Can my setup play Mass Effect?

[Bush]

Dell D610
Intel Centrino (Pentium M) 2.13Ghz
1gb Ram
Ati Mobility Radeon X300

 

[samjc3]

Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP with SP2 or Windows Vista*
Processor: Intel P4 2.4 Ghz or faster / AMD 2.0 Ghz
Memory: 1.0 GB RAM or more (2.0 GB for Vista)
Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compatible, ATI X1300 XT or greater (ATI X1300, X1300 Pro, X1600 Pro, Radeon 2600 HD, and HD 2400 are below minimum system requirements); NVidia GeForce 6800 or greater (7300, 7600 GS, 8500 are below minimum system requirements)
Hard Drive: 12.0 GB or more free hard drive space
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX®: 9.0c

so, if you have XP, probably.

 

[Bush]

ok. I have four other pcs, but this is my personal one. Ill try it. I saw steams specs, but wanted to make sure. Thanks! Im new to pc gaming besides guild wars.

 

[samjc3]

hurry. sale ands quite soon.

 

[bassmasta]

Can you run it?

 

[Bush]

In due time we will see

 

[Bush]

Ok, its installed, and when it gets to the loading screen saying it cant find the pixel shader and it closes.

 

[Bush]

Ive installed it 3 times on my WIn 7 PC, user account control os off, im running steam as an admin, no dice. On my XP lappy i can get to the title screen, but it says "cannot compile global shader" and several lines of errors, then closes. IM *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ING MAD!

 

[princreharry13]

If I recall, the dual core minimum is on the Recommended Hardware list. So you should be fine. That being said the only issue I can think of is the XP, and I have doubts that made the game Vista/W7 only, so your are not likely to have any real deal breaker issues.

 

[XCVG]

It's the GPU. Radeon X300 isn't Shader Model 3/DX9c compatible.

 

[Bush]

Crap. Well that's the only computer I can get to actually launch the game. My win 7 comp wont even run it. A quick google search (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mass+effect+won%27t+launch) shows that many other people can't get it to launch, even after turning off user account control, running steam as an administrator, etc. Is there any way I can set it to work with my X300 laptop (the XP one) by tweaking with the settings of the game? I can access the config utility outside of the game.

 

[Mako321]

They have pixel emulator type things, aka swiftshader.

 

[bassmasta]

Can you force DX8 or something? (Not exactly sure how to do it)
Also, my last post was a link to a site that checks your specs and sees if you can run it, just sayin'.

Edit: Well. You might just be screwed.

When a particular low quality VGA is totally missing a function, such as SM3, Mass Effect cannot run at all. The X*** generation of Radeons cannot do so, and that includes the still-respectable X850s, nor can the Geforce FXes, but when it comes to the Geforce 6*** cards, and the Radeon X1**s, what keeps the 6200 from working is a defective pixel shader mechanism (same in 7100, 7200, 7400, and any 7300 other than the GT).

 

[Twilight Wolf]

I think Mass Effect is a DX9 game...

 

[Bush]

I did the test for my win 7 and it passed, but thats the non boot one

 

[Bush]

I tried it on my XP desktop, and it passed except for the graphics card. Can anyone suggest a good, cheap card, or does someone possibly have one? I would like to play more PC games. Its a dell dimension 4600 with a pentium 4 at 2.8Ghz and some crappy intel graphics card. Its at 1GB ram, but the max is apparently 4GB, but im packing xp 32 bit, so i could go with 2.

 

[samjc3]

I tried it on my XP desktop, and it passed except for the graphics card. Can anyone suggest a good, cheap card, or does someone possibly have one? I would like to play more PC games. Its a dell dimension 4600 with a pentium 4 at 2.8Ghz and some crappy intel graphics card. Its at 1GB ram, but the max is apparently 4GB, but im packing xp 32 bit, so i could go with 2.

does it have AGP or PCI or PCIE?

also, just adding to the Mass Effect woes here:

when my game auto-configured, it put texture detail at medium, dynamic shadows off, and particle effects at medium. i got choppy, but playable framerates. (30 nominal, as low as 5 when lots of stuff on screen.) i was messing around with settings, and put everything at ultra high. i get maxed FPS, and most things look gorgeous. however, some things, such as Garrus' armor, and Shepards "N7" insignia are spectacularly pixelated. but, for the most part, everything else is gorgeous. any idea what causes this?

also, my resolution is maxed at 1440x900. i want 1680x1050. any idea how to get that?

this is my new steam copy on my newer desktop. my disk copy didnt do this, but i was never able to run it above low settings either.

 

[bassmasta]

I tried it on my XP desktop, and it passed except for the graphics card. Can anyone suggest a good, cheap card, or does someone possibly have one? I would like to play more PC games. Its a dell dimension 4600 with a pentium 4 at 2.8Ghz and some crappy intel graphics card. Its at 1GB ram, but the max is apparently 4GB, but im packing xp 32 bit, so i could go with 2.

Dude I have the exact same computer! If you are going to upgrade the graphics card, upgrade the power supply as well, because I heard the 4600s are notorious for failing because of the cheapo PSU's dell put in there (250W). Even on a list of top 10 worst computers.
Tom's Harware has a list of AGP cards at different price points.

 

[Bush]

Thanks! Is it any good for gaming though?

 

[bassmasta]

You're kinda limited in the CPU department-meaning you can't really upgrade to a dual core etc. But I think it should actually be pretty good for gaming. I'm still running stock on this, but with a good graphics card I'm sure you could run a lot of things (maybe not the most recent games). I used to play some Harry Potter game on it years ago and as I remember, it was actually pretty good looking (though it froze occasionally because of the Intel graphics).