Having attracted your prurient and salacious attention... yes, I really am a virgin
at this problem!
My friends think of me as a "computer expert", but I just work with PC's and don't play games.
This 14-year-old boy is coming up to his 15th birthday. He is the Leader of a "clan" playing
Fallen Earth, an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game with a lot of graphics. Here are the
specifications for the game.
He complains that the game goes too slow on his PC, and wants a "fix" for his birthday.
It is an old Dell E520, but upgraded to 3GB RAM and 32-bit Windows 7, with a new mid-range graphics card some 2 years ago. The internet connection is a standard home one.
The CPU he has is an Intel Core™2 Duo Processor E4300 (2M Cache, 1.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB), which meets the minimum specs for the game. I don't
think the CPU is the most important thing in this problem, but am I right?
His mother (who knows about as much about computers as I know about the anatomy of a penguin) is determined to "fix" things by buying him a new notebook for about $500. I
think that, far from solving the problem, it would make things worse, because a notebook would have an inferior graphics card to his present one.
The boy is
guessing that a better (and far more expensive) broadband connection would solve things, but I am not convinced.
SpeedTest shows Ping 19 ms, Download speed 15.08 Mbps and Upload speed 0.86 Mbps. I
think that that sounds OK for an on-line game, but am I wrong?
My
guess is that a very good new graphics card would be the best answer. The game specs recommend nVidia GeForce 8800GTS. He has a GeForce9 9500GT installed. I'm afraid the graphics card specs mean nothing to me! Is 9500 better than 8800, or is GTS better than GT? Or do I have it all wrong?
Please help with impartial advice! None of my social circle will ever respect me if I get this wrong.
