Red alert 2 lags with 8600m GT and 163.71 drivers

Im using windows vista ultimate x64 and had to use drivers from laptops2go, i used the latest 163.71 drivers with a modded INF file. Originally i had 15x.xx drivers and red alert 2 still lagged a bit.

I say it lagged a bit because it only lags when i blow up a structure, or when there are loads of units on screen (i know many comps do this but i know its me because the game reverts back to full speed when im not looking at the ton of units).

What can i do? Is there anyone else with red alert 2 and an 8600m GT that can verify that it works fine for them and that this is just a driver problem?

 

32-bit Vista couldn't play 3 of my games properly. From what I have heard around here, 64-bit is even worse for games.

 

Worked fine on my desktop with 64 bit ultimate though.

 

I have a similar issue on my desktop, with both RA2 and Tiberian Sun (based on the same engine). It happened in XP Pro 32 as well. My Inspiron 9300 before it had this problem, too, in both XP Pro and Vista Ultimate. Oddly these games ran flawlessly on my old Averatec 3270, which was by all rights a horrible piece of junk - low-end, single core, 32-bit Mobile Sempron, 512MB of RAM, S3 Unichrome integrated graphics. Something funky is going on. I don't see how this is related to the nVidia drivers, though - the game is completely software rendered.

 

Try some of the fixes in this thread. See if they help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=172717

Also have you updated the game to it's latest patch?

 

Can you run it in WinXP (or something) compatibility mode?

 

Meaning the above two fixes almost certainly won't help. It's probably an issue with the way the game handles clock speeds.

 

Ok, so I've been reading up on your problem and two fixes have been reported.

First of all the 1.06 patch I'm assuming the latest patch for Red Alert 2 is defective so don't download it. If you've installed the patch, uninstall the game, reinstall the game without the patch.

The second fix is to run the game in 98/ME compatibility mode.

Let me know if these help. Don't give up on your problem. There's a solution out there!

 

It almost has to be because it runs like a charm on XP for me.

 

Red Alert 2 is unique in that it doesn't really use graphics as in 3D modeling, but more dependent upon voxels and animations rather than true 3D rendering. Because of this, RA2 runs sluggishly on fast computers or slow computers alike, which is a drag for those of us with fast computers. I've been playing this game for years, and from a 400MHz computer that played it to my 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo laptop, it runs similarly.

 

Really? It's always run perfectly fine for me. I wouldn't consider it sluggish at all.

 

It ran great on my old computer no lag whatsoever. 1.6GHz Celeron, 384MB or RAM and 4MB integrated card. No I'm not kidding.

 

I think I've got it. The higher you crank the resolution, the slower it's going to get, regardless of your system. SO it ran fine on my Averatec and my old desktop, and even my Compaq v2000z, because they had lower resolution screens. When running at 1440x900 or 1680x1050, however, that's a lot more voxels on the screen at once, and much slower performance as a result.

 

Well, it doesn't even work on XP properly. I'm using XP Home right now and I have to set it to Win98 compatibility.

Theoretically, this should be true. But, the graphics requirement in RA2 is so low, that there's no reason why the 8600M GT can't run this game at... even 4000 x 3000! Oh, also check your dual-core settings, that might be interfering.

 

So because the games just... slow, theres no way to fix this?

I have to use the latest patch in order to play online.

 

Right, except, as I've pointed out:

So whether you have a GMA 900 or an 8800 Ultra, it won't make any difference. It's all about your processor. And the higher you raise the resolution, the more even a Core 2 Extreme will buckle rendering more and more voxels (which are a very inefficient way to handle 3D graphics).

 

Damn....

How come it was fine with my opteron 2.0ghz? But it lags with my Core2Duo 2.0ghz 800FSB? The core2duo is the faster processor.

 

What resolution did you run it at before? I notice now you have a 1920x12900 screen - if you're running it at that resolution (which can be easily done), then obviously it's going to be a huge strain.

 

I know one of you stated that you had tried it in "Windows 98 / Windows ME" compatability mode, but have disable any of the other settings. If not try this.

- Set compatability mode to "Windows 98/Windows ME"
- Under Display Settings check "Run in 640x480" and "Disable visual themes"
- Under Input settings, check the "Turn off advanced text services for this program box"

Also I believe there is a compatability issue with the SafeDisk driver on some of the older games so you might try installing the updated driver. You can get it here.

 

It runs absolutely fine in XP Home for me. I don't need to use any compatibility mode.

I think the game is just bonkers.

 

Well first off, I want to state that I've never had this game run slow for me, except on my old HP with a Pentium 133 in it.


On my desktop I can run it on 1920x1080 with no lag. That resolution issue sounds like something else, along the lines of what resolution normally does. I happen to have RA2 installed on my notebook right now, 1280x800, and it runs just as well. WinXP Pro and Vista Ultimate 32 on the desktop, and Vista 32bit on the laptop.


OH! I should mention I have the expansion installed as well, Yuri's revenage, that might be slewing my results? I have the 1.006 patch installed, if that's the most recent one as well, and haven't had any errors. I know I wasn't entirely useful, but at least the game runs fine for me :|

 

Previously it was 1280x1024 or something like that.

But cant red alert 2 run at a maximum of 800x600?? or 1024x1024 but with black bits at the sides and top?? Why does my desktop resolution have an affect on the actual game resolution?

 

RA2 is actually constrainted to a few resolutions, which is part of why I was saying the resolution thing couldn't be the problem. That's why I can run it on all those high crazy resolutions and there is no difference in how it plays. Yeah the image is being stretched to fit the size of the screen so image quality might suffer, but not the performance, not to the degree you are speaking about.


I still don't entirely know just what could be causing this for you, because it really shouldn't. If you have Yuri's revenage, install that, because at the moment it's the only difference I can see between our basic laptop setups, unless it just doesn't work with Vista Business, but I don't see why that should be any different than Vista Prem or Ultimate in terms of what games it can play.

 

Its actually vista ultimate x64 i have installed, i forgot to update my sig.

Its also The first decade i have installed, so yuris revenge is in there. RA2 popped up as a seperate icon in games explorer though after i played it, all TFD games seem to do this, probably irrelivent but its worth noting.

 

i have 1520(with lastest drivers for dell) and suffering from the same problem i wrote about it at dell forums but it seems they wont help.

and what would happen if i install asus or other laptops driver for 8600gt?

 

nothing.....

 

I'm only half off-topic: My problem does not include the card or the drivers but it includes the game. I run it at 800x600 (don't laugh...it's the resolution I am most comfortable with and the one i am fastest with) on a Satellite L40-14f. It runs perfectly smooth and unless i cut back on the speed it works too fast in single player mode no matter the number of units involved. My problem is actually with the loading, when doing so...it sort of takes short pauses . It doesn't run out of memory or the sort, i have access to other applications running in background and so on.
I am suspecting the CPU but i have not idea what could be wrong. I have installed the update for dual core processing and no difference on that matter.

The operating system is Windows XP Professional.

Here's a bit more detail about the system:

Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2310 1.46GHz
1MB L2 Cache FSB: 533 MHz
1 GB DDR2 667 MHz (2x 512MB)
120 GB 5400 RPM SATA
Intel GMA X3100

Game patches have nothing to do with this as they are just as useless on that matter as compatibility mode usage. If you have found the solution I am more than willing to give it a try.

 

Hi.

This is my first post here, so Hi everyone lol.

Anyway, i have a Dell Vostro 1500 running Windows XP Pro 32 bit, with much the same specs as the original poster. Including the Graphics Card, i read all this post and have found a solution to a slow running RA2. If you open up the Start Menu and go to Run, Type in "dxdiag" (minus the quotes) then hit enter, wait for it to load. Once its done click on the "Display" tab. Then Next to DirectDraw Acceleration make sures there is Disabled.

The attachment is what my screen looks like.

I tested this in RA2 under both 800x600 resolutions and 1280x800 and they both worked perfectly.

Hope this works for everyone else too!

 

that is right >>>>>>>>>> oh my god the game play normal now
so nividia company have to fix this issue ??
who will contact them ?

 

For Nvidia GPUs,just open Nvidia Control Panel and set "Texture filtering" for Ra2.exe and YURI.exe ,to "High Performance".ATI should have the same settings. Then replace video settings in "ra2.ini" and "ra2md.ini" with:

[Video]
AllowHiResModes=yes
AllowVRAMSidebar=yes
VideoBackBuffer=no
ScreenWidth=1440
ScreenHeight=900
StretchMovies=yes

1440\900 is my display's highest resolution.Your resolution should be different.
Hope you find it useful,it worked for me.

 

Old thread is old.

 

Yeah its old but its good for reference in case anyone else has this problem, the amount of threads on other forums with this problem that went absolutely nowhere or just ended with "i found a fix" with no details to what it was really ticked me off when i was trying to fix this.

 

Solution is working, so the bump makes sense... Who cares how old a thread is, when its bumped with useful information, huh?

 

How old is this thread? I mean seriously, 163.71?

That reminds me, I'm still running that on my desktop with my 8600 GTS, I really should update some time...

 

My System:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz
RAM: 4.00GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GTS
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 x64

I have tried all of the solutions on this page and none of them have worked, I have also tried using a Virtual Console on this laptop and I couldn't get it to work.

The symptoms are almost the same to Soviet. I get severe lag during explosions and chrono "dust" (chrono legionnaire teleporting) and lag when there are building animations and troop animations on my screen. The only way that I have cured this problem is by moving my screen to a fog of war area on the map (black screen) but that is only a temporary fix. It's also worth posting that I have this lagging issue in any mode of play (single player, network multiplayer, online multiplayer).

 

just get RA3. problem solved. it's really fun.

 

Unfortunately, nvidia drivers in Win7 don't allow for DirectDraw to be disabled at all. Probably because the UI relies on it now.

 

I have Red Alert 3 but I like playing the classics from time to time, that and my friends don't have the new Red Alert 3. I just wish the third one still had Chrono Legionnaires.

 

I have computer Acer 6935g

Processor: T5800 2.0Ghz
RAM: 4GB DDR3
HD: 320GB
VGA: Nvidia M9600GT 512MB 1791MB TC
OS: Windows 7
Driver: 260.99

I exactly had same problem; but just got solved.

First of all include these lines under [Video]

[Video]
AllowHiResModes=yes
AllowVRAMSidebar=yes
VideoBackBuffer=no
ScreenWidth=1366
ScreenHeight=768
StretchMovies=yes

My Screen supports 1366 * 768 as native; use as per your choice.

Right Click on desktop and open Nvidia Control Panel.

Choose Advanced User:

Manage 3d Settings:

Add game.exe of Red Alert 2 by browsing your computer. Then:

In Short Turn everything off i.e.

Anisotropic filtering: off
Antialiasing - Gamma Correction:
Antialiasing - Mode:
Antialiasing - Setting: None
Antialiasing - Transparency: Off
CUDA - GPUs - Nvidia 9600 Gt (ALL)
Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: 8
Multi-Display / mixed-GPU acceleration: Single Display Performance Mode
Power Management Mode: Prefer Maximum performance
Texture filtering - Anisotropic opti...: On
Texture filtering - Negative LOD Bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High Performance
Texture filtering - Trilinear Optimization: Off
Threaded Optimization: off
Triple Buffering: off
Vertical Sync: (Force) off