dirtylarrygb

Yep if the ATI card is cheaper this is good news as it should force nvidia to stop milking the top end. In all the benchmarks the funny result was the new R600 cards totaly powned the nvidia Quadro series in 3d studio max. Nvidia will be forced to cut prices, the 8800 ultra is 500 pounds and they are really taking the pis* now. Don't forget the 8 series work 20-30% faster in a Intel Duo over even AMD FX CPU's so don't be surprised if the new AMD cores the Phlegm (sorry Phenom) run the R600's a bit faster... Everyone gets very excited over which is faster and forgets from the 8800 GTS 320 or the 2900XT you can run just about any game at very high res at better than 30 FPS as a min frame rate. Which means PC's officially now crap all over the consoles and games like crysis/bioshock/lost planet/alan wake and ARMA will be fun to play for years to come and just look better and better.

Yep if the ATI card is cheaper this is good news as it should force nvidia to stop milking the top end. In all the benchmarks the funny result was the new R600 cards totaly powned the nvidia Quadro series in 3d studio max. Nvidia will be forced to cut prices, the 8800 ultra is 500 pounds and they are really taking the pis* now. Don't forget the 8 series work 20-30% faster in a Intel Duo over even AMD FX CPU's so don't be surprised if the new AMD cores the Phlegm (sorry Phenom) run the R600's a bit faster... Everyone gets very excited over which is faster and forgets from the 8800 GTS 320 or the 2900XT you can run just about any game at very high res at better than 30 FPS as a min frame rate. Which means PC's officially now crap all over the consoles and games like crysis/bioshock/lost planet/alan wake and ARMA will be fun to play for years to come and just look better and better.

In general try the game at a lower screen res, turn down some GFX settings and see if it becomes more stable. Turn Post process low, make sure AA and Af are set as Apllication controlled in nvidia Control panel or ATI equiv. ARMA crashes alot if you run old GPU drivers and max out FGX settings. If you have a onboard soundcard or audigy or live then its best to update your drivers as well. Also monitors the temps or your CPU and GPU as they may be overheating.

ARMA still hates Vista on some hardware setups, Â either your MOBO, GPU etc still has Vista Drivers that hate ARMA. Supreme Commander should be fine ;} Try different ATI drivers for Vista and Nforce drivers for your Mobo. But if that doesn't work install a dual XP boot, Â or plonk in an old HD and shove XPSP2 on that for ARMA, Â Rainbow 6 etc etc and the 40-50% of unpatched XP games that still hate Vista (64 still seems to have more issues than vanilla 32 bit home). In 6 months probably won't be an issue, Â but kinda nice to play stuff now well mobo wontbe the issue since it is the most stable one on thr market. i prefered stability against performace. already tried different drivers but no change. honestly i didnt expect anyother. mobo drivers. well. first dont have since my board is native supported by vista out of the box, 2nd this is a real nvidia free place (u remember? stability). on the other hand: since i dont even get the menu wit 1.05 (1.05beta gets the menu but its broken) i dont see what mobo drivers or even gpu drivers have to do wit it, since u dont need shaders - not even 3d - do display a menu. well xp is no option. aight, but the stuff isnot named arma... bf2 is running... even ofp but not arma... shameful simon A few Vista 64 users have ARMA running fine, so there is something in your hardware that is not happy in Vista under load (eg ARMA). ARMA is in the supreme commander league of being able to humble even the very best Dell XPS or Alienware PC available. I would keep hunting BIOS updates for your Mobo, suddenley ARMA may start working. I would also try beta ATI drivers from 3d guru for your ATI card. To be honest its your mobo or GPU that should be causing this, its possible a soundcard issue may be at fault but no 3d display points the finger at the GPU the most. In the meantime go buy Supremme Commander the only game so far that works faster under vista ;} The menu shows a 3d world in the background so "no menu" I would really suspect its the video card drivers.

ROW your lucky loads of people with AMD x2 or Intel Duos still have issues with GRAW and RB6. WOW still can CTD with x2 or Duos as well, this should all be fixed by december but it is annoying. Duo and Quads have just almost halved in price, but they are still a risk in XP or Vista for lots of games software. Supremme Commander is leading the way (arguably the first game that NEEDS a X2 or DUO, even a OC'ed 64 4000 stumbles!. It would be nice for BIS to fix ARMA for x2 or Duo cores and also confirm Game 2 etc is for the new CPU's.

Not had a problem on a XIFI, is this issue just related to to SB live and audigy?

ARMA still hates Vista on some hardware setups, either your MOBO, GPU etc still has Vista Drivers that hate ARMA. Supreme Commander should be fine ;} Try different ATI drivers for Vista and Nforce drivers for your Mobo. But if that doesn't work install a dual XP boot, or plonk in an old HD and shove XPSP2 on that for ARMA, Rainbow 6 etc etc and the 40-50% of unpatched XP games that still hate Vista (64 still seems to have more issues than vanilla 32 bit home). In 6 months probably won't be an issue, but kinda nice to play stuff now

Well i really have to disagree there, i have no problems with latest official 158.19 drivers and Arma patched to 1.5beta and no complaints other than the shadder effects making the vegetation kill my fps. Im not talking about Rahmadi or the desert here . ARMA 1.05 beta + Nvidia drivers 102 or better, perfect ARMA maxed at high res 40+ STABLE FPS. BUT I'm running a AMD 64 4000 SINGLE CORE.... I also set shaders to normal since the 105 beta

Yep and the 9800 will come along and beat the new ATI card then the next ATI card will trump the that etc. Most important is that ATI now have a rival and this will bring all card costs down, Â nvidia have been able to milk the market for 6 months while ATI sat in the lab. Problem is most benchmarks matter moot for now till there is a Dx10 benchmark for Crysis, Â almost cards have been fine since the 7800 series for modern games in high res. Also of note is will the ATI card work well in a Intel DUO/QUAD or will it need a new AMD CPU? Â I'm worried there's a split going on with nvidia and Intel in one camp and the new AMD/ATI in the other. Its been a long wait for this card, Â I was getting worried Nvidia were going to dominate the market for 2 long which means we would all pay more for GPU's. The dialy tech scores showed both ATI cards getting powned by the 8800 GTX which is odd, Â perhaps the ATI needs the new AMD CPU or better drivers etc. Â It's taken almost 5 months for decent stable 8800 drivers to arrive. Â And as I said before the DX9 benchmarks are a bit daftt as both these cards are for DX10 and the awesome amount fo stream processors the new ATI cards have may make a huge difference.

Yep and the 9800 will come along and beat the new ATI card then the next ATI card will trump the that etc. Most important is that ATI now have a rival and this will bring all card costs down, Â nvidia have been able to milk the market for 6 months while ATI sat in the lab. Problem is most benchmarks matter moot for now till there is a Dx10 benchmark for Crysis, Â almost cards have been fine since the 7800 series for modern games in high res. Also of note is will the ATI card work well in a Intel DUO/QUAD or will it need a new AMD CPU? Â I'm worried there's a split going on with nvidia and Intel in one camp and the new AMD/ATI in the other. Its been a long wait for this card, Â I was getting worried Nvidia were going to dominate the market for 2 long which means we would all pay more for GPU's. The dialy tech scores showed both ATI cards getting powned by the 8800 GTX which is odd, Â perhaps the ATI needs the new AMD CPU or better drivers etc. Â It's taken almost 5 months for decent stable 8800 drivers to arrive. Â And as I said before the DX9 benchmarks are a bit daftt as both these cards are for DX10 and the awesome amount fo stream processors the new ATI cards have may make a huge difference.

And is the same reason my E6600 is sitting a box, staying single core till this is fixed. Rainbow 6 vegas also is a butt with Dual Cores. Annoyingly I'm playing supreme commander which really requires a Duo core so I'm stuck right now of use single core for most of my FPS games eg ARMA or switch over to my DUO for my RTS games but fook my FPS games! People moan about vista compatability but DUO and AMD x2 cores have just as many issues with so many games right now it's insane.

158.19 seem best (So far) for ARMA, Rainbow 6:Vegas, WOW:TBC and Supreme Commander. Â Anything below that had strange issues in ARMA and RB6, Â better FPS quality seems to have come from all nvidia drivers beyond 102 in Windows XP SP2. 8800 GTX 768 KO AC3 EVGA 626/1100. AMD 64 4000 10%* OC, 2 GIG DDR, XIFI Dual 32" LCD's (1680x1024), ZBOARD, 700W PSU *Single Core rocks for ARMA and RB6, sucks butt big time for Supreme Commander.

Leaving the 158 ones on now as they work a dream in ARMA and supreme commander.

7950 is a great card, Â but depending on price of the card being on sale it may be worth a little extra of for an 8800 GTS 320/640. In the UK both cards are pretty close in price. Even the GTS is faster (has alot more texture pipes etc) than the 7950. And although now you are saying you have ZERO intrest in DX10. Â When Crysis arrives and a few other titles (Bioshock Lost Planet etc etc) you might regret buying a DX9 card (even though thats about the best Dx9 card ever made). If your PSU is 600W or above, Â and you have a dual core CPU rated 2GHZ or Above. Â An 8800 GTS would gaurentee no messing with video cards for 1-3 years. Â A 7950 might end up in the bin in 12 months! Although Vista and DX10 titles are a bit thin on the ground, Â it is starting to change and within 12 months many games may be aimed at Vista and DX10 only. As much as having a dual core CPU may be almost required soon. Alot of poeple jumped from the TI Geforce 4 series to the Geforce FX (5 series) and got burned as they needed to upgrade to a geforce 6 within 12-16 months to play sexy new titles. Its generally cheaper to buy a decent GPU and keep in for 2 years than constantly upgrade mid range cards. The recommendation for the 7950 was made before nvidia finally fixed most of the 8 series bugs with the new drivers. I would avoid anything below a 8600, and to be honest save the extra and pump for a 8800 GTS 640. That way all games all eye candy no messing for 12-24 months.

The haze after the beta fix is M I N O R, and as the * series with the latest drivers run ARMA at high res with all eye candy maxed it's not an issue. You can of course have zero haze by using a 7 series or ATI 1950 but then get 50% the performance of an 8 series is you are lucky. The latest 105 drivers fixed the 8 series in just about any game I have tried (Rainbow Six was a real pain) and are delivering AWESOME performance.