Dragon Age: Origins IV

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I've been playing this on my Xbox and been a bit disappointed in the interface but I know my computer couldn't have handled it. My old computer just shit out on me and my parents gave me their brand new HP they bought from Best Buy, unopened and everything (well...the one they bought didn't work out of the box so they returned it for another and were disgruntled and decided to help me out).

I'll be honest, I have no idea if this computer is good for gaming. Maybe someone here can help me? Here are some specs.

AMD Phenom II X4 810 Processor 2.60 GHz

8 gb ram.

Geforce 9400 GT (I put this in from my old comp. The new one had a pretty poor graphics card. The problem I see here is the 9400 isn't great, and it demands a minimum of 300 watts power supply. I meet the minimums exactly, will this mess me up?)

[Arakasi]

My wife is playing it on a pretty old computer. Not sure how the specs compare, since hers is intel. She definitely has less RAM then you though. However she is using the same video card as you with the 9400 GT. It runs, so I think it will run for you too.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

My wife is playing it on a pretty old computer. Not sure how the specs compare, since hers is intel. She definitely has less RAM then you though. However she is using the same video card as you with the 9400 GT. It runs, so I think it will run for you too.

I get confused on AMD--I've only used pentium in the past. I'll have to look at the specs. I'd love to play this game on the computer and I could probably still get a good amount for my XBOX version on Ebay or something.

[Arakasi]

She is using this: (forgot she does have a AMD)

athlon 64 x2 dual core processor 1.9 GHz, 2 gb ram, nvidia geforce 9400 gt (1 gig RAM on video card)

I'm pretty sure you can run it too.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

She is using this: (forgot she does have a AMD)

athlon 64 x2 dual core processor 1.9 GHz, 2 gb ram, nvidia geforce 9400 gt (1 gig RAM on video card)

I'm pretty sure you can run it too.

Sweet! Thanks!

[Relic]

Wow, 8 gigs of ram in a new HP? What's all that RAM for? Are you running a 64 bit version of Windows?

[Brude]

Simon, you'll be fine with that system for this game, and probably for most others for a little while. That's a triple-core AMD chip and a pretty fast one, to boot. 9400 sounds a bit old for the card, but the beauty of graphics cards is that they can be updated if it's really too far behind. in a year or so update that card and you'll give your computer probably three years of usefulness, at least.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Brude--that's great news, I love PC gaming. I really lucked into this one! I had no idea if this had a good processor or not.

Wow, 8 gigs of ram in a new HP? What's all that RAM for? Are you running a 64 bit version of Windows?

I just looked and its Windows 7 64 bit. Hell, I don't know why I have so much ram! This is about 4 times the amount I've ever had.

[Relic]

Brude--that's great news, I love PC gaming. I really lucked into this one! I had no idea if this had a good processor or not.

I just looked and its Windows 7 64 bit. Hell, I don't know why I have so much ram! This is about 4 times the amount I've ever had.

i just looked into it and apparently Windows 7 64 bit can utilize all 8 gigs of that ram, That's a 100% increase over XP 64.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

i just looked into it and apparently Windows 7 64 bit can utilize all 8 gigs of that ram, That's a 100% increase over XP 64.

I could be wrong, but I believe that Windows Vista and Windows 7 64-bit could accomodate up to 32 gigs of RAM. Insane.

I play Dragon Age on the 360... I'm going to have to reevaluate my style of play after reading some of these comments... my warrior (first play-through, closest to the end, but abandoned because I missed the opportunities for romances and got frustrated) had well over 400 hp, something like 40 const with bonuses from armor and accessories. Then again, he was also a badass damage-dealer, carrying a two-handed sword (Starfang, the one you get from the meteor) and dealing 70-80 damage per blow... I think he's level ... 18? I don't remember. What's the cap?

[Jon AS]

Does anyone know if unique monsters like the High Dragon have a fixed level, or do they scale to some degree as well? Because I beat it with a party of level 11/12 characters on Nightmare and it just seemed a bit too easy. Though of course individual critters like that tend to be less impressive in general once you've got a hang of the system.

In any case I guess this means I've been playing this game way too much.

my warrior (first play-through, closest to the end, but abandoned because I missed the opportunities for romances and got frustrated) had well over 400 hp, something like 40 const with bonuses from armor and accessories. Then again, he was also a badass damage-dealer, carrying a two-handed sword (Starfang, the one you get from the meteor) and dealing 70-80 damage per blow... I think he's level ... 18? I don't remember. What's the cap?

Mine was similar, but the thing is enemies will often hit you for 30-40 points, meaning that 20 points of con allow you to survive 2-3 additional hits, which really isn't that much. 20 points in dex just seem like a much better investment.

The level cap is 25, but you are not going to run into this unless you use one of the infinite XP exploits (you're generally going to end up at level 22-23). I just found another of these, btw: after finding the Urn of Sacred Ashes you can transition from the Ruined Temple to the Mountaintop as often as you want to, everytime you get to the Mountaintop you get 750XP.

[a wooden chair]

I could be wrong, but I believe that Windows Vista and Windows 7 64-bit could accomodate up to 32 gigs of RAM. Insane.

You aren't wrong because I'm using Win7 64x and I've got 12 gigs of RAM abusing every game I own.

[Tobin]

You aren't wrong because I'm using Win7 64x and I've got 12 gigs of RAM abusing every game I own.

Good gods...

My strat for the Broodmother is exactly the same as Brude's - though I kept Leliana helping Alistair deal with tentacles and chodes.

I didn't even move from where you spawn in, so some of the ranged mobs from behind the BM didn't even alert until the fight was mostly over.

My sister is taking a route totally backwards from what I did - I told her it's making life difficult.

She swore that she was perfectly fine without Wynne - that she would just use potions.

Yeah....

Me: "Seriously, why? It's a cost you don't have to pay out in reagents (you already bitch about being broke). Plus, there are incapacitation techniques that mobs will use on you that prevent you from using potions. A healer mage can keep you all alive, raise you if you fall and still do damage if you set her up right."

Sister: "I'm doing fine!"

M: "You haven't really finished an area yet, how can you say you're fine?"

S: "I did the Deep Roads and Branka!"

M: "And how many potions did you have left out of the # you took in with you?"

S: "....zero...."

M: "And if you had a mage, that wouldn't have been a big deal - as long as they have mana, they can heal. Learn to use your people, use pots for emergencies."

S: *sulk* "But you like mages..."

M: "For good reason - they're totally OP once you're old enough. Fireball makes conversations go so much smoother."

[a wooden chair]

Good gods...

It's not the best thing out there (Core i7 950 3.06GHz, 12GB (6x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3, GeForce GTX 275 (896MB) but DA:O doesn't even seem like it has load times anymore. I can't describe how much more awesome this game is when it's "seamless".

Currently I'm just putzing around in DA:O and prepping myself for Return to Ostagar and testing out different mods. Currently I'm loving the Lockbash mod, and uh.. something something Nobler Nobles where it takes your class/weapon specializations into account and starts you off with much better equipment befitting a Teyrn's 2nd son (All Steel heavy armor) and the option of gaining a weakly enchanted suit of Silverite Heavy Armor that belonged to your father.

[Brude]

My strat for the Broodmother is exactly the same as Brude's - though I kept Leliana helping Alistair deal with tentacles and chodes.

I completely ignored the tentacles. As long as you stay on the platform, they are not even an issue in the fight and they go away as soon as the Broodmother dies.

She swore that she was perfectly fine without Wynne - that she would just use potions.

I only used Wynn in the Circle Tower, when you had to. For the rest of the game I used only potions, it works fine so long as you make enough. I worked it out perfectly for the final battle; I used my very last potion to boost Alister for the deathblow on the Archdemon.

[Kabada]

You aren't wrong because I'm using Win7 64x and I've got 12 gigs of RAM abusing every game I own.

The formula for how much RAM can (theoretically) be used is this:

Most operating systems right now are based on 32 Bit, which means that their architecture is designed for numbers no greater than 2 to the power of 32 bits.

2^32 = 4 294 967 296 or about 4 GB (i.e. 4 billion bytes).

--> Those systems can only (easily) adress up to 4 GB in RAM. Due to various factors, Win XP for example can only effectively use about 3.5 GB of RAM.

2^64 = 18446744073709551616

So theoretically, a 64bit system can adress a whole lot more RAM than you will see in the next 30 years, even if Moore's Law holds.

Practically, 8 GB is sufficient for every need you might have now and in the next 2 years or so (unless you do some fancy video work or other RAM heavy power user activities).

AFAIK, as far as games are concerned, there are only a very few released right now that profit (slightly) from having 4 GB compared to 2 GB and they're all shooters. Anything more is excess, for now at least.

[Imp]

Tbh unless I'm doing hardcore multitasking my computer never really uses more than 3-4gig, at least in the games I play. Was keeping an eye on the memory usage for a while after I upgraded.

Got 8gig in there anyway atm :smoking:

[Altherion]

AFAIK, as far as games are concerned, there are only a very few released right now that profit (slightly) from having 4 GB compared to 2 GB and they're all shooters.

Dragon Age uses more than 2GB, at least when played at the highest settings. I checked the total memory usage while playing it just before I quit and it was 3.14GB. Immediately after I quit, the memory used went down to 822MB so the game was using around 2.4GB. Interestingly enough, the daorigins.exe process in Task Manager was only using 1.3GB so about half of the memory is tied up elsewhere (I'm guessing it stores the data from various areas).

[Centrist Simon Steele]

With all this power maybe I can play Oblivion without it being a picture slideshow when wolves show up?

Anyway, I am struggling with Dragon Age. I must be 30 hours in which is great, I've been hooked, but some of these long dungeons are getting really old. Kill a room of enemies, die a couple of times, wait for the reload, beat the enemies, go to the next room and find its full of enemies too.

The worst offenders are the Circle of Magi quests all the way into the Fade (god I hated that more than anything), and now the Deep Roads. Geez.

And it's not like you come out of it more powerful or something. I mean in the fade I don't think I gained a single level. I like coming out with some levels on that kind of stuff at least.

Also it seems like since I did all my companion sidequests early they've kind of died off. I mean Alistair doesn't seem to have any lines anymore. Nor Leliana. I was happy when Wynne gave us like for lines of conversation.

Oh well, I guess we can't expect masterpieces. I suppose that's my complaint--this game is too combat heavy. I think that's a Bioware thing though.

I do like the diverse cast of characters. There isn't a character I don't like.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

And it's not like you come out of it more powerful or something. I mean in the fade I don't think I gained a single level. I like coming out with some levels on that kind of stuff at least.

You can gain upwards of a dozen skillpoints in the fade.