I have a Geforce 8600GTS. The worst problems I'm having is with Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, and Red Faction. With both of the Splinter Cell games, light sources don't cast any light on the walls or floor. For example, in Splinter Cell when you get to the part where you're outside the sliding glass doors that lead to the server room in CIA headquarters, the middle part of the hallway is brightly lit. When I play it on my pc, that entire hallway is pitch black, but my light meter still goes up when I walk to the center of the hallway. The same kind of thing happens all through Pandora Tomorrow. There will be a window, doorway, or light bulb, but there is no light being cast on the wall or floor. For Red Faction, the picture is such a jumbled up mess that I can't even play it.
So, for fun I installed those games on my sister's computer, which has a Geforce FX5200. To my shock, all of those graphics problems were gone. All the lighting effects are exactly how they are supposed to be, and Red Faction looks perfect. The problem is that I have to put all the settings to low and put it on 640x480 to get more than 5 frames per second on her computer. Is the 8600GTS that big of a piece of junk, or is it that those games don't support anything above the Geforce 5 series. Would those problems go away if I upgraded to a 9800GTX or a GTX 275?
Also, is there much of a difference between the Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio and the X-Fi Extreme Gamer sound card? How about the X-Fi Titanium?
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