[Gripe] Pixel Shader 2

there's models (which i assume use SM3.0) of the DGs in the menus, that probably explains why it's chucking a fit in menus. it appears there's lots of SM2.0 people on the forum (that, or there's a few yelling really loudly) so i suspect GPG might bump up the priority of implementing legacy shaders.

also, if you can play FA (with it's framerate eating FoW) the you really don't need to upgrade to play DG.

If supreme commander has ps2 support, this game will probably get it too.  Since it's based on supcom engine and this game suppose to have lower requirements than supcom.   Just wait for beta 2-3.

I'd be surprised if they don't add in SM2.0 support.  Or at least have an option to turn off the SM3.0 shaders completely if it takes too much time to make SM2.0 fallbacks.

Oh and also.. You don't nee dan 8x for SM2.0.  8series is SM4.0 I believe.

6 series... A SIX SERIES.  A 4 years old card Is SM3.0

It's the 5 series and X800 cards are SM2.0 Sooooo old.  Jeez I remember my firs computer when I was getting more into gaming was a radeon 9700.  that was the series right before those two!

You can LITERALLY spend under $40 to get a SM3.0 card.

I think the radeon 9700 is the same as the geforce 5 series. The problem with the $40 SM3.0 card you mention is it requires PCI express only found in the newer computers.   There's also laptops with graphic cards that can't be upgraded.

The problem is I only have an AGP slot, most old computers do.  So the cheapest AGP option I found was the radeon x1650pro for $70.

umm no.. you can get tons of AGP SM3.0 cards what are you talking about?..

Search for yourself.

innociv is correct. you can get HD3870 on AGP, and a fair few middle-range 8-Series geForce cards too. i have an old 6600GT (supports SM3.0) on AGP lying about somewhere too.

its just a matter of knowing where to look.

however, i'd just save up all my pennies and start budgetting for a new computer.

Demigod primarily runs using Shader Model 2, and scales down to Shader Model 1 on low fidelity settings.

Why are people getting problems with SM2.0 cards where the game simply won't load?

There is no performance reason to require SM3.0, the X800 ATi series has more than enough performance to run the game. You talk about spending under $40, well, that's just a free hit to his budget. Speaking as an 8800 card owner.

Also, such a card wouldn't play any game for shit in FPS terms.

Whoa... I'm not sure what to respond to, or in which order, or if I should just let some misinterpretations of my post slide...

I guess I had better go in order:

Innociv - by 8x I meant AGP since my board (Tiger K8W) does not take PCI-E, I was not discussing the series of the card.  I'm considering the 3850 because it seems to be an up to date, reasonably affordable card.

Santurary - OK... What else is wrong with my hardware setup if its not my card (and by all accounts I'm not the only one having issues with the x800).  Is it my processor?  My RAM?  I know DDR I is slow (400mhz), but i've NEVER seen system requirements mention FSB speed.

I don't see any post by you giving the other specs?

I´ve bought the 7600GT 1 or 2 years ago I think.

I´ve got an AGP board, too. My previous card was a Radeon 9800pro, but this card killed itself 4 times (allways in garantie).

I wanted the 6600GT or the 6800GT, but my favortie little shop only had the 7600GT. And I like it, sure no Crysis on high settings, but its toughter as it sounds

AGP has not been standard for anything, even budget PCs for many years.

You may not care about graphics, but fact is, most people prefer a game that has both good gameplay and pretty effects.  I personally disdain people that expect a brand new game to work on technology that is half a decade old, or more.  It isn't there fault you bought cheap; nor is it your fault you bought cheap if you had to.  But if you had to buy cheap, then you should accept that you won't get to do some things very well, or at all.

AGP cards are typically more expensive than PCIe cards.  I know there are high end AGP cards which are $100+.

What I mean is that the cheapest AGP I was able to find was a $70 x1650pro or geforce 7600gs.   There is no $40 agp card that can run this game, but there are $40 PCIe cards that can run this game fine.

When I was single, I would buy the best videocard without blinking an eye.  Now that I'm married, I really have to watch my budget despite making more money than before.

Gentlemen,

I did NOT buy cheap.  I built that system about 4 years ago, jsut before PCI-E came out.  Paid about $1600 total.  I wanted a Gaming machine that could also handle video and 3d rendering on a budget.  The machine runs Oblivion on highest settings, World in Conflict on Medium settings over 30fps, Supcom on Highest settings without a hitch.  Still handles 3d rendering at lightening speeds for its age.  It has served me well, I'm just trying to eek a little more life out of it.

Originally: Tiger K8W, 2 Opteron 1.6 ghz single cores, 1 GB of Kingston PC2100, Radeon X800 XT (saphire version), 550watt power supply, 2 Western Digital Hard Drives, Coolermaster case

Currently: 1 Opteron 2.4 ghz dual core (room for another), 2 GB PC 3200 RAM

Upgrade Options:

running Windows XP 64 Pro so room for 4 GB Ram if I switch to 128 bit sticks, new HDDs (a must I think as the C: take eons to defrag), maybe a new video card since they STILL MAKE AGP cards.  I'm mostly looking for advice on whether I should go ahead and do some of that, all of it, or delegate this to a rendering workhorse and build a new system from scratch.

save up your pennies sturmadler, yes you can buy a newer AGP card and possibly a faster CPU. however it's going to be far far far better to let your current machine retire gracefully and build a brand new one.

the new AMDs are reportedly very upgrader friendly (with respect to future upgrading), so i'd look there as my first choice. if you want a starting point; 790GX for your mobo.

that's my $0.02

4 years is about the lifespan of a high-end machine. The X800XT should still be able to handle Demigod however.

Yeah, that definitly wasn't a cheap machine you built there. The great thing is, you don't have to spend $1600 to get 4x the performance you had purchased 4 years ago.

yeah, I'm now considering just spending $600 every two years henceforth.

Maybe it's the 64 bit OS sturmadler, although i haven't look at all the freeze,crash reports. I haven't take a look at all of those myself so you can try seeing if there's anyone with the same problem as yours or got the similar system. If you have some free times, you can also try installing XP 32bit just for the sake of testing. And yeah i think your system is pretty much surpass the game requirement, the problem is just that you can't get through the menu screen.

Parts are a lot cheaper now than they where.

You can build a machine that'll run crysis, on high, 1280x1024, for about $600.

Thanks for all the response, good to have some others giving the problem some thought.  I also have a feeling that xp 64 may be the culprit here.  In truth, its definately time for a reformat at the very least.  Even if this ol' girl gets relegated to a render workhorse.

Worth a shot, who knows, might cause the current build of demigod to work...

Don't bother, it's not the OS.