Calling on anyone who speaks Computer Specs!!!

[WickedBliss]

I know nothing of tech.  My knowledge stopped in the late 90s, and even then I was more software than hardware.  I need to buy a laptop to be able to play my beloved CoH, but budget is mega limited.  SO, I found a couple options I can squeak by with...but I don't trust salesman to be honest.  Pretty please, if you understand the difference between processors, etc, look at the specs below and tell me what one you would recommend so I can play CoH again!!!  I'd really like to know the minimum I can get away with and what one would be best on the below list.  Thank you soo much!!!!

 

All have 1 TB hard drive and Windows 10

 

1)  AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB memory

 

2)  Intel 8th Gen i3-8130U processor, 8GB memory

 

3)  Intel 8th Gen i5-8250U processor, 8GB memory

 

4)  Intel Pentium Gold 5405U processor, 4GB memory

 

*crossing fingers at least one of these is good enough*

 

Btw, outside of CoH, I occasionally play Left4Dead on steam.  That's it.  Otherwise I just write the obligatory unpublished novel and the (rarely) published poetry, and of course do email and page browsing.  I was getting by with just my tablet until CoH came back online!!!

[cronus]

Machines 2-4 shold run COH fine.

 

#4 would be the cheapest option, but personally i would go with #2.

 

 

 

The Ryzen processor should have no issues, but its a newer chip, and Ive never run COH on it, so Im not certain about COHs' performance with it.

[Radionuclide]

Machines 2-4 shold run COH fine.

 

#4 would be the cheapest option, but personally i would go with #2.

 

 

 

The Ryzen processor should have no issues, but its a newer chip, and Ive never run COH on it, so Im not certain about COHs' performance with it.

 

I'd second this. #2 would be the one I'd go with striking a balance between performance and cost.

 

 

[Ozium]

depends on which model of Ryzen, but otherwise would say #3 as more horsepower on the i5

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-8130U-vs-Intel-i5-8250U/3225vs3042

 

how well will CoH play on integrated?

[WickedBliss]

#2 and #3 are only $50 apart (they're both on sale for the next 3 days), so either would be affordable if one  is significantly better than the other.

 

Salesman was trying to push #4 hard, and it's the most expensive.

 

Thank you all so very much for helping me!!!

[Mooshoo]

For long term usage and performance, I would recommend #3 -- otherwise I recommend #2. However with that said I've heard COH doesn't work well on integrated graphic processors, something to keep in mind.

[WickedBliss]

For long term usage and performance, I would recommend #3 -- otherwise I recommend #2. However with that said I've heard COH doesn't work well on integrated graphic processors, something to keep in mind.

 

 

Ummm….and these are integrated?  Which ones?  All?  Seriously, I know nothing.

[Mooshoo]

For long term usage and performance, I would recommend #3 -- otherwise I recommend #2. However with that said I've heard COH doesn't work well on integrated graphic processors, something to keep in mind.

 

 

Ummm….and these are integrated?  Which ones?  All?  Seriously, I know nothing.

 

Depends on the laptop, if they don't have a graphics card listed than they're more than likely using the built in graphics processor in the Intel CPU/AMD CPU(All the CPU's you have listed have built-in graphics processors). I would need to see a copy of the laptops complete system specs to confirm.

[Erydanus]

Absolutely stop and fork over the graphics cards for the models before you think about buying them. A modern day desktop graphic card crushes what City needs but integrated cards, as far as I know, have not really improved much over the years beyond being powerful enough to handle 2 modern size monitors.

 

If anyone has tried City on a modern integrated setup it would be extremely helpful to know!

[Ozium]

Ummm….and these are integrated?  Which ones?  All?  Seriously, I know nothing.

 

 

unless the lappy says has a graphics card it's relying on cpu integrated, which may or may not offer good performance on CoH

[Mira_Moonshadow]

Most laptops will have the option of onboard gfx or a Video card. Always pick the video card, the cheapest cards on the market today obliderate CoH's recommended specs.

[WickedBliss]

I don't think there was any option for a separate video card with these.  They're pretty cheap, for a laptop, but I can't afford an actual _gaming_ laptop...and since I only play this game I'd feel a little ridiculous spending that much money even if I had it.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I don't think there was any option for a separate video card with these.  They're pretty cheap, for a laptop, but I can't afford an actual _gaming_ laptop...and since I only play this game I'd feel a little ridiculous spending that much money even if I had it.

Better question: does it have to be a laptop?

[tolrick]

I went to search for the choices WickedBliss listed, and I found desktops and laptops.  Maybe someone else would have better luck finding the right sort of thing?

However, it's looking -to me-, like option two should work?  fuzzy answer?  I'm not certain about the integrated video either.  I know it's useless on older laptops, but the newest, more expensive ones just blow right past the problem.  Don't call it a definitive answer though.

Assuming cost is a factor as to why you can't get the more powerful stuff.

 

Meanwhile, salespeople will -always- try and get you to buy the most expensive option, plus as many add-ons as they can manage to foist off on you.  It's how they make money.  Don't fall for it.

[tolrick]

I've been looking up stuff on NewEgg.com.

 

Anyone have low cost ideas from that source?

 

Opinions on if this would work?

 

Processor & Chipset

Processor Manufacturer: AMD

Processor Type: E-Series

Processor Model: E2-9000e

Processor Speed: 1.50 GHz

Processor Core: Dual-core (2 Core)

Memory

Standard Memory: 4 GB

Memory Technology: DDR4 SDRAM

Number of Occupied Memory Slots: 1

Storage

Total Hard Drive Capacity: 500 GB

Optical Drive Type: No

Display & Graphics

Screen Size: 14"

Display Screen Type: LCD

Display Screen Technology: BrightView

Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768

Touchscreen: NO

Graphics Controller Manufacturer: AMD

Graphics Controller Model: Radeon R2 Graphics

Graphics Memory Technology: DDR4 SDRAM

Graphics Memory Accessibility: Shared

[Venture]

just throwing this out there but CoH is an old game:

 

Here are the City of Heroes System Requirements (Minimum)

CPU: Pentium 3 or Athlon equivalent

CPU SPEED: 800 MHz

RAM: 256 MB

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7

VIDEO CARD: 32MB Direct3D Card (GeForce 2+/Radeon 8500+/Intel 845G+)

TOTAL VIDEO RAM: 32 MB

3D: Yes

DIRECTX VERSION: 9.0 (included)

SOUND CARD: Yes

FREE DISK SPACE: 2 GB

CD-ROM: 4X speed CD-ROM

 

 

City of Heroes Recommended Requirements

CPU: Pentium 4 or Athlon XP

CPU SPEED: 1.7 GHz

RAM: 512 MB

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7

VIDEO CARD: 64 MB Direct3D Card (GeForce 5600+/Radeon 9600+)

TOTAL VIDEO RAM: 64 MB

3D: Yes

HARDWARE T&L: Yes

DIRECTX VERSION: 9.0

SOUND CARD: Yes

FREE DISK SPACE: 2 GB

CD-ROM: 4x speed CD-ROM

 

[The Fifth Horseman]

The original minimum and recommended requirements weren't very relevant by the time of the shutdown. If they were to be believed, then my 2004 desktop (Sempron 2500+, Radeon 9600 128 MB, 1 GB RAM) wouldn't have any issue running the game. It barely managed on low settings, and the outdated GPU had a tendency to occasionally crash the game for no discernable reason.

 

With the latest piece of news from the folks investigating the performance issues, it seems that a) Intel's integrated graphics and b) Windows 10 are out as options if you want to run COH:

We finally have confirmation on user's Intel integrated graphics & Windows 10 issues. A community discussion with a member of the team behind Homecoming and SCORE revealed that both Intel and Windows 10 offer next-to-no support for OpenGL or legacy graphics engines, partially due to Microsoft's push for DirectX; Windows 10 doesn't even support hardware-accelerated OpenGL at all.

 

Most of these problems have been experienced by people using modern laptops. We're working on a better way to broadcast these problems for them to know about, and also discussed some possible future software solutions that could be built to overcome this hurdle and keep City of Heroes' game client functional on future hardware.

 

The latter will be further explored by our team down the road once server proliferation and i24 development is at a comfortable stage, but if anyone has a development group familiar with this type of development who would like to get started or lay out the groundwork, there's a lot of people out there who would appreciate it.

[tolrick]

Wait.  Win10 doesn't work?

How's that possible.  People I know are using laptops with Win10 on them and it runs just fine.

 

[The Fifth Horseman]

From what I'm getting, it's the combination of the two rather than each individually: a dedicated GPU on Win 10 should work and Intel HD Graphics on Win 7/8 should work as well, but Intel HD Graphics on Win 10 most likely won't.

[tolrick]

How about an AMD6/9 or Ryzer on Win10?