a few things in the options you can do to help make the game run better.

Follow these instructions:

Go 'Options' -> 'Preferences'. Where it says "Processing Fixtures" select "Fastest"

If "Threading" is not greyed and not checked check it.

Turn "Compress Save Games" off.

Turning "Match Day Experience" off will remove the Match Preview screen and give you less screens to go through.

Depending on how regularly you save, changing the auto save interval may help (less saving means less time waiting).

Go 'Options' -> 'Preferences' -> 'Display & Sound'. From here you can turn off 3D, lower the graphical detail and turn off Sky/Stadia. This may help speed your game up a little.

Also, remember to quit any unnecessary programs that could be using CPU/RAM.

Thanks im hoping to get run properly soon

Right...........If im going to get a new PC i want the highest Ram and Processor my money can buy...i thinkthats about it..........wish me luck.

I just noticed you wrote pc instead of laptop, which is what I would have recommended as well. You can get a better performing pc for much less than you could get a simmilar (or less even) performing laptop. If mobility is not an issue, desktop is the way to go.

edit: also, if you get Vista 32bit then having 4 GB Ram won't matter as that system can only use 3GB. If you want to use more RAM (and looking more at the future) get Vista 64 bit, this could bring other problems as not every program/driver has adapted yet though. However 64 bit is the future...or the present even.