Advanced Graphic's

[BulletVI]

Skuzzy i would like your opinion on this problem of mine.

Now i realise that what i am about to tell you you may have a good chuckle on my expense. But hey we all cant get Nividia or ATI graphics cards ( more's the pity on my part  )

My problem is this the game after some time starts to disable my advanced graphic's settings regularly. Now i have a simple little on-board.
                             Mobile Intel(R) 4Series Express Chipset Family
And a driver booster downloaded from Intel website at which can boost my chipset graphics for gaming.
 
                             Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller

Now iv had this set-up for the past 2 years and it has also run games with more powerful graphics than Ace's High II. But for the last few months this has been happening to me 
But amazingly when i go to the M/A like late war orange or purple it wont do it unless there are over 120 players in the arena. But in the duelling arena it will do it when there is less that 40 player's.
But on some night's it starts right away others it starts after around an hour of gaming !!!! !!!!!!!      

I would appreciate it if you have any idea's on this Skuzzy Many Thanks my Friend.

Oh just had an idea after typing this - could it be something to do with internet or the Arena Ping. Maybe i wrong
as i know next to nothing aboot computer's lol give me a wrench any day lol.  

[The Fugitive]

The game is trying to tell you what setting to run in the game. While i'm not one of the programmers so I have no true details, they are posted by Skuzzy on these boards if you can find them. The game checks your computer maybe by timing the load on the cache as to how fast a system you have. If you are on the edge with a weak system your computer will sometimes have the graphics turned down automatically to run the game the best it can.

The intel graphics is a major bottleneck on a system because it uses your system ram for the graphics as well as using the rest of your software. So if something is running in the background WHILE you log in your setting may change because your ram is busy doing other things than loading graphics...see the timing issue? So a work around may be that if you load the game and such and let it sit to be sure everything is done loading BEFORE you log in might get you around it because your ram may be clear enough not to trip the graphics issue.

Remember, I'm just guessing here. 

[Skuzzy]

The Intel video chips do not have the processing power to run the shaders for the "Detailed Terrain", or "Shadows".  You should be able to select those options.

Frame rates are an aggregate measure.  If the CPU goets bogged down, the frame rate will drop, if the video card gets bogged down the frame rate will drop, if your Internet connection is getting hammered by P2P requests, you frame rate will drop and so on.

By the way, just because some games slap a 2D image texture on a single poly, that looks really nice, does not make it more advanced.  Just FYI.

[Tigger29]

it has also run games with more powerful graphics than Aces High II

Yes Skuzzy is right.  Your graphic chip simply isn't powerful enough to maintain Aces High's advanced graphics settings.  You have to keep in mind that your graphics chip is just that.. a chip.  I relies on the computer's processor (brain) to do all of its rendering (dirty work).  While other games may seem to have more powerful graphics than Aces High, they also don't require all of the processor power that Aces High requires.  Flight simulators in general require a LOT more processing power than other types of games.  Why?  Because it has to produce realistic physics on a THREE DIMENSIONAL scale.

Take a driving simulator or a first person shooter game for example.  It really only has to process forward/back and left/right.  There really is no up/down, therefore the processor isn't taxed nearly as much, and since your video chip relies on processing ability to work, there is more overhead available for your graphics chip.  This allows for more graphics.

Since Aces High (among other flight simulators) needs a exponentially larger amount of computing power to render true three-dimensional physics, and ESPECIALLY Aces High because it has such realistic physics.. well you have less processing available to your ten cent graphics chip, resulting in the necessity of turning off all advanced graphics options (and even then with moderate gameplay ability).

This is why a separate graphics card is so important for Aces High.  Heck, even a $40 Nvidia card will be worlds better than your onboard graphics chip!  If you do decide to spend some money for a bit of an upgrade, please feel free to ask, we'll be more than happy to help you spend it.

[BulletVI]

Many thanks fellas you all have given me some good insight to this wee problem. My main problem is that i run on a laptop at the moment, but it all good internaly but no the graphic's chip/card. And im told that seperate graphics card's for a laptop are rare and few n far between and some times not worth upgrading !!!!! UH as i say Give me a WRENCH and a plane or car to fix and BAMM job done BUT Computer's EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK                       

Many thanks again Fellas

BulletVI             

Oh P.S i have a pc tower an stuff i could possibly lay my hands on. What would be the Lowest grade of graphic's card i would need ?????     

[Plazus]

If you reall really wanted to go to the bare minimum with gaphics cards, you could find one with 256MB video memory. However, I highly recommend you go for a card with 512MB video memory as that will give you more options to play with. Itll run AH just fine. You could find a $50 or $60 video card that will get the job done. Try newegg.com or tigerdirect.com . Both are good places to look at.

[Skuzzy]

You cannot go just by the amount of RAM a video card.  An NVidia 6150SE with 512MB of RAM will perform no better than the onboard Intel video chip.  An ATI 9150 with 512MB of RAM performs equally as bad.

To make matters worse, those low end video cards use DDR1 RAM, which is horrifically slow.

With video cards, you mostly get what you pay for.  That said, a $100.00 to $125.00 video card will probably get you middle of the oad performance with some of the detail options enabled (no shadows).

[BulletVI]

Ok im taking Skuzzys Advice on board i shall look into a mid to a top of the range graphic's card then

Thanks Skuzzy i owe you one for the help.
                    And thanks to the rest of you , you have all helped me get a better understanding of computer's graphic's.

Many thanks again     

BulletVI     

Damm now my wallet's going to be in hospital. lol