Video Card Q+A

[alamo]

I have to agree - don't spend $$$ on a new card. Why pay for bleeding-edge PC hardware when you can get the same stuff much cheaper 6 months later.

I've heard that a new gen of video cards is coming soon. That should reduce prices on today's top-end cards. After X-mas is when I plan to get my new gaming system.

ATI farms out to more makers and usally has more shelf space (and discounts). Nvidia has a better reputation for driver support. I got a Radeon 9550 because it was the best card on the shelf for under $100.

 

[magritte]

Old Dood, I'm glad to hear that the 9800Pro works well with Civ4. I wasn't worried from looking at the system specs, but I saw that thread about new fix for Radeon cards in the general discussion forum and got nervous. I haven't got it yet (I've been tied up in Crusader Kings of late) but will soon do so.

 

[alamo]

We heard from one Nvidia owner who had the same problem.

ATI owners may have found it sooner just out of chance.

 

[zonk]

Zonk,
Be very aware of Dell's Fussyness over Ram chips. Too bad Crucial didn't have what you need. They guaranty their Ram will work. That is why I use them. You might end up buying it from Dell...sorry to say. Dell's are so fussy that just sticking a ram chip in them will cause more problems then solve.

I forgot about RDRam. One of the main reason it never took off is that it is real expensive.

Yeah -- hard as hell to find, too. However, was able to find 2 128 meg corsair sticks at Microcenter - plug and play with no problems. Would have preferred a set of 256, but RAMBUS is apparently fussy about matching pairs, and they only had 1 256 in stock (and apparently.... are planning to discontinue carrying them at all).

Price aside ($120 for the pair) - I do think think they run well. Perhaps it's just the system generally, but I've played other titles on friend's rigs with better processors and more RAM and I honestly never noticed any difference in experience on my machine with the same titles. Oh well -- at the time I bought this, they were still supposed to be the "next big thing", apparently just never found a way to make them more price efficient.

Now I have to deal with a vid card issue.... Went with an ATI 9000 (128 meg) from a mom n pop store, only because the box was opened and got a pretty good deal on it. Noticed no driver disk, but figured it would be easy enough to get off the ATI website.

Boy was that a mistake!

For whatever reason, the versions ATI lists require the original install disk (not just the driver -- but actually wants the disk)... so not having much luck right now. My pc thinks I put in a GeForce4 Mx 420 - and so, apparently, does Civ IV.

On the plus side - I did get pseudo in business -- Civ thinks my card is below requirements so eliminates a lot of the graphics (resources unanimated, etc). In turn - this seems to allow the game to run (made it through a few dozen turns, no crashes, no problems).

Googling around for the complete drivers, but looking like I'm going to see if I can return the card... shame, really... its an older card, but I think it would be more than sufficient if I could get the driver situation right.

 

[alamo]

You mean the ATI Catalyst doesn't take care of you? That's strange.

Are you sure ATI made the card? The driver might be on the mfg web site, like http://www.visiontek.com/.

 

[zonk]

You mean the ATI Catalyst doesn't take care of you? That's strange.

Are you sure ATI made the card? The driver might be on the mfg web site, like http://www.visiontek.com/.

The manufacturer was actually PNY -- but the card/book/etc said "ATI 9000 pro". Looking back, some of what I was trying to DL and install may have been for other features of the card -- but sure enough, the install kept demanding a disk. No matter what I installed - couldn't get my system to recognize the card (kept insisting it was a GeForce4).

In the end - as cheap as I got the card - it was too much of a pain to deal with, so I returned it. Got an overclocked GeForce 6200 with 256 megs at a with a bigger price tag, but at $90, still a VERY good deal, from what I can tell, and handles civ like a champ.

The one thing I learned from this was always check to see if the store has opened boxes or returns they're willing to unload -- but then be VERY careful to make sure you aren't missing anything!

 

[alamo]

Good advice.

Fry's tries to discount opened stuff, but it's such a trifle that I never go for it.

 

[Flyguy_1]

Alright, I've got a video question:

Going from integrated graphics to a real graphics card...

I've done all the checking and see that I have a 8x agp slot in my computer so I went and ordered a geforce 6600 that fits....my question is about installation...

Those that have done it, can you give me some advise? I've never done anything like this, and I don't want to destroy my computer lol. Many people have said it's easy, but do I have to mess with my BIOS and stuff like that? That seems scary to me.

 

[alamo]

No, do NOT mess with your BIOS unless you really need to, and then be VERY careful.

Installing a new video card should be easy. Here's a step-by-step. Obviously you do not need to remove the old card.

If not using on-board graphics then uninstall the old video adapter in device manager (start-run-devmgmt.msc).
Turn off the computer.
Unplug and open the case.
Remove the old video card - watch for a retaining clip, and apply upward pressure to both ends of the card (use the monitor output for the caseward side).
Notice how the output face of the old card fit into the case - there is probably a spot for the bottom end (opposite of the screw slot).
Carefully align the new card with the slot while holding the retaining clip. It should fit snugly BEFORE you start pushing down. If you can't get it lined up then look to see if the card notches line up with the slot (old AGP1 slots are notched differently, I think).
Be sure the output face is lining up correctly.
Push down on both ends gently but firmly until it is seated all the way into the slot.
Put the screw in, if there was one.
Plug it in and power up.
You should get standard VGA graphics first.
Follow the driver install instructions.

 

[alamo]

There are a few questions about what card to buy.

For what it's worth, my advice is to go up the line of cards until you cry for mercy on the price, then scale back as much as necessary to get a 512MB (or more!) card.

Civ4 is obviously a very memory intensive game, so consider buying more memory, too.

 

[Radio]

I'm currently playing the game on a Radeon 9600 and graphics display correctly and playably, however, framerates are noticably choppy when there are a lot of land improvements (or a lot of visible terrain in general). 9600 fits the basic requirements in terms of technology, but does not posess the "umph" to handle the amount of detail being thrown at it.

 

[alamo]

You might try uninstalling all ATI software and installing Catalyst 4.12.

It's kind of hard to find - try here

 

[alamo]

Update on my card - Frys just advertized ATI 9600 All-in-Wonder for cheaper than I paid for the 9550. Guess what I did today?

I got a better card, a case of coke, and some change back. To boot, they put that 9550 back on the shelf at a higher price than I originally paid!

 

[elbow]

Hi

I have a laptop with an ati radeon mobility 9200 card w/ 32 MB ram

According to the online test my system will run civ iv

I just got civ iv and have video problem

According to the online test my system will run civ iv - but i cannot. When I try to start the game, it starts but all I can see is the image of the globe above the med. and the title (Civilization IV) - no menus - so the game isn't really playable.

I assume this is a simple video issue as other people have been able to get 32mb card working, can anyone help. Are there some settings that i should be applying in the ATI control panel that will make this work?

 

[Emerentius]

hi alamo,
my system should work but i have frequent reboots.
so i guess it's not just the videocard but the fact i 've got a mobile cpu?
do you think the patch will sort this out?
every other game i've got is running smooth so i'm not inclined to change bios or use older drivers.

amd athlon mobile 3.0 GHZ (starts at 800 mhz then goes up)
1 gig Ram
Radeon x800 xt platinum
win xp pro service pack 2
latest drivers

 

[Tharak]

I bought a GeForce FX 5500 256mb for this game but am having difficulty installing, when I install the computer won't start up and the monitor displays a black screen with a blue box in the middle. Has anyone else experienced with their cards when installing?

I had to buy this to get my game to run as well - are you one of the many of us with the Intel chip set? I went to the Dell site to find instructions on how to install the new hardware - I had to "uninstall" (sort of) the old chip set..wasn't hard (if I can do it, anyone can) - the game works ok with it - not the fastest thing I've ever seen - would be interesting to see it on a good system..

 

[Jove]

My new rig:
AMD Athlon64 3200+ 2.0ghz 1000mhz FSB
Dual 512MB DDR400 RAM
GeForce 4, TI 4200 64MB (Model Ultra/650) because it was FREE!!!!

I was able to run the game, see the land.. I don't know if I'll get the Chershire Leader problem, as I didn't get to meet anyone. The screen crashed to gibberish after about 3 minutes. I'll look for solutions, but is there any bad news I ought to know about this card?

 

[Old Dood]

My new rig:
AMD Athlon64 3200+ 2.0ghz 1000mhz FSB
Dual 512MB DDR400 RAM
GeForce 4, TI 4200 64MB (Model Ultra/650) because it was FREE!!!!

I was able to run the game, see the land.. I don't know if I'll get the Chershire Leader problem, as I didn't get to meet anyone. The screen crashed to gibberish after about 3 minutes. I'll look for solutions, but is there any bad news I ought to know about this card?

By Jove (I just had to say that) that is a solid system. Nothing wrong with that good old video card! It is a solid card. I still have that one in my P3 800Mhz Dim 4100. I use to run it in my Dim 4600 until I got the best (at the time) 9800pro. My ONLY upgrade I would do right now for you is...double the ram at least. you know...since you saved all that money on a video card.

EDIT: Jove...you can at least go to crucial.com and look. That will not cost you anything. Just some window shopping.

 

[Jove]

By Jove (I just had to say that) that is a solid system.

Go ahead and say it, you're not the first.
I'm glad my system looks solid to you. I'm still having some problems. Civ4 crashed the first time I ran it, so I went and checked out WinUpdate (not sure if I actually got SP2 or SP1 ). I also tried HardPage. Setting Pixel Shader to 1.1 and then Disabled actually created the black terrain problem where there was none before. And the intro video sound is choppy. Setting everything back now...

I'd have to buy all new memory to upgrade it now: only two slots. I thought 1GB would be plenty... so what now?

I'm probably redundant. I'm posting my progress for help while I'm looking for it myself...

 

[Old Dood]

I misunderstood you. I read your ram as 512Mb. You wrote dual 512Mb. You mean you have two sticks of 512Mb? then ok...1Gb is the new minimum for today.

As for your service pack...go to Settings...Control Panel....System. The General box will show your system. Mine for example says Service Pack 2.