additionally i have a 1gb ram motherboard.
i have set up everything to the lowest, even the distance of view.
i have shut down the internet connection and then the anti-virus, as well as cleaned the RAM of non-needed processes.
so how is it sickingly slow? i am suffering of slow motion sickness.

The camera sucks and there are also some issues that you can solve if you search for NWVault's performance guide and try out what they suggest. You can look for it there or try to find the news post with the link on our boards. Just FYI 128 vs 256 MB doesn't always matter as much as the GPU type.

My machine has lower stats than that (P4 2.4 / 512 RAM / 128 video RAM), but it runs the game okay. Is your video card on the list of supported devices?

And Chev's right about the hardware on your video card. 256 MB is decent, but the memory interface (in bits), memory clock speed, core clock speed, pixelpipelines and GPU on the video card also have a lot to do with it. For example, some bargain cards only have a 64-bit memory interface, and only 4 pixelpipelines, which can make them slow even at 256 MB. My wimpy 128 MB video card has 8 pixelpipelines and a 128-bit interface, which helps it manage.

I have almost the same machine as the OP. I get about 20 FPS at 1440x900 with no shadows and no reflective water. Those two are the big FPS killers. If I was willing to play in 800x600 I could get 45 FPS but God is it ugly, especially on a wide-screen monitor and with no anti-aliasing.

incredible to say, i installed the game on my p4 512 mb 128mb video card laptop, and it works much better.
i am using, on my desktop, a 256mb geforce fx 5500 videocard, which is on the compatibility list. i just do not understand why the game does not run properly on this computer.

I visited Nwvaults and made sure every tweaking suggested was implemented on the game, to no result.
when i start the game, i make sure:
- i have at least 750 mb out of 1 gb free;
- no anti-virus or any other major or minor application is running;
by this set up, i think the cpu and the vpu were supposed to be dedicated to process the game.

hopefully there will be a patch to overcome those issues.

from the readme
IV. Supported Video cards

As is noted in the minimum requirements not all video cards have hardware vertex and pixel shader support even though they have the required video memory available. Here is a non-exhaustive list of video cards that we have tested and are supported:

ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro and XT
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and XT
ATI Radeon X600 series
ATI Radeon X700 series
ATI Radeon X800 series
ATI Radeon X1600 series
ATI Radeon X1800 series
ATI Radeon X1900 series

Nvidia GeForce 6600 series
Nvidia GeForce 6800 series
Nvidia GeForce 7600 series
Nvidia GeForce 7800 series
Nvidia GeForce 7900 series
geforce fx 5500 isn't on the list

It is on the list they've released prior to the release of the game.

It will never work properly with that graphics card.