I've purchased a graphics card lately, a Nvidia Geforce 210, with awesome features. The only downside is my RAM (512). Every kind of video requirement I can max out with this graphics card but my RAM is terrible, but I have to admit new games such as HL2:EP2, DOD:S, HL2, Dark messiah, Minecraft, they all run smooth and at an ideal 60+ framerate at a time.
However, I tried to play TF2 on steam, since it's free, I defragmented it's cache files via steam and I added DXLEVEL 80 and I even lowered my settings bellow the ones recommended for my system, yet I am experiencing TERRIBLE overall performance in TF2.
- Waiting about 5 minutes for the game to start up, and huge lag in the main menu
- In-game it takes about 30 minutes of play-time for the game to run relatively smooth
- When I run into groups of 5+ players the game lags terribly
- I have no ping/network issues
- The game is running in windowed mode at lowest resolution
I did a test to see if my game can run it, and it's above the minimum required specifications, But it is absolutely unplayable, Why is the performance so bad?
My PC Specs:
- OS: Windows XP Professional.
- CPU: Single-Core Processor.
- Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 210.
- RAM: 512 MB
Best Answer
I'm unsure why you added
DXLEVEL 80.512Mb of RAM is very small; it is clearly the bottle neck in this case.
You do state though that the other noted games run fine. It is possible that with all the content that is in use at the same time when playing TF2 that your RAM is just not capable of holding it all (and TF2 has a lot of content, such as hats).
As for the shown minimum requirement, maybe due to the steady increase in the size of the game since release and all the addition new items/content, the stated requirement is actually no longer realistic.