how can i run high capacity games without the rest of my computer slowing down?

Question

does the size of the hard drive have a lot to do with it?

Answer 1

This can be done without investing in a new machine.

1) Does your computer have a sound card that is on the motherboard or is it separate?

2) Does your computer have a video card that is on the board or is it separate?



If you are using an on-board video card or sound card this will use up a considerable amount of your systems resources. By just using a video card and or sound card that is not on the motherboard you can increase your systems performance by notable levels.

Also, the amount of physical memory that you have will come into play. If you have low system memory your system will have to swap information back and forth to your hard drive, this is your swap file or page file, and having your computer do this is going to cause it to run very slow. At the minimum to run Windows XP you should have 512MB of RAM, and this is just to run the operating system, anything above this will require more RAM for better performance.

Then you can look to your Hard Drive and replace it with one with faster RPM's, the faster the hard drive spins translates into increased performance for you.

Good luck!

Answer 2

You people sound so dumb. The ram and memory don't have anything to do with the processing power of your computer. If you run a game, then some of the processor is being used to open the game, play the game, and other stuff like that. This will indeed slow down the computer but if you don't have it open then the processor won't be processing anything and the computer will be faster.



Ex: You can write ten papers a minute. If your boss wants you to write seven papers then you can do it. Now say he has you doing multiple things, then you will slow down because you are doing more things at once. You may not be able to complete all your work on time because you got so many things to do.



If your computer doesn't have a good processor then you may not be able to play the game correctly. You have to check the requirements for the game. If the game requires a 1GHz Processor and you have a 700MHz processor then you can play it but it will be slow. On the other hand, if you have a 2GHz processor then you will be able to play without a problem and maybe do other things as well. Just make sure you have space for the game.



Yes, I have heard people ask me that same question, "If I don't have alot of memory, will my computer slow down?" Well you heard it from me, no it will not affect the processing performance. I don't care if your hard drive is full. You people don't know what you are talking about.



I also forgot, If your computer is slow and you don't have anything open then guess what, you got spy-ware. You have to get programs that will remove it because spy-ware takes up some of the processors power in sending info on the net. This is why people ask me the above question.

Answer 3

A: Put your virtual memory or page file on it's own partition, this keeps your page file intact in its own space.



B: Add more memory, this is probably the cheapest solution as sticks of memory can run as low as $40.



C: Upgrade your processor. This is dependent upon your current motherboard's capacity for speed. It can also be a more expensive option.



D: If your video card isn't AGP, consider a change. This will probably require a motherboard upgrade though, if your current one does not have a brown AGP slot.



E: Check to see if your game is using hardware acceleration for sound or video. Most of your newer games have options menus or configuration utilities where this can be done. Hardware acceleration takes the load off the computer's CPU and places it on the video or sound card.



Size of the hardrive doesn't matter too much except when you try to defrag the drive. 40 gigs defrag faster than 200 Gigs. What you should look for in hardrives is rotation speeds. Faster rotation usually equates to faster data access.

Answer 4

You could consider a dual-core processor by Intel or AMD (the AMD models are high performance but cost a lot, Intel produces cheaper dual core models).



The advantage of a dual core processor is that it can actually run two processes at the same time without slowing down. For example, a game and a video encoding application at the same time.



These processors are medium-to-high end and should be combined with sufficient memory (at least 1GB) and decent subsystems. You do not need a huge or faster hard drive to do this kind of work. Ultrafast, big hard drives are primarily useful for multimedia applications (video, sound editing) and databases.



To be more specific, I would recommend:



- Athlon X2 3800+ processor (dual core, can multitask wonderfully)

- Geforce 7800GT (very fast, reasonable price)

- Seagate SATA2 250GB hard drive (very high end)

- Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB or cheaper memory (Kingston CAS latency 2.5 or even 3 can do the job).

Answer 5

first off you shouldn't be running any other processess while playing high end games.



this means turn off any applications that run in the background of your computer like, anti virus, instant messages, email applications.



The next things important to system performance with games is the ram, and processor speed. Video card speed will only really effect the visuals of the game (higher the details, better the video card will need to be)



Hard drive speed plays a part in the loading times of the game, so if you're running just a normal ide hard drive, consider getting a SATA drive and install your games onto that.



long story short, the quick fix is this



the more ram the better.

Answer 6

It is necessary for you to upgrade the memory of your computer. However, when you are expanding the memory, you must first look at the specifications of the motherboard to see what is the total memory its architecture can support.



In addition to that, you should have a good anti-adware/ anti-spyware program (such as Adaware, Spybot, and Microsoft antispyware which are free) installed in your computer which will hunt down the spyware and adware which may slowdown your computer by utilizing its resources. Also have a good anti-virus program installed in your computer which will not allow the worms to get in to the system. A very reliable freeware for this purpose is "AntiVir".



Finally, the most important question which comes to my mind is "why should we spend lot of time playing games on the computer, without putting the computer into a better use than that and also why not engage ourselves in a physically active game which will help us maintain a healthy physic?"

Answer 7

first of all the processor plays a huge role, if you have a double core, or even better a quadrople core, ur pc won't slow down, but to have a high capacity like that you''l need to upgrade other parts of the pc, as having a higher ram, HDD, and a gaphics card does also come in place here. you would also need a good cooling system, my computer has a water cooling system, it is amazing, scilent and is on 24/7. if you eant my advice get a new computer, it will be better than upgrading you OLD pc. and i strongly recommend people to change their desk-tops every four to five years, and laptops every two to three years.

Answer 8

Get a faster CPU i like AMD becuase the chipset is more efficient than intel. Get a mother board that supports PCI-Extreme. From there you need a very good video card (PCI-Extreme) and lots of RAM. You can also shut down other programs such as your anti-virus etc.. when playing the games that will free up some of your resoarses. If your PC is not up to par then you could turn down the graphics, sound and resolution within the game itself to help out.

Answer 9

depends on the game but most games you can change the settings to make it run more efficiently on your computer. in your situation you could lower some of the more advanced display and sound features to keep your computer from slowing down a lot. also if the problem is your computer running slow after running the game then you can restart your computer. most likely your problem is your video/sound card may be slow or the bus it on could be slow. a new computer may not be necessary but very helpful.

Answer 10

1# the size of the HDD is not a problem if you have enough free space in C: drive. if you are running out of free space in C: drive then the system will slow down, and quite possibly can crash. (note: it's only drive C:, other drives does not matter)



2# low graphics will slow down the system when you play high graphic games. so upgrade your VGA card.



3# low speed processors will naturally slow down the system.



4# upgrade RAM.

Answer 11

Yes, and you might solve the problem by adding a slave hard drive to put your games on. Basically the computer will see drive "C" and work normally there, but a slave would run as storage and might be better. Ask a repair person about this, it's just an udea.

Answer 12

haveing a good viedo card and good ram is the key. if its a game ing rig then you should have at least 256 mb ram on the viedo card (although if your looking to spend big bucks now and be good for two years or so get a 512 MB viedo card at least the 6800 in teh nvida side not sure about the ATI side though) and ahveing at least a gig of ram on your mobo. the more you ahve of that will make it better.

also haveing the right processor for the game is a given. but out of the game it shouldnt affect anything

Answer 13

Here's some info on system requirements for running a high-capacity game like Dungeons & Dragons: http://turbine.fuzeqna.com/ddo.support/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=3



Good luck!

Answer 14

Upgrade your computer to a Intell P4 3.0 and upgrade the ram card to 1024 ram on board and also the game card to a Pc X1300 or at best if you can afford it a X5500.

Answer 15

You need enough hard drive space to install your games, but as long as you have enough space to install them, the size of the hard drive shouldn't slow down your computer...



What you need is:

1.a faster video card.

2.a faster CPU.

3.more RAM (memory).

Answer 16

You can give a process more "timeslices" with the obvious loss of performance in others. To do that, press ctrl-alt-del to launch the task manager; then, in the processes tab, right click your game and chose "set priority" chose "low" for your game (so that it does not slow down other processes) and choose high or highest for your most important processes.

Answer 17

Well, first make sure everything is up to spec. Then turn off all other programs before you open the game. This way, the computer doesn't have to divide its power between 2 things

Answer 18

as long as your hard drive has 10% free space left your good to go.



Lag in a video game is caused by a number of things.



amount of RAM

speed of RAM



type of processor (AMD is better for gamers)

speed of processor



type of video card (PCI Express or AGP or PCI)

speed and amount of RAM on video card





Also try turning off background programs before you go into the game. (all those icons by the clock on your desktop are programs running)



Good luck

Answer 19

It's all about the RAM (random access memory) and your video car. If you want to play the new games with amazing graphics, you'll have to upgrade your RAM and video card. You could though just play the games with low settings for better performance and not worry how it looks.

Answer 20

Get a video card that has it's own memory built into the card. This prevents the video from swiping system memory in order to run stellar graphics.

Answer 21

unless you have a HDD that has less than 20% free space, or is highly fragmented, the HDD will not affect the speed of your computer under heavy load (IE games).



To improve performance first - buy more RAM memory.



Second, look into a new graphics controller with more video RAM.



I hope this helps.

Answer 22

size of hard drive has some affect, not much. you should have at least 3-5GB of free space on the hard drive to run games. it's the computer's virtual and actual memory (RAM) that matters. i suggest more than 1GB ram and more than 1GHz of speed. =) good luck

Answer 23

Yes and no. The ram, hard drive space, processor, and even other possibilities could effect the speed of your games.

Answer 24

IN order to run with high capacity games, you need to build up your personal capacity pretty well.

Answer 25

Yes it does, but the RAM, video memory card and speed of processor got to do with the most of the games problems.

Answer 26

Get a 24 bit processor, a motherboard that will handle 2 high speed video cards.

Answer 27

usually the size of your harddrive shouldnt have to do with it unless your starting to get below the 30 percent area. other then that upgrade your RAM. usually the game will have a required amount of memory to run it and then a suggested amount of memory to run it. you'll wanna have at least the suggested amount of memory for everything to run smoothly.

Answer 28

You need a very good process, memory, video card, sound card. The HDD(harddrive) is for memory storage, so it doesnt matter a lot, only if you want to have a lot of games.

Answer 29

Either hard drive or ram. also, try going to the task manager (ctrl, alt, del) and go to processes and close all the ones that are under the username and not system, local service, or network service

Answer 30

Close other programs down, do disk de-frag and clean up (start-accessories-system tools) at least once a week and if you dont have much Hard Drive space delete unnecesarry programs

Answer 31

turn off your internet and disable everything running in the system tray. or get a faster computer- sli graphics cards,ddr2 ram, pentium chip for multi tasking as that is what you seem to want to do ( pentium excellent for multitasking athlons excellent for single tasks but bad at multi) water or phase cool and clock it till it screams

Answer 32

after you run the game shut the computer down for about 5 minutes. then you can turn it back on and everything will be back to normal.

Answer 33

add memory to your computer and check the video card...it's best to check the min. requirements for games before you buy them, but if you have just the min expect games to run slower.

Answer 34

in all honesty...you need more memory,....more memory gives your computer the 'get up and go' that you need. Mine has 612 gigs...I can download BUNCH of music, and play games (downloaded) plus all t he progrmas we have....and it dont TOUCH the process of slowing it down

Answer 35

shut down the un-necess. items in the task bar!



also go to the task manager (ctrl-alt-delete)

and turn up the processing on that software.



-kev

Answer 36

Try not loading-down alot of Info on your Memory.

Answer 37

get a new computer. is it a 98 or below. I heard that they can run really low

Answer 38

if u have valve games. download steam and it will save alot of memory. if u dont have valve games. u can just buy a memory stick ot buy ram

Answer 39

donot click the mouse alot or dont turn the computer on and off and get road runner

Answer 40

you need to buy my computer system. I can sell it to you for $2,000. It's a 1GHz pentium 3 with 512kb memory.



lol i m kidding. my computer is a mess

Answer 41

Add a memory card to your computer, that should help.

Answer 42

Upgrade memory and get a bigger HD. Sometimes it is cheaper to purchase a new system then it is to upgrade it.

Answer 43

INcrease RAM with DDR

Answer 44

bring to computer shop and increase your ram and memory,as well as graphic card

Answer 45

nope! it's you RAM that matters. try checking your start up programs and processes that maybe running on the background which are not necessary.

Answer 46

easy buy an external hard drive and then save it on there instead, argos do good ones!

Answer 47

get more data in your computer by doing things like deleting old files, ect,

Answer 48

get a better video card and ram

Answer 49

stop gaming; go outside and play...get some fresh air

Answer 50

either get another computer or activate a new faster internet.(comcast for example)

Answer 51

Buy a new com with more powerful speed...

Answer 52

more ram...better graphic card...more space...less program running at the same time...

Answer 53

upgrade ur memory to 2GB,buy good graphic card

Answer 54

you need enough hardspace for the games, and maybe a new videocard??

Answer 55

get a better computer

Answer 56

delete all the windows crap, and yahoo, and aim, and defragment, and erase, just go nuts

Answer 57

i dont know

so

plzz send me the answer when u take it

Answer 58

put it into sleep mode hehehehe

Answer 59

buy a new computer

Answer 60

SORRY NOT VERY GOOD WITH COMPUTERS,A B C LEANER

Answer 61

add more ram or something

Answer 62

add more RAM

Answer 63

UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM

Answer 64

ram! ram! ram!!!!!!!!!!!!