Weird Mass Effect problem (PC)

Daysha

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask for advice, please move as required if needed

Right well I downloaded Mass Effect in the Steam sale there 2 days ago and finally gave it a whirl today. The only game I regularly play on the PC is Football Manager, and the odd Flight SImulator every few months for the lulz. That said, I don't think my computer is too bad...

Intel Pentium D CPU 3.40GHz
4GB of RAM
256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO

Now I don't know a whole lot about graphics cards but I know that's not exactly the best in the world. It's the standard one that came with the PC when we bought it 3 years ago and we never bothered upgrading it, just stuck in extra RAM instead.

Anyway everything seemed to be going ok during the initial segment on the ship until we landed on the first planet and this started happening.



I asked over on a different forum and they were telling me my graphics card was overheating and I should download something called EVGA Precision. I don't know exactly what it does but I think it tunes your graphics card to make it more compatible with what your doing and also monitor the temperatures inside. Now that would be all well and good if the program didn't crash everytime I try open it (keep on getting that "send error report to Microsoft" screen).

The weird thing though is that it only happens from that part of the game onwards. I restarted and the game was still absolutely fine up until when you touch down on the planet. Surely if the graphics card was acting up it would be faulty for the entire game and not just one particular point. As you can see as well the HUD looks normal, as does the main menu. The game is practically unplayable when it's like that so I don't know if it might disappear if I play on furter.

I've turned down the settings on the game to as low as possible and nothing changes, so does anyone have any theories as to why this is happening?

Azza

Hmm try updating your drivers.

Mass Effect runs on the Unreal Engine 3. Performance wise the PC version isn't the best optimized game ever but it isn't too bad either.

Looking at the graphics card you listed I don't think a X1300 is up to the task of running this game.

Agricola

It doesnt appear to be an overheating card. That usually means random crashes which normally force you to reboot the pc. If you're getting the issue at an exact point in the game and you can still play on (albeit it with great difficulty) it sounds like more of a software/driver problem.

First step is to install the latest drivers for your card. Also disable background programs running before you load the game. If your pc handles other games like Mass Effect (2007/2008) fairly well, it could be a game issue. If youve patched the game up, you'll just have to trawl the forums about this specific issue.

Daysha

Success! Some guy on the Bioware forum with the same graphics card was having the same difficulty, and all we had to do was install the ATI Mobility Modder and update the card to Catalyst 9.3 and now works perfectly Hopefully the game will be worth all the fuss!

Thanks for your help anyway guys.

Agricola

Daysha wrote: »

Success! Some guy on the Bioware forum with the same graphics card was having the same difficulty, and all we had to do was install the ATI Mobility Modder and update the card to Catalyst 9.3 and now works perfectly Hopefully the game will be worth all the fuss!

Thanks for your help anyway guys.

I love it when a plan comes together!