I want FFXI, but my specs?
 

I've got the option of taking two computers, and they're basically the same for school and what not, both HP Pavilion Laptops, but the important thing really, is gaming (duh)

I want to play FFXI, I can pick up the box set for 35$ and get all the expansion packs, but I don't know if I can play them with my graphics cards. It says the bare bones for the graphics is Geoforce Series 32mb or a Radeon 9000 Series.

Laptop A's specs are...

AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile
Technology ML-37
1.99 Ghz, 1.00 GB of Ram
ATI MOBILITY RADEON Xpress 200 Series Graphics card

Laptop B's specs are...

Genuine Intel(R) CPU
t2400 @ 1.83GHz
987 MHz, 1.99 GB of RAM
2 x Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family

Which, if either, is good enough to play FFXI with? I can do a trade in if I need to, but it'll run me a few hundred dollars and I'm on my own now so it might take a long time to get that kind of cash.

Also, can someone give me some tips on getting a game card to play? I'd rather have a game card then use a credit card.

Check the system reqs on the game and then check your display specs. I'd suggets laptop a if anything, 1 gig of ram is pretty good for most stuff. Anyways, if your card meets the display requirments for ffxi then your good to go pretty much, but don't quote me, I've only played ffxi for PS2.

I already checked the stats. Everything is probably fine (RAM, processor, audio card, etc) except for the graphics card, but to be honest, I don't know jack shit about graphics cards, I barely know balls all about hardware, just enough to know about GHz and GB. I also know that some people say to turn off all the excess layering for the graphics like shadows, turn it down to lowest quality and what not.

Is that going to work to make it possible to play with one of these two laptops or should I just save for a new one? Trade in one of the old ones?

I already looked into the PS2 idea, but getting a hard drive around here would run me hundreds of dollars, plus cost of game.

Jesus, I should just put the link in my sig or something.

Here you go. Solves all you "Can I Run It?" needs, unless you're on a Mac, like Tydeus.

I've noticed that laptops have a horrid reputation when it comes to running games, especially MMORPGS.


Based on your graphic card chipsets, this is the graphics card specs you have: Laptop A: 64mb DDR, and Laptop B: also 64mb. The fact you have 2 on the Laptop B won't help much, all it really allows you do is run 2 programs using seperate 64mb vid card chipsets to process the graphics.

To run FF XI, you're going to want something that can at the very least provide mid-level 128mb ddr graphics support. 64mb cards probably won't give you anything but lag. I tried running FF XI on a -PC- with 64mb of ddr graphics ram. The minute I ever switched maps I'd have an immediate coffeebreak as it could take up to 7 minutes to load the new map. And than I'd get the shittiest framerate in the field.

Sadly, I don't think with either of those you're going to be able to run the game unless you run it on the lowest settings, with nothing even remotely upgraded selected, and no other programs running in the background. That might get you able to get it running to where you can actually get minimum graphics lag.

Well, nuts to that then. I'm trading in Laptop A to get some fee off a new laptop, selling my X-box and all my games and ditching my old stereo at the pawn shop.

Maybe with all that and a loan from my girlfriend's dad I can afford a gamer PC for $1400 (before trade in, of course)

Also, I still need help with the Game Card thing instead of a credit card thing if anyone can inform me about that.

Do you have a Debit Card? If you do, you can use that in place of a credit card.

There are't really any pre-paid cards that I know of.

As for your PCs capability's, there's a nifty program called Vanadiel Benchmark that can tell you if your computer's up to snuff.

Anywho, when you do get everything set, lemme know, I can get you started on my server and all that jazz. :p

There are prepaid cards, but the only place to get those are the rare occurences where computer retail stores have them on the shelf (They disappear quickly. I've seen 10 fly off a shelf fast when I worked at CompUSA. People sell the time cards in-game for billions of zeny so they usually like buying them and selling them back to farmers.

That vanadiel benchmark is your best bet. I had FFXI (and still have it...just have no money to play it) and I even had a weak graphics card and I had no real trouble playing it. I had to run at the next to lowest setting, but even with that it was a beautiful game by any standards.

So don't worry too much about the card. If it's a recent one, within 4 years, then it should be able to run FFXI.

I'd like to add that I run the game with an nVidia GeFroce FX 5200, and the game works wonders with me.

I'm not informed on which graphic card is better than which nowadays, but I guess you can search that up and have a better understanding on what you really want/need, a point of reference.

By the way, I have the game set with full settings.