Graphics Cards

[ACS]

SWMBO purchased me a copy of Call of Duty - World at War for Xmas. Installed this yesterday evening to discover that my graphics card ATI x1550 (512mb) will not run it no matter how much I alter the settings and swear at it.

The spec on the box states min GPU: 256MB Nvidia 6600GT/ATI Radeon 1600XT.

If anyone is can make any sense of this and suggest a low cost replacement I would be grateful (I play one game year if I am allowed the time). Just to complicate matters the x1550 is PCI-Express and low profile. The PC is a HP small form factor.

 

[1LegRikk]

Would assume your motherboard is AGP? if so something like this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...l DVI/HDMI (AGP) - Retail (90-C1CK80-J0UAY00Z)

 

[Shaun]

Have you downloaded the latest ATI drivers?

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.HTML

If you check the gaming web sites most people swear by the nVidia chipset ... and I can swear by the video card the missus bought me for Christmas that makes COD4 look like a live-action high-def movie at 1440 x 900:

The NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 GT

I got the Palit incarnation, although it's not cheap at £70+

I've overclocked my PC by 2GHz and overclocked the card using the RivaTuner software, and both seem to cope fine with being clocked - the corner of the bedroom hasn't burst into flames yet, and the CPU hasn't died on me!

Cheers,
Shaun

[Edit: Re-reading this I sound like a total geek - I'm not, honest ]

 

[marinyork]

You got the 9600 1Gb? That'll run COD4 well. The 8600s get decent benchmarks for COD4.

 

[Carwash]

[Edit: Re-reading this I sound like a total geek - I'm not, honest ]

No - you just run an Internet forum.

 

[ACS]

Appreciate the feed back. The graphics card will run Call of Duty 4 without any problems. Evidently the latest generation of the game (COD 5 if you like) is finicky about which cards it will work with.

Done the drivers and DirectX looks like the only resolution is putting my hand in my pocket. In the market for a 256MB Nvidia 6600GT/ATI Radeon 1600XT, or better, low profile, PCI-e if anyone has one spare?

Found a handy site during my researches Can you run it . The site allows to check if your PC will run a game before you buy it.

 

[marinyork]

Don't bother. 6600s aren't that good. In anycase more relevent the 6600s and 1600 has poor benchmarks for COD4 specifically. The 7600 used to be a second hand card people used to try and get hold of as it was a really nice card. I have a 8600GT as my second graphics card in SLI. You're best off buying it new though. There's no DX10 for COD5 but there will be for other games. So you might consider getting an 8 series of 9 series for that.

 

[yenrod]

Why does the above 'sound' like a foriegn language?

 

[ACS]

Why does the above 'sound' like a foriegn language?

Because it is. The very sad thing is I actually understand it and have have the ability to lapse into almost on demand.

 

[beanzontoast]

I've encountered the opposite problem. One of my fave games of all time is European Air War (WW2 flying /combat sim) which ran perfectly on my old Xp system, but when I reinstalled the OS a while ago, a newer version of the graphics drivers was installed - too new for the game to run. Much investigating and patching later, I can get the game to run but certain screens - the menu screen, map screen, briefing room etc - are all garbled. What price progress?!

 

[1LegRikk]

Just put the older driver on there? If it stops other things working setup your system to dual boot, and configure the other partition up just for the game.

 

[beanzontoast]

Just put the older driver on there? If it stops other things working setup your system to dual boot, and configure the other partition up just for the game.

Never thought of trying this approach - will give it a go. Ta!

 

[Bman]

Graphics Cards aside... If you can only play one game a year, I would suggest against COD5. COD4 imho is much much better. If youve played COD2, then you know exactly what to expect. COD5 is COD2, in asia.

Saying that, there isnt many other good PC games coming out at the moment. But, if you havnt already tried it, play Fallout3. it mixes FPS with RPG and is a *massive* game. Hours of entertainment.

+1 to Bethesda

 

[Sittingduck]

You will probably need 8600 or better to run COD5 smoothly. Try ebuyer or maybe overclockers if youre after a card. They're normally the most competative for choice and price.