What Happens When You Play Modern Games On Ancient Hardware

"PS9" (PS9) 08/03/2013 at 04:09 • Filed to: First world problems

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I was finally able to get Bioshock Infinite during the steam sale. To my surprise, when I tried to run the game, it didn't boot for a minute at all, then this screen appeared...

Then crashed to desktop. I'm not sure what that was about... Anyway, I tried again, and this video instantly played...

Then another crash to desktop. This was all very strange indeed. I got in touch with 2k/Irrational, and they don't know what was going on either. "We didn't put any of that in your copy of the game, sir." The polite customer service email said. Third time being the charm, I finally got the game to run, but the menu was a horribly untextured jaggie riddled mess, and then it hit me; this computer was built back when it was a big deal to be black and be president. We're talking two windows versions ago here, folks. The embedded GPU was old when this thing was put together. So...ahh...maybe not try to run modern steam games on your ancient POS vista box before you upgrade, huh PS9?

Anon > PS9 08/03/2013 at 04:22

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This has made me realize how old my mac i bought back in 2009 really is. Though she still works as good as the day I bought her!

Sun-Tzubaru - With Zoom-Zoom > PS9 08/03/2013 at 07:25

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Would you kindly upgrade your hardware?

Dunnik > PS9 08/03/2013 at 07:47

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Did you check the system requirements? You certainly wouldn't be the first gamer - nor the last - to buy a title then find out it won't work on your comp.

The minimum system requirements for Bioshock Infinite are:

OS: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit

Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHZ

RAM: 2 GB

Hard Drive: 20 GB free

Video Card: DirectX10 Compatible ATI Radeon 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT / Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics

Video Card Memory: 512 MB

Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

...which is actually pretty modest - and it runs on Vista - but that's the minimum. One should always try to meet or exceed the Recommended specs:

OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit

Processor: Quad Core Processor

RAM: 4 GB

Hard Drive: 30 GB free

Video Card: DirectX11 Compatible, ATI Radeon 6950 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

Video Card Memory: 1024 MB

Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Without knowing your computer's specs, I'd guess that it's probably your video card. It's possible a $50-75 video card upgrade will do the trick, assuming your other specs are at or above the minimums.

Good luck - I haven't played Infinite, but all reports indicate it's pretty win.

Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise > Dunnik 08/03/2013 at 08:00

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According to that, it can run on my laptop. Which can run Civ V perfectly fine, but nevertheless, I wouldn't trust it for Infinite.

Rosetto Viacava > Dunnik 08/03/2013 at 10:22

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Fuck system requirements... My laptop met the requirements for OSX Lion but it's too much for the laptop to handle so it fried the motherboard. $360 repair and Apple won't take any responsibility for their fucked-up... Your computer needs to have 3 times more power over the minimum requirements for OS and games to work smoothly.

boddagettaflyer is staying put > Anon 08/03/2013 at 11:33

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I feel you. I'm running a ca. 2007 MBP (Santa Rosa), while my wife's MacBook was bought in 2006. They both still run great, due to a little preventative maintenance. I've maxed out the memory on both and both hard drives have been replaced (SSD FTW!). Hers has maxed out on Snow Leopard, but mine runs Mountain Lion just fine. About the only thing that doesn't work is the right speaker on mine. Oh, and I seem to run through a battery every two years or so.

Frank Grimes > PS9 08/03/2013 at 12:58

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xbox you just put it in and it plays. Or it doesn't because of the ring of death thing but I think we are all past that right? Also Xbox is cheap and I dont get how people still play games on a thing designed to type TPS reports.

SteyrTMP > Rosetto Viacava 08/03/2013 at 13:35

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There's your problem... you said Apple.

SteyrTMP > PS9 08/03/2013 at 13:39

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What's your specs? I'm limping along with a machine that's theoretically almost 8 years old. Still can keep up with new stuff, finished Far Cry 3 when it came out...

- AMD FX-62

- Asus M2N4-SLI MB

- EVGA Geforce 450 GTS

- 3.12GB RAM

Wish I had the money to make another one. Next one will be built to last 5 years, as was this.

SteyrTMP > SteyrTMP 08/03/2013 at 13:42

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I've been having a problem trying to run older games. I tried to run Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance the other day... I played it before the original motherboard died, and before the graphics card died. So one of the two seem to be having an issue with older games, as whenever I try to open it, I get a black screen with the sound in the background. I can run my mouse over the menu buttons, and I hear the corresponding noise, but see nothing.

I had the same problem trying to play Empire Earth. With some fiddling around with the compatibility settings, I was able to get some graphics, but everything is extremely dim, I have to max out my brightness settings to even be able to read the menu.

Very frustrating