eid

well its a good idea to try googling a few benchmarks on that card, and compare their result to what your current systen can give you.. like 3dmark and other in game tests although i do believe the nvidia 8xxx series have Pixel Shader 4.0 and has direct-x 10 support..whereas the x1800 can only do PS 3.0 as i mentioned the only way is to run a few tests on your machine, get an average result with your prefered settings... and look around for a similar setup using the card of your choice and find out what suits you.. heres a link that you can use as a reference, bare in mind the compy theyre using is probly a lot better trhan what you may have, or maybe you have one better :P http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=733&model2=855&chart=277 look around for others as its some sites like this tend to be a bit biased ;)

Keep the x1800gto for yourself, as it has Pixel Shader 3.0 (better graphics) and the x850xtpe only has 2.x... the 850 is also kinda old even though its fast, id look at the x1950pro or nvidia 79xx series first.. that is unless the x850 is dirt cheap..(half priced x1950,maybe) the clock speeds cannot really be compared across a different vpu series.. the x1800 uses a r5xx chip and uses lower latencies and lower frequencies than the r4xx.. although the memory speeds can be compared the same way.. and a 200mhz loss isnt that bad really.. if you absolutely need it you can always overclock some :P you can only CrossFire 2 of the same cards afaik..

well what vcard you got apo? if its nvidia.. try finding a tweak program, Nvhardpage, rivatuner- theres a few more if its ati.. try ATI tray tools... assuming whatever card you have may not have the required shader level, those programs can Force the card to use a certain HLVS/HLPS target.. among a few other useful things also try 3d Analyser and use it to tell the program that you have a 9800 pro or something.. i guess theses lines only appear with this game?? anyway gl with it...

i havn't played emp in a while,and it took me a while to get aquainted to atreides build orders micro and macro are only one very important part of the game.. dont count everything on a perfectly timed build order... the reason i say this is because the first thing you build is always a guess,same for your enemy... you dont always know if im gonna make a fac or a ref or a bar first.-thats a player habbit your gonna hafta learn and gamble on.. there are some bo's that cant easily be countered unless the defender techs up in some way.. this is where early kindjal-mino-sniper etc type tactics come into play. so dont rule that out either.. it has its uses. the key i believe that helps atr's slow units out the most is Formation!. setting up your army in a way that one group type of units protects the other without breaking the line too much... and also, escalation tactics,play a big role. eg getting a few ornis before they get deviators etc, forcing them to decide on aa or tech.. geese snipers sonics drones and minos are not as effective if you wanna use subhouses tho. your better off spamming sards and leeches and tier 1 and go for the spice full time :/ use atreides harrass tactics(drones+bikes/fremen) while you mass up elites fremen and minos bikes inf and expanding, if your not into rushing..

most of my specs are in a previous post in this thread.. the games i guess that i would throw on those hd's would be bf2 fear company of heroes etc, mostly intensive memory filling,hdd crunching games..eg not emp :P i've already tried goin 4x 512 corsair twinx, and i dont think my pc was very partial to that :/ it ran, but not without issues.. well even tho the board has some excuse for a raid controller, im not 1 to use or endorse onboard 'solutions' so to that end ill grab some Promise controller, that way i know it gets done properly.. no sense spending 300+ and using them on some kinda 'free' 'controller'.. the rams gonna cost me tho.. 2x1024 is at $399 and geil wants $320 hmmm...

gonna grab a pair of WD Raptors soon, my intention is to make a raid using both drives as one, and run my os and intensive games on it.. as i only have 1g of memory and cant upgrade it yet without replacing the 2x512twinx with 2x1g, i know the raptors perform very well, but im wondering if its worth the price:performance to offset the lack of ram for a while... coz the drives are not cheap , what do yas think? is it worth using a striped 2x40g raptor, or should i spend it on other crap? or use them as seperate drives? gryph, am i looking at the screen? or the misc? :P scar, omg... thats where the 5150 came from?? i can only guess where u got that scar from now...

give logitech a call , they were more than happy to replace my force3dpro joystick (that had been discontinued) i've even heard a few ppl that had their keyboard replaced because of the text wearing off lol!

just got my Logitech G5 Laser mouse, its a lot more responsive and customisable than my old MX510 seems logitech 'upgraded' the g5' specifications,and colour scheme.. the mouse i was expecting was a 500hz 2000 dpi red black and silver mouse.. the mouse i got is a 1000hz 2000dpi blue and black mouse (blue patterns) its got some case with a heap of 1.7g and 4.5g lithium battery style weights that you put into a cartridge and slot the cart into the underside of the mouse for balance etc, quite a nice touch, and useful if you use your mouse for other purposes other than just gaming.. If you dont like logitech however, the only other mouse id use is the M$ Explorer V3..

ok i got my screen last thursday ;D its a Samsung 940b Black http://www.shout.com.hk/samsung/940B_2.jpg this is the only good picture i can find atm, but its the silver version :-[ anyways, move up from my ageing 17"samsung 765mb screen is astonishing.. looking at my 17" now...oouwwchhh!! the picture looks blurred and oldish... this new screen is sharp and really really BRIGHT!!!!!! in fact everyone in my house has said something about it..' turn it down etc, you dont wanna wear it out so fast etc..' but with 3 years warranty..and at its default settings i dont think i can go wrong, ill just exploit the warranty just before it expires, done and done :) the best thing about this pos is now i dont have to touch the screen position/size controls anymore sawwweeeett ;) oy scar, what sorta sound card u got/gettn?

err sounds like u could be having a display card problem, or even the wrong monitor driver,if you cant use certain resolutions at default refresh rates (60hz?) try right clicking the setup.exe file in the emp cd and go properties on it, next find the compatability tab, and force 640x480 resolution with the checkbox... (you may have to copy the installation over to your hdd first) there is a way to run the game in a window, i think you have to add -W to the command line.. eg "c:program fileswestwoodemperoremperor.exe -w" but really most lcd screens should at least be able to do 1280x1024 by now? id look into your video/display/3dcard drivers and update them if your having issues at this stage.. as its likely the the game will not perform to your liking if somethings amiss.. also try set a default/plug and play driver on your monitor if you cant find the 'real' driver hope that helps a lil good luck ;)

hah!, personally i think bloke is right, the leeches can be devastating, in the hands of a skilled player with good mm skills.. and they out pace just about everything on the ground except for elite ordos apcs unless u wanna talk about Niab Teleporting.. but yea, they aren't beyond a measure of (some) control, and House Harkonnen has it the easiest vs the leech as buzzsaws dont get leeched afaik.

heh i was looking around for some parts when i found this thing... http://www.coolpc.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1384 http://www.titan-cd.com/eng/heatpipe/amanda.html it looks crazy :P and noone in my link croud is fond of overclocking and such... the only problem i might forsee is that theres a PCI card there, and i dont like the idea of having a card directly below my VGA..looks really tight... I have 3 pci slots below the pcie and 3 pcix slots above the pcie.. i've got a Creative X-FI in the 2nd slot and Leadtek Expert TV capture card in the 3rd.. for reference heres how it looks http://img.clubic.com/photo/00145126.jpg by the way the VGA is a sapphire X1950pro-pcie card with the stock cooler at the moment.. any ideas? i intended to change the vga cooler sometime, but by the looks i wont be able to..? im thinking of just running the cooler without the pci card, but im not sure if it'l like/run without it, looks like an automatic speed controller of sorts..

try disabling the games compressed textures by adding -c to the command line of the games shortcut eg: C:Program FilesWestwoodEmperorEmperor.exe -c the limited resolution could be a monitor driver thingy problem.. that is, maybe its installed a 'plug and play/default monitor' the only other thing i would try before igniting nvidias forums is tune your video acceleration level down 1 by 1 till it works..but dont set the lowest level :) you should be able to find these settings in DXDIAG thats just a workaround and i dont recommend using it if you dont have any problems as it WILL slow your system!

yea the Asus A8N series are very nice performers, my friend has a A8N-SLI Deluxe.. i think you will like that board a lot :) as for the power cable....im almost positive theres a 4 pin connector that can attatch to the 20 pin on the side and clip in... have a good look first and uhh yea that ai overclocking shit?!! heheh pure eeeviillll!! i wouldnt touch that with a cyrix cpu...

eh? you goin intel conroe already scar? i thought u already did an upgrade? so whats happening? you havnt got your board plugged in right? sounds like it?? eww chances are theres a 4 pin connector that can slide into the 20 pin atx with a side notch and locks there.. or...the board wants those 4 pins somewhere else......or......it just dont need it.. or......worst case scenario...your PSU is archahic the Asus P5B series are good also if u gotta move up MSI have always done good by intel as well..so long as its got an intel xxx chipset. :)

hey nikolai, good to see new players still giving it a go, dont let the rumours of these so called 'elite' players get in your way.. they're just old legends told to new players to try intimidate them... if you ever hear a story about someguy called jeff or pearl or apo or even spaze... dont worry, they dont really exist...as i said they're just stories people made up to make the game indefinately harder for all... but time fades even legend.... msn me if your game, ill play yas, i just dont see much action on the server these days... maybe tell me where u guys r so i can set my world clock??

My pc is a bit of a mixed bag when it came to choosing parts.. socket 939 is looking like AGP these days.. not good anyway atm im running on a CPU: AMD 4200x2 @ 2.976 (stock vcore 1.35) Ram: 2x512 Corsair Twinx -c2 400 @2.5-3-3-6-1T (2.7v) (getting another pair of 512/1g soon) Board: Abit KN8 Ultra (wanted the asus A8N preferbly) Sound: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music (Eax 5.0 is naic) Video: Sapphire X1950pro 256M Pcie Keyboard: Logitech G15 Mouse: Logitech Mx 510 + G5 (+hyperglides) Mouse Pad: Icmat2nd Edition Black (with silicon Spray) Girl Pad: Logitech Rumblepad 1+2 Noob Stick: Logitech Force 3d Pro Sound Out: Sennheiser Hd-212Pro(headphones) Logitech x-530(cheapo 5.1) Monitor: Samsung 940B Black 19" Tft Next up most likely 2x Western Digital Raptors and raid them up, and a biggish half assed sata drive of sorts, likely a seagate 350G Sata... then can all my current pata drives and throw them in my old 3200-64 put some ice on my cpu so i can kick its ass a bit more.. Then another 2x512 or 2x1024 corsair twinx(i think i should keep them 1 in the same tho :/ ) and ill get a Logitech g5 mouse to complement my g15 keyboard......then ill get a kik ass screen of sorts.... by then its time to move on upto a new board cpu ram vcard etc lol btw gun, why would you want to 'upgrade' to a Am2 soc? ddr2 is hopeless atm with its high latencies, not to mention u cant always go all out on ddr2 800mhz on 'any' amd cpu... for instance the fx 67 gets smoked by a am2 5700x2 coz the fx clocks the ram at 750 ::) wierd, but if its just the getting parts dealio..i hear ya mate... thought id add the peripherals to it as well for good measure, but id like some ideas for a screen, im not going all out on it tho.. just the features, so maybe a close 500au could do it? btw im not really fussed over Lcd screens, even tho i still prefer Crt for gamage, we gotta move up sometime , any ideas?

all i can say is d2k was good for the sound effects when enemy infantry got squished when they ran up to attack your harv... i loved those fresh crunching splurting noises haha..GOLD!! ordos ruled for the mass light tank spam inf hunting---even tho they sucked at everything else.. d2/d2k = hark ftw!

lol this is what happens if you truely have no idea at all... follow instructions very carefully, succeed,and then go off and try something very bold on your own without even knowing what it may be or what NOT to do.. sorry mord man my mistake :/ although it seemed like something you wanted to do without asking or surfing the net about it so, you will learn my friend :) but seeing as it was an intel chip id say this was probly the problem all along...though,with a few more details, this could have been spotted ages ago.. intel cpus have a tendancy to throttle themselves to a lower clock speed and voltage if it gets too hot (similar to amd64 cool&quiet) whereas amd chips throttle to higher clocks (if c&q is disabled) likely the cpu and ram was too hot and throttled long before emp was loaded....all u had to do was poke the board notch with a heavy screwdriver and it just broke off, funny shit :P

seeing as its also a brandname(tailored)pc, id instantly assume that its not designed to be pushed in any way.. if you think any of that shit in the above post is too technical for you, then...theres only 1 other thing you can try... 'Load bios/setup defaults'... and then setup your boot drive again after that.. by the way if your running XP now then theres one other thing... as gun mentioned b4 theres this thing called 'virtual memory' that taxes your hard disk real hard in an effort to simulate Ram.. and by default windows will set an amount based on the amount of Ram you have.. its pretty stupid too, so you gotta help billy's shit software out a bit by going to 'system properties' from control panel then follow the tab order, > advanced > performance-settings >advanced (make sure that 'Programs' is checked for both boxes here) > virtual memory->change > then select the drive you want to use for virtual ram (select your "fast" drive> set 'System managed' after you select the drive >and set 'No page file' on all other drives (select them 1 by 1 and go thru).. restart your machine.. hope it works a bit quicker.. but seriously mord, with less than 512 mb ram, you should really consider going back to win98se.. but try all that see if it helps.... just remember dont touch anything in the bios screen you are sure u dont know about like , voltages, pci clocks, interrupts,floppy drives,clocks, multipliers, or front side bus settings mmmk? and dont use the F1 key as a help guide either :P also dont run the game execuable with that -c switch, if in doubt write all ur bios settings down on paper,and post em here if you could be bothered, theres plenty of people here who can identify a bad set and have you change it.. im not a fan of onboard video cards,and havnt used 1 for more than a decade, but is 'enable write combining' on the display-troubleshoot tab still applicable to them? anyway mord u got my msn, just ask if u need a hand, the thing that i know is gonna piss you right off is that a seemingly technical pain in the ass pc prob usually has a VERY simple solution, and that when you dicover it, you wont ever EVER forget, as you have just destroyed everything so far in a vain effort to repair it lol.... dood good luck with it, and dont be scared to touch ur components(around the edges like a cd) give the ram connectors a clean, put em back in( note the notch in the ram and board ) hope you get it sorted man ;) anyone wanna give him a diy pc for noobs guide link? could help :) sry for the long post..

hey mordus, apart from all the rest of this shit, is there anything that may have happened before your 'slowdowns?' and i mean ANYTHING like a power cut, clock reset, someone bumped the pc?? there could be a slight possibility that dispite all the software you've been screwing with, it could be something small and unnoticable like a cmos-clear?(thats like a completely reset mainboard-defaults)... hell even a slightly out of place Ram stick.. chances are ur ram is probly being shared more to your onboard video chip(that is you maybe giving more of your system ram to act as video ram), or your memory latency is too low, or ide hd settings were set to fail safes.. it might be a good idea to look at your bios if ms/intel video drivers providers aren't helping much.. poke around in bios (delete at bootup) and look around for the shared video memory size setting, and set that to 32MB, no higher(as you dont have a lot of ram to play with) next look for memory settings, if you see anything about 'timings' or 'cas latency' then set them to 'By SPD/auto' ..also find '1T command' and disable it, then find 'Bank/or Rank Interleaving' and set this to 'Disabled' ---these settings will slow your ram for a tradeoff for more stability...

Catalyst 5.1 fixes the flickering, but runs horribly slow,for me anyway.. you could try disabling texture compression by adding -c to the end of the command line.. this helps me when i dont use aa/af as a countermeasure instead.. i wouldnt bother with that on vid cards that dont have a lot of ram to play with tho (64/32mb=bad idea) as it can be taxing as it uses more memory..the x800 should be fine with it.. afaik the +w switch forces the game to precache the movies for smoother playback.. use this only if ur pc is a real noob with 2x cdrom and it runs fmv like its leeching it off an ide network card :P

thankfully nowdays even a noob like mordus can poke around in a pc without too much problem, i mean its colour coded, and notched!! the dam thing would only go in one way.. ffs how hard can it be? just be carful of one thing, static death --might be a good idea to leave it plugged in to the wall and turned off have your hand on the power supply b4 u touch anything.. i think amiga was aga not vga spicy or ecs/ocs agnus for the old 600/500 series, but i would love 6 mb ram back then :P the one thing that pissed me off when u need to reinstall xp is.......PERMISSIONS & SECURITY!!!!! seeing as user'mordus' owns the hd, this new owner s-5175567-sdf-778344-fcghx4-34245 thanks bill, wont have write access to c:/ lOl i love it! windows nt "nice try"

the thing is it gets used quite a lot of the time actually, but more indirectly than the single unit mm crisis.. ive even seen lasers that can hit carryals(harv) in the air after they go for the 'attack' script, as well as a number of other units and flame could be used for aa as well strangely with that same glitchy effect... they just keep firing! :P, similar to the way the nuke radiation can hit air units if they hover over it :/ and theres one other bug involving a particular house and a particular sub unit ::) its my personal favourite glitch but its not easy to set it up, try guess what it is :) heres a hint, You need full tech... and no its not my patented little 'de-shield'(

hey mord, when you say lag...do you mean like delays in game only? or somethin like more like hardware thrashing? Hdd light on always etc cpu at 100% pc totally taxed while doing anything? coughnorthwoodcoughcyrixcoughnocachefpucough ;D coz if if just laahg, you could always try ping the server ? Start->run-> cmd > ping <raserverip> rinse and repeat see if you cant get a consistant ping before blaming your heatware if only pc's were as good as the old amiga were 'plug and play' wasnt confused with 'plug and pray' ???