distorted graphics

[clayclay]

Hello!

I am having trouble playing games. There is a common problem that is almost identical for each game. The problem is with the graphics; everything else works fine(sound, FPS, controls) but the textures that make up the surrounding environment(buildings, mountains, everything) look as if they are in a blender, so its almost impossible to see what is going on in the game.

the games are: Mafia, Lock on modern air combat, Far cry, Iron Grip:Warlord. And CallOfDuty 2 wont start due to "DirectX encountered an unrecoverable error"

Games that do work fine: Quake 3, Operation Flashpoint.

My system:
Vista ultimate 32bit
Pentium 4 Dual-CoreE5200
1Gb 800mhz
Motherboard: ECS 945GC-M/1333 (V3.0)
Onboard VGA: Intel GMA 950 w/ 400 Mhz core and 256 mb DDR2 667mhz for DirectX 9.
320GB hard drive

I have installed the latest VGA drivers through Intels online system scae, twice and I have installed directX 10 again. Dxdiag says no problems. I have tried the games on lowest settings. reinstalled games....

I know that the system can handle these games, it does run them, so the graphics glitch makes me think there is something that can be done to solve the problem...it would be great to get this working so i dont have to buy a video card, the onboard is all i really need anyway.

All thoughts greatly appreciated,
clay

[clayclay]

And Half Life 2 freezes just after starting a 'New Game' from menu. It freezes as the creepy guy starts to talk showing his face close up with lots of detail. And i just installed service pack 1 and lates Directx again. My PSU is 400 watt.

clay

[Tiber Septim]

Originally Posted by clayclay

...
Onboard VGA: Intel GMA 950...

There's the problem.
I don't know why manufacturers even bother with onboard graphics, they simply aren't made for gaming.

If you don't believe me, have a look at these benchmarks.

As you can see, the Intel GMA can't even run most of the games, it did manage to play HL2, but only achieved 6FPS with everything on the lowest possible setting running at 640x480.

[clayclay]

Well, perhaps you are right, but it just seems like the games were actually running really well, and from what I could make out behind the texture bananna smoothy, it looked really good you know? Its like the vga has the capacity to run moderate games but no compatiblity.

Thanks,

[Mcninjaguy]

your onboard video doesn't have any of the minimum requirements

too low shader version
toow low vertex version
not enough memory
no dedicated graphics memory
not high enough clock speeds
and not enough cores

you simply don't want to try to use onboard for gaming

can you tell me your motherboard and I can recommend a nice cheap graphics for you. At least then you can play half life 2
(I've played HL2 three or four times over and I still find it amazing and scary)

EDIt oops I see the motherboard name it supports a PCI-E x1 16 card

something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121286

[clayclay]

But but but but ......umm but like.....yeah....

Ok i give up.

Ill guess Ill just have to wait a few months and get a now top of the line card for cheap when the prices come down. Although with the way the economy is and will be for quite sometime, the advancement in bigger and better graphics cards and dulely games that require better GPUs, may reach a plateu. the now top of the line cards may stay top of the line, and therefore not drive the prices down

[Mcninjaguy]

you can get a top of the line card for about $200

like this one

GTX 260 for $215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130370

a XBOX 360 uses a 7800GT

7000 series
8000
9000
GTX series