Need different video card?

[Jmouse]

Hope someone out there has a computer system similar to mine, but a different video card.

Specs include:
Dell Studio 9000
Intel Core i7-920 CPU
6GB RAM
*1024MB nVidia GeForce GT220* video card
Win7 Home Premium 64-bit

I've never been able to use JRJ TPW successfully on this system. It disappears as soon as I change the display in any way - zoom in, zoom out or scroll. So tonight, I crossed my fingers and DLed the latest driver, and it just made things worse. Now the RRP fences don't line up correctly. I didn't bother to check anything else - that's more than enough disappointment for one night!

So please, if you have any suggestions or ideas, please share them. I will gladly buy a different video card if I can just be reasonably sure it will work.

Thanks in advance...
Joan

[SC4BOY]

I don't use that combo, but many folk use the 920 processor and OS you're using. Some users of the newer  nVidea cards have reported that OLDER drivers work better.. you might check the nVidia web site and search for SC4 or SimCity and see if support threads exist for that board.. just a thought. Sorry you're having problems.

[Jmouse]

I grabbed the oldest driver I could find, but it didn't help so I deleted it and re-installed the newer one. Then I started seeing displays like this.

My friend and teammate Dave (tooheys) has a computer system which I believe is similar to mine. He's using a Radeon card which Dell lists as being compatible with my system. It seems to be compatible with SC4, too, so I've asked him to look up a few more specs for me. I'm grasping at straws here, but maybe comparing the two systems will help Dell's tech support team determine whether or not the Radeon card would work for me.

Later...
Joan

[videosean]

Intel C2D E6850
4GB DDR2 RAM
Asus P5Q Pro motherboard
nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB
Win7 64 Ultimate
nvidia driver version: 8.17.11.9562 (from windows device manager)

I have similar problems - my picture is of when it gets so bad I have no choice but to quit the game but it appears I can actually just quit to region and the problem actually goes away before I even get to the region screen.  I have seen a single line that look like your multiple lines and a quick zoom in and out fixes that for me.  Sometimes zooming in and out will also fix the more severe problem in my picture but it seems to always get to the point that I have to quit and re-open the city.  I'll also see that certain things in the game will kind of flicker or disappear and reappear quickly - haven't figured out yet what kind of textures/graphics reliably do this or if it's only at certain zoom levels.  Normally I'd say my picture looks like a graphics hardware problem but if you want a list of other games I can play with no graphics corruption at all I'll make a list.

I've tried going into the nvidia control panel and disabling every option possible for SC4 but it hasn't seemed to make a difference.  The reason I tried that is that this game was made long ago when video cards didn't have the capabilities they do now so maybe turning off something in the graphics drivers might help?


I've also done the affinity mask thing to my sc4.exe file which forces it to run on one core only.  I never had this problem with my old ATI x1950 XT card but I ran 32 bit XP with that card.  I think these problems have to be something that can be fixed with a setting somewhere but I haven't found anything to fix it yet.

Any help would be appreciative and I'll post back if I find a fix for my problems... not sure if I'm even going to be playing much but I wanted to have a look at the new NAM updates and this happens.  I haven't played sc4 in forever.

[Rayden]

Please check this post - http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9657.msg296326#msg296326 - I hope it helps, it did to some people.

[videosean]

Please check this post - http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9657.msg296326#msg296326 - I hope it helps, it did to some people.

Your advice seems to have done it.  I went back to NVidia drivers (186.18_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe) 186.18 from June 2009 and the problem hasn't shown up in about 30 minutes of playing the game... I didn't even restart my pc.  8.15.11.8618 is the display driver version from windows device manager now.  TY

[Jmouse]

Thank you for posting, Silvio (Rayden). I didn't know the thread you cited existed, but I have it bookmarked now.

Unfortunately, the 186 driver didn't work for me. I received this error message:

Setup detected that the OS in use is not Windows Vista [64-bit]/Windows 7 [64-bit]. This setup program and its associated drivers are designed to run only on Windows Vista [64-bit]/Windows 7 [64-bit]. The installation will be terminated.

Obviously, the error message itself is an error:

I don't play SC4Dx as much as I'd like to, but I did enter the GRVII Challenge without encountering the kind of problems I've had recently. At that time I was playing the game in Win XP SP3 compatibility mode with no other notable changes to the defaults.

So tonight I just started pushing buttons in a fit of frustration, and got lucky! Here are the settings which are working for me now:

Win XP SP2
In game:
Everything on High except # of Cars and Sims (might try changing this later)
Everything checked but Clouds and Fog
32-bit color
Software Render

I've zoomed in and out and moved every direction, all without graphic glitches:

The only issue at this time is a slight "bump" when scrolling, but I can live with that!

Thanks again for your help, and who knows, maybe this will end up helping someone else.

Later...
Joan

[SC4BOY]

Just as a point of comparison, I'd like to know which version of DX (DirectX) you're all are using. As your cards are all fairly new, I wonder if you all have DX11? or maybe DX10? (hit "start", "run", and enter "dxdiag" without quotes and you will get a report diagnostic which gives a lot of tests and report info)

[videosean]

Win7 comes with DirectX 11.  Looks like I was a little off on my mobo model but I attribute that more to the lack of problems I've had with this hardware combination than memory loss... might be wishful thinking.

Code Select Expand

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/27/2010, 15:29:57
       Machine name: ZIGGO5
   Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
       System Model: P5Q-E
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/05/08 20:24:17 Ver: 08.00.14
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6850  @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4096MB RAM
          Page File: 2741MB used, 5447MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode

[Jmouse]

Direct X 11 here, too.

[SC4BOY]

The reason I ask is that some have loaded earlier (usually DX9) versions) .. they can be simultaneously loaded and it seems that DX11 is kinda leaving SC4 in the dust.. finally and maybe inextricably ... just a thought.. you can download and install earlier versions from microsoft.. I believe specific links to DX9.0c is in the doc's for SC4Terraformer by Wou.. You can always remove it I suppose if it doesn't work.

[vil]

Im on Win7 32 bit and NVIDIA card, the new 196.75 drivers seem to work OK now, rendering bugs squashed. 

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us