Sluggish gameplay in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

[Yog2006]

Greetings. I have a computer well within the recommended requirements for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as shown in the configuration utility.

Video Card: ATI Radeon 8500 128MB
Ram: 512MB DDR
Processor: 2.4GHZ Intel Pentium 4

The utility shows all green checks for both minimum and recommended requirements. Why is it then, that Versus gameplay, as well as single player gameplay is slow as in chunky/sluggish? In Versus especially, after you turn the floodlight on as Argus Mercenary. The frame rates plummet like the girl in the beginning of the movie Cliffhanger.

I have the resolution set to 1024X768, it matches my desktop resolution, and I have all settings on LOW. It's still sluggish.

I also see an odd lighting problem. I took a screenshot of it. It's the weird layers of lighting. Looks like a fog effect.

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/5681/problem3gp.jpg

It is NOT malware or viruses, i'm no computer novice, so I know what belongs on my computer, what doesn't, what should be running in the background, and I keep my computer clean.

So if it's nothing running in the background, I meet the recommended requirements as well, why then would it be sluggish?

Any suggestions?

[cooldude6681]

Well, my first impression is that it's caused by your ancient graphics card, which is the lowest of the low that could possibly run SCCT at all. But then you say that all of the settings are on low. Try running the game at 640x480. If the framerate is still slower than molasses in Antarctica, come back and someone else may have an idea. If not, get a new video cardhttp://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/25.gif