**Battlefield 2 problems, very frustrating**

[Alias17]

When playing Battlefield 2 i find the framerate to be very choppy, even on lower settings. I have tried several times to sort it out, only yesterday I bought more RAM to see if that would allieviate the problems.

Comp specs:
Mobo: ASUS PR4800-VM
Processor: P4 3.0 ghz
RAM: 2GB (184-pin DIMM DDR)
Graphics Card: Radeon 9550
Internet: 2 Mbps
Chipset: ATi Radeon 9100 IGP

I don't know if any of this can help you work out the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated, ta.

 

[IBN]

Install the latest drivers for your graphics card and make sure you install the latest patches for BF2 also.

You have plenty of RAM. How much RAM did you have anyway before you bought more?

BTW how much memory does your graphics card have and is it 128bit?

 

[Alias17]

only 512, which is the minimum for this game. Also, my drivers are upto date, checked only this morning. Im wondering about catalyst 6.5 but im not entirely sure what it does.

 

[IBN]

Well Battlefield 2 should run on a ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350LX), I dont know if thats your cards model number though. I think it is you gaphics card that is letting you down though.

From reading around if you overclock your graphics card BF2 should run fine, but i dont recommend you doing that. If you check my profile My AMD system despite being older and slower it runs BF2 on the highest settings smoothly whilst my intel system cant, due to the better graphics card.

ps

Make sure your not running anything in the background whilst playing BF2 and clear any viruses or spyware that you may have in your system. That should help a little. However you do need a nVidia 6600 as a minimum though to run the latest games.

 

[Alias17]

Regarding your first reply, my card is a 256mb, 128-bit card. Currently my computer is free from both viruses and spyware. Also, would an Nvidia card work on an ATi sourced mobo? I really don't want to change too much, only the RAM and graphics card. Cheers for the help so far.

Also, being an AGP card i don't think I have any PCI slots on my mobo, which kind of means I'm limited to card choice.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

AGP Geforce 6600GTs and 7800GSs are available, as are Radeon X800s for the same. I would suggest the 7800GS for best possible performance but its pricey. If u have that kinda problem the 6600GT or X800XL(the price difference is there but the X800XL is a better performer but also more expensive) is just fine. And the ATI onboard won't cause any problems.

 

[IBN]

You shouldnt have a problem with an nVidia card on a ATI chipset motherboard. If you want to buy a new graphics card for your current AGP motherboard then you need to buy an AGP based graphics card. Do not buy a pci or pci express graphics card.

An nVidia 6600GT should be the minimum. Anything more than that would obviously be better but a 6600GT is the minimum. BTW make sure its a graphics card with 256mb of memory.

And lastly a good power supply (PSU). What do you have currently? With the extra RAM and Graphics card you need more power. Do a search in the forums for PSU.

 

[Alias17]

I'm not sure what power I need, and I'm not sure where to look... cheers for the help though it's been very useful

Would a Sapphire Radeon X1600 be sufficient?

 

[Sharkfood]

I haven't been able to find much information concerning your mainboard but I am familiar with the 9100 IGP chipset.. which is quite a slouch where memory performance is concerned.

What's of the utmost importance is to ensure you have dual-channel enabled through the use of using memory in pairs. You stated your 2gig is 184-pin ddr. Is this a single chip? If so, you're killing your (already low, best case scenario with that chipset) memory bandwidth and performance.

You must ensure to add memory in PAIRS for that system, so 2x1gig would be the proper application of 2gigs for your mainboard. Even at that, the 9100 IGP chipset runs very high latency with little room for memory tuning (unlike most Intel chipset mainboards).

If you download CPU-Z, this utility may be able to determine if you have dual-channel working. Obviously, if you have a single stick of memory or odd number of memory chips (i.e. such as 1x1gig, 2x512mb for 3 sticks) you're als o guaranteed to be in single channel mode. Sisoft Sandra I'd also recommend downloading and running it's memory bandwidth tests to ensure your in the ~3300-3500mb/s club for memory performance. I'm afraid 9100 IGP doesn't score a whole lot better than this compared to 5000-5500+ an Intel chipset mainboard can do with the same cpu/memory.

Once memory performance/proper configuration is determined, we can do some tuning to better help BF2 performance. Hope this helps!

 

[Alias17]

Thanks very much! I'm glad I came across this site My RAM is in two sticks, 2x1GB. Can you replace the chipset without replacing the motherboard?

 

[IBN]

That cant be done.

 

[Sharkfood]

Negative. The chipset IS truly the determining factor for which mainboard is which.

Hit www.guru3d.com, downloads section and get Sisoft Sandra. Install and run this and look for the memory bandwidth benchmark (looks like a memory chip on fire near the lower/bottom part of it's tests). This will determine what kinds of memory performance you are getting- which, again, should be in the mid-to-high 3000's worst case.

 

[IBN]

Is it possible to change the motherboard chipset?

 

[Sharkfood]

Sorry IBN, we cross-posted (I went to lunch and didn't refresh lol) as I was referring to Alias's post. You're correct that you cannot change a motherboard's chipset as memory controller, layout and integrated peripherals (usb, audio, ide/sata controllers, etc.etc.) are all part of the north/south bridge combo's. A motherboard IS basically a chipset arranged with all it's various supported components... at a discounted rate due to volume (as the chipset itself is generally close to the price of the entire unit).

 

[Alias17]

Well I don't think I'll change the motherboard then. I do know that my transfer rate was at about 3300mb/s, I used PC Pitstop which is very good for determining your setup and any problems you may have. It mentions I have only 55% performance in that area compared to other users with similar specs. Thanks for all the help though, I think I'll leave the card and board alone, I just can't afford new ones because of my age (hence my name).

 

[IBN]

You specs are fine. All you need is a better graphics card and a PSU. With the graphics card you have currently its possible to overclock it so you can run BF2 smoothly. Read around on the topic but remember there are risks of doin that.

Thats my take.

 

[wolfram]

I am familiar with the 9100 IGP chipset.. which is quite a slouch where memory performance is concerned.

I think the slowest chipset is SIS 661FX, its the worst you can get. Also, the 9100 IGP isn´t REALLY slow. The SIS one is the slowest with RAM :knock: