Curse

Stauf · Jun 18, 2005, 11:49 PM // 23:49

Hi guys, thanks for reading; I'd REALLY appreciate any help. Here's the problem: a few weeks ago I was running Guild Wars on my comp (Dimension 8200, Pentium 4 2 Ghz, 256 MB Ram). My video card was an old GeForce one, so I found a cheap Sapphire Radeon 9600 which made the graphics look a lot better.

Of course, I realized that while the graphics looked better, there was still a lot of jumpiness when there was a lot to load on the screen. So I went ahead and upgraded my dinky 256 MB of RAM to 768 MB (which wasn't cheap seeing as I had to order a certain kind for my Dell Dimension 8200). So I got the RAM and for a while I was VERY happy. It ran smooth and beautiful.

Now, maybe a week after I installed the RAM, Guild Wars seems to have gotten a bit of a stutter again while playing. It's not nearly as bad as before, but it's definitely noticeable. It will just get a little bit jumpy at seemingly random times. I'm not sure what caused it, but the thing is (and I have no idea if this is related) for some reason at almost the same time that I started having this problem my video playback (Windows media player) on my computer became real choppy. Now somehow the video playback is back to normal, but I'm still having trouble with this sort of stuttering affect in the game.

Now I'm a bit afraid of coloring some responses here with any suggestions of my own, but I have thought of two possibilities (either or both could be totally off the mark, I'm not a computer GENIUS). One thing I thought was that either the video card or the RAM is overheating; both DO seem to get kind of hot (I'm not really sure what's normal as far as temperature goes). But I tried opening the case and using a desktop fan to try to lower the temperature (which it did seem to do), but this didn't really seem to help. The other thing I thought of was that it might be related to my psu. I did some research and I found that my max. power for my psu is 345w, though I found out that Dell labels it using the mean power (which is 250w). Could this problem be related to a power shortage?

Again, though, these are just a couple things that crossed my mind; it could end up being something completely different. I feel I'm really not experienced enough to know what this could be a symptom of.

I really am at a loss here and any suggestions, advice, or just plain speculation would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Talinna · Jun 19, 2005, 12:32 AM // 00:32

well I have the same problem when playing (screen teleporting)... it happens to the majority of us out there in the economic world of "not game-monster" computer owners. RAM is good, but (and correct me if I'm wrong) I think I remember learning something about your bus speed will effect the rate at which you can operate also.

Anyhow just keep moving and sending comands to the game like normal (don't do pyscho repeats) and try not to worry about it, it's more than likely that other people you play with will or are experencing the same thing.