Problem with graphic card...

Hi there,

I have this weird problem ever since I raised my graphic card's preferences... In loading screens all I see is a black screen (with the loading animation) and the game gets stuck for a second every now and then. I run the game on max quality.

Here are my specs (in parentheses the previous preferences..):
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, 1.00 GHz RAM
Graphic Card: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Settings:
Direct3D SMOOTHVISION 2.1
Anti-Aliasing: 2X (Application Preference)
Maximum Resolution: 1600X1200 (Application Preference)
Anisotropic Filtering: 8X (Application Preference)
Anisotropic Filtering Method: Quality (Application Preference)
Texture Preference: High Quality
Mipmap Detail Level: High Quality
Wait for Vertical Sync: Application Preference

Hi there,

I have this weird problem ever since I raised my graphic card's preferences... In loading screens all I see is a black screen (with the loading animation) and the game gets stuck for a second every now and then. I run the game on max quality.

Here are my specs (in parentheses the previous preferences..):
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, 1.00 GHz RAM
Graphic Card: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Settings:
Direct3D SMOOTHVISION 2.1
Anti-Aliasing: 2X (Application Preference)
Maximum Resolution: 1600X1200 (Application Preference)
Anisotropic Filtering: 8X (Application Preference)
Anisotropic Filtering Method: Quality (Application Preference)
Texture Preference: High Quality
Mipmap Detail Level: High Quality
Wait for Vertical Sync: Application Preference

did you clock/overclock your pentium4 or video card?
if so then try to put them back to the original

I have this weird problem ever since I raised my graphic card's preferences

Maybe thats why.

I read that the loading screens turn black if you have anti-aliasing turned on.

You can always try different settings like turning v-sync and triple buffer on or off.

If the game pauses for a second every now and then, it could be your ram and hard drive swapping lots of data.

as I said, lower the preferences back to normal and then try

I already know that if I go back to normal setting the problems go away.. my question is why those things come up at the first place? isn't the graphic card strong enough? is the problem with the loading screens a bug in the game that EA did?

Yesterday I encountered another bug, when I started a game there was a diagonal line through the entire stadium? why is that happening?

Sorry for double posting but this question is importent, let's say I would like to update my computer so that I would have better performance on my games and I have two options:
1) Replacing the CPU and keeping the current graphic card.
2) Replacing the graphic card and keeping the CPU.

Which option should I pick? (my specs are in the first post).

Thanks.

I suggest you go for the graphics card. This should give you more of a boost in your gaming performance than a processor. The reason is, you should be able to get away with getting a Geforce 6800 or ATI x800 without having your processor bottleneck you too much. Both are good cards and have AGP versions. My bro had a Geforce 6800 GT and a Pentium 4 2.4 ghz and games ran very well on it.

If you go for a new processor, you will probably have to upgrade your motherboard to support the new slot, and then your graphics card will be a bottleneck.

However, if you value core computer performance over gaming performance, the cpu processor/motherboard upgrade would be a wise choice. If you decide to go for this, you will need to make sure you get a motherboard with an AGP slot.

Thanks Pdub, I appreciate your suggestion.