Yes, I know you guys heard already, but, hear my depressing story first:

So, as a christmas present, I got a Radeon 9250 PCI it was the cheepest thing out by me and (even EA at one point) said it would work with Battlefield 2. So I after installing the video card, I went out and bought Battlefield 2 WITHOUT reasearching, bad idea, got home all excited to play Battlefield 2 which ive been waiting for since the start of December, to get home install it, watch the opening movie, and hear the womens voice "Welcome to your dutys" and frease :*( . Usually each time is different, sometimes it will get to points of almost picking single play or online play, sometimes the game wont even boot up. So I troubleshooted of 3 hours deturmend there was a way to fix this, then... I googled it, and boom first review "Awesome card, no Battlefield 2" then it hit me.... I wasted $170 dollers on nothing, so now I sit looking at my new Battlefield 2 box and still hopelessly looking for some way to fix it. But, to no luck I read a couple theards here about it, but they where old so I just decided to start a new one, if anyone has any ideas at all, im more then happy to hear them.

What are the rest of your PC's specifications? Try to include brand and models.

Heres full Spec of my comp.:

HP Pavilion 753n
Windows XP Professional, SP2
2.53GHz Pentium 4 Processor
512 MB Ultra DMA Hard Drive
ATi Radeon 9250 256mb PCI
Realtek Audio

My computer is fine, I just got done playing the F.E.A.R. Demo, and it ran perfect with on a pretty high setting. F.Y.I.: F.E.A.R. is amazing almost scared me ****less. But, anyways its just Battlefield 2...

First update to the latest Catalyst drivers, that's 5.13. --> http://www.ati.com/
Then update Battlefield 2 to the latest version, that's 1.12. --> http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/gam...pdate.exe.html

Hi,
Is it too late to return the videocard? You really should NOT get a PCI videocard for that system as the 753n is documented to have an AGP slot. I'd also imagine the AGP version is likely a little bit cheaper.

I'd also recommend tossing the 9200 series as even a Sapphire 9600 will run you only like $56 for and AGP 4x/8x card... or 9600 Pro for $66 at NewEgg. These cards would run circles around the 9200 series and are direly needed for a game such as Battlefield2.

One last thing- Battlefield2 is a total memory hog. You'll want to optimize your swap file and reduce settings to get something even playable on 512mb. 1 gig comes highly recommended otherwise.

If it's true that you're mobo does have an AGP slot then it was a really bad idea to buy a PCI card, AGP cards are even cheaper usually...

But anyway, enough with the preaching - try what Federelli said, that's your best bet.

If you can, return the card, and try to add money for an equal or better AGP card - even if you get 9250 AGP, at least it'll run BF2.

Couple things:

A) I use a different driver not from ATi, Omega drivers or something.

B) Whats the chances of the 5.13 Driver and the Battlefield 2 Patch getting to work I.E. Likely, Not Likely

C) Whats the chances of Best Buy excepting the card back?

A) Omegas are ATI drivers... he's just tuned the installer to be more foolproof, set some default registry settings and the like. If it doesn't work with Omega's, I doubt the same Catalysts would be any different... unless it was a failed install of the Omegas and you get lucky on a Cat install. Either way, a re-install would be worth trying (ATI or Omega...preferrably ATI)

B) It's not the 5.13's as I've been playing BF2 since the 5.6's and above. It works with every driver from 5.6 to 5.13... although I'd recommend AGAINST 5.12 and 5.13 if you also play Special Forces expansion pack (they work, but night-vision in SF has some strange, blinding halo effect new to the 5.12 and 5.13s)

C) BestBuy is usually excellent with returns for hardware.. but you'll have to deal with the post-xmas return frenzy. Bring a book or something. Looking at BestBuy's site, it looks like the AGP 9550 is the same price. You should consider a straight trade if they wont give a cash refund.

Exactly what I was thinking of getting the 9550. Question about the 9550 is it better then my 9250 or is it the same.... or even worse...

Well, see a comparison for yourself...

Radeon 9250:
Memory : 128 DDR 64BIT
Clockspeed : GPU 240 MHz / MEM 400Mhz
Ramdac : 400MHz
OpenGL : 1.5
DirectX : 8.1
PixelPipelines : 4
VertexShaders : 2

Radeon 9550:
Memory : 128 DDR 128BIT
Clockspeed : GPU 250 MHz / MEM 400Mhz
Ramdac : 400MHz
OpenGL : 1.5
DirectX : 8.1
PixelPipelines : 4
VertexShaders : 2


So, the GPU clock is up 10MHz, but much more important is the memory interface, which is 128BIT on 9550, as apposed to 64BIT on 9250 - that should give you a good boost in performance - so buy 9550 if you can.

If BestBuy will result in a cash refund... and you can wait a couple days, a better option would be to order a card from NewEgg though.

While the 9550 will be a *much* better card than the 9250, a 9600 Pro would be even better. Either way, even a 9550 or 9600 series will be a bit "long in the tooth" versus some of today's DX 9.0 games. 6600GT or higher is really the barebones minimum for modern games in all reality (8 pipeline cards vs. the 9600's 4-pipelines, or 9200/9500's 2-pipelines)

Luckily in the case of BF2- the game has lots of settings that can be adjusted to yield playability on a 9500/9600 series card. You'll definately see much better performance from a 9600 Pro/XT though as it's a 4-pipeline card.. and you can get one of these for the same price as a 9550 if you order it from NewEgg online.

Sorry but that card is really crap and isn't capable of playing any of the modern games properly.

Can I play bf2 when my computer only has PCI expansion slots?
I have a 128mb 9250(oops) and I can't play. Is there any hope, or do I need a new computer?

Solved the problem, unforunatly Best Buy would have charged me a 40 doller restocking fee because there was nothing wrong with it. So i got exchange for the 9550, which actually may be only 2 Pipelines but my computer picks it up where it lacks. Just got some more ram in it now i got 1.5 gigs.

And as for Covert Moose, might as well:

A) Get the 9550 or higher which WILL BE a AGP

B) If you do not have AGP slot on you Mobo get a new mobo because PCI is crap.

thx, i'm about ready for a new computer anyways

Dj so you can play battlefield 2 with your new Radeon 9550??

hi there i have just bought battlefield 2 and have a radeon 9250 but everything else is compatible for the game but still the game is jumpy and choppy. will your links sort the problem?

In my system also Battlefield 2 does not work.

Spec:
ATI 9250 PCI Card
Intel P 4 1.8 GHz
Intel 82845 GLVA Card
512 MB RAM

This board does not have a AGP Card. I'm planning to upgrade my system after some 6 months. But, let me know whether BF 2 will work in my system with the current spec even if its slow also

Well Dj_RevengeX you're not alone in not able to play Battlefield 2. My system isn't good enough, but I plan to get an upgrade. :eek: But, if you try a new graphics card it might be able to play it. Just make sure that your system specs(after upgrade) will be compatible with the game, and also make sure that your graphics card can be PCI or AGP

Even for me also with Intel 1.8 GHz 82845 GLVA board (it got only PCI slot) for which i purchased ATI Radeon 9250 PCI card when i went to US recently (Its not avl. in India) Battlefile 2 installs starts with the video and then it shows the profile "General" and then Hangs. The VPU Recover of the card comes up and says that some graphics commands could not be executed and once i say ok, it asks for restart.

By any way i can run Battlefield 2 in my config.?