Oh my, the thread is full with misinformation. :(
Quote from Micho;452792:
Does that mean I have to re-download everything? Doesn't sound so nice, since I'm sharing the computer with my mother and she would probably flip ****. So any other way?
You'd have to re-download Vindictus and etc. It's not a big deal imo. The biggest hassle is to back up your documents that you cannot replace--but again, this is something that you should be doing regardless. Talk to your mom and explain to her that formatting and reinstalling Windows is a
necessary maintenance procedure that helps guarantee security from viruses and maintains performance. If she's still against it, for some ridiculous reason, then I suppose there isn't much you can do.. but do try to convince her. The procedure itself is very simple.
Most of what TA wrote is not entirely correct, so you best take that with a grain of salt. Sorry if that makes me sound like an ass, but yeah. u_u;
Quote from Micho;452961:
Yeah it's just Sewers really, and I can't really run anything above Low and I have to run Sewers on Lower, so yeah guess I need a Graphics Card,
Wait wut, so now you're saying you're not getting a slowdown overall, but just in that new area? In that case, it looks like you do need more number crunching power. But first, there are some things you must check, before trying to spend your way out of the problem.. which TA has had a horrible experience with. ;(
1) Update your Radeon's graphics drivers.
I'm guessing you haven't done this before. AMD releases new drivers for their graphics cards every month, giving improvements in performance, bug fixes, etc. Uninstall your current AMD/ATI drivers, reboot, then download the new drivers. Pick the driver appropriate for your OS from
here.
2) Update DirectX.
This may or may not affect Vindictus, but it's a good idea to do it anayway. Grab the updater from
here.
3) Check that multi-core is enabled within Vindictus.
I believe Vindictus disables the Source engine's multi-core optimization by default on low settings. This would be a big mistake, because Valve designed the Source engine to make full use out of quad core CPUs (such as yours) and up. The goal is to make graphics rendering more efficient, reducing the load on the graphics card, as well as helping with the physics calculations, game logic, etc. So make sure multi-core is enabled!
4) Format and reinstall Windows.
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, when you don't have experience doing it. Backups are annoying to make, and redownloading some games can take time. But it's worth it. It will speed up your computer overall, make it more reliable and secure. [SPOILER="Spoiler"]If you choose to go down this route, which I really recommend you do, there are multiple considerations to take. Did your computer come with Recovery Discs? If not, you can create them using this procedure:
If your computer experiences problems that are not
recoverable by other methods, you may need to
reinstall the Windows operating system and
factory-loaded software and drivers. To reinstall using
discs, you must create the set of recovery discs
beforehand.
To create recovery discs:
1. Click (Start), All Programs, Gateway, then click
Gateway Recovery Management. Gateway
Recovery Management opens.
2. To create recovery discs for the hard drive’s entire
original contents, including Windows Vista and
all factory-loaded software and drivers, click
Create factory default disc.
...
As per instructions from the
Gateway Desktop Users Guide on pg 51.[/SPOILER]
5) Buy a new graphics card and power supply.
Only if you've tried
all of the above and you're still getting problems, should you spend money. At least, that's my opinion. There's a lot of considerations to take here... namely your budget. Try the other stuff first, then, if it doesn't help, come back and we'll help you pick out parts. Meanwhile, if you're curious, you can take a look at this list of
graphics card recommendations at different price points. The recommendations are determined by the cost/game performance ratio.
And just to comment on something that was mentioned before: ATI aka AMD Radeons are not inferior to NVIDIA's graphics cards. The comments about ATI's drivers being horrible are simply not true anymore.. for many years now. NVIDIA fans just keep repeating it. In truth, NVIDIA has been building their graphics cards very poorly in terms of hardware reliability--they love to die. Like TA's old NVIDIA. I had one and it died after 3 years of use. It was so bad that Apple stopped using them in their Macbook Pros. So now I have a AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5770. :P And it runs Vindictus very nicely, even though the rest of my computer is ancient (first gen Core 2 Duo).