MarcM Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 So, it turns out my current video card (ATI Radeon 6870HD) doesn't do CM3.x shaders that well, giving me luminous green surfaces where I'd expect to see...well, not that! It did it for CMBN3.x and it's doing it now for CMBS. I put a tech support ticket in and the recommendation is a change of video card. Drastic measures, to be sure, but I never liked my video card (was part of a pre-built system). ATI Driver delivery would be a 50/50 affair - 50% likelihood of the driver not working at all (black screen). I've saved up enough to buy a good medium spec card and was looking for some recommendations from folk who get good frames with smoke, shadows and shaders, with hit decals showing. FWIW, I have discovered that hit decals only seem to show when shaders are on. Give with one hand, take with the other? Anyhoo, If anyone has been using Nvidia cards with good results, I'd like to hear about it. Cheers. Marc 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Before you buy a new card, what driver version are you using? I have a 6870, w7/64, and it runs fine. Ken 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcM Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Latest,14.12 Omega. Actually, I've tried at least 3 different drivers going back to 14.8 or such (not at my computer, don't know exactly). I actually have 2 of these cards, had them in Crossfire, but one has since died this weekend past and now only one 1Gb card. To confirm, I'm ready to upgrade. It will happen. I'm just going to move to Nvidia. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chops Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I am familiar with the problem you have mentioned, and have a Radeon 5770. Use the Catalyst version 14.4 Driver. With my next system build, I will definitely be switching over to Nvidia for my graphics card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linguo Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I have a GTX 660 you can have, if you don't mind paying for shipping from Seattle. It is in perfect working condition. PM me if you are interested. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcM Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wow, Linguo! Thanks kindly for the offer, I'm all set to get a new one, however. I'm kinda leaning to a GTX 960. Does any have one of these? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leakyD Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I have a GTX 660 you can have, if you don't mind paying for shipping from Seattle. It is in perfect working condition. PM me if you are interested. Hi Lingo, if offer is still available, my 260 could REALLY use an upgrade! Holding out on total system upgrade (2009 build), so 660 would be a great stopgap. Sending PM... Thx, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock Tamson Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 The CM series is unchallenging to video cards. I have had a GTX 580 1.5GB, a GTX 680 4GB and currently a GTX 980 4GB, and frame rates have not changed one iota in CM. So if you want to save a bit of cash and CM is your main game playing, get a mid-range card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcM Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Hi jock, thanks for your reply. Whilst my OP was about getting the right card for CM shaders to work, I actually have diverse interests in gaming, notibly the Remastered Homeworld series (when released), as well as DCS. For this reason I was aiming a tad higher that I imagined was necessary, but am still aiming to get the shaders working properly. Cheers, Marc 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c3k Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 GTX960 is aimed squarely at 1080p gaming. A lot of reviews out there. Most games play at decent rates with some eyecandy enabled. (You won't get 60 fps with every slider at "ultra".) It's a solid midlevel card. The GTX970 is a much bigger jump in capability (despite the hue and cry about 3.5gb + .5gb segmented memory). But, it will crush every game at 1080p. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock Tamson Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Hi jock, thanks for your reply. Whilst my OP was about getting the right card for CM shaders to work, I actually have diverse interests in gaming, notibly the Remastered Homeworld series (when released), as well as DCS. For this reason I was aiming a tad higher that I imagined was necessary, but am still aiming to get the shaders working properly. Cheers, Marc In that case I agree with c3k, GTX 970 is best bang for buck at the moment, and overclocks well and safely should you feel inclined. Some brands offer out-of-the-box overclocked cards that will bring performance not far short of a 980. Having said all that, a 970 performs barely differently to a 680, maybe just a bit more future proofed if any developers start using the new anti aliasing technique [MFAA]. There are lots of good, used, 680s on eBay (including mine ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcM Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Thanks folks for your replies. That narrows it down quite a bit. As I type this, I'm downloading the now Catalyst software suite 14.501. I'll see how this goes, but a new card is definitely on the horizon. FWIW, here is a picture of the green hue shader issue: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennay Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 i might be in the same boat here with my HD 5790's i get the same thing a fix is to press alt-R for shaders off better than green 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleader Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I noticed that the price of cards seems to shoot up after Xmas. Isn't that backwards? I was looking at an R9 270x for $120 on Newegg around Xmas and now they're up to $180 again. The 280x and GTX 960 jumped way up to. What gives? Expecting big volume at Xmas? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiggum15 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Just dont buy a ATI/AMD card for Combat Mission. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleader Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I still play it on my laptop with a Radeon 6755G2 and have never had issues. Red Thunder was quite smooth, shadows and shaders look good, but for some reason I'm seeing a performance hit with CMBS. Could just be in the maps with lots of buildings, I'm still testing. It is however time to upgrade the desktop from the Athlon 4000+ and 8800GT card, which is still surprisingly fast, but even my laptop kills it. I've seen lots of CM threads dedicated to Nvidia fixes. Has that all been ironed out now with those cards? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I agree with the advice of not buying an AMD card, sadly I have owned al lot over the years. Their continued issues with not supporting Open GL well keeps tripping players of this game up. Since it is pretty much the only game I play I switched to Nvidia with my last computer upgrade. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thewood1 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I have had AMD CPUs and GPUs since I can remember. My most recent laptop was a Lenovo with an a10 quad and 85XX radeon. It ran CM2 OK and did flight sims relatively well for a $500 laptop. I just got my bonus and decided to splurge on a new laptop. I really agonized over going to Intel CPUs, but I knew the Intel GPU sucked. I decided to drop $900 on a new mid-range MSI laptop. It has an I7-4710Q 8 core and an nVidia 850 GPU. It is awesome. My lesson from my last 10 years...bail on AMD if you can. Intel and nVidia are the shizzel. CMBS runs at Best/Best with full AA and all the bells and whistles. btw, its not just OpenGL support, I am finding my very first nVidia card a godsend in most of my games. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Joch Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 (edited) I have a AMD R9 290. Works perfectly fine here. Fast and perfect graphics. No issues in any of the game I play. Whenever the time comes to upgrade, I usually wind up buying a AMD card because they give you the most bang for the buck. Driver issues come and go, NVIDIA drivers have had as many as ATI drivers. Part of the problem comes from the fact CM uses Open gl while most games use Direct X. Edited February 14, 2015 by Sgt Joch 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Joch Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 (edited) Thanks folks for your replies. That narrows it down quite a bit. As I type this, I'm downloading the now Catalyst software suite 14.501. I'll see how this goes, but a new card is definitely on the horizon. FWIW, here is a picture of the green hue shader issue: Have you tried the 14.4 drivers? Edited February 14, 2015 by Sgt Joch 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaReks Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Id agree that the gtx 680 is still a steal if you can get it on ebay. I have had one for a few years and only recently ran into games that I could not pump to max settings. If however you have a bit more cash I would also recommend the gtx 970. Just keep in mind both of these cards are fairly long. For what it's worth, I have personally only ever had driver issues with ATI cards. I used to buy the best card available, but now I choose the best nvidia card as a rule and recommend nvidia solutions to my friends. Given that ATI tend to have issues with OpenGL and that CM is based upon OpenGL I would suggest staying away from ATI if you are going to purchase a new card. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennay Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 i have had these cards for a long time sadly ATi stands on the rule of not supporting legacy drivers (waiting on DCS 2.0) but a new card is out of the picture for now sadly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcM Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Have you tried the 14.4 drivers? No, I may have updated my drivers since buying into the CM franchise (just these last few months). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleader Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Id agree that the gtx 680 is still a steal if you can get it on ebay. I have had one for a few years and only recently ran into games that I could not pump to max settings. If however you have a bit more cash I would also recommend the gtx 970. Just keep in mind both of these cards are fairly long. For what it's worth, I have personally only ever had driver issues with ATI cards. I used to buy the best card available, but now I choose the best nvidia card as a rule and recommend nvidia solutions to my friends. Given that ATI tend to have issues with OpenGL and that CM is based upon OpenGL I would suggest staying away from ATI if you are going to purchase a new card. Wow. they still want a lot for a used GTX 680...almost as much as a new GTX 960, which doesn't make much sense to me. Benchmarks for the GTX 960 are very good, equivalent to the GTX 770/R9 285. It's running an avg. of 56fps on Ultra/1920 in BF4. That's plenty for my needs, and I would think is way beyond what CM needs. Is this series not largely CPU-limited? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thewood1 Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 I buy 1-2 laptops a year and have consistently found that CM2 is much more CPU intensive than GPU. I am sure there is some switch over point as you tinker with both, but that is my anecdotal experience over 8-10 laptops of increasing power. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.