ATi cards and their problems?

[hundurinn]

I'm going to get a new graphic card and I'm going for ATi but i've read that there have been some problems with those cards in the demo. Some graphic problems. The card i'm going for is the Ati X800 XT and will I have to take the chance that the game will run well or with problems? Any word from CA?

[Red Harvest]

+DOC+ had some trouble with his X800 Pro (I think), but he was posting here recently (as Jambo) so it appears he got it working. The observed issue 9800's has been pretty small, and for most (if not all) of us it was resolved by changing some video settings in the game--turning them up rather than down. Since the demo doesn't properly store its own video settings (meaning it is a bug in the demo), I would be very surprised if there is a problem with ATI cards in the final release.

I have read a few reports of 5700 and GF4 owners complaining of very low frame rates (two or three examples of each) in the demo. They were not happy. Might just be problems with their installs though, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

[RTKLamorak]

hmm even the 6800's suck in Rome at the moment :

I get dips down to 27 frames per seconds (as well as generally poor performance as it having a generally "laggy" feel to it), regardless of cpu + RAM speeds!!! My P4 at 3 ghz and 3,4,4,8 memory latencies brings practically NO difference in frames compared to my P4 at 4 ghz 3,2,2,7... this is at low details by the way. When i overclock my 6800GT to 6800ultra speeds its also brings almost no visible change to the performance either.. which is pretty dodgy to say the least :S. C

Howver changing the video settings has a HUGE effect on performance!!!!... so theres something not right there! Im almost certain its a problem with the drivers or game tho, rather than an OS or hardware issue... so im not to worried about the final release.

In regard to the initial question, ive been a quite a few RTW threads at different tech sites lately, and havent heard of any issues like that with the X800 series. I think its very likely to have been a unique problem rather than a widespread problem.

edited for a ridiculous amounts of typos

[Colovion]

It seems everyone is having problems with running the demo smoothly....

time for CA to tell us what's up....

[Sir Robin]

I am a budget gamer so I am actually running a 9600 SE.

I had no problems with the demo the one time I was able to play it.

I have an Athlon with a Via Chipset and the ATI card has decided it hates my pc.

Major corrupt video issues even on the startup BIOS screen.

I may have to dump it for a NVidia if it isn't fixed soon.

A good hint at the problems for Via chipsets is the ATI Arena on the Via Forums.

Still you won't know until you try.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

I am running a radeon 9700 pro and the only graphics issues I've experienced have been the flare related to archers. Other than that, I've run everything with max setting and it has been smoothe as silk. The only true problem I have is with sound screeches from my Audigy Platinum card.

[mercian billman]

I run a ATI 7500 64 mb and, didn't have any problems.

[RTKLamorak]

Jacque Schtrapp, could you use this tool and take note of your highest and lowest fps when playing the battle of trebia unmodded for me please?

im intersted in how well the 9700p, and all ati cards run the demo!

[RTKLamorak]

in fact, can anyone who has a spare few minutes run the demo with this tool open in the background? and give your highest and lowest fps in the battle of trebia? and what detail+video settings ur running as well as ur general system specs (cpu/ram/gpu)? .. i would be very grateful

Thanks to all who participate!!! :D

[todorp]

I am a budget gamer so I am actually running a 9600 SE.

I had no problems with the demo the one time I was able to play it.

I have an Athlon with a Via Chipset and the ATI card has decided it hates my pc.

Major corrupt video issues even on the startup BIOS screen.

I may have to dump it for a NVidia if it isn't fixed soon.

A good hint at the problems for Via chipsets is the ATI Arena on the Via Forums.

Still you won't know until you try.

I have the same budget configuration and the game runs just FINE.

Win2K
Athlon 2500+
ATI 9200SE
1.5 GB RAM
patched to the _latest_ divers, patches, BIOS, etc

[RTKLamorak]

we need stats... highest/lowest fps, resolutions/deatails e.t.c :D

[Puzz3D]

Win98se
AMD XP2400+
MSI K7T Turbo2 (VIA KT133A chipset)
256 MB PC133 CL2 SDRAM running at 266 MHz
ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB (Catalyst 4.6 driver)

Trebia Battle
1024x768 32 bit color
no antialiasing
high details on units, tree, buildings etc
no smoke, shadows or glints
no TNL

10 to 20 fps using FRAPS

10 fps when all armies animated and in view
15 fps average medium zoom while playing
20 fps when zoomed in very close
25 fps with no men in view

[Red Harvest]

Everything running stock speeds.

1280x960x32
Maxed graphics options in game (except anti-aliasing)

Win98SE
AthlonXP 2400+
ASUS A7V266E @ 266 FSB, 4x AGP, 4x Interleave
512 MB DDR with "optimal" timings
Onboard C-media Sound
ATI Sapphire 9800 Pro

Avg: 15.715 - Min: 7 - Max: 29

Note I did a zoom in to the very thickest of the fighting and panned around to get minimum frame rate. Most of the time it was at the average, and quite playable.

While the vid card is up to date, the rest of the system is about two years old.

[Shigawire]

I ran everything on max, because putting everything on low doesn't improve the fps AT ALL! WAhahha how ridiculous is thaT?!


CPU: AMD Athlon 2400+XP,
Random Access Memory: 1gb PC2100 CL2.5
VGA-Adapter: Sapphire Radeon 9800XT, Catalyst 4.8 (also tried Omega)
Motherboard: VIA Chipset, MSI KT3 Ultra
Audio-adapter: Onboard audio AC97
Harddrive: 120gb WD "Caviar" 8mb cache
DirectX 9.0C

Computer fully optimized using:
1.Common sense
2.Win xp manager

1024x768x16
Trebia, modded (only difference: 121 man Poeni infantry)
Armysize, Carthage: 1200, Rome: 1500 = 2700 soldiers

FPS:
Minimum: 7-15
Maximum: 20-32

Minimum fps occurs:
1.When both armies are in view.
2.When the game is not paused, i.e. soldiers animated.
3.When soldiers fight.

Maximum fps occurs:
1.When no armies are in view.
2.When game is paused.
3.When most combat-operations are over, and many are dead.


Also, many of the options in Preferences.txt doesn't work.
I've tried disabling gloss_mapping (which is basically specular shading), and it does nothing. I've tried disabling TNL, triplebuffer.. this had absolutely no effect on the FPS. I also tried disabling USE_FIXED_FUNCTION_PIPELINE, which is an NVIDIA-feature for vertex-shading, disabling it had NO effect.
The only thing which had an effect was the UNIT_USE_SHADERS which is THE vertex shader. Disabling it made it run horribly of course..
So it seems some options in Preferences.txt has an effect, while others don't have an effect.

[Jambo]

Hi all,

My system:
ATI Radeon 800XT Pro 256 MB; Catalyst 4.8 drivers
Athlon 3200+ XP
1 GB RAM
Direct X 9.0c
Running at 1280 x 1024 with max settings apart from unit quality (this seems to be the only one that makes a difference when turned down).

The problems I've been experiencing:
Low FPS compared to relatively low-spec systems (10-30 fps)
Weird red flashing (sunburst effect) coming from some units

Regards

Doc

[RTKLamorak]

Thanks for the stats all ... it certainly seems like CA have a LOT more optimising to do!!!

my min fps - 27

max fps - 54

Driver quality settings on max, 8x AF , low-level AA selected from within game, ALL in game settings to medium only

When the action starts, and with anything closer than mid range camera my fps stays almost exclusively in the 30's/high 20's :S .. and feels really sluggish compared to ANY other game on this system. When zoomed out fps hovers at 40 - 54, but it just doesnt feel refined and smooth imo.


Specs:

P4 @ 4.0ghz
1gb RAM running at 250mhz 3,2,2,7
Nvidia 6800GT @ ultra speeds


I really do hope when the final release hits, and we are using different drivers that performance is MASSIVELY improved, because the demo performance is shockingly bad.... and even high end systems run it like you would expect low-mid end system to run a well scaled, and properly optimised game.

Nvidia/ATI have also got some work to do to dont get me wrong, but from the limited amount we have seen of rtw so far its performance is well below par.

[Shahed]

I am running a radeon 9700 pro and the only graphics issues I've experienced have been the flare related to archers. Other than that, I've run everything with max setting and it has been smoothe as silk. The only true problem I have is with sound screeches from my Audigy Platinum card.

Hey thats the same card as me Jacque.

Did you try ruinning the Trebia battle at maximum speed with all settings maxed. Just asking because I did, and I had a few stutters there.

Not that it's supremely important becuase on normal speed and max settings the game runs wonderfully.

Please let me know if you have stutters on max speed, that way I may be able to identify if it's something related to my config.

Or if anyone has a RAD9700PRO, then please post your results: Maximum AA +AF and everything maxed, plus maximum game speed.

Thanks

[Shahed]

Oh...and I had the flares as well, sometimes.

[Shahed]

Hmm well nevermind, I've decided to get an X800 by the time RTW is out. Thanks though

Hopefully RTW will be better with that card, although
h RTW is not the reason for that purchase. It's primarily for Lock On: Modern Air Combat. Anyway hope RTW works ok with that card.

[Fearless]

My son has a P4 with a Radeon 9700 pro and the demo runs as smooth as silk apart from the starburst which disappeared with everything on maximum. I have problems with the demo on my Athlon 2200 Geforce Ti4600. Tried my son's Radeon in my machine and didn't run as smooth as silk. Therefore I'm thinking maybe it isn't the video cards but the processor! ......strange!!

[Ja'chyra]

I run a ATI 7500 64 mb and, didn't have any problems.

Does that mean I can play the game on my ATI 7500 card? I hope so I can't afford a new one at the moment

[Blodrast]

hmm, i have a P4-1.8, GF4 MX440/64mb, and no matter how i tweaked the settings, the game runs very slow, the intro movie of the trebia battle crawls, and the poeni either have no spears, or no men ;)
that's right, depending on how i adjust the settings for unit detail and anti-aliasing, I either get men holding nothing, or spears just standing straight up without anyone holding them ;P

i've tried the latest drivers from nvidia, but they just made it worse (for other games as well), so i reinstalled the previous version.
Tried both directx 9b and 9c...same thing.
Now, my system meets the minimum config. So ? ...
Again, I played with the unit detail, anti-aliasing, etc.
I even tried the lowest possible settings: 800X600X32 (ok, they can go lower than that, i know), and everything else on lowest, except for unit detail, or AA, or both.
My system _should_ be able to handle that. But nope, it doesn't work.
Animation is still jumpy/crawly, horses don't get drawn properly during the intro movie, you can see polygons flying all over the place, and the poeni still can't sport full eq: it's either their spears, or themselves, but never both at the same time !

Well, I'd appreciate any ideas / recommendations...

thanks

ps. sorry for being slightly OT

[Sir Robin]

Well nothing worked so I finally gave up and picked up a cheap NVidia 5200 AGP.

ATI recommends a 300W and I have a 250W so that may have been the issue.

No more corrupt graphic issues whether in or out of the game.

Graphics are a smidge slower but everything shows up clearly.

Once I finish tweaking WinXP's settings I should be able to improve the FPS.

Just refuses to go over 20 FPS no matter what settings I use.

[Tera]

I have an Athlon XP 1800+, 9800Pro128 and 512mb 333Mhz CAS2.5..everything high and it lags a bit when many units are being processed.

My CPU is a bottleneck, however I think the performance will be bettered across the board in the full release. Many full-game previews are showing this.

[Red Harvest]

I have gotten the impression that the game is CPU bottlenecked. As part of the evidence I will point to 3x mode. It runs about 3+ FPS with a 9800 Pro at 1280x960x32, on an XP2400+. It also is a fairly consistent value (not stuttering or pausing.) That's not the vid cards fault, that is clearly a case of either CPU or FSB bottleneck. I can't rule out FSB just yet, but it really looks like CPU compute cycles.

Blodrast,
the MX440 is really based on a couple of generation old architecture--kind of like a Radeon 7500, but 4 pipe instead of 2 in the 7500. It does not have hardware shader support (software support only, although NV's advertising is misleading in this regard.) You might be able to get full graphics rendering by trying that "SHADERS = TRUE" flag in preferences.txt (poke around and see if you can find it set to "FALSE.") However, you might find that you get the graphics, but the frame rate is unplayable.

A P4 1.8 is going to be hurting as well due ot the CPU limitations, but I think the vid card is the issue with your machine. Hopefully the final release will be a bit better with ~2 GHz machines and mid range vid card hardware.

[ToranagaSama]

Hello,

Just ran the Demo, played as the Romans, to check the fps, as I saw a couple of folks with the same card as me. I used Fraps, and hit the F11 key, but isn't the F11 key also a function in the game? I think I need to change the benchmarking key in Fraps to something else to get better results, but anyway, here are my settings, results and specs:

I ran the game at 1600x1200x32 with all settings maxed, both shadows boxes checked as well all the other boxes except Widescreen, unit size was normal.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
3061,120000,8,35,25.508

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2784,88924,0,86,31.308

[For proper reference, Note the resolution]

Abit IC7-G
Pentium 2.4c (12x250 1:1)
Thermalright XP-94 (Vantec Tornardo 92mm ~3000rpm)
ATI Radeon 9700 pro (357/343.5)
2x512 MB Corsair XMS 3200XL (2.5-3-3-5)
Addtronics 7890A (modified by www.coolcases.com)
Cornerstone p1700 (21")
Win2000pro SP4

This is only the second occaison I've played with the demo. The second time I hit F11, I think the game was *doing* something, calculating or something, which accounts for the 0 fps.

On the first occasion I ran with the same setup, except I had yet to mod the demo. The demo ran *perfectly* with absolutely not stuttering, slowdowns, or anything, except for a quick flash of what I guess was *Tearing*, perhaps a v-sync error. Something that probably won't be in the final version.

Be a while before I so inclined to play the demo again. Count me in the thoroughly dissapointed camp!

[ToranagaSama]

Oh, there is one graphical glitch, that also sometimes occured in MTW under certain circumstances which I forget.

The Unit Flags at the bottom of the screen weren't visible, only the number representing the unit size.

I believe this occurs if you try to Escape out of the Opening Movie.

[ah_dut]

I have got the same results, on high settings, the game runs better than on low settings, a serious wtf momnent.
anyways my system stats
2.4g p4
asus (can't remeber model) mb
fx 5600xt
512 ddr 2700 ram
80 gb wd 8mb buffer hd

does the job with rtw no problems at all really

[King Edward]

I am running a radeon 9700 pro and the only graphics issues I've experienced have been the flare related to archers. Other than that, I've run everything with max setting and it has been smoothe as silk. The only true problem I have is with sound screeches from my Audigy Platinum card.

The archer flare is the only problem i have had with my 9600XT (256mb)

[crazyviking03]

Same here, I have 9600 XT, only having archer flare.