Choppy Graphics in Windows Vista with ATI Radeon XPress 1100

I recently bought an Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. It comes with up to 256MB shared memory for the ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 graphics. I don't expect it to chew up and spit out insane graphics, but I'm trying to run Civilization 4 and I get choppy graphics even with dumbing down the graphics quality.

I read a couple spots that it may have something to do with dual-core, and heard mention of a patch, but don't see any patch anywhere. I also alt-tabbed out of Civ 4 to set the affinity, but apparently you can't do that in Vista like in XP.

Any comments/suggestions? Thanks!

 

How much ram/memory did it come with?

Also i am assume it came preinstalled with vista home premium.

 

Oh yeah, sorry. It has 2GB RAM and allocated 256MB to video memory, so 1792MB. Decent size. Plus I am using a 2GB SD card for ReadyBoost. Here's the full specs in case it matters:

Acer Aspire 5100
AMD Turion 64 Mobile Dual Core MK-38 2.2GHz
2GB DDR2 667MHz
15.4" WXGA Screen
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 256MB shared
120GB HDD
DVD-RW
802.11 b/g

 

CIVIV is a bit more graphics intensive than people take it for

Currently running a x700 in 1280 * 800 and I have to turn it down as well.

But you can patch your game with the imgame update manager (check advanced -> check for updates

 

Thanks for that. I didn't mean patch the game, but a dual-core CPU for Vista patch. Strange thing is that I can play Command & Conquer 3 just fine on it, but not Civ IV? Something seems strange to me.

 

wot the frak is readyboost? are you sayn you can use a 2gb sd card as system ram.i have no clue

 

huh?? mk-38?? isn;t it single core??
also i tried civ 4 and no problem except i got bored some how...

 

it's basically a little device you use to take some load off of the hdd, and put it on the sd card/flashdisk or whatever you use.

 

Vista doesn't need the dual core patch

 

I've got the same computer (1GB Ram though) and the same exact problem. I've surfed the internet far and wide to try and figure out what is wrong with it, run every diagnostic program and utility that i've ever seen suggested, even had my IT guy at work look at it. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that the Acer Aspire 5100 is just a piece of junk. I had a Compaq, forgot the exact specs but it was bought in 2004, and even that thing ran Civilization IV without all of the choppyness (with the settings turned down). I do hope someone figures out a solution to this eventually... but due to the performance on this game as well as some others I'm getting very tempted to just get rid of the thing and get a new machine altogether!

 

My friend was playing minimum 800x600 on a Geforce 2TI so you probably should be able to play it.

 

Same computer here, I have 2.50 GB of ram though, I dont use readyboost too much, but My video card used to work fine, but now its just downright crappy, cant play a simply fine video on youtube any more, i tried hardware acceleration but the drivers wont allow, once agian, any help greatly appriciated. Also MK-38 is single core. which is what i have.