ATI 4870 = not so good...

[verena xeventus]

Ok, after nearly 2 months of waiting I finally got my new computer:

E8400 3.00ghz, 2 GB ram, Windows Vista home premium service pack 1 & Windows XP pro service pack 3, ATI powercolor 1GB 4870, drivers updated as of earlier today, 700 watt PSU and plenty of ventillation.

Here's whats bugging me... The reason for buying a new computer primarily was to be able to play medieval 2 total war on maximum settings, maybe even modding it so that the armies are larger still. So you can imagine my frustration now that I have the new machine and I can barely see any improvement at all. Infact, with everything turned to maximum and with a battle of 6000 troops of the feild it runs pretty bad considering.

Theres nothing wrong with the computer itself because it can handle the likes of Crysis (demo version) on HIGH/VERY HIGH combination. Medal of Honour airbourne runs like a dream on full settings, as does age of empires 3 and sims 2 (most of the time)

But for games like Medieval 2 and Rome total war, it's pitifull. I would have thought a card/machine such as this could handle both games without fail. It seems neither game was meant to be played at absolute maximum, which is stupid really.

Is anyone else having similar experiences? Or am I missing something?:hmmm:

[Wheelchair]

I warned you

Strange, I can get around 12'000 soldiers on max settings and stay above 20FPS. and thats with my 4850.

No idea whats going on on your end.

[Roman Clone]

I think it is needed that all of the major Basement tecchies should gather to discuss on this, I think we are being a bit too lax in recommending cards and ignoring the cons of some. First it was Wheelchair, then it was Legion, and now you. There is something wrong with those cards...

[madscientist22]

All the reviews I have read give favorable ratings to the new 4800 series, especially Tom's Hardware. Most sites say that ATI has succeeded in creating a graphics card that is truly dedicated to playing games...

[Roman Clone]

All the reviews I have read give favorable ratings to the new 4800 series, especially Tom's Hardware. Most sites say that ATI has succeeded in creating a graphics card that is truly dedicated to playing games...

I still find it too often that we receive complaints about thse cards. maybe there was a bunch of bad batches or something...

[Hounf of Culan]

that! My Radeon 4850 is frieking awesome, it can play crysis with everything on very high and I have had no problems in anything with it.

[Thanatos]

You're doing something wrong, then. I have a 4870, and it runs everything just fine.

[H_man]

Where are you adjusting your AA and ASF settings? On the driver or ingame? I find tinkering with those helped significantly increase the performance on my 1900XTX. Medieval 2 is far more processor intensive than graphic card intensiver. Are you certain it's not your CPU/mobo?

[Thanatos]

It HAS to be his CPU/mobo. I have everything on M2TW totally turned up to the MAX, and I don't get any lag whatsoever.

[Freddie]

Th OP is a bit vague I suspect you were expecting to much of a performance leap over your old Computer.

My Spec's:
C2D E6400 @ 3.05Ghz
2Gb Ram
GeForce 8800GT 512MB

Now last night I played RTW (with SPQR) on max with 10,000+ men and my computer was struggling like mad. I wasn't running FRAPS to measure the frame rate but I would suspect it was around 10 fps (very jerky).

And don't blame your video card, the 4870 is going as fast as you CPU allows it to go. Your CPU is probably being held up by having to preform large amounts of A.I calculations, also the RTW and M2TW engines aren't multithreaded so only one of your CPU cores is being used.

[Visitor13]

Your CPU is probably being held up by having to preform large amounts of A.I calculations, also the RTW and M2TW engines aren't multithreaded so only one of your CPU cores is being used.

process manager tells me RTW and MTW2 use both of my CPU cores...

[Freddie]

process manager tells me RTW and MTW2 use both of my CPU cores...

No, your process manager is reporting the game using one of the cores and windows apps in the background operating on the other.

[Visitor13]

No, your process manager is reporting the game using one of the cores and windows apps in the background operating on the other.

Ah, ok. So is there any simple way of telling that a game is using both cores?

[Freddie]

Ah, ok. So is there any simple way of telling that a game is using both cores?

Well yes use the Process tab, if a game is using both cores the CPU usage should be at 98% to 100%. In RTW and M2TW total CPU usage would be around 50% to 55%.

[Giorgos]

I have an ATI 4870x2 and with everything turned to the max, full sized armies, its smooth sailing. I have no idea what goes on with you mate...

[Radiso-FIN]

Well I have GeForce 9800 GTX
and I can play M2TW with max settings and battles including 10 000 men.
Yesterday I played Broken Crescent, there were over 10 000 men on the battlefield and fps was over 20.

[Zhuge_Liang]

There are two computers in my house, one has an ATi 1900XTX card and the other has an ATI HD 2900X card, both can play M2TW on max settings quite easily and smoothly with up to 7000 men, after that you always get lag due to the limitations of the game engine. The 2900 can also play crysis and warhead on the highest settings with x2 AA with 25fps or so. If your paying hundreds of pounds more for the latest model then it ought to run a 2 year old game just fine. Are you sure you updated the drivers correctly? Sometimes the ATI drivers don't install correctly, make sure you use the installation manager. There are also some features in the catalyst control center that give you virtually no improvemnt in image quality and absolutly kill performance in some games such as temporal AA or some of the extra optional settings.

[HansDuet]

Sounds like basic-ATi-quality.

[Garnier]

Ok, so many people say they can run M2TW with "max" settings and no lag problems, I have a question.

Are you running 8x Adaptive Antialiasing and Extreme shadows + high vegetation detail?

I know that extreme shadows with high vegetation detail kills my performance (X1900XTX), and adding 8x Adaptive Antialiasing on to that it's hard to believe even a 48xx could run it without any problems, at least looking at a forest. (of course, I can put max settings all the way up and play a 8000 man battle on grassy flatland, without lag, when I look away from the army...)

[Thanatos]

Ok, so many people say they can run M2TW with "max" settings and no lag problems, I have a question.

Are you running 8x Adaptive Antialiasing and Extreme shadows + high vegetation detail?

I know that extreme shadows with high vegetation detail kills my performance (X1900XTX), and adding 8x Adaptive Antialiasing on to that it's hard to believe even a 48xx could run it without any problems, at least looking at a forest. (of course, I can put max settings all the way up and play a 8000 man battle on grassy flatland, without lag, when I look away from the army...)

Yes. When I say max, I do mean max.