Space Empires is kicking my computers butt. Please help.

I am not sure what is going on there but I don't think a better Computer will help.
I think it has got to be something else but I don't know what that may be.

SE5 only uses ~100-150 MBs RAM, so virtual memory shouldn't really be a problem with 512 MB system RAM. How much free memory do you have before you run it? Virtual and real.

The only other thing to be concerned about would be the video card, but it appears to more than exceed SE5's requirements (128 or 256 MB VRAM). Are your video card drivers up to date? Have all the latest DirectX updates?

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More RAM may help.

My compliments on your use of the (R)'s after the registered trademarks. Not many people would think it (or even care to think about it in an informal setting...).

I'd like to see Intel sue me for not putting a stupid trademark symbol into a forum post...

rmicklit:
You didn't really answer the question about RAM usage. How much is actually being used? Also, what sort of framerates is the game reporting (you can turn it on in the main menu options)?

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If it is a hardware issue the only thing it can be is your RAM.
Since all my system specs are much lower, running on a laptop, on bat i dont even get any lag!
But I do have 2GB RAM.

Does the OS make a dif? Im Runing XP

SE5 loses quite a bit of framerate in Vista, due to the DX8 emulation.

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I have 512 Mb RAM, but using only 60% of it with a pretty advanced game on. (I'm also using ~200 Mb cache memory).

The game is a bit slow, but it's mainly because of the GeForce2.

BTW, anyone knows if the Radeon 9600 Pro is a Universal 1.5V AGP 3.0 Card or an AGP 3.0 Card ?
I'd like to make it work...
http://forums.sapphiretech.com/showthread.php?p=125592&posted=1

Its easy enough to Google for the model numbers and see what AGP spec(s) the card and mobo use....

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeon9600/radeon9600pro/specs.html
http://eu.shuttle.com/archive/en/ak322.htm

The card would appear to be compatible with any AGP 4x or 8x mobo slot.

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The game is also not optimized for multicore CPUs. I heard of people getting better results after setting the affinity to a single CPU.

512MB is not alot for RAM now.

Oh, but I've googled it... but looks like it's even more complicated!
I think I'm going to search for a Radeon 9700 Pro or a GeForce Ti 4600 if even that one doesn't work...

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ctrl-shift-esc opens the Task Manager, which contains lots of useful info.

What OS are you running? Assuming XP, you might just need to retire the low-end Radeon 9200 and get a better video card. On my old box, I got pretty decent framerates with a 2GHz P4 and a Radeon 9600 Pro, so its probably just the video card. I'd recommend Nvidia over ATI cards. Depending on how much you want to spend, there are lots of options available. You should probably avoid the 5xxx line, since its extremely long in the tooth. 7xxx is the most modern and powerful line you can get for AGP, but a decent 6xxx card should be sufficient for SE5. All of the x200 versions of a model line are the very cheap, gimped versions, and will give degraded performance (though at lower cost).

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Disable Cleartype font smoothing.

http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/000558.php

rmicklit:
Geforce 7600 GT, or 7800 GT for a bit more (the 7800 GT might exceed $120). Make sure any card you buy has an AGP connector; they also make them in PCI-Express.

BlueTemplar:
Are you sure the card actually works (tested in another machine)? I know for a fact that a Radeon 9600 Pro will work in an AGP 4x slot, as I've done exactly that in the past.

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I'll say get more ram, never hurt to have more and a better video card to make it run smoother, if all things still fail, it's time for a cleanup on your computer