Can not play 80% of PC Games and just upgraded. Please HELP

[EvilHomer]

I recently upgraded my computer because of my limitations in gaming. Now I can not seem to play any games. For most games like Resident Evil 5, Napoleon Total war, Sniper GW...I get all the way through the Intro's and cut scenes then the game crashes after the game loads. Actually RE5 crashes the other 2 load but the commentary and sound show up but all I get is a screen of flashy colors. Metro 2033, GTA crash at the intro. Now there are a bunch of games that work ...Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Bioshock, C&C 4...I can not figure out why some games work while others do not.

I have Updated all of my drivers multiple times uninstalled DirexctX and reinstalled tried everything....

My Rig.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
AMD Phenom 555 BE
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
4GB Ram
Radeon X1950 Video Card...I know its old but should still work

Should I just go with the onboard Video card ....Im lost at this point.

Al

 

[vshin]

Are those games confirmed to run in 64 bit mode?

 

[TemjinGold]

It's possible your video card doesn't support some of the things that these newer games need. It's not just about speed, the feature set matters too.

 

[Meghan54]

I was thinking the same thing as Temjin was. It's not that you're running a 64-bit OS.....I have loads of 32-bit programs loaded on my Win 7 64-bit OS, including games, and have no problems.

I suspect your video card isn't up to the task. Consider Metro 2033. Recommended minimum video card is a GeForce 8800/GT220 class, with a real recommendation of GT260 class video card. Your X1950 isn't even in the same class of power.

RE5 recommends as a minimum the 2400 Pro, with a GeForce 9800/ATI 4800 as the "real" recommended card classes.

(I tend to ignore the bare minimum recommended cards as performance typically is pitiful with them.)

 

[EvilHomer]

Are those games confirmed to run in 64 bit mode?

Yes ..I read a bunch of threads where people were running all of these games in 64bit. Not all Win 7 bit def 64 bit.

 

[EvilHomer]

I was thinking the same thing as Temjin was. It's not that you're running a 64-bit OS.....I have loads of 32-bit programs loaded on my Win 7 64-bit OS, including games, and have no problems.

I suspect your video card isn't up to the task. Consider Metro 2033. Recommended minimum video card is a GeForce 8800/GT220 class, with a real recommendation of GT260 class video card. Your X1950 isn't even in the same class of power.

RE5 recommends as a minimum the 2400 Pro, with a GeForce 9800/ATI 4800 as the "real" recommended card classes.

(I tend to ignore the bare minimum recommended cards as performance typically is pitiful with them.)

My Motherboard has integrated Video I believe the Radeon HD 4200 GPU ...When I upgraded my MB ...PPl on this board said I should stick with my current card as its better...Should I just Use the on board video until I upgrade...???

 

[CurseTheSky]

My Motherboard has integrated Video I believe the Radeon HD 4200 GPU ...When I upgraded my MB ...PPl on this board said I should stick with my current card as its better...Should I just Use the on board video until I upgrade...???

The X1950 (Pro? XT? XTX?) is a better gaming card than the onboard 4200. The 4200 may support newer features, but it won't have as much graphics horsepower.

Either way, you can give it a shot and see if the games will actually run. If they do, you know you're graphics card is the problem. If they don't, you have a problem somewhere else, and I would suggest starting with a fresh reformat / reinstall of Windows.

 

[tviceman]

I recently upgraded my computer because of my limitations in gaming. Now I can not seem to play any games. For most games like Resident Evil 5, Napoleon Total war, Sniper GW...I get all the way through the Intro's and cut scenes then the game crashes after the game loads. Actually RE5 crashes the other 2 load but the commentary and sound show up but all I get is a screen of flashy colors. Metro 2033, GTA crash at the intro. Now there are a bunch of games that work ...Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Bioshock, C&C 4...I can not figure out why some games work while others do not.

I have Updated all of my drivers multiple times uninstalled DirexctX and reinstalled tried everything....

My Rig.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
AMD Phenom 555 BE
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
4GB Ram
Radeon X1950 Video Card...I know its old but should still work

Should I just go with the onboard Video card ....Im lost at this point.

Al

You could spend about $60-90 and be able to play all of those games with medium settings and a moderate resolution at good frame rates.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7321 600007605&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce GT 240

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on%20HD%205670

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...316 600007580&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce 9800 GT

 

[Meghan54]

I'd look at what tviceman recommended.....cheap but quite decent video upgrades. I know my secondary rig was having problems with some games with an ATI 4650 card. Upgraded it to a 5750 and all the problems ceased....even those that others attributed to trying to run 32-bit games on the computer's 64-bit Win 7 OS.

 

[james1701]

What kind of power supply do you have in your rig?

 

[faxon]

did you remember to install DX9 at some point in your install process? vista and 7 dont come with the DX9 API preinstalled and unless you installed it with one of your games, that would explain your problems. as for why the games wont run otherwise, your video card is dog slow by current standards, but it should at least be capable of launching some of those games. i wouldnt want to use it in metro though, that game is like crysis only updated for 3 years of graphics performance growth

 

[Meghan54]

I'm just curious.....which driver package are you using?

 

[Wag]

Did you do a Windows upgrade instead of a fresh install? If so you might consider doing a clean install of Win7.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I recently upgraded my computer because of my limitations in gaming. Now I can not seem to play any games. For most games like Resident Evil 5, Napoleon Total war, Sniper GW...I get all the way through the Intro's and cut scenes then the game crashes after the game loads. Actually RE5 crashes the other 2 load but the commentary and sound show up but all I get is a screen of flashy colors. Metro 2033, GTA crash at the intro. Now there are a bunch of games that work ...Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Bioshock, C&C 4...I can not figure out why some games work while others do not.

I have Updated all of my drivers multiple times uninstalled DirexctX and reinstalled tried everything....

My Rig.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
AMD Phenom 555 BE
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
4GB Ram
Radeon X1950 Video Card...I know its old but should still work

Should I just go with the onboard Video card ....Im lost at this point.

Al

I don't understand why you'd spend hundreds on games but wont buy a $70 video card to run them

 

[tcsenter]

Underpowered graphics cards don't cause games to crash. They cause games to run more slowly. X1950 PRO (the slowest X1950 variant) is roughly equivalent to HD 4650 (DDR2).

 

[RussianSensation]

What kind of power supply do you have in your rig?

By far the most important question! I am amazed that it took this long for someone to ask this.

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

Underpowered graphics cards don't cause games to crash. They cause games to run more slowly. X1950 PRO (the slowest X1950 variant) is roughly equivalent to HD 4650 (DDR2).

Again, the issue could be features needed that the 1950 just doesn't have. What I'd recommend is testing through your games with your reasonably modern 4200 onboard chip. If the games run fine (don't crash) on the onboard graphics then its either a limitation of the 1950 featureset or very possibly the card itself is faulty by now. If the games crash then the problem may be your drivers and other software. I presume you know how to properly uninstall and install drivers?

Really, frame up the 1950 as an antique and buy a cheap card that will do very well. I don't see how you can upgrade your computer for the purpose of gaming without upgrading massively but cheaply the one most important component.

 

[Scali]

An X1950 is a full SM3.0 DX9-class card.
It should at least run all DX9 games out there.
I have an old box with its cousin, the X1900XTX, and that one runs Crysis (yes, under Windows 7 x64). So I don't think 80% of games won't work on the X1950 because of a lack of features.

My suggestions are these:
1) Download and install the latest DirectX runtimes: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=3b170b25-abab-4bc3-ae91-50ceb6d8fa8d
2) Download and install the latest (legacy) Radeon drivers for your card: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English

I know that the ATi installer has been a bit buggy in the past. Sometimes the drivers would not install properly, and the bundled Windows 7 drivers remained in use.
I can't really tell you how to fix that in a forum post. It involved hacking the .inf file (thank you ATi... sigh).
But you can tell this via Device Manager, check if the date roughly matches the date of the Catalyst release, and if it says ATi (or AMD, not sure), rather than Microsoft, as the supplier.
Another tell-tale sign of this issue is that you cannot open the Catalyst Control Panel, because it claims it is not installed properly (I forgot what the message was exactly).

 

[Scali]

did you remember to install DX9 at some point in your install process? vista and 7 dont come with the DX9 API preinstalled and unless you installed it with one of your games, that would explain your problems.

They do come with DX9 installed actually (and all prior DX versions). Just not with the runtimes (mainly the d3dx_nn.dll files). Most games come bundled with the runtimes required though, so installing a game should fix it.

 

[mv2devnull]

Yes ..I read a bunch of threads where people were running all of these games in 64bit. Not all Win 7 bit def 64 bit.

Windows 64-bit includes a 32-bit environment for 32-bit applications, so the applications do not know that they are in a 64-bit OS. Naturally, this environment has to talk to (or contain) the 64-bit drivers. WinXP 64-bit used to suffer from non-complying drivers, but that was ages ago.

 

[Dribble]

Assuming your PSU isn't the issue windows 7 64 bit is probably your problem. I suspect that ati just never bothered getting it working properly with such an old card.

Dual boot XP 32 bit and use that for games would probably be the least painful way of working until you get a new card.

 

[Scali]

Windows 64-bit includes a 32-bit environment for 32-bit applications, so the applications do not know that they are in a 64-bit OS. Naturally, this environment has to talk to (or contain) the 64-bit drivers. WinXP 64-bit used to suffer from non-complying drivers, but that was ages ago.

A lot of (older) games have problems with 64-bit OSes though. This could be because of copy protection schemes that make use of a device driver for low-level access (eg CD/DVD check), which only has a 32-bit version supplied.
Another issue is custom installers that may not be compatible with a 64-bit OS (they may conclude that the installer is not compatible with the OS, while in reality the game would just work fine, if you could just install it).

In the early days of Windows XP x64, I often had to either manually extract the installer, or I had to just install the game in regular 32-bit XP, and then just execute the installed version from XP x64.
Sometimes a no-CD patched EXE can be a good solution to avoid the problem of copy-protection that is not compatible with a 64-bit OS (in the case of Far Cry, there is an official 64-bit update, which doesn't have a CD check, while the 32-bit version does ).
As far as I know it's not illegal to do this in most parts of the world, if you own a legal copy of the game.

 

[Scali]

Assuming your PSU isn't the issue windows 7 64 bit is probably your problem. I suspect that ati just never bothered getting it working properly with such an old card.

They did, as I said. I have an old box with Windows 7 x64 and a Radeon X1900XTX. It uses the same drivers as the X1950 would.

 

[Dribble]

They did, as I said. I have an old box with Windows 7 x64 and a Radeon X1900XTX. It uses the same drivers as the X1950 would.

My definition of working properly is you put the card in, go to the ati website and install the driver you are told too, then play the games.

 

[Scali]

My definition of working properly is you put the card in, go to the ati website and install the driver you are told too, then play the games.

Yea, it should do that now (assuming they fixed the problems that I ran into a while ago, with a slightly broken .inf).
Bottom line is, if you get the driver installed, it works just fine. It's a proper driver for Windows 7 x64. So AMD supports the OS properly.

Considering that my much newer 5770 also got a bluescreen or hangup a few times when I tried to install the latest drivers on Windows 7 x64, I don't think there's much of a difference in support quality between the new and the old... AMD just can't seem to get installers right, a lot of the time.