1280by1024 not working too well

[leftisthominid]

I have a P4 2.8 Ghz 1024MB DDR PC2700 333Mhz RAM with an AGP Radeon X1300 Pro 256MB running a 19' LCD via DVI
When I run Civ4 or the Sims 2 and beef up the res anywhere higher than 1024by768 the games apparently don't like it. Sometimes the screen blacks out and then refreshes
I have the cash at the moment, so should i get a 1GB stick of DDR PC2700 333Mhz RAM

I frequently get red lines in the background when running the menu screen

 

[evirus]

the only problems i have with running on the 1280x1024 resolution is the advisor screens dont stretch to fit making them windows

and in sims 2 i just run it in window mode so i can talk on IM while playing

 

[warpstorm]

While I'd recommend getting the RAM, it likely won't fix your problem which sounds video card/driver related.

 

[armchairknight]

I run 1280 x 1024 exclusively. I also use an LCD monitor on a lesser system than yours and haven't encountered any problems. The only areas where my system is stronger is my CPU and Ram are slightly faster (3 GHz and 400 Mhz respectively). I only have 512 Meg Ram and an onboard graphics card with a tiny 64 Megs on it. Are your drivers up to date? Could it be your monitor?

 

[leftisthominid]

no drivers to update, the only logical conclusion i can come up with is that my computer is having some difficulty pumping out higher resolutions. My video card would be considered strong enough for CivIV, so I think RAM is my best solution

 

[enchanter100]

HI, it's not your memory. I'm running only a gig and I get perfect running civ at 1600x1200. IT's your video card. I'm running a radeon x850 XT PE and you are running a x1300. Look at this chart.. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
Mine gets an average of 62 fps and yours, about 12.. Save your money for a new vid card.

 

[leftisthominid]

HI, it's not your memory. I'm running only a gig and I get perfect running civ at 1600x1200. IT's your video card. I'm running a radeon x850 XT PE and you are running a x1300. Look at this chart.. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
Mine gets an average of 62 fps and yours, about 12.. Save your money for a new vid card.

Well my parents wouldn't let me get a new video card, even if i had the cash, so i guess my only options would be to get more ram or to just deal with 1024by768

 

[enchanter100]

Gotta do what you can do. Just a heads up though, I bought a 850 xt from www.newegg.com for 160ish bucks. the performance you get from that would be better then spending the same amount on good memory.

 

[leftisthominid]

cuz the deal is that next summer after my HS graduation my parents will give me the funds to build a new computer from scratch, so getting a new gpu now would be stupid (and plus my current one is only two to three months old).

I'm pretty much at a point where I'm getting new ram or absolutely nothing
and if i go with the latter there'd be no way whatsoever that 1280by1024 would work

 

[kjaye]

HI, it's not your memory. I'm running only a gig and I get perfect running civ at 1600x1200. IT's your video card. I'm running a radeon x850 XT PE and you are running a x1300. Look at this chart.. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
Mine gets an average of 62 fps and yours, about 12.. Save your money for a new vid card.

I'm the same, got a 3 gig Pentium, 1 gig ram and a Radeon x800 pro.

I run it at 1600x1200 with 4 times antialiasing.

Game looks great and runs fine.

It's not really a graphics intensive game at all. Try getting Oblivion to run at 1600x1200 and you'll see

 

[leftisthominid]

Well i'm off to get that RAM i guess. I got no choice, there's nothing else that I can do