Video card query - before purchase!

[steveh11]

Before I try a new game I've learned to check it out on Can You Run It?


I have an NVidia GeForce 8400 GS.

Recommended: NVidia GeForce 8800

But the detail requirements seem to be ok:

Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
                                 Required	 You Have
	 Video RAM	         256 MB	 1011.2 MB
	 Hardware T&L	         Yes	 Yes
	 Pixel Shader version	 3.0	 4.0
	 Vertex Shader version	 3.0	 4.0

So, Can I Run It?

 

[zenstar]

I'd say try the demo first.
It's not the latest version of the code but if that runs it's a good indicator that the full game will.

 

[unmerged(275236)]

Hi steveh11
In my experience, CURI will only tell you if you'll be able to launch the game. With an 8400 GS, probably yes.

BUT.
Your card is just a tiny bit better then the GeForce 9100 member IcarusLives was asking about in this thread. There are several features for the 8800 card that exceeds yours, but probably the most important, memory bus width. As your 8400 has a 64 bit bus, and the 8800 has a 256 bit bus. That's 4 times the data pushed, on every single clockpulse. Think about it, it's a HUGE difference. Your 8400 GS is as "fast" as a fairly new Intel graphic, but better suited for gaming. Not for "demanding" gaming though.

The short answer:
As zenstar said, try the demo, extensively.
Yes you will most likely be able to launch the game.
Yes, you will experience serious lag and probably more crashing then average.

You can compare your 8400 card, related to the 8800 series, here.

 

[unmerged(416891)]

Ignore the "canyourunit" site. Spending 5 minutes reading online you can make a more educated assessment of your PC's power than what that website can tell you. It's really equivalent to asking your grandmother whether your PC is good enough or not.

To use your specific example: RAM on the GPU means very little. Most GPUs have more than enough RAM to not slow them down in most/all situations, and sometimes even more than that. There might not be a lot of good GPUs with 256MB RAM, but there are plenty of shitty ones with 1GB RAM (like your GPU). There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into account when deciding which GPU is better, and it's so complicated that the only practical way to compare 2 different GPU models is looking at benchmarks.

Of course, since enough people have already ran plenty of benchmarks for us, you can use this as a general guideline: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2033-7.html
If you read everything in the above link, you're already 10 times smarter than what "canyourunit" will tell you, at least when it comes to GPUs.

Not that it's any good at judging CPU power, since CPUs are also pretty impossible to compare without benchmarks, unless they are exactly the same model and only differ by their clock rate, which is almost never the case - Usually you will compare a core 2 duo with another core 2 duo type, some type of i5 and/or some type of an i7, all perform extremely differently even at the same clock speed.

 

[unmerged(419358)]

Well bro... as Zenstar said u should first try the demo, but if u will have some graphic errors there, dont worry and just reinstall ur graphic card drivers, cuz sometimes people (me, for example) got graphic errors when playing Magicka but after downloading new drivers, everything seems to be alright.
So I recommend you getting last version of your card drivers and then check if everything is okay with Magicka.

 

[unmerged(275236)]

That's all fine, but a driver update wont fix a card being seriously below the games requirements.

The 8400 GS is a fine card, but only ~20% of the performance of a 8800.
I completely agree with Gal Zohar's post above. Can You Run It isn't a reliable source for answer.

The suggestion from zenstar is. And also realize, there are more demanding graphics further on in this game.

 

[unmerged(419358)]

I know it wont, but still can help.

 

[steveh11]

And also realize, there are more demanding graphics further on in this game.

OK, thanks. Probably a no-go, then. It was only going to be an experiment anyway.

Thanks to everyone who replied!

 

[unmerged(275236)]

Yea well, feel free to experiment. The base game is only 9,99, so if you feel rich ... Support a small dev team You will probably be able to play on your new computer, whenever that will be.

For real:
Your 8400 GS is much better suited for gaming then an Intel-based graphic card. You will probably not experience the "Scene not loading properly" as many Intel users do. But sadly, for Magicka, the 8400 is to slow for being able to run the game "playable". Although the game still get patched, and is being "worked on". There is not much hope of any significant drop in requirements.

A big + for asking before you bought the game. Rather then, realising your mistake, complaining after.

 

[unmerged(267276)]

A big + for asking before you bought the game. Rather then, realising your mistake, complaining after.

Massive thumbs up from me on this one too.

Hope you get to play it soon! It's really worth it.

 

[steveh11]

I played the demo... not a lot, but enough to see that the game would certainly *run*.

However, there was a disconcerting error message on install saying that "No suitable graphics card could be found. You need pixelshader 3.0 and vertex(something)3.0". This would have put me off altogether, but the game then loaded and ran fine.

Go figure.

As to the game itself, it looks like fun in a 'twitch-game' sort of way. not sure I'll pursue it much further or not, TBH.

 

[unmerged(275236)]

The "You need pixelshader 3.0 and ..." message is probably from installing while having a to high or incompatible resolution set. If the settings.sav contain a weird or not supported resolution, this message might appear. Even though the graphics support shader 3.

The game is a blast if you ask me. But before you buy, try the demo extensively. And as I said above, there are parts further in the game that are more demanding then the demo.