Best ATI Drivers / Setup For Empire

**Chris79** · April 02, 2009, 08:53 AM

Im running ATI 4870 X2 2gb card , With a Intel Q9950 quad core processor overclocked to 3.5ghz. With 8 gb of DDR2 Ram. OS Vista ultimate 64 bit.

At the moment im running with the 9.2 CCC ATI drivers. With Screen resolution set at 1440 - 900.
In game the settings are all set to Ultra or Very high.
The Campaign screen is very jumpy and when i go to a battle the screen it all loads up. Then the loading screen does not go away and all i can see is the unit card at the bottom of the screen and the rest of the screen is the battle loading screen.
I have tried different graphic settings and different resolutions via the game menu screen and via the ATI CCC.
But nothing seems to stop this from happening.
I would have thought with my new rig the game would run smooth at the high settings but at the moment its is unplayable.
If anyone else is playing with a similar spec computer or with the same graphics card.
What graphics settings are you playing with?
What ATI drivers are you using?
Have you had any problems?
If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

**vase32k** · April 02, 2009, 02:30 PM

I got q6600 3.0 ghz OC with 4 gig ddr2 1066 and radeon 4870 crossfire.
1680x1050 all ultra or high, HDR volume smoke distortion is on everything else is off. (ssao included) Vista 64.
The game usually performs like sh!t . I really dont understand ETW dev, what they was thinking? Radeon 4870 and geforce 280 are commun graphic cards and the game is not even optimised for those cards!

Well invidia people have less troubles.
I dont even bother playing this game anymore, and seriously I dont give a sh!t . I you whant that people play you games, MAKE SHEM PLAYABLE!
I just wonder on what PC dev played this game?

**~~metenojo~~** · April 02, 2009, 04:57 PM

My 3850 with 256 mb and ccc 9.1 and now 9.3 runs fine without AA,in High,I just note the people who have cards with more than 512 mb have more issues due addressing problems,is your case.

**Epic** · April 02, 2009, 06:41 PM

My game runs smooth at around 25-35 frames zoomed in and around 45-60 zoomed out on my Sapphire 4870 Toxic 1GB. I'm using the latest 9.3 drivers. I'm running the game at 1920x1080 with no AA, seems useless to turn AA on at this resolution if you take into account the visual gain vs. loss of frames. 16xAF and everything else on ultra except for grass which is on Very High. Particle effects always revert back to Very High if I choose Ultra. I have everything checked at the bottom except for SSOA and Vsync. In CCC I have eveything set to application controlled. Rest of my system is a Core 2 E6600 OC to 2.9GHZ and 4GB DRR2 RAM. I've only experienced a glitch where there would be little dots all over buildings, but taht went away as soon as I turned off AA.

Now for your problem, I remember reading on the official total war forums that the game has issues running with Crossfire, SLI and most ATI X2 cards. I don't know why but it could be due to their being 2 GPUs rather than one. Plus the battle not loading fully could be due to a game bug, you should try reinstalling it. Or try playing around with the options. Since you have a better PC than mine, you should easily be getting 30+ frames.

**Mugwump** · April 02, 2009, 07:05 PM

Mine's stable on 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3 (although I did get a lot of flickering with 9.2 and blue dot corruption on buildings with 9.1 and 9.2) but I can't get anti-aliassing to work very well under any of the driver sets. Rifle barrels look terrible with white jagged dotted lines running the length of the barrels. (I presume this is supposed to represent the glint of metal in sunlight, but it looks godawful).

I run at 1280X1024 with all settings at Ultra, AA at 8X and AF at 16X.
Intel 9550 quad core 2.83MHz
ATI 1GB 4870 card
Asus P5E mobo with onboard sound
Vista 64 bit
4BG RAM

**ust** · April 03, 2009, 12:27 AM

A rule of thumb is simply to use the latest graphics drivers.
The 9.3 certainly works best for me, on a 4870X2.
But the game does seem to have a lot of performance issues.

And BTW Anti Aliassing is not working in combination with SSOA on ATI cards yet. This is a known problem and documented by at least two hardware sites; which is believed only to be fixable by CA.

**Mohamad** · April 03, 2009, 01:06 AM

i tried to get the catalyast w/e for ATI drivers but it gave me error in the end >______>

Not like I'm experiencing graphic errors or anything tho

**Chris79** · April 03, 2009, 01:39 AM

Thanks very much for the help.

I will try out playing with no AA and the lastest drivers and the other setups you posted when i get home from work.
I have just brought another 4870 x2 card to run in crossfire with my current one. And a 1250wat coolmaster PSU to power them both.
I just hope this does not course more problems than im already experincing.
Will let you know how i get on.

**ohnoesaz** · April 03, 2009, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by ust

A rule of thumb is simply to use the latest graphics drivers.
The 9.3 certainly works best for me, on a 4870X2.
But the game does seem to have a lot of performance issues.

And BTW Anti Aliassing is not working in combination with SSOA on ATI cards yet. This is a known problem and documented by at least two hardware sites; which is believed only to be fixable by CA.

Ust, I'm using a 4870x2 also, but on 9.2 drivers. The game runs fine for me. Can you elaborate what you mean by 9.3 works better for you? Are you getting better performance by chance?

I read a review that showed 9.3 gave less framerates in certain games, of course ETW wasn't part of the testing, but I chose to just stick to what works (9.2).

So can you be more specific about 9.3 being better for yourself?

**Chris79** · April 03, 2009, 12:03 PM

Well tried running with no AA and the game runs smooth as silk.
Thanks for the help.
Am going to put the 9.2 drivers back on and see if it still runs as good.

**ust** · April 04, 2009, 01:11 AM

ohnoesaz:

with 9.3 drivers there seem to be less "visual problems" concerning rendering. This is purely subjective though and nothing I can proof or confirm
But as I said, just stick to newest drivers as a rule of thumb unless you notice servere glichtes or performance drops; which very rarely occur. But keep an eye out for them anyway

**Chris79** · April 04, 2009, 04:46 AM

Right now i cant stop getting the insufficient video memory crash.
Are CA going to address this in the future patches or is the workaround posted in the sticky threads the only way around this.

**♔ST0MPA♔** · April 04, 2009, 06:58 AM

I recently got two 4890 crossfired, they have the 8.5 drivers. i have all the settings maxed out, everything and 8x and 16x. when i start a battle the menu appears over the load screen, the loadscreen stays there. I have to alt tab to the desktop and back to the game to get rid of the loadscreen. The game runs smooth and perfect. I tried to update my drivers but I got no idea how to do it. im running windows xp pro and i downloaded 9-3_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu but when i go to run it it says error cant find compatble drivers or something. wtf how do you do it?

**Chris79** · April 04, 2009, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by ST0MPA

I recently got two 4890 crossfired, they have the 8.5 drivers. i have all the settings maxed out, everything and 8x and 16x. when i start a battle the menu appears over the load screen, the loadscreen stays there. I have to alt tab to the desktop and back to the game to get rid of the loadscreen. The game runs smooth and perfect. I tried to update my drivers but I got no idea how to do it. im running windows xp pro and i downloaded 9-3_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu but when i go to run it it says error cant find compatble drivers or something. wtf how do you do it?

Did you completely uninstall the old drivers? I ask this as when i was farting about with drivers when i got this system a few weeks back i forgot to completely uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones and it caused no end of trouble.

**♔ST0MPA♔** · April 04, 2009, 12:55 PM

yeah, i got rid of everything in removesoftware via control panel. talk about no end of trouble, I rebooted, windows says hey can i find your drivers, screen now running 600x wat eva 3 colors, i said no thanks windows, all under control. double klicked the driver 9.3 started to run then got to the custom or express install, I chose express, error drivers not compatable. WTF, ok inserted disk that came with the cards(i have 2)installed rebooted...black screen no picture wtf, wtf wtf. safe mode restart no problem set resolution start normal nothing blank screen. Apparently i need to install them twice, found this out by going back in safe, removing drivers and windows says, new hardware found, hey can i find your drivers, I said sure, I just stuffed it up big time maybe you know what your doing after all, anyway directed it to the installation disk and it installed, next thing it says new hardware found...again, wtf, oh now i see two cards, yeah right, directed to installation cd bang restart screen back. I had kittens I tell ya. anyway now I dont get the issue with loading screen stuck on with the unit menu up and having to alt tab to get rid of the loading screen.