Problem with Postal2 and ATI card

Pntgrd · Dec 30, 2003, 01:41 PM

I have recently switched to ATI with a 9800Pro BBA card. I have the latest Omega drivers installed, VAR is OFF and Fast Writes are OFF. PCI/AGP buss is locked at 37mhz. I cannot keep Postal2 running, it craskes with a GPF anywhere from 2 minutes in to 20. I have reinstalled with virus programs disabled as per the gamemakers website suggestion. I have tried about every option of driver settings and game video settings and even tried running in OpenGL. But all things keep getting the random crashes. All other games, Max Payne2, Call of Duty, run fine, no problems. I tried moving the game to my other 'puter which has my old TI4600 in it. The rest of the specs are virtually identical, same type cpu, both Abit Raid m/b, both Soundblaster live's, same IDE drivers, same ram, same o/s. Only difference is ATI vs Nvidia. Postal2 runs without a hitch on the TI4600. I have AA and AF set to "by application" in both boxes. What am I missing? Is this indicative of things to come with my first forray into the world of ATI? I hope not.

mkk · Dec 30, 2003, 02:11 PM

Try lowering the AGP speed to 4x or 2x (wichever is lower than the one you have now). If the PCI is at 37MHz then the AGP bus is at 74MHz, wich may well be enough to make cards unstable at higher AGP speed settings. If that doesn't help either then you may simply have to lower the FSB a bit since you are overclocking. Or it might be the powersupply not having the capacity to cope.

Pntgrd · Dec 30, 2003, 03:10 PM

I will try locking the pci/agp at 33mhz. I would hope that is not the problem. It would be a sorry card that cannot take that mild of an o/c. My m/b only supports an agp 4x, the card is 8x so it should be fine at 4x. The psu is an Antec Tru-480 which should be plenty. And remember, this is the only game, so far, that has a problem. The others I have tried are just as, if not more, graphic intensive.

Pntgrd · Dec 30, 2003, 10:25 PM

OK, this is what I tried. I uninstalled the Omega 3.10's and went back to the ATI 3.9's. Played for awhile and you guessed it, crash after about 15 minutes. I remember reading on the RWS website to try turning OFF AA and AF if it is turned on. Since I had both set to Application Preference and didn't see a way to turn them off, I set the AA to 4x and the AF to 8x. I then went back to the game and finished it without a crash, about 20+ minutes. Why did that seem to FIX my problem? I have fought the crashes for the entire game and never thought forcing the options HIGHER would cure the crashes. Go figure.