..why I'd have problems running Etherlords II, a game with the following specs:

Recommended:
• PC, Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 8.1 or higher
• 1.0 GHz Pentium III / Athlon
• 256 MB RAM
• 32 MB 3D videocard GeForce FX / Radeon 9700
• 2 GB hard disk space

I, myself, am running on Windows XP, DirectX 9.0c,
2.4 GHz AMD Athlon Processor,
1GB RAM, 256 MB GeForce 7800 GS, and over 80 GB of free disk space.

In-game, the only time the game runs smoothly is during "combat". During exploration, though, the framerate drops horribly.

I'm using the latest DNA Drivers, by the by.

Any help?

How might I go about checking if I'm running outta' memory? The Memory usage thing?

Thanks for telling me about the titling, also.

Okay, I ran MemTest. RAM's fine.

I checked the Task Manager but I'm getting a weird window for that -- no tabs, just the task managing part. And the only way to close it is by right clicking the icon that comes up in the tray at the bottom right of the monitor.

I've got the latest drivers from nVidia, now, rather than the latest DNA Drivers.

What else ought I check?

Your GPU tempature, and if your fan and everything is working, try using integrated graphics, and if the problem is less than with your graphics card, your grahics card is shot or something is wrong with it.

I honestly don't know how t o switch to "integrated graphics". Any thread with directions I could view?

Edit: Is that just taking out the video card and letting the computer run it minus a card?

Did your computer come with integrated graphics, or that graphics card, and on the back of your computer is there a Monitor Port NOT on the graphics card?

My computer actually came with an older nVidia graphics card, I just bought this one two or three months ago(unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to play using it, so if these problems were there from the day it shipped in I'm only just now seeing them. This means I'm screwed out of several hundred dollars if my card is bad. =( ).

As to the monitor port..

It's on the video card.

I'll list to you all the symptoms of my gaming:

Rectangles of varied lengths that are either white or tan.
Frame-rate issues in games that shouldn't have them, but no issues with framerate in games that I might expect to have them, even when maxxed out.
Random distortion of graphics, mostly in Dawn of War -- if I'm not completely zoomed in some of the buildings' textures will be completely distorted.

Did you ever overclock this card?

I believe it "came" overclocked. Like, it's designed to function over-clock-ed-ly.


http://www.bfgtech.com/7800GS_256.html

I haven't checked for the latest chipset or BIOS for my motherboard, so I'm going to check those and see if that solves. If you've got any more info' on what I could check, F1N35T, let me know. I appreciate your help.

Oohhh

Sounds like your card is overheating.

Might possibly be due to a bad PSU(which I'm assuming since you upgraded a weaker system).

Check your PSU make and wattage, then post it here along with the amps on the +12V Rail.

I upgraded my PSU when I got the new card.

Here's the PSU I got:

XClio
Goodpower X1254P2 500W

The numbers are
+5V +12V1 +12V2 +3.3V -12V +5Vab
28A 16A 17A 30A 0.3A 3.0A

Hm..

I just found this:

Minimum System Requirements

>> CPU with processor speed of 700MHz or higher
>> 128MB of RAM
>> CD or DVD-ROM drive
>> An available AGP 2.0 slot or higher
>> 35MB available hard disk space
(50MB for full installation)
>> Microsoft® Windows® 98, ME, 2000, XP, NT4.0 with service pack 5 or 6
>> A minimum 400W system power supply (with 12V current rating of 20A or more)

That last line... I'm guessing the numbers I posted on my last post should read +12V
20a

..right? =/

Check if your card is overheating. Right in the middle of full load gaming, check your graphics card temperature with some program (such as Ever Home Edition [recommened], SpeedFan[not recommended, it doesn't lable its temps ], etc.). Report what it is.

EDIT: No, you are fine with the powersupply. 16+17 > 20.

agi_shi, could you post a link to Ever Home Edition? All I have is SpeedFan, so I'll try with it, first.

According to SpeedFan, my Temps at "idle" are as follows

Temp1: 35C
Temp2: 39C
Temp3: -1C
Temp4: 25C
Temp1: 41C
Temp: -1C
Temp: 39C
HD0: 38C

CPU Usage hovers around 1.2% - 2.4% while idle.

And while running Dawn of War: Winter Assault at the menu:

Temp1: 105C when the game-screen's on, 35C when I Alt+TAB
Temp2: 41C
Temp3: -1C
Temp4: 25C
Temp1: 46C
Temp: -1C
Temp: 41C
HD0: 37C

It says CPU Usage is at 100.0%.

105C that is more than what it takes to boil water O.o