Why the hell is an integrated card faster with TS2?

[Paperbladder]

This is really starting to piss me off.  I got a Geforce 6200 AGP 8x to replace my Geforce 4 MX integrated card and the game loads much slower, like 60 seconds compared to less than 30 seconds with the older card.  Also, the starting videos are really choppy.  Other games such as UT2004 and Civ4 didn't have increase in load times, what's up with that?

The graphics look nicer in the game, but it tends to lag whenever I try placing an object.  I'm just hoping that a solution to this problem just involves editing that graphics rules .sgr file, since I heard that it messed a few graphics things up with OFB.

[miramis]

You've made sure the card is working okay first right? (Dxdiag tests)  Checked there are no problems with the current driver it is using?  (right click my computer, click properties, click hardware, click device manager and check for warnings and errors (exclamations in yellow, and crosses in red - make sure the card is correctly detected) Read the readme on the OFB disc to check for problems with certain hardware?  No driver conflicts in there, like the sound card trying to share the same IRQ as the video card?  (Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information/conflicts sharing, check problem devices too).

It's a good idea to check the settings in the bios too, perhaps enable the 8xagp if you were using a 4x previously.  Did you uninstall the old cards drivers before changing over the hardware?  What card did you upgrade from?  If it was an ATI card it's always a good idea to completely remove their drivers before switching to Nvidia and vice versa.  These are just a couple of things to try until the experts can help you out.

[Simlover]

Try using the 78.1 drivers, my 6200 agp 8x works fine.

[Paperbladder]

I can't find the 78.1 drivers, I can only find the new 81.98 drivers.  Those didn't help, and there's no conflicts with the card and it works perfectly in other games.  Just not TS2.

My BIOS is "Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG".  How can I access it to change the settings in it?

[miramis]

Did you install the card yourself or did someone do it for you?  If someone did it for you they probably checked the bios settings already.  I assumed that you had installed the card yourself, but since you're not sure about the bios that's probably not the case.

You can find older drivers at www.guru3d.com  or www.driverguide.com But only go for the official ones for now rather than the beta tests, because many of those are to work around certain problems with certain games and cards. 

Some games are programmed to run better on certain types of cards.  Some will play better on Nvidia, some on ATI.  Drivers will make a big difference between games too, one driver will run SimCity 4 awesomely, but won't play nice with TS2 and causes red water or artifacts.  Another will screw up Civ IV but works fantastic with Sims 2. 

[Paperbladder]

I figured out how to access my BIOS, but it doesn't seem anything I did actually affected it.  The old 78.1 driver didn't work for me, I'm just going to install the newest one and just accept that TS2 is going to take forever to load now.

Is there anything that can be edited in the Graphicsrules.sgr file that would help?

[radiophonic]

I don't remember posting this. Are you me? I just replaced my 440MX with a 6200. 

The game, by nature, is a little bit laggy even on my 3GHz machine. I'm not sure what you need for "perfect" performance (a Cray maybe?).

Is the AGP slot operating in 8x mode? You can find out by reading the information on the "Geforce 6200" tab of your advanced display properties. My AGP driver was no good and initially read "0x PCI" instead of "AGP 8x" (the difference between 8 and 4 is barely noticeable IMO).

The game could be detectiing the wrong card or using your old 440 settings (check in the file My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs\YOURMACHINENAME-config-log.txt or try the "easy info" application that came with the game).

[IgnorantBliss]

You call a 60 second loading time "forever"? 

[nectere]

Thats exactly what I was thinking Bliss...obviously he/she has no CC.

[Renatus]

Haha, no kidding. I'm always surprised when the game loads before I've finished prepping the coffee pot. 

[miramis]

I use the loo and put the kettle on while loading 

[yetyak]

My 6200 works great with the 77.77 drivers.  Loads the game with all EP's and 900 mb CC in 90 seconds or so.  One thing to check is that some cards are not compatible with some motherboards and can work, but do some pretty strange things.  My card says in the paper work that it is not compatible with SiS chip motherboards.  Just a thought...