Graphics card that can run MTW *without* rolling back the drivers?

[Martok]

I've finally got the money together to buy a new PC, and will be building it myself with the help of a couple friends. Huzzah!

My problem, however, is this: My two favorite games -- Medieval Total War and Galactic Civilizations 2 -- don't run on the same video drivers (I currently have an older Nvidia card). So whenever I've been playing one game and I decide to play the other, I first have to change video drivers. While I don't view this as a major inconvenience, it's still a pain. Needless to say, I would very much like to avoid this issue on my new PC.

So my question is: Does a decent video card exist that wouldn't require me to switch back and forth between drivers all the time? Or am I doomed?

[BlackAxe3001]

Change video drivers? What are you talking about? I have used my 84.25 drivers for years and never had a problem. I can run MTW and galciv2 no problem. What is your current card? I am using a 6800, so yeah. Why are you switching drivers to play different games? What happens if you don't switch drivers?

[sapi]

Why would you have to change drivers?

It's not like new drivers don't work on old games....

[caravel]

Change video drivers? What are you talking about? I have used my 84.25 drivers for years and never had a problem. I can run MTW and galciv2 no problem. What is your current card? I am using a 6800, so yeah. Why are you switching drivers to play different games? What happens if you don't switch drivers?

Unfortunately not the case. There are numerous problems that occur with MTW as a result of newer drivers, especially with regard to ATI. This is not always the case but often the only solution for ATI users is to use older drivers.

The campaign map tends to be the biggest problem area. It is this part of the game that CTDs under the newer drivers. For Nvidia there is the 2x antialiasing fix, for ATI any antialiasing at all can cause the game to become very choppy, and doesn't fix the problem anyway.

[Martok]

Exactly. My current machine with the latest drivers installed would cause MTW to CTD everytime I loaded up a campaign, so I'd have to roll back to an older version. GalCiv2, however, won't run unless I have the latest drivers installed. So I'm in a catch-22 situation.

[BlackAxe3001]

@Martok
What's your card? I will tell you which drivers are the best ones for your card. 84.25 are the best for mine (so far as I have seen) so I refuse to change. Never had a problem. The latest and greatest are definitely not the best, especially for older cards.

@Caravel
I do remember the driver problem with MTW with AA and that. You refreshed my memory. But galciv2 doesn't need the latest drivers; I played it just last weekend using the 84.25 drivers. He is using an nvidia card too, so we don't have to worry about ATI for the moment, which makes it easier. Any drivers that work with MTW should work with galciv2. I don't see why there would be a problem.

@Martok
Exactly what happens if you don't use the latest drivers with galciv2 that work with MTW?

[R'as al Ghul]

I have the ATI x1600 Pro 256 MB from Powercolor.
A rather low priced card that works nicely. (90€)
I've the latest drivers and M2 works on very high settings (even largest units)
and MTW doesn't give any problems.
My campmap crashed two or three times yesterday but that was due to constant starting and closing the game.

R'as