GTA San Andreas unplayable, help!

I tried installing GTA San andreas on my new PC...

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (using the onboard HD3200)
Athlon 64 X2 4000+
2gb DDR2 667 RAM
Segate 80 GB 7200 rpm HD
Asus 16X DVD drive
Vista home premium

THis game is completely unplayable at any resolution, or setting?!?!? I tried both my Plasma TV and a 17" LCD monitor and I could not get it to work on either one.
I thought the "NEW" 780G chipset was supposed to be powerful? This computer works great for the internet and even for watching DVD's but not for this game?

Could this be a problem with Vista? or some other setting? I even tried using the AMD overdrive utility to overclock the video and the CPU but it didnt make any difference.


BTW, the game runs perfectly on my other PC @ very high settings:
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Core 2 Duo 2.6Ghz
2GB Corsair DDR2800
XP Pro
XFX 8600GT DDR3 256mb
Lite-on DVD burner
Samsung 216BW monitor @ 1680 x 1050

 

IGP's arent great gaming solutions period, that said i would think the 3200 should handle that game, do you have the latest drivers installed? Your not forcing any AA or AF in the CP are you?

 

I agree with the previous poster that an integrated processor is not the best to play games with. "BUT" you might want to check one other thing. You might want to try running the game with only 1 core and see if that helps any.

1) Press ctrl+alt+del
2) Bring up task manager
3) Select the "Processes" tab
4) Right click on the game and select "Set Affinity"
5) Un-check one of the CPU cores if you see both cores with a check mark in the box
6) Now go back into the game and see if that helps you any.

I have a dual core gaming rig and certain games will crawl if both cores are running.

 

I know AMD released a dual core driver for XP that fixed certain gaming issues, dunno if its applicable to vista though, I honestly cant remember if I installed it on my old a64x2 rig when I switched to vista or not.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=983781

 

I have the latest drivers and catalyst 8.4.

I tried lots of different video quality and resolutions within the game but nothing helped. You have to help me out with the acronyms...
AA - Anti aliasing?
AF ?
CP ?

 

I will try that.

EDIT: Tried this and it did not make a change.

I tried disabling Aero and that didnt help either.

 

It might have something to do with sound issues. I had a problem with not getting MGS2 to work, so I downloaded a program called Creative ALchemy, which is some sort of sound program, and the game ran perfectly.

 

Sorry if this thread is a bit OT but this board seems to be the most knowledgable about these kinds of problems.

I just thought of something, I am downloading Vista SP1 right now, I wonder if this might help. nothing I have done so far has done anything to help the problem.

 

Well, its not Vista. According to the compatibility list, GTA San Andreas works flawlessly on Vista 32-bit, which you likely have, while it crashes on 64-bit Vista...

 

yeah, its 32bit.

I wonder if I need more ram since Im using the onboard graphics?

 

Power-wise the hd3200 should be fine, my x200m can run it fine on low.

 

I don't think extra RAM helps... unfortunately...

 

The game works for me, though it crashes occasionally. I'd imagine it is more of a driver issue with the new IGP than anything else.

It could also be that your 80 GB hard drive is just too full. You should try to keep at least 25 percent open for optimum gaming performance. In other words, dump as much extra crap as possible. Then when you finish, go type in "defragment" in the windows search thing and defragment the drive. I've had some games (like WoW) run like crap because of a highly fragmented data file.

 

The drive is at least half empty (or half full depending on how you look at it, lol) I only have Vista, Open office, Myst IV (which, BTW, works and plays just fine even at high settings), firefox, and GTA installed on this machine. So I dont think that the HD is too full.

 

I'd guess it's the 7150 issue coming up again. It's a new IGP, it probably needs better drivers.

Does Omega drivers support the HD3200?

 

still have not found a way to make this game playable! contacted ATI/AMD about it but haven't heard anything. Any other suggestions?

I'm puzzled because other games like Myst IV, which is about the same age as San Andreas, plays nicely and looks sharp.