Warzone fan with old graphics card

[astral]

Gahhh, it's so annoying it's unreal.

I first got this game when it was out on the playstation. I knew nothing at all about it, and just got it from a shop because it looked like the type of game I might like.....then I got insanely addicted for ages. Then the other day I was looking around at PSX emulation stuff and saw the game again. Tried getting it to work and failed, then thought I'd see if I could get a pc version, and found my way here after that. It's so cool that the game is free to download now, and I totally agree that it's a classic, simply because there's so many options, which increases the strategy of it, and it can last virtually forever.

Anyway...after that rant (I've been up all night, and just played warzone for hours.) I'll get onto my problem. I just said I'd been playing it for hours, but that's probably because it's juddering along at about 1/3 of the speed it should do. I love the game that much though that I managed to get to the levels where the New Paradigm say you're gonna get destroyed, etc, but I'm now at the first 2 hour mission and I don't think I can take anymore at this slow speed.

I think it's the graphics card though. My mate who sold me this pc said it'll play games fine if I get a new graphics card, so that's probably it. I'm using a GeForce4 MX440 if that means anything. I just googled a bit and found out that it's old, and I'm guessing that's why the screen is juddering along so slowly?

The main point I wanted to get to is this if it's the card : what type of card do I want to be getting to run this game smoothly? I live in the UK, so if any UK'ers are around : would I be able to step up from this card and get something that'll make the game run smoothly for under £50? I know that's not a lot of cash, but if this damn card is really that old, I might be able to get a used one that's just enough to run the game, or so I hope.

Any help would be appreciated anyway, because I really have to carry on playing this game. Until I get a card though I might just have to make do with Populous The Beginning, because it seems to run just enough to play properly, hahah! (and the last time I play this Pop game my 2nd hand playstation disc crashed at level 13. I did it all over again just to check aswell and it crashed again, heh, so I'm out to finish it this time.)

That's me done ranting for now anyway. Like I said, I'm basically just tired, don't usually go on this much...

[psychopompos]

what resolution are you playing the game at?
and how much ram do you have?
in the weeks between killing my old gfx & getting the new one the integrated sis 616 on my comp played the game ok.

whatever you do, DO NOT GET AN ATI CARD
its NOTHING BUT TROUBLE >:(

you could get a GeForce6 for under £50, the hard part is finding AGP cards now.


ps. the psx crash was due to having too much (over 12k-ish) power at the end of campaign 1. dont play so well, waste resources & youl get past it on your psx. doesnt happen in again so w/e.

[A4tech]

I have GF MX440 64Mbit with AGP 8x. The game run perfectly.
What system do you have (OS - ?; RAM - ?; PROC - ?).
Suggestions:
1. Upgrade your V drivers
2. Upgrade DirectX (at least to 9.0 series)

[EvilGuru]

I think the first port of call is reducing the texture size down from 128x128 to something like 32x32. This should get you a reasonable boost.

Next, you might want to reduce the resolution, 800x600 is reasonable, but the game works at 640x480. Hopefully this will get your frame rate into the mid-high 20's, which will make the game playable.

The advice given by A4tech is also sound: upgrading your drivers can often result in reasonable performance boosts.

Regards, Freddie.

[ChronoSphere]

I just installed the latest Intel driver for my 810 chipset based PC. I was asked if i want install it even though it's older than the pre-installed MS one.
With the MS driver, i was getting an amazing speed of 1fps  ::)
With the Intel one, i'm now getting about 20 fps Still getting some graphic glitches (pink textures sometimes) but at least it now runs.

So, don't use that MS driver =_=
About the graphic drivers in general: don't forget that sometimes upgrading to the newest version will give you more trouble than an older one. AFAIK, even though NVidia still supports older models, their drivers get tweaked for the newer models, even if the change means the older ones lose some performance. I wouldn't install the newest Forceware for a GeForce2 (not sure forceware even supports that one) So far the best drivers for my NVidia cards were the ones a few versions above the driver packaged with the card itself.

[Purple Monkey]

I had one of those and I found I got the best boost by turning off shadows (Alt+s). I think I was using 84.21 drivers, not sure as I changed my Graphics card.

[astral]

Hey all, thanks for the help. I tried updating direct x and still nothing, then looked for texture size and realised I had an older version that didn't have the option, so I found the latest version and installed that, then :

It runs totally smooth, but there's hardly any graphics? It's just a grey screen apart from the tanks, trucks, etc, and there's no radar map either. Is there any way I can get the graphics sorted out so that isn't happening and still have it run smoothly? Sorry, I'm a total noob with this new version, but I'm just a bit lost without the radar and other graphics.

edit : nevermind about the radar, that came up eventually. With the rest of the graphics though : are they like that because the game is virtually being re-coded from scratch? If so no probs. Was just wondering if my version was messed up or something.

Edit 2 : FIXED! I installed NVIDIA Forceware, and now the thing is running like a dream! Thanks again for the help.

[The Commander]

whatever you do, DO NOT GET AN ATI CARD
its NOTHING BUT TROUBLE >:(

Why not, Im running a X1650 Agp and have no problems what so ever.

you could get a GeForce6 for under £50, the hard part is finding AGP cards now.

How do you know his computer has an AGP slot? My old computer had an MX card and it was PCI... So im asuming his computer is old and he doesnt know to much and your telling him to buy stuff that might not even work in his computer.

[ouch]

my old radeon 9700 pro runs oblivion, Supcom, and even UT3.

Never had a problem with it either.

you don't need to overclock the crap out of an ati card to get good performance like you used to with those nvidia cards you know psychopompos.

[Buginator]

For what it is worth, I use a radeon 9600 on my linux box, and it runs the game just fine.
I haven't had any show stopping bugs in the binary ATI blob drivers.

[A4tech]

Problem : FIXED! Topic dead + close  ;D

[psychopompos]

my old radeon 9700 pro runs oblivion, Supcom, and even UT3.

Never had a problem with it either.

you don't need to overclock the crap out of an ati card to get good performance like you used to with those nvidia cards you know psychopompos.

im guessin your on linux.
iv heard they sorted out the drivers that side.
as it is, comparing my g6 to the 9250, id have got another g6 if id have known
looked better, diddnt have any issues, cant say the same for my ati card.
heck, the integrated sis616 made wz look better then the ati pastel colours.
not to mention the 1fps that was in the 2.0.7.

bout the only + i get is the extra poly count it can take in c&c generals, the integrated barely played that.
but even that looked better on my g6