BF2 The *****

[Skaggy]

I've got near enough the same specs as you.

- P4 @ 3.2 with HTT
- HD 2600 XT with 256 MB vRAM.
- 2GB PC3200 RAM

Running with everything on high means it's too jerky for my liking.
If it's an AGP card like mine then the current drivers aren't very good at all.
Apparently new drivers will be released soon that are supposed to increase performance.

But yes, get an extra 1GB or RAM, it helps.

[Metal Knight]

Ahh heres your problem, you need to ctrl-alt-delete out of BF2 once its loaded (before you log in), go to processes, select BF.exe and set affinity to just CPU 0 (uncheck the second one). BF2 doesnt support dual core processors. Hope i helped

i run mine on dual-core and it runs perfectly on maxed out settings - i think the key is as everyone said - 2Gb

[AmericanDad]

it's been said but yeah, 2 gig ram.

[HateKILLL™]

The problem lies with that video card , it is a midrange card not high end. I returned my hd2600xt because my x800xt ran smoother with higher settings, strange my 3 year old card is better. That card will only run the game smooth with medium settings. Also 8x AA is way to much for that card , try droping it to 4x and set you texture & texture filtering to medium. You should have got the x1950 if you wanted high settings M8.

[RW-RogueWolf]

Im running the HD 2600 XT 512mb PCI Express Version, the previous versions of the 2600 series couldn't run for toffee, the 512mb is high end.

[imported_Knifey]

Damn, i thought i was right then so i guess its the RAM then >.<

[HateKILLL™]

Im running the HD 2600 XT 512mb PCI Express Version, the previous versions of the 2600 series couldn't run for toffee, the 512mb is high end.

512 don't mean its hi-end, thats a mid-range card period. I had the HIS HD2600XT 512 turbo which is over clocked & it was not one bit faster then my X800XT (WASTE OF $ FOR AN UPGRADE). 2 gigs of ram will help with the slutter at the begining of map , but your not going to run the game smooth with all your setting maxed out with that card !!!!!!

[TheEn|gma]

All I have to say to you is welcome to the unoptimised POS that is BF2!

[Major Culo]

1 thing that is missing from your upgrade list is your power supply! Is your old one enough?

[Pill_Monster]

Like a couple of others have said - you need 2Gb of RAM to run High settings. I run mine on all High settings and my BF2 uses around 1GB. NOt Video card, I use a 3 year old 6800 Ultra and get around 70+ FPS.... I also have a Dual Core CPU.

[RW-RogueWolf]

1 thing that is missing from your upgrade list is your power supply! Is your old one enough?

yeh its a 650 watt & thats new aswell

512 don't mean its hi-end, thats a mid-range card period. I had the HIS HD2600XT 512 turbo which is over clocked & it was not one bit faster then my X800XT (WASTE OF $ FOR AN UPGRADE). 2 gigs of ram will help with the slutter at the begining of map , but your not going to run the game smooth with all your setting maxed out with that card !!!!!!

Well then its Bye Bye to BF2, the card works better than fine with all the other games, Until BF3 comes out its BF2142. I aint wasting anymore money for just 1 game when the rest work fine. I'll try the 2gb of ram, thats it, if that sucks BF2 is over for me.

& myn is the turbo version, they only brought out the turbo version for HIS 512mb. it was the 256 that had the turbo & standard versions. I upgraded from a saffire x700 which was pants to say the least so either way the jump in graphics for me is huge. You'd call an AGP graphics card that ran brilliant a low end card now, its just moving with the times this card is Mid Ranged to High at the least.

[HateKILLL™]

If your going to wait for BF3 , then plan on upgrading to a nvidia 8800- 9000 series or a ati 3870 & 3 gigs of ram M8. I'm not knocking down the card you have now , but my experience when I upgraded from my X800XT to the HD2600 XT , it was no better of a card so I returned it . Thats the only argument I have when you say its a high-end card. Good luck with the 2 gigs of ram , hope it helps!!

High-End Video Cards
High-end video card setups encompass the $400 and over category. These video cards will allow you to play games at very high resolutions and with maximum image quality settings. Feel free to keep antialiasing (which helps to smooth out jagged lines) and anisotropic filtering (keeps textures looking good at all distances and angles) settings enabled on just about every single game at resolutions as high as 2560x1600. You can easily get away with less expensive cards if you have a smaller monitor or don't need extremely high image quality settings.

You can find plenty of options in the high-end category, and with the advent of SLI and CrossFire, it's very easy to double the amount you pay. SLI and CrossFire refer to technologies, respectively created by Nvidia and ATI, that allow you to operate two matching video cards in the same computer. Dual-card setups will give you access to higher image quality settings, but you won't get double the performance due to the overhead involved in getting two cards to work together. A dual-card setup will also require a beefy power supply, a specialized SLI or CrossFire motherboard capable of running two video cards, and possibly even a new computer case.

There are only a few individual cards in the high-end category. Once we remove the SLI and CrossFire combinations, we're left with the GeForce 8800 Ultra, the GeForce 8800 GTX, the Radeon HD 2900 XT, and some versions of the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. The GeForce 8800 Ultra and GTX have the same number of shaders, but the Ultra has slightly faster clock speeds. The GeForce 8800 GTX originally debuted late last year before the launch of Windows Vista, and ruled the roost for many months before being displaced by the Ultra. Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB product comes with three-fourths as many shaders as the GTX, and has less memory and slower clock speeds. The GTS is currently available for as low as $380 online, but we included it in the high-end category because many variants of the card come very close to the $400 mark and we needed to give the Radeon HD 2900 XT some fair competition.

The Radeon HD 2900 XT's $400 price point places it between the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB and the GeForce 8800 GTX. The ATI and Nvidia solutions have very different architectures, which makes direct shader-count comparisons difficult. Note that ATI doesn't have a true answer for the GeForce 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra cards. If you're considering only the highest of the high-end, you're going to get a GeForce.

[Flyjetandkill]

More Ram and Core2Duo =Win

[dfour]

How about just running the game at 4* or 2* AA as you ur card is probably struggling with 8*.

[RW-RogueWolf]

If your going to wait for BF3 , then plan on upgrading to a nvidia 8800- 9000 series or a ati 3870 & 3 gigs of ram M8. I'm not knocking down the card you have now , but my experience when I upgraded from my X800XT to the HD2600 XT , it was no better of a card so I returned it . Thats the only argument I have when you say its a high-end card. Good luck with the 2 gigs of ram , hope it helps!!

Ok dude thanks for the help, sorry for gettin on the defensive it aint u im annoyed with, ive had it with this damn PC, everythings new and it still wants to be a tit. I am taking the card back and getting an NVidia, dont know what type yet tho. But ive got £100 -£130 to spend in exchange for this card. Anyone got any suggestions for that price catagory?