Pzman

Well, it would still run on a such a system, but that doesn't mean it would play well. Personally I wouldn't want to play CMSF on anything less than a x2 4200+ (AMD) or a 3.8Ghz P4. As for a video card, from ATI, the x1600 would be the lowest I'd want to play with (it was even sluggish on that card) and a 7600GT from Nvidia. I also would want at least a gig of RAM.

Yeah, in that case, I would try and find a card with 512MB VRAM. For larger maps its going to be the VRAM that makes the big difference. Maybe even a 7800GT with more memory would be better, problem will be finding one. Even on eBay its hard to get your hands on anything other than 7200s or 7600s.

That would be the best course of action, honestly putting money into such an old system isn't worth while, given that even today's low cost Pentium Dual Core (not P4s, rather C2Ds stripped down to 1MB L2 cache) are faster than your current system.

The best AGP card available, and the only one from the current generation of cards, is the ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 512MB. From Nvidia, 79xx card, as none of the 8xxx series is available in AGP format. Thing is the best AGP card is going to cost you more than the current 8800GT! Honestly, its not worth putting money into a system like that, your better off saving your money for a LGA 775 based system with a low cost Core 2 Duo, even a Pentium Dual Core (not a P4 based chip, rather based on the C2D) would blow that out of the water. [ April 04, 2008, 06:27 AM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

Your machine is getting on the old side (if 3Ghz HT = P4), but should do okay on low settings in game.

Mac OS isn't perfect. I used it exclusively until last year. Things don't always "just work" in my experience (20 years of it with Mac OS), so please don't pretend that they do. There were times I wanted to throw my MBP out the window because things didn't "just work." Anyway, hardware stability wise, Macs are better sure, because Apple controls it, but software wise, lots of issues. Such as the hack last week that allowed a hacker to gain complete control of a Safari using Macbook in 5 minutes. The 8800GT used in a PC is the same as the one that ships with Mac Pros, its just got a different picture on the cooling fan. The drivers all come from Nvidia, just like for the Mac, so no difference there. Only difference is the EFI vs. BIOS used to access the abilities of the card. [ April 03, 2008, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

But it doesn't change the graphics engine, its still a 8800, due to the graphics core, which in the end is all the matters when it comes to naming the cards. The performance difference between manufactures is so small its not worth having dozens of different models to increase confusion in the already confusing graphics card market. The x1600 in your MBP is still a x1600, whether the card was manufactured directly by AMD/ATI or ASUS, XFX, EVGA etc.

Its not a different card, they all use the G85 (8800GS, GTS, GTX) or G92(8800GT) core from Nvidia, but different companies use different kinds and amount of memory, coolers, core speeds etc. The title is assigned my Nvidia, not the manufactures.

I have an 8800GT and it works great. If you wait till the 9800GT cards come out the prices on the 8800s will fall too.

Make sure you have the newest catalyst drivers for your video card (Catalyst 8.3). This link is to Windows XP drivers http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

So you have two graphics cards? "NVidia GeForce 5700 FX" and the Radeon 1650?

Have any of you guys tried using the latest beta drivers to see if those would help?

Are you having issues with other games? If not I doubt its a problem with the card. Do you have the latest drivers (for the card & OpenGL)?

You are running the game on a machine with integrated graphics, its not going to look or preform well. Considering that people with much higher end dedicated graphics cards have poor performance kind of makes that clear. Are you on a notebook or a desktop? If you have a desktop with a AGP slot or a PCI-E slot, I would recommend getting a dedicated graphics card.

You could always upgrade... I mean, down grade to Windows XP, that might work. I say that because the 169 drivers work just fine with XP Pro and CMSF, with a 8600GT, with x2 4800+, 2GB (not Ghz) RAM.

Issue with that is, you cannot unbutton the Bradley in CMSF.

Speed wise, the 9600GT kicks 8600GTS in every way. Look at the bench marks yourself on, Toms hardware and AnandTech. For example: full review: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/21/nvidia_geforce_9600_gt/ I must say that its a good card for the price. Not as good at every task as the 8800s, but that is why Nvidia is going to release the 9700 series later this year. One thing to consider, CMSF is going to be hard on any video setup, so it seems since even people with 8800GTX models still struggle with frame raters with the graphics settings on high. You must just have to bump down your settings a little. I run it on Improved on my 8600GT. [ February 29, 2008, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

The Nvidia 9600GT (512MB VRAM standard) just came out, for under $200... that is your best bang for your buck. Benchmarks show its about on par with the 8800GT in many tasks. I just got my system, but wanted a low end graphics card (EVGA 8600GT Superclocked model)to hold me over till the summer, when I snap up something a little nicer. I'm thinking the Nvidia 9600GT or the ATI Radeon HD3870, which is in the same price range, and slightly out preforms the 9600GT in most games.

Sounds a little odd to me, it must be driver related, because clearly it is not due to and underpowered card. I was thinking of a different card than the 7900GTX (my bad).

What graphics settings do you have? Have you tried lowering the AA and AF settings. Its not like you have a high end graphics card there. I'm using a 8600GT and don't have that issue. Have you tried using newer drivers for the card? Or do you use those because other games have issues with newer drivers? [ February 28, 2008, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

At low resolutions like 1024x768, the bottleneck is more your CPU than the video card. BTW is that 4600+ X2 or a single? I ask because my (2.5Ghz) 4800+ x2 uses 50% (equaling 100% on a single core CPU), which makes me think CM isn't using as much horse power as it should in your case. [ February 28, 2008, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

Have you tried running the game with SLI disabled?

SLI (not SLR) is not that great with some games, and I doubt CMSF is optimized for SLI/Crossfire support, so lag is possible. I find CMSF runs just fine on my 8600GT.

Yeah, I would advise using a two button mouse. You really cannot play games with a trackpad, and the bootcamp trackpad drivers suck, which doesn't help any.

Try running anti-virus and/or a spyware checker, that might help.