Enclear text

[cabal23]

I just reinstalled this on my new computer but now on the text i get little white blocks. On the menu screen, in game, everywhere. I have up to date graphics driver and other than that the game seems to run fine. Any ideas?

[Pandur]

can you post a DxDiag? or maybe what type of hardware works in youre new PC?

i cant think of anything right now, and i cant remember any thread here in the support forums with someone haveing a similar or the same problem.

[SlowMotion]

In some CMx1 games this happened with some graphics cards when using antialias. Have you tried switching antialias off from Windows display properties.

[cabal23]

I am using a newer quad core Gateway slimline with an integrated graphics cards. The game runs fair which hopefully will be resolved today when I drop in another 4 gb or ram bumping me up to 8 gb of ram. In the CM options screen it say my computer doesn't support anti-aliasing. My next solution if ram doesn't help performance and the unclear ext is a low profile video card which I do have a slot for. The problem is it has to support 220 watts power supply and nothing more which cuts my choices down to just a few.This is the only game I run and I am doing my best to an otherwise screaming fast computer to run CM SF as well as I need it to.

[Pandur]

where the heck you bought a new computer with 220 watt PSU!? integrated graphics card? iam playing the game on 2Gb DDR2 800Mhz and it runs perfectly fine. what do you want with 8Gb of RAM

iam running a rather old P5N-E SLI motherboard with intel E6600 quad core and a single Nvidia GTX275 graphics card. my PSU is 525 Watt.

youre integrated graphics card is killing off the PC, can you post a DxDiag to be sure!?

[cabal23]

It is a slimline computer. Very small. We just bought 50 of them for my school I work at for a photoshop lab and I assumed as CMSF is the only game I play, it would run fine. Cnet gave it 4 out 5 stars and I trust their reviews It runs great, but the problem I think is the card has no anti-aliasing and a few other 3d specific functions, so I need to find a video card that can run on a 220 power supply and is low profile. I have a few options, but I need to keep looking. I know having a quad core and soon to be 8 gb of ram(I run a lot of photoshop and video/music editing software, hence the 8gb of ram) seem like it would run CMSF fantastic, but alas I am being hampered by a simple thing like a 220 watt power supply. Arrgghh!

[cabal23]

FYI:

Here is the link to the computer so you can see for yourself:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/gateway-sx2800-01/4505-3118_7-33699400.html

[Pandur]

ok i beginn see, well this is unfortunate. i looked up the specs and this thing is perfectly suited for cmsf BUT the GMA X4500 integrated graphics card does criple teh system for "gaming".

i understand the need for more ram when you are doing videos but no matter if 4Gb or 8Gb of ram, your "bottleneck" is the GFX card. as said i have 2Gb of DDR2 800Mhz, YOU have 4Gb DD3 800Mhz, wich means even if you had only 2GB of the same, it would not make any difference for CMSF.

so you are stuck with a 220 watt PSU wich ultimatively restricts your choice of GFX cards to ancient+tiny models.

now i dont know what cards you did dig up to fit in there, i cant think of many if any. btw is this a AGP or PCI-E slot where you could fit a card? i couldnt find this described in youre link.

[SlowMotion]

That old antialias problem happened if you had *enabled* antialiasing. And it was fixed by disabling it.

I don't know what will fix the white text problem, but if CMSF is slow, your gfx card only having 32MB memory is the biggest problem IMO. 256MB or more would give you much better performance.

[cabal23]

It is pci-e and it needs to be low profile. Any ideas?. My searches have been iffy at best. Some don't say what power supply is required. I was thinking a real simple 256 mb card would do fine. I just need one that is low profile and works with a 220 watt psu.

[Pandur]

well basicly you can check that youreself. any semi detailed GFX card description states how much amperes(A) the card will suck in. now all you have to do is to look up the specific data of your PSU and see how much A it can deliver on the +12V(olt) line. when it says the card needs 30A and the PSU gives 25A through the +12V line, its obviouself not good.

now what "I" would do, is to not think how to shrink a GFX card into youre/my system but go out, scavange a empty 2nd hand regular tower from friends or somewhere, get a adequat PSU and motherboard wich supports the socket your CPU needs, and a GFX card, and put it together, and voilá, you can play CMSF

but i guess you will try to keep the system smal? is there any reason to do that other then to have a smal system or you carry it around a lot?

[Schrullenhaft]

You could possibly update the video drivers, though that isn't guaranteed to do much. The latest version for the Intel G43 / GMA X4500 is 15.13.1.64.1688, dated 4/2/2009 for Windows Vista 64-bit (Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, etc.).

To my knowledge the Intel GMA video series most likely does not support anti-aliasing, so the option to turn that off (or on) doesn't exist to affect this text issue.

For a replacement videocard, there isn't a whole lot of options with your particular box. I'm not sure of the current power draw, but a videocard based on the GeForce 9500GT would probably be the best bet. Cards based on this GPU typically will pull about 50W and DO NOT require an additional PCIe power connector (which your power supply probably lacks). Here's one model from Newegg:

SPARKLE SFPX95GT512U2L GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit Low Profile

Generally these cards aren't going to compare too well with higher end videocards, but they should be marginally better than the Intel GMA X4500, though I'm not sure by how much. Between Nvidia and ATI, Nvidia may be the better choice for CMSF since Nvidia does a slightly better job with OpenGL drivers. However both Nvidia and ATI/AMD have issues with their drivers every-so-often, so neither are perfect.

[cabal23]

I am going to see what that sparkle video card can do. I think between that and the quad core/4-8 gb of ram I should be fine. Thanks for taking the time to look that up. You rock!!!

Joe

[Pandur]

even if this is no high end card, for 50 to 60 bucks you "should" get at least a noticable if not even a rather decent performace gain through a "dedicated" GFX card. and you have AA wich even set to 2x or 4x, makes the picture look much much better as all the edges wich look like stairs are made smooth.

if you make progress be sure to post here and tell us how the new card is performing or if you have any additional problems.

good luck

[cabal23]

Well the problem has been solved on all fronts with the purchase of that Sparkle video card. The text is now clear and my draw distance is just as good as before. So no real issues. I had to convert the card from the standard pc size to the slimline with an adapter that comes with card. It just involved a few screws and removing the standard video input and just leaving the digital one. All in all for $60 I am happy to be playing CMSF again. Thanks for all the help.

[Pandur]

great to hear. in case you have any performance problems when playing larger scenarios i give you a few tips on the way

- i have a fairly powerfull graphics card, however i play without shadows, runs smoother and looks better in my view.

- this seems minor but swtch off the objective while playing with Alt+J i belive. strangely this helps with fluidity too. if it happens that i forgett the exact location of a objective, a fast Alt+J will show it and then i switch it off again.

- i had a 7950GT and now have a GTX275 both cards with nvidia chipset, and both play better in CMSF with "threading optimisation" off, in the nvidia controll panel.

for me this helped.