Trouble with MTWII and new graphics car

[bull2118]

So I was all excited to get my newegg box, which of course meant I would not be enjoying my games till at least 10 things went wrong.

The short story:
Was running a 6600 gt on an Asus A8nE
1gb mem with a Maxtor HDD
Athlon 64 1.8
XP SP2

When I got my new order I discovered the mobo does not support IDE hardware (I was going to eventually upgrade my hdd and dvd drive but in the interest of $$$ I thought I could hold off, looks like I get to pay shipping twice.)

Short story long I ended up installing my new EVGA 260 216 on my old mobo/mem/cpu.

I expected, since MTWII is an old game, and people say they play brand new games with this card ramped all the way up, that I would be enjoying my stodgy old RTS with things maxed out without breaking a sweat.

Now, when I open MTW the "auto detect" video settings give me some ghetto resolution like 900x700 (something like that). So I said no way, turned everything up, and MTW went crazy. The background animation for the opening menu freezes, starts, freezes again. When I shuht the game down the music keeps going etc... Did a fresh install and same thing, even with the auto detect settings. (PS on a Dell 2209w if that matters)

I just want to play MTW and Empire (once I finally get sick of this) in all their maxed out glory. From the specs and reviews I know I have screwed something up, or my cpu is soooo old it is limiting my 260? Things just cant be easy.

If you've read this far thanks, and any hardware, software help is appreciated. I am noob and have low-moderate knowledge (two builds and reading you all on these forums) but am willing to grab a screwdriver and try most things.

My grapshics card should be able to whoop these games right (do I sound like someone who agonized over the right card for months?)

Thanks

 

[JSt0rm]

wait are you saying you are running a 260 with a 1.8 athlon xp?
ok re reading. Sorry. Dont do this. Or only do this temporary. The 260 is asleep waiting for the athlon xp to work.

 

[bull2118]

Sorry, long day at work
I am runnning an Athlon 64 1.8ghz processor with Windows XP SP2

 

[zerocool84]

Your processor barely meets the minimum requirements for the game. No way you are going to run it on high everything. Just because you got a new video card doesn't mean your system will be fast. Other parts in computer complement each other. You need a fast processor with a fast video card. Your processor needs to feed the info to the video card so your video card is just sitting while the processor can't keep up. You bought waaaaaaaaaay too much videocard for your system. You're going to need a full system upgrade if you plan on running any games within the past couple years with that system you have there. Getting parts for your current system is going to be VERY expensive since they don't make them any more and you're going to have to resort to eBay and the like. Not worth it to upgrade your current system when you can get something for just a little bit more that will kick it in the nuts.

 

[bull2118]

Thanks for the feedback, that is actually a relief. I have a Phenom II 720 w/mobo and 4gb ram sitting in a box waiting for a sata dvd drive and hdd (and for me to find my oem XP disc, no way am I dropping the $$$ on another OS when Windows 7 is six months from release.

Thanks again.

 

[daveybrat]

You also haven't told us what power supply you are using with that Athlon64 1.8GHz system with your new GTX 260 card.

 

[AstroManLuca]

For anyone who is at this thread, MTWII = Medieval II Total War. Took me a little while to figure out what that meant.

In general, a processor that slow is going to bottleneck any game from the last several years. But I'm guessing the Total War series would be even worse than average since it has to calculate what all those little soldiers are doing.

 

[bull2118]

I put in an OCZ 600w power supply. Basically I have a new mobo/ram/and cpu sitting in a box waiting for me to get a sata drive and sata hdd (and to find my XP disc, I repeat, through shear force of will I will not buy another OS 6 months before Windows 7 comes out. Guess tomorrow I have to drive to a retail store and get less product for more money. Instant gratification is a mother. Thanks for the replies, they help...