Is my video card the problem?

[Cawchy87]

It's been a while since I've been on these video forums but I used to be a regular.

My problem is this - When trying to play Call of duty 4, I can watch the opening scene and the intro to the first mission, but the game crashes as soon as I am going to start the first mission. The game also crashes if I try to click out of the intro scene and go straight to the menu. All the settings are turned down to the lowest for video. I haven't played any of the newer games, but games like farcry still run fine.

Specs


Processor:
AMD XP-M Barton 2500 -> O/C'd to 2.054GHZ
1GB Ram (3200)

Mobo:
ABIT NF7

Video Card:
ATI 9800Pro O/C'd (I have tried it a default speeds as well)

Sound Card:
SB Audigy

Hard Drive:
Western Digital 160GB 7200rpm

Power Supply:
Antec SmartPower 500watt

Case temps are quite cool with the excellent heatsinks.

So do you think this is a simple fix by swapping in somthing like an nvidia 6800GT? Or do I need a whole new computer?

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

[zagood]

Hate to say it, but new computer. Not only is the video card underpowered, but the processor as well.

You'll be able to salvage everything but the mobo/cpu/gpu. For under $300 you can put together a low-range system that will run circles around your current one.

If you have a Fry's near you, just about every weekend they have sales on CPU/mobo combos. Take a look under CPU/Motherboards here:
http://frys-electronics-ads.com/

Otherwise, plenty of online options.

-z

 

[SneakyStuff]

I recycled my old Antec case and got a cheap Athlon X2 setup, fantastic upgrade from my old Barton 2800+ and CoD4 runs great.

Athlon X2 4800+ (Brisbane) @newegg $78
Gigabyte mobo w/ PCIe x16 2.0 and everything youd want or need @newegg $90
G.Skill 2gb (2x 1gb) DDRII 800, the best deal in town @newegg $45
evga 8800gs video card @newegg $130-$30MIB = $100 (evga is pretty quick with rebates)

So for $343 total and a $30 rebate you're looking at around $325 total once youve factored in shipping costs, that's just my personal opinion on a quick and cheap way to upgrade your system there are plenty of other ways to do it. Hope this helped!

EDIT: oh, forgot to mention that if you have an ebay account you can turn your old parts for cash, I could hardly believe it myself but there is a market for it. With what you've got you could make about $100-150 back

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Cawchy87, have you tried COD4 with the CPU at default speed? Also, have all the latest DX9 updates have been installed?

 

[ther00kie16]

I played through COD4 on an almost identical system @ 1440x900 with everything on low and no video lag. So I doubt it's the hardware. When it comes to software issues, google is your friend.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Update your video card drivers if you haven't done that yet. Otherwise, I'm not sure what will help.

 

[DarkRogue]

Could be the drivers or something.. definitely software related IMO. My old rig was very similar (Athlon XP 2600+, 9800 Pro) and HL2 would keep crashing back to desktop at certain points. I upgraded the drivers and I passed it....but it decided to crash at another point. I finally upgraded off it to my current rig, got a nice performance increase of over 13x in 3dmark lol.