Help Kroms run Psychonauts on his PC!

[Kroms]

So I downloaded the Psychonauts demo, just to see if my computer could handle the beast -- and it can, in theory. I mean my specs aren't too shabby...

But the game stutters and spits and poor Dogen's been frozen with those squirrels for five minutes now.

Here's the minimum specs:

Operating Systems: Windows 98 SE/2000/ME/XP.
Processor: 1.0 GHz Pentium(R) III and AMD Athlon(tm).
RAM: 256MB.
Video Card: 64MB GeForce (tm) 3 or higher, or ATI(R) Radeon 8500 or higher (excluding GeForce 4 MX).
Sound Card: DirectX(R) 9.0 or higher compatible.
DirectX(R) version: 9.0 or higher (included on game disc).
Hard Drive Space: 4.0 GB minimum hard drive space.
CD-ROM: 16X or faster.

And here are mine:

Chip type: GeForce FX 5200
Memory size: 256 MB
1 Gb of RAM
Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz.

And yet...It's stuttering and spitting.

What's hardware acceleration, by the way? :/

And how the heckle sticks do you know what resolution you're supposed to run the game at?

Note:
A few days ago I cleaned out all the dust from my computer; before doing so, Sam and Max S2 didn't run smoothly on high graphics but they did after some cleaning (done by using ear wipes and blowing - thank you, lack-of-compressed-air). Right now the PC is overheating quickly again, so I guess there's dust inside, and that might be the problem - but still, it's only been five days.

[Thrik]

The resolution should be a no-brainer if you have an LCD screen as they only run at one native resolution — any others will look terrible in comparison. If it's a CRT monitor (fat back), it's more a case of going as low as you can before it starts to look bad. The higher the resolution, the more strain on your graphics card.

Be sure to also have downloaded the latest drivers for your card from NVIDIA's site. Drivers can make a huge difference, and those supplied with the card are typically the first and slowest drivers available.

While you're at it, you'll want the latest Psychonauts patch too.

Your hardware looks like it should be OK for running Psychonauts, although you may have to lower some settings. Stuff like anti-aliasing is particularly efficient at slowing you down, so make sure it's turned off. The only potentially weak point I can see is the graphics card — I ran the game pretty smoothly with comparable CPU and RAM, but that was with a GeForce 6600 GT.

If you're getting really bad stuttering and freezes with that hardware, there must be an external factor at play. It could be drivers, or it could be your machine overheating like you say.

Overheating will cause problems, although hardware should turn itself off in that eventuality. Pretty much any CPU and RAM available won't allow itself to overheat, but I think only later graphics cards have shut-down safety measures. As such, older graphics cards like yours could theoretically melt themselves into an early grave if the fan stops working or something.

[Kroms]

Originally Posted by Thrik

The resolution should be a no-brainer if you have an LCD screen as they only run at one native resolution — any others will look terrible in comparison. If it's a CRT monitor (fat back), it's more a case of going as low as you can before it starts to look bad. The higher the resolution, the more strain on your graphics card.

Be sure to also have downloaded the latest drivers for your card from NVIDIA's site. Drivers can make a huge difference, and those supplied with the card are typically the first and slowest drivers available.

While you're at it, you'll want the latest Psychonauts patch too.

Your hardware looks like it should be OK for running Psychonauts, although you may have to lower some settings. Stuff like anti-aliasing is particularly efficient at slowing you down, so make sure it's turned off. The only potentially weak point I can see is the graphics cards — I ran the game pretty smoothly with comparable CPU and RAM, but that was with a GeForce 6600 GT.

If you're getting really bad stuttering and freezes with that hardware, there must be an external factor at play. It could be drivers, or it could be your machine overheating like you say.

Overheating will cause problems, although hardware should turn itself off in that eventuality. Pretty much any CPU and RAM available won't allow itself to overheat, but I think only later graphics cards have shut-down safety measures. As such, older graphics cards like yours could theoretically melt themselves into an early grave if the fan stops working or something.

Someone also mentioned that the card isn't really up to par.

The machine IS overheating, if ever-so-slightly...I can't figure out why. I cleaned it out again and yet here it is...hot.

Might be the fact it's 42 Celsius out there. *points outside the window*

Man :/ I HAVE to play this game. It's Schafer!

Edit: SON OF A BASTARD, I keep on getting error reports now. UGH.

Edit II: Okay, so re-installed, works fine if I adjust the settings...But it decides to stop working if I close it and try activating it again.

Help me, gods of Mojo.