Diablo II - choppy performance

[MRD]

Running Diablo II (D3D) yields very poor performance on my ATI Radeon 7200 graphics card. I have installed the newest VIA chipset drivers and also tried switching between Windows Me and Windows XP (always using the latest ATI drivers), but I still get a very low framerate.

My HDD is defragmented.

My system:
Celeron CPU (overclocked to 675 MHz)
Soyo 7VBA-133 motherboard
ATi Radeon 7200 (64 SD-RAM)
256 MB SD-RAM PC133

[MRD]

It must be the graphics card because running the game without Direct3D acceleration (just DirectDraw) solves my problem, but also decreases image quality. On the other hand, activating the automap further deteriorates performance using Direct3D.

Now, who is to blame for this? Blizzard or ATI?
Furthermore, Diablo II shouldn't be a GeForce 3 demanding game! Isn't it strange that a game runs better without hardware acceleration than with?

I previously had a Voodoo3 3000, running Diablo II with native GLide support. And to be honest, I'm beginning to regret the Radeon upgrade.

[expert464]

I ran Diablo2 a lot with my old computer with an ATI Rage pro (8MB), it ran with perfect speed in direct draw but of course, due to card crappiness, couldnt run D3D worth ****. Besides perspective I couldnt notice the difference anyway, and even on my new computer Diablo2 doesnt seem as "ultra-smooth" as I had hoped it to be. Too many 2D sprites for newer "3D-enhanced" cards, I guess.

[butthook]

I've had the same problem I went from GeForce2 gts 32 meg to GeForce 3 Ti200. Man was I bummed to have a 200$ card get such bad performance. Here's how I fixed mine. Go to RUN/all programs/ diablo2/video test... run the test and it gives you option of 2d or 3d(default) choose 2d. Made a big difference for me. Give it a shot ..hope it works for you.

[MRD]

Thanks, I'm now playing Diablo II in DirectDraw (2D) mode. And you're right, the differences aren't considerable. Sometimes details are even sharper (D3D mode is somewhat blurry).

[Monster1]

not sure whay your problem is but i'll say that I had the same problem only on top of that I have other video prob like 3 little chickens where my head should be( and yes they pecked) and my arms were either sheilds or swords my problem was that I did'nt have a new direct x..I figure this is not your problem but posted it 'cause its kinda funny:D :D :) :D

[Bizkitkid2001]

lol, you should have took a pic