Video Card

[xSlyPandax]

Hey,
Im posting this thread again beccause i put it in the wrong category before.. anyhow..

I'm totally gutted - I just shelled out (well, a relative did) 35 POUNDS for Black & White 2 - Collectors Edition - confident that it would work fine, as my Dell Dimension 4550 has been plodding along happily for the past 1 2 or 3 years

However, it was not to be.. i installed it all fine, when i opened it it closed with a fatal error saying that Pixel Shader could not be enabled on my video card or something like that.. is a video card the same as a graphics card?

My graphics card is an NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 420 (64MB).. i checked the NVIDIA website to see the list of their products that are NOT compatible with Pixel Shader 1.1 or above.. and the MX 420 wasnt on it, the closest thing was "NVIDIA Geforce4 MX" im just wondering if this is the same thing...

Either way, has anyone got a solution other than buying a new video card/graphics card??

Thanks
xSlyPandax

 

[Duracell]

Hey,
Im posting this thread again beccause i put it in the wrong category before.. anyhow..

no problem, fixed now;

is a video card the same as a graphics card?

yes

My graphics card is an NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 420 (64MB).. the closest thing was "NVIDIA Geforce4 MX" im just wondering if this is the same thing...

yes, the GF4 MX 420 is a GF4 MX based graphic card: http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce4mx.html

Either way, has anyone got a solution other than buying a new video card/graphics card??

i don't think the hardware is the problem;
you can try:
- updating the graphic card drivers;
- updating DirectX
- looking for a Black & White 2 update


Greetings from
Duracell

 

[LTR12101B]

If it cannot run without pixel shaders (and it looks like it can't)

The minimum system configuration for installing and running the game are as listed below:

Windows XP or 2000 operating systems.
1.6 GHz or faster processor.
512 MB or more RAM.
3.5 GB or more free hard disk space.
Supported DirectX 8 or higher based 64 MB video card which supports pixel shading.

It seeems it requires full DirectX 8 hardware capability, as suggested

ATI Radeon 8500, 9100, 9200, 9250, 9500, 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800, and X850.
NVIDIA GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800, FX 5200, FX 5500, FX 5600, FX 5700, FX 5800, FX 5900, FX 5950, PCX 5900, Ti 4200, Ti 4600, and Ti 4800.

Maybe also, the Geforce 3, as this was an old card capable of pixel shader, full DX8 hardware.

The Sis Xabre range was another oddball that supports pixel shaders, but the drivers were hellishly buggy - may be worth a try if VERY cheap.

Unfortunately, the Geforce 4 MX range (the numbers are different speeds), is only DirectX 7 hardware, essentially a derivative of the old Geforce 2 - drivers cannot provide pixel shader capability, as the hardware is not there to do it - though in theory, the "full" reference rasterizer from the DirectX SDK should be able to emulate ALL functions, but even if the game was going to accept that, it would be orders of magnitude slower than the worst card.


Sadly, the designers have decided that if you don't have at least a DX8 card, you're not cool enough - in previous times, they might have bothered to make a flat rendered option for lower powered hardware, but now the expect the hardware to make their junk look good.

Take Elite, it was WIREFRAME, could you imagine that now?
But it was the game, not the graphics which were important.

 

[VIPER_1069]

@LTR12101B and DURACELL i just got here mate and read this thread ...xSlyPandax is my friends little bro

I have just had a quick chat with him on icq and advised a new card is in order his once upon a time mighty card is fallen behind in the specs front and its time to upgrade


seems his card cannot cut the mustard when it comes to the latest games ... but hey we ALL figure that one out soon enough

whats in today is out of date next week

thanks for the input guys

 

[LTR12101B]

Well, at least from what I read, it sounds like that Dell has a standard AGP 4x slot that will take a wide variety of AGP cards, unlike some of their truly awful models, where it's onboard or PCI.

While there are some DX8 capable cards for under £30, their performance is likely to leave a lot to be desired, though they would have the hardware capability to run it.

 

[Duracell]

... Unfortunately, the Geforce 4 MX range (the numbers are different speeds), is only DirectX 7 hardware ...

ooh, i forgot the fact that the GF4 MX is DX7 only; years ago i had a GF3 and as you wrote it was a DX8 card already;

 

[scarecrow]

GF4 MX is comparable when it comes to performance to the ancient GF2 Ti (actually GF2 Ti may be a tad faster). I used to have an MX440/ 64 meg and it was plain awful.

 

[xSlyPandax]

Well mines a MX 420/64 meg so its not great, but its just devastating because ive never really been "up to date" on computers cause ive never really had the money, my first computer was made from pieces of computer left over from when my dads work place upgraded their pc's, and my second was made by my dad but everything conflicted with everything else, and it overheated terribly, it was an AMD Athlon or something along those lines.. but then i got my DELL and everything worked great until now :'( But it was going to happen one day i suppose... Cheers for the advice everyone, i suppose im just going to have to save those pennies!

 

[VIPER_1069]

because ive never really been "up to date" on computers

you came to the right place mate

if theres something good out there then no doubt we will post or someone will post about it here at the forum!