NWN and ATI, a BAD marriage!!

Hi, I haven't played NWN for a long time, but since now i bought the expansion "Hord of the Underdark", i started playing it again.

I must say this is the best RPG of all time, and HotU only made it even better.

But i have a big complain to make, any and I mean any friends (5 in total) that i know that have this game and a ATI card (4 9700,9800 and 1 8500) all have seriuos problems with this game, 4 more (including myself in the second rig) that use Nvidia cards have no problem at ALL.

The problems vary from the game crashing back to the desktop, the game crashing the PC entirely (reset only), the game simply having strange slowdowns for some small time, like 2 to 3 seconds. All of us had the same problems, it is really anoying since this is a game that when is played, normally you play for some hours straight.

I happen to have more than another dozen games installed from OGL to 3D3 of all types and none give those problems, only this game, and I have to say that without any update downloads (to 1.62 version for example) the game doesn't have all those problems, it is way more stable.

I wanted to know by a larger margin if this is normal to you guys too, if that happens a lot, i'll send big mails to ATI and Bioware. I still think both ATI and Bio make excelent work but this is starting to make me sad with this game (wich i love).

NWN has a long history of problems with ATI cards, been known for a while.

I play NWN on a 9800 Pro and it works fine for me. I have not had the game crash once. I am using the 4.5 cats.

I have 9800 pro and have never had a problem with nwn either.

tranCendenZ said:

NWN has a long history of problems with ATI cards, been known for a while.

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AFAIK this is true, but some people claim they have no problems, and i do believe them. We should be able to only find what is the cause, please can u post the version of the game u are all using?
Mine is ver 1.62 of the game and catalyst 4.5.

Hmm.. runs like a champ for me, 1280x1024 2xAA 8xaf.

I have heard of people having problems with minor slowdowns, bet not any crashing in game, I think you may have something else going on.

Santroph said:

AFAIK this is true, but some people claim they have no problems, and i do believe them. We should be able to only find what is the cause, please can u post the version of the game u are all using?
Mine is ver 1.62 of the game and catalyst 4.5.

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Have you tried the 4.6? Or the omegas? Are you cleaning the old drivers out and unhooking your internet connection while installing new?

Also, www.rage3d.com is a great source for nailing down a problem on your Ati card. Ati driver developers post in the forums and give great support.

creedAMD said:

Have you tried the 4.6? Or the omegas? Are you cleaning the old drivers out and unhooking your internet connection while installing new?

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I have a completly clean install of XP SP2 Last RC integrated, everything runs fine, no old drivers, already CAT 4.5 from beggining, i have not seen 4.6 out till today since i was sick thos last few days.
I'll try them when i get at home.

I don't use omegas, i use w1zzard softmodded drivers, normal catalyst package.
One thing i'm already certain, if u use ATItool with it, it freezes even before entering the menu part, only the intro movies play.
At least using the function of playing sound when 3d is detected.
All of my other games go fine with ATITool.

The OS install is about one to two weeks old, and everything is very clean indeed.

Did you try not overclocking everything? I had a game once that even though I could run everything else overclocked, this one game would not do it unless I brought the clocks down. Crashing in game is a classic output from overclocking. The Ati drivers have had problems in performance, in which taking the settings down usually help that, but I searched through rage3d for some nwn hardcrashes to no avail. Hope the new driver helps though!

creedAMD said:

Did you try not overclocking everything? I had a game once that even though I could run everything else overclocked, this one game would not do it unless I brought the clocks down. Crashing in game is a classic output from overclocking. The Ati drivers have had problems in performance, in which taking the settings down usually help that, but I searched through rage3d for some nwn hardcrashes to no avail. Hope the new driver helps though!

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Yes
to tell the truth, it only plays HALF-STABLE when i close the ATITool app, wich is the one i use to overclock my card, i only run it in default conf for my car, like a normal 9700.
Lets see if the new catalyst magic can come true

One thing I was also thinking about was your bios for your motherboard, try switching fastwrites from on/off, and relax your memory timings. Even try to underclock to see if it adds stablility. And also the 9500>9700 mod? Is it the hardmod or soft mod? Did you try to reverse it? Just some things I was thinking about. I know that I have had the game on all three systems in sig at one time or another with hours of gameplay with no problems. Two of them being Abit motherboards such as yours as well. Good luck man.