King's Bounty runs slow - Help !

[JohnBoy]

I just got King's Bounty for Christmas but the game just runs slow for me

My computer has Vista Premium Family Edition and the graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 2400.

Is there anything I can do to speed up the game ?

If I install the path will it make a difference ?

Help please because I really want to play

[Gatts]

Your VC (video card) looks fine enough (when I compare it with my notebook integrated video card)

Windows Vista is known for needing more system memory - how much of RAM do you have installed?

Try to deactivate any non-essentials programs : antivirus/ firewall, system backup, error reporting and search for any services that consume too much RAM and you don't need them (mostly windows programs that search the net for updates, check what you are doing and log it on HDD or send it via internet somewhere ... or check what you have connected etc.)

[JohnBoy]

Thanks Gatts for your help !

My computer has 3Giga of RAM - I don't know how much is used up by other non-essential programs.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to check for that - can you tell me how to search for any services that consume too much RAM and how do I know if I don't need them ?

Sorry for all the questions - but I don't know a lot about computers...

Thanks
Johnboy

[Gatts]

These are totally normal question, for XP I could help you right away, for Vista I will do some recon/research (maybe someone who know "manage", "msconfig" and "performance settings" in Vista could help us here )

btw 3 GIGs of ram should be sufficient...
don't you have your pc for longer time (check the heat pipes of your video card, clean it from dust) and check if you don't have trojan horse/ virus/ malware/ spyware, what could take your CPU/ HDD performance

[Metroplex]

Defrag the HD using a quality defragger like Auslogics Disk Defrag and skip the native Windows Vista defragger as it is slow and crap.
Also defrag the registry, Auslogic Registry defrag is free.
Increase your swap file to a more bigger size,
Buy faster RAM,
Failing that, reinstall Windows to get rid of the glut and then play KB on a fresh OS.

[stubbie]

Before scaring someone (who has said that they don't know a lot about computers) and recommending they reinstall their operating system lets try this first.

Johnboy, go to your main menu and go to the options.
Put all the graphic settings down to their lowest setting, turn off Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering and see how the game runs.
If it runs okay but looks pretty bad then start twiddling with the settings till you get a reasonable balance between graphics and performance.

If however the game runs bad even with all the graphic settings at the minimum then you will need to tweak your computer somewhat as Metroplex and Gatts suggested.

Let us know how it goes.

[Gatts]

Check this PDF for best tricks on making the max out of Win Vista