Battlefield 2: The Video Card Controversy

M

Mastertech

Banned
http://www.populartechnology.net/

As a PC Gamer you expect to upgrade, you expect that at some point your hardware will not run the latest games acceptably. Battlefield 2 does not even give you that option. It attempts to make all non DirectX 9 compatible video cards obsolete. Which means all GeForce 4 and older video cards will not run Battlefield 2. You cannot even start up the menu. Neither Electronic Arts nor the game's developer DICE have any plans to fix this. Even though the GeForce 4 line of video cards has enough horsepower to render the game it is not compatible with Pixel Shader 1.4. Emulation to Pixel Shader 1.3 would easily make the game playable on these cards but redundant texture checks make this difficult to implement.

The response from Electronic Arts on the Issue was:

"We've been talking to Benjamin Smith on the development team about this. There are no plans to implement GeForce 4 support in a patch. The engine was not built to run acceptably (performance or appearance-wise) on the GeForce 4 series of cards."

Then why does it run on slower cards such as the ATi Radeon 8500? The performance of this card is no better then the GeForce 4 line except for the inclusion of Pixel Shader 1.4 support...
Click to expand...
...read more at http://www.populartechnology.net/
 
You answered your own question. That card is over 3 fucking years old. Just bend over and take it in the arse and pay $500 for your video card or go back to playing with your girly consoles :whistle2:D
 
[quote name='The VGM']You dont need to pay $500 for a card to play BF2....[/QUOTE]

yep, if money is that big of an issue wait until Black Friday. I got my 9600 a year and a half ago for 70 AR

and I think its funny that EA has the Nvidia logo all over the place and yet all the old cards won't even play the game
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']yep, if money is that big of an issue wait until Black Friday. I got my 9600 a year and a half ago for 70 AR

and I think its funny that EA has the Nvidia logo all over the place and yet all the old cards won't even play the game[/QUOTE]

When is this Black Friday? :D
 
[quote name='The VGM']When is this Black Friday? :D[/QUOTE]

day after thanksgiving. May seem like a long time away, but its well worth waiting when you get everything on the cheap.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']day after thanksgiving. May seem like a long time away, but its well worth waiting when you get everything on the cheap.[/QUOTE]

and this happens every year after thanksgiving? why may I ask did they pick such an odd day?
 
[quote name='The VGM']and this happens every year after thanksgiving? why may I ask did they pick such an odd day?[/QUOTE]

because its the biggest shopping day of the year
 
I picked up a Geforce 6600 for $199 last week at Best Buy (and got Bf2 for free), and it runs decently, so it's not that bad to get one.
 
[quote name='sketch226']slightly off topic but did anyone scroll down and read the XBox article?!?

Insane.[/QUOTE]

Apparently the author hasn't played FPS games on the PS2's controller and was smoking crack when he looked at the PS3 one.
 
Half the people in this thread must not even understand PC gaming. It's not like consoles where you are given the same hardware to work with for five years. It is constantly changing and evolving. GeForce 4 cards *are obsolete.* For the love of god, GeForce 7 just came out. I bought a GeForce 6800 GT back in Feb, and it kicks ass.

Just know that if you want to play BF2 at a smooth framerate, you need a DX9 card (preferably 6800 or higher) with AT LEAST 1GB OF RAM. If you're still running old-ass PC133 and a GeForce 4, you need to upgrade already and quit your god damn bitching, or stick to BF1942.
 
[quote name='CappyCobra']Here's thier new catch phrase :D
[/QUOTE]

Hey newbie, think about that one for a moment.

You could upgrade your computer and have a system that is many times more powerful than a PS3, or you could wait until next year, pay the same price and get the watered down console version. Nothing against the PS3 here, but seriously. PC hardware is expensive. If you can't deal with the high prices for top notch hardware, wait a year or two and you'll pay a few hundred dollars less. Quit being so quick to bash the current leader in GPU tech.
 
[quote name='redgopher']Hey newbie, think about that one for a moment.

You could upgrade your computer and have a system that is many times more powerful than a PS3, or you could wait until next year, pay the same price and get the watered down console version. Nothing against the PS3 here, but seriously. PC hardware is expensive. If you can't deal with the high prices for top notch hardware, wait a year or two and you'll pay a few hundred dollars less. Quit being so quick to bash the current leader in GPU tech.[/QUOTE]
I wasn't bashing nVidia as much as just making a joke about the price (tongue-in-cheek humor there chief). I know the high price of admission on PC gaming & I gladly pay it for games like BF2, HL2, FarCry, Rise of Nations, Age of Emipres 2, etc. You seriously need to lighten up a bit. If you actualy read my 1st post here, I was basically saying if you can't afford it, then PC gaming is not for you.

And leave the name-calling for the sandbox there kid. It's not becoming of you.
 
Yeah, my Radeon 9800 hardly runs this thing. I can't comfortably play it. I know it's just that I need to upgrade, though. Video card and ram both.
 
I like how I don't spend over $1000 on a new computer at the end of last summer when my old motherboard died and what I've bought is already obsolete for gaming.

My Geforce 2 MX (bought for $50) held its own for four years, how did my GeForce 4 manage to get assraped by game development companies in less than nine months?
 
[quote name='RacinReaver']I like how I don't spend over $1000 on a new computer at the end of last summer when my old motherboard died and what I've bought is already obsolete for gaming.

My Geforce 2 MX (bought for $50) held its own for four years, how did my GeForce 4 manage to get assraped by game development companies in less than nine months?[/QUOTE]
It's because the past year, games have been starting to really use features for DirectX 9.1. GF4 doesn't cut the mustard for Dx9 games.
 
[quote name='red flare graf']Yeah, my Radeon 9800 hardly runs this thing. I can't comfortably play it. I know it's just that I need to upgrade, though. Video card and ram both.[/QUOTE]

What are your system specs? I was able to play the demo at a decent frame rate and thought about buying the game. I'm wondering if the retail version is very different in performance then the demo perhaps? I ran it at 1024x768 with video settings set to high. Granted there's a slight delay between menus and while logging into online games, but I didn't see anything too bad. The only thing I thought went really slow was optimizing shaders when I change my video settings. I've been running a single player session first to let that crank away before I go play online.

On my video card I don't see much difference between Medium & High settings so I tend to leave it on Medium.

My Machine: Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 768MB Ram, ATI Radeon 9600 AGP4X 128MB, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, Windows XP Pro SP2
 
My Dell has a power supply max at 250W so I've been rather limited in my abaility to upgrade my video card without chance of overloading the power supply. I was thinking of upgrading my Radeon 9600 to a 9600XT since I've seen them rather cheap (to keep me going awhile longer till I buy a new computer come Christmas). Anyone know if the difference between the 9600 & 9600XT is noticable? (not necessarily noticable on this game, just in general)
 
P4 3.0gHz
512mb DDR RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb

I'm hoping it's mainly my RAM.

And yeah, I was playing the demo, running at 1024x768 with video settings on medium. Unplayable. It's mind boggling.
 
[quote name='ryanflucas']My Dell has a power supply max at 250W so I've been rather limited in my abaility to upgrade my video card without chance of overloading the power supply. I was thinking of upgrading my Radeon 9600 to a 9600XT since I've seen them rather cheap (to keep me going awhile longer till I buy a new computer come Christmas). Anyone know if the difference between the 9600 & 9600XT is noticable? (not necessarily noticable on this game, just in general)[/QUOTE]

Here's an article - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=1904&p=1

Check the benchmarks and performances and compare them to your own computer's.
 
[quote name='redgopher']Half the people in this thread must not even understand PC gaming. It's not like consoles where you are given the same hardware to work with for five years. It is constantly changing and evolving. GeForce 4 cards *are obsolete.* For the love of god, GeForce 7 just came out. I bought a GeForce 6800 GT back in Feb, and it kicks ass.

Just know that if you want to play BF2 at a smooth framerate, you need a DX9 card (preferably 6800 or higher) with AT LEAST 1GB OF RAM. If you're still running old-ass PC133 and a GeForce 4, you need to upgrade already and quit your god damn bitching, or stick to BF1942.[/QUOTE]

I gotta agree somewhat, but at the same time it's why I got out of PC gaming. My problem is that I do know alot about computers (can build a machine, network, etc.. hell, I pay enough tuition for my IT degree). So, therefore.. it bugs the SHIT out of me to play an excellent new release (like HL 2, Doom 3, Farcry, Battlefield 2, etc) and to have a machine that can't play a game on the highest possible settings. It's like being neutered or something. It bugs me to the point to where I know I can't enjoy a game nearly as much as I could with superior hardware. So, I tend to stick with the consoles. Yeah, I whip out my Starcraft, Worms, and Jane's games out from time to time.. and of course I'm curious about Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2 and whatnot, but I can't afford to blow alot to upgrade.

It's why PC sales have nosedived over the years.. while the games may have superior graphical and sound specs, it has become much more inaccessible to many people with the rate that the technology has advanced. I mean, it wasn't a long time ago that AGP 8X was the standard, and now PCI Express has landed on our doorstep. A PC game has to be absolutely a mainstraim blockbuster sales behometh to meet many development costs, as the market has drastically shrunk over the past 10 years (bootlegs aren't hard to come by via bittorrent, many people can't afford to upgrade for a good bit of time until after a game has been marked down, and fewer people will bite at a new release until it has gone down in price).

So I can understand people's frustration on this topic.. I mean hell, it doesn't feel that long ago that the FX 5000 series was the freaking shit.. now we're looking at PCI Express and the new 7000 series on the horizon. The rate at which the technology is advancing (and the requirements necessary to run the most demanding of PC applications.. games) is absolutely astounding. All in all, PC gaming has become the standard for the wealthiest of gamers with the room to spare in their budget. And our current rate of inflation is another story for another time...
 
[quote name='red flare graf']P4 3.0gHz
512mb DDR RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb

I'm hoping it's mainly my RAM.

And yeah, I was playing the demo, running at 1024x768 with video settings on medium. Unplayable. It's mind boggling.[/QUOTE]

Its all your Ram. I had 384 before I upgraded and the game was unplayable. This game is a Ram hog

Also I don't think the FX 5000 series was ever the shit. ATi destroyed them that generation with the 9800, which came out way before the 5000 series even hit the market
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']Its all your Ram. I had 384 before I upgraded and the game was unplayable. This game is a Ram hog

Also I don't think the FX 5000 series was ever the shit. ATi destroyed them that generation with the 9800, which came out way before the 5000 series even hit the market[/QUOTE]

That's great to hear. It was definitely the first thing I was going to upgrade, either way. Thanks for the input. :)
 
[quote name='Skylander7']So I can understand people's frustration on this topic.. I mean hell, it doesn't feel that long ago that the FX 5000 series was the freaking shit.. now we're looking at PCI Express and the new 7000 series on the horizon. The rate at which the technology is advancing (and the requirements necessary to run the most demanding of PC applications.. games) is absolutely astounding. All in all, PC gaming has become the standard for the wealthiest of gamers with the room to spare in their budget. And our current rate of inflation is another story for another time...[/QUOTE]

I agree. PC gaming is more expensive than any other form of gaming. The big trade off was maxing out my first credit card for a major upgrade. I still feel a bit stupid that I made the mistake of going with AGP vs. PCI-e when I did my upgrade back in February:

$140: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3 Ultra mobo
$270: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
$400: XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256MB AGP 8x Dual DVI
$70: 550w Power Supply

subtotal: $880
not to mention the two components I ordered this week:

$170: 1GB (2x512MB) Mushkin 400MHz 2-2-2-5-1T Unbuffered Dual Channel DDR
$60 (after rebate): Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

subtotal: $230
grand total: $1,110

That's spread across two credit cards that are now totally maxed out. Fantastic...

Of course, I probably should have just waited for GeForce 7800 GTX which just came out and paid the extra $200.. would last me much longer than this 6800 GT. Oh well, there's always overclocking.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']Its all your Ram. I had 384 before I upgraded and the game was unplayable. This game is a Ram hog

Also I don't think the FX 5000 series was ever the shit. ATi destroyed them that generation with the 9800, which came out way before the 5000 series even hit the market[/QUOTE]


Agreed!

My PC specs:

Socket 754 Athlon 64 2800+
1 GB PC3200 Corsair Value Select 2.5cas
1 128MB MSI 9800PRO (XT core, Windows sees as an XT card)
80GB WD 8MB cache drive

I downloaded the BF2 demo and played it for a while. I like things on the highest settings, myself.

I put the game on my normally used 19" CRT resolution, 1280x960 @ 72hz, highest settings. My PC choked, talk about low framerate. I think it was running like 10 fps. So I turned detail down to medium and put the AA at 4x and it ran perfectly. So I ran it @ 1280x960 on medium, 4x AA and it runs great. It should run 1024x768 @ high with no problem IMO.
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I always do my PC gaming on a budget, and only upgrade when a game requires it (last upgrade was in January for Battle For Middle Earth).

My upgrade in January was:
$120 Athlon64 2800+
$29 Fatwallet special refurbed Gigabyte Nforce3 MB I got in June last year and kept in my closet
$150 1 GB Corsair PC3200
$175 Refurb MSI 9800pro/XT
$60 Spiffy new case with big fan and lights for fun

Everything else I raided from my old PC. So I spent like $500. Always buy PC components at the trailing edge. :D My $120 A64 2800+ is fine for gaming, and I probably won't need a bigger/better one for at least 2-3 years from when I bought it. I buy CPUs when they are sub $140, and video cards at
 
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