Sorry for another one of these, I'm still hoping the patch to be released today will make my gameplay better..
I started off using the "Auto-detect best settings" which put me at high spec, it ran about 8 fps which is unbearable so I changed it to low spec ad disabled more or less everything, its now running at around 15 fps, its ok but its a little horrible to look at.. heres my specs,
tbh I was considering a new graphics card as I've had this one a while:

Intel(R) Core 2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33Ghz
4 GB Ram
Geforce 9500 GT - 2.2GB VRAM, specs for this are here - http://tinyurl.com/65gquw
OS - Windows Vista home edition
I start the game in windowed mode at 1280 x 1024 (settings from config)
screen resolution is 1920 x 1080


(if you need any more info let me know)

any help to make my fps, or game play would be greatly appreciated, the game is very cool so far and I only want to make it better :D

Cheers
Spooki

http://imageshack.us/f/19/tw2h.png/ Lie! :-(


I forgot to mention I changed the nvidia driver to 275.27 - (and disabled 3d)

You need a serious rig for witcher 2.

Right out of the gate I can tell you that your graphics solution is in dire need of an upgrade. That card is really not a gaming card at all and you'd see a noticeable difference if you upgraded.

Not sure if the patch will help much. I heard the minimum required graphics card is 8800GT, and you can see the comparison of that card with what you have
http://www.hwcompare.com/4453/geforce-8800-gt-512mb-vs-geforce-9500-gt-1gb-gddr3/

As far as I know the patch is not going to be released today. What they said they're hoping to release today is the patch change log.

As for the graphics card, it's basically a rebranded 8500 GT. But the thing to keep in mind with nvidia cards is in the old numbering scheme, any card with a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7 as the second number are not gaming cards. While you can play some games with them, they're really designed for business application, not gaming.

Yeah I have a few games which played fine no problems at all so I was a little surprised, Crysis2, Fallout NV, AC2 but I wouldn't know how/what to compare..I guess its time to spend some £~

Can you (or anyone) recommend a good card which will last , I have a budget of around £150 ($240 ish) - Thanks vmuch Sorry I just saw this after my post about recommending a new GC, with that budget is this the best card?

No, that's pretty old now. I'd go for the best you can find for your budget. Not sure what your prices are like over there, but I picked up a GTX 560 ti for $220 here a couple months ago. I'd look for something like that. Not sure offhand what the comparable ATI card would be. Someone can probably give you more info on that.

Having said that, if you do upgrade, your CPU will become your bottle neck, but you should still see a vast improvement in performance.

i'd go for a gtx 460 1gb ,anything better and the cpu becomes the bottleneck as it wont suplly the GPU information fast enough,unless your maybe going to upgrade in the future?

The Q8200 is a very low performance quad core, and it will become a bottleneck even with a moderately powerful GPU.

That said, the GTX 460 is so favorably priced that there is very little reason to buy anything less.

But it is likely that the OP will need a power supply upgrade for anything more powerful than an AMD/ATI HD 5670. The Q8200 is used almost exclusively in commercially built computers that are sold as cheap quad core desktops. These computers generally have very weak power supplies that were not made to handle GPUs over 75W.

Damn. Good point on the power supply. I completely overlooked that. OP should definitely make sure his PSU will provide enough juice. Looking more and more like it should be a complete overhaul of the system.

Not like having to say this, but a new build should be in the planning stages. I don't think you'll be able to push it two years when some of the more interesting changes will be hitting the markets. So deciding on a budget and start a stash for a new pc.

In the meantime, you could try cutting the resolution further down and running in full screen. I wish I could remember the tips on the ratio to use that taxes the gpu the least. Because you run it in a non native resolution vertical sync should be on.

That said you might want to list the Mobo, and PSU you have, since buying a gpu that your current pc cant power will just cause you more misery and money. As others have said getting a gpu that is faster than your RAM and CPU will cause problems as well, so buying too high end is fruitless as well. What hard drive(s) are you using as well? A slow fragmented drive could hinder performance.

Wish I could be more positive, but I don't see the older systems being able to handle the newer software. Other than that, doing the obvious, closing those pesky background services and programs that aren't necessary could help performance a little. A patch and the next version driver from nvidia might boost it a little more, but you won't know for sure until they are released.

IF you do decide to just get a new GPU, go to a site that has a power tester program. They basically ask you for the components you want in it and will inform you how big a psu you will need to run it. So just enter your cpu, ram, etc...then change the gpu to each size you are interested in, and see if your current PSU can handle the load. Newegg, Tiger Direct, I believe both have something like it on their sites. Good Luck

Those power tester sites (especially the ones who want to sell the PSU's) tend to exaggerate, though. For example, I "need" at least 580W, according to beQuiet. I do have 650W Corsair, but I don't need as much. According to my ammeter, I use just under 100W in idle and not more than 280W under load (playing TW2 in 27°C room temp with a quadcore & gtx460). I do like to have a bit of a margin, but what they propose is sometimes way over the top. And a good quality brand is always better than a no name product.

Also, I don't think that he should look to import, when he can buy at Amazon.co.uk. ;)
They do have the GTX460 in his price range.

The sites based on "eXtreme Power Supply Calculator" are reasonably accurate, but they do not give the important "amps at +12V" information that you need for high-end graphics cards. They are also imprecise about motherboard power consumption, which is very unfortunate, since the CPU, chipset, and RAM power are supplied by circuits on the motherboard.

Sites provided by the GPU manufacturers tend to be even bigger exaggerations. These are the ones that, for example, tell you you need a 400W power supply for a mere 5670.

Yep, that is something you have to glean out of the offer of the PSU. I thought about it, but then I thought, a good quality brand usually has sufficient amps @ +12V rails. :)

There are some good vendors you have to watch out for. Thermaltake is probably the worst offender. They make a lot of power supplies that are primarily replacements for older computers, and they tend to favor the +5 and +3.3 rails over the +12 rail. Even a 500W Thermaltake (which is really only a 450W supply) may have deficient amps at +12V.

To figure amps at +12V:

If the power supply has only one +12V rail, it's whatever the rating says.

If the power supply has multiple +12V rails (+12V1, +12V2, etc.), look for a "combined watts at +12V" rating. If the power supply doesn't give a combined rating, don't buy it. If it does, you can get the combined amps at +12V by arithmetic; for example, 408W at 12V = 34A.