Graphics Issues, High Specs, Low Performance & Watery Hills

[joeflint82]

I run the game in 1280x960, with every option turned to low or off, as anything higher causes lag, despite me seemingly having a system significantly better than the minimum spec:

Windows Vista 32-Bit
Intel(R)Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
4Gb of ram (3Gb enabler on)

When I play a map with lots of mountains, I get the glitch where lots of the imagery turns to water, or it just blurs like crazy. I've read in one post that it is something to do with shaders (which I have set to low).

Does anyone know how I can boost performance, or at least make things more bearable when playing a mountainous terrain.

Thanks.

[karsten]

Personally, I would replace the graphics card. Its three years old, and SMR graphics are much more enjoyable with a modern low-cost card.

[joeflint82]

If that time frame is accurate, then the graphics card is still more modern than SMR, so surely I should be able to play it at better than minimum without lag.

I noticed in one post on the forum 'I assume you know to only use a single processor' (close-enough quote). Is this something I should be inhibiting somehow?

If I were to buy another graphics card, what should I be looking to buy, I'm in the UK and would likely buy it from ebuyer.com. I certainly wouldnt want to be paying much more than £50. However this does seem unnecessary. That site has a:
'Inno3D 9500GT 1GB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card'
For £56. Would this make my game play significantly better?

SMR is pretty much the only game I play that is close to modern. I might dust off Footy Manager in the future, other than that everything I play is comfortably over 5 years old.

[Jancsika]

When I play a map with lots of mountains, I get the glitch where lots of the imagery turns to water, or it just blurs like crazy. I've read in one post that it is something to do with shaders (which I have set to low).

Does anyone know how I can boost performance, or at least make things more bearable when playing a mountainous terrain.

Before you run and buy a new graphic card:
Set your shader to "Medium", this is a must!
...and experiment with the Anti-Aliasing setting. In your case it should be set to "0" but changing it to 2 or 4 then reverting to 0 might have some effect on the water color.
Jancsika

[joeflint82]

After changing the shader settings, it started to lag noticeably, even after a restart.

My graphics card drivers are from March '10, I have DirectX 11 & I last did a windows update yesterday. I can't think of anything else I've done, nor anything else too do.

I can lower the resolution, but it makes the game difficult to play, due to the limited zoom out. Ideally I'd rather use a larger resolution.

I'm flumaxed.

[joeflint82]

I just successfully played a full game on Mesa Madness. It lagged a little more than my usual settings. I'd definately prefer a performance boost.

I'm 90% sure my Vid Card is 512Mb, the only place I can think to look is DirectX Diagnostic Tool, which shows 'Approx. Total Memory 1647Mb' which is confusing.

Would I get a decent boost in performance with a Series 9 1Gb Vid Card? Such as the one I was looking at for £56.

[karsten]

Looks pretty good value for money to me, according to Amazon reviews, where it is a bit cheaper, people run Crysis and F.E.A.R. at high level with it - should be a dream with SMR.
To be safe, maybe you can check with a dealer what they say about SMR performance with this card.

[joeflint82]

I love this community/forum. People are here to actually help others.

Thanks for the info on the card I was looking at. They had a nice ASUS one on ebuyer too.

Asus 9500GT 1GB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

Not sure whether a dealer would have much specific knowledge on SMR, what cards do people have on here? is anyone able to play with all the graphical trimmings and a large resolution? if so, using what?

[karsten]

I have an ATI Radeon HD 4800. No problem with all high settings on 1920x1080, which is my native monitor resolution.

[joeflint82]

Funny story...

... My graphics card had slipped into a safety mode, and has been running at absolute minimum levels since forever.

Even with default settings, my system now tonks SMR at a very fast rate on 1680x1050 (native for me ). Boy do I feel dumb, but not so dumb, because I KNEW that it should have been performing loads better.

[karsten]

Good to hear ... problem solved!

[Warll]

Good to hear the you've got it solved.

I remember that my 8800GTS could play the game cranked up on high and 1400X900 so a 8400, while being far inferior, shouldn't give you that many troubles.