Incessant flashing!! I just wanna play :(

[KrayzennSynn]

I've just bought WoW and Burning Crusade and despite my graphics card being plenty good enough the screen is flashing constantly to the extent it is unuseable. I have tried everything in the support FAQs on the website etc., (removing cache, interface and wtf from program file, editing Config.wtf, updating DirectX...) and nothing is working. I just about managed to put up with it to make a character then changed some stuff about in Video on in-game menu but nothing is making the slightest bit of difference, I've already waited a day for installation and patch downloads, I just wanna play it's driving me mad!!

[Kalos]

Ok, first what do you mean by "flashing"? And what are your system specifications?

[KrayzennSynn]

Ok, first what do you mean by "flashing"? And what are your system specifications?

Constant flashing of odd shapes and colours throughout the login screens and the game, the only time it gives it a break is in the few seconds that the loading screen is up before it starts loading, once the blue bar comes up it starts again.

I downloaded the latest DirectX.
I have NVIDIA GeForce MX 440.
512MB DDR.
60 free gigs of space (after installations).
Windows XP.

[KrayzennSynn]

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g172/AngelOfImpurity/wow.jpg

[Kalos]

Your graphics card is certainly not "plenty good enough". A more accurate discription would be "barely scraping it's way into the game", a dead mimimalistic approach.

All I can do is recommend you visit Nvidia.com and pop in the latest drivers, but nothing is really going to save a card four generations (on the verge of five) past it. It's a hunk of junk that couldn't sell for $20 two years ago.

BC stresses the hardware more than traditional WoW did, and as such the bar is raised slightly. Your rig is barebones at best, it's suffering. I'd just get a new machine and be glad it has lasted so long for you.

I'm sorry the solution is not cheap, but it is simply a dated peice of hardware past its era.

[KrayzennSynn]

Well that explains things. It said NVIDIA GeForce series 4 was okay in the manual so i figured it would be alright :( .

[Kalos]

I'd recommend taking a look at the Recommended Hardware sticky thread. It was designed to set levels of strong performance, for instance the 6 series of Geforrce cards or above are recommended for WoW. The same goes with ram, 1 gig, or 2 in the case of Vista, are needed for it to take off and perform gracefully.

[KrayzennSynn]

If needs be I'll just buy a new load of hardware, but for the time being do you think there's any free/cheap downloadables or settings I can edit to just make it playable? Some jumpiness I can deal with or decreased graphics etc. but as it stands I can't even see what the hell's going on. If not, no worries and cheers for the help thus far.

[Tetamesh]

i would just get a new computer, maybe updating your drivers and setting graphics to min would make it work. But it wont work well at all. btw, if you do get a new comp with vista make sure it has 2GB of RAM and that the video card isnt onboard

[KrayzennSynn]

I'm looking into getting a new PC now, I've made a note of the specs on recommended, but what do you mean by video card not onboard?

And how do I set the WoW graphics to minimum for the time being?

[Kalos]

The cheapest and weakest graphics solutions aren't actually seperate cards that plug into the motherboard. They instead are a small and pathetically performing arrangement of on the motherboard itself. These onboard graphics are designed for 2D work, for office computers basically. For proper graphics, you need it to have it's own memory banks (onboard steals it out of the main system cache). When you've got a proposed rig, come back to us and we can check it out to see if it's a good piece of hardware or if any of the components stink, technically speaking :grin:

[KrayzennSynn]

So when entering a PC shop how would I word asking for such a thing? Just request a video card that's not onboard? Or would I need to tell more details?

[tralkar]

go into options and trun everything down low. Alot of computers come with a vidio card in the mother board, thats ok you just need to install a new one.. And remember not a cheepy, couse when the expantion comes out you dont want to by a new one.

[Tunga]

Alot of computers come with a vidio card in the mother board, thats ok you just need to install a new one.. And remember not a cheepy, couse when the expantion comes out you dont want to by a new one.I know you're just trying to be helpful but this is extremely vague and quite possibly wrong anyway. This kind of advice doesn't really help anyone.

[Kalos]

So when entering a PC shop how would I word asking for such a thing? Just request a video card that's not onboard? Or would I need to tell more details?
Basically ask them for the system specifications before you buy, bring them back to us, and we'll be able to tell. There are a huge amount of variations, that I can't expect anyone to learn off by heart. Best way is just to run it past us before purchase.

[Herald of Doom]

Go to the shop and specify that you will be using the pc for gaming. If they're any decent they should exclude lower end machines with onboard/outdated graphic cards. Ask for a list of available pc's (I assume you dont want to buy seperate parts and put it together yourself ;) ) within your pricerange and ask someone who knows computers(aka, us :p ) what the best option would be.

Basically, if you buy a pc at this point you need at least the following things: dual core cpu, 2gig ram and a recent gfx card (heavily depends on budget).

HoD

[Tetamesh]

If your going to just be running WoW then your not going to need anything amazing, but if your planning on playing some of the new games like Age of Conan, Warhammer and Pirates of The Burning Sea ect you are going to want a pretty good comp. You might actually be better off waiting for a DX10 video card, but idk how bad you want to play WoW.

[Tunga]

You might actually be better off waiting for a DX10 video cardFirstly DX10 cards are already around. Secondly you don't need one and won't need one for a good while yet. DX9 only started to become required (and only on top-end games) fairly recently.

[Kalos]

Firstly DX10 cards are already around. Secondly you don't need one and won't need one for a good while yet. DX9 only started to become required (and only on top-end games) fairly recently.
Agreed. Most games are still in DirectX8 this year, with X9 extensions. Very few DirectX9 being the base rung, let alone DirectX10. By the time it does come into force, a true DirectX10 will overwhelm any DirectX10 card, just like what happened with the Geforce FX series. Marketed as an X9 card, but ended up being a pretty good X8 card with lousy X9 performance when X9 games actually came around to break the card's teeth upon.