GRAPHICS CARD TROUBLESHOOTING

Max Payne 2 requires a 100% DirectX 9 compatible video card with at least 32 MB of video memory.
List of Supported graphics cards.

GENERIC GUIDELINES

For optimum performance, your game graphics will be set to recommended settings. You can customize your settings by going to the Options menu from the Main Dialog.

  1. Video cards with 32MB of video memory should only use the low detail settings and run at a maximum resolution of 800x600 without anti-aliasing.
  2. Video cards with 64MB of video memory should only use the medium detail settings and run at a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 without anti-aliasing.
  3. Video cards with 128MB of video memory can use the maximum settings and run in up to 1600x1200 resolutions (or 1280x1024 with anti-aliasing).

IMPORTANT NOTES

If you have any problems with graphics, please do the following first:

1. Update your graphics card drivers.
2. Lower your resolution and graphic detail settings from Max Payne 2 Options Dialog.
3. Disable Anti-Aliasing from the Max Payne 2 options dialog.

ADJUSTING OPTIONS

The Options are described in tooltips. Hover your mouse over the text and you will get a yellow text popup describing what the option adjusts and how it affects performance.

Lowering the resolution will increase performance as well.

HOW TO...

1. UPDATE DRIVERS - See below for a list of manufacturers and follow your manufacturers' instructions on updating the drivers.

2. CHECK DIRECTX FUNCTIONALITY - If you get an error message saying "Max Payne requires a DirectX 9 compatible graphics card", you can check your DirectX version and functionality by using "DXDiag" application that comes with your system. Click Start -> Run, then enter "dxdiag". Select the Display tab and click on "Test Direct3D". After all tests are completed, you should get a "Direct3D test results: All tests were successful." message. You can also verify functionality with other DirectX games.

If Direct3D does not work, there is something wrong in your system configuration. Verify in Dxdiag that Direct3D Acceleration and AGP Texture Acceleration are enabled (if they are disabled, enable them). If you still have problems, we recommend that you reinstall the latest DirectX and graphics card drivers and try again.

3. INCREASE AGP APERTURE SIZE - Warning, only for advanced users.
Go to your computers' BIOS and look for a setting called AGP Aperture Size. We recommend setting it 128MB, or if you have 512MB or more system memory, to 256MB. This will increase the available memory for textures and thus may increase performance.

DRIVERS

You should first upgrade to the latest drivers to your graphics card. Here is a list of links to a few of the most common graphics card manufacturers' web sites:

  • ATI (Radeon series)
  • NVIDIA (GeForce, GeForce FX, NForce)
  • Intel (i845/i865)
  • Matrox (Parhelia)
  • You can also check your computer manufacturer's web site. Here's a list.

GENERIC GRAPHICS PROBLEMS

Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)
 If you are running in high resolutions or with FSAA enabled and experience random freezing with the game, please lower your resolution and/or disable FSAA. Many 3D accelerators simply run out of resources when running the game in high resolution.

We do not recommend you to enable anti-aliasing from the graphics cards' control panel, but to use the options in Max Payne 2 instead. Otherwise you may be able to start the game with a resolution and settings with which you will not have enough graphics memory to play the game.

Textures missing
Please lower the texture detail and color depth settings in the Max Payne 2 Options dialog and disable anti-aliasing. Also, updating drivers and increasing AGP Aperture Size to 128MB in your BIOS may help.

Graphics bleeding over the monitor screen
Please adjust your monitor or change the resolution. The most compatible resolutions are 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768.

Multiple graphics cards
If you have multiple graphics cards in your PC, or a graphics card capable of outputting to multiple monitors, Max Payne 2 may not display all of them in the startup dialog. The primary graphics card should always be displayed and we recommend that only it is used for playing the game.

Start menu or System Tray programs flash on screen during gameplay
If this problem bothers you, please disable all background applications such as e-mail software, Winamp or ICQ.

GRAPHICS CARD SPECIFIC PROBLEMS

NVIDIA GEFORCE, GEFORCE FX GRAPHICS CARDS

Anti-aliasing may not work together with post processing effects on GeForce and GeForce FX cards that have less than 128 MB of memory. Possible side effects are texture corruption, textures turning to yellow or other graphical glitches. Please disable anti-aliasing from Max Payne 2 options and from the driver control panel if you have problems.

"High Detail" Post-Process effects work on:

  • GeForce3 & GeForce 4 Series with 40.xx or newer drivers
  • GeForce FX series with 45.23 or newer drivers

Motion blur or Bullet Time Tone Mapping will look black or have a single, solid color if you have 21.* or 30.* series drivers (or 44.03 for GeForceFX). It's time to upgrade those drivers.

Video Playback may not work with 44.03 drivers on GeForce FX cards. This includes the intro, attract, credits and "Previously on Max Payne" videos. Please upgrade your drivers to 45.23 or newer.

Mirrors are supported only by GeForceFX cards. Even then, we recommend keeping them disabled on GeForceFX 5200 for performance reasons.

INTEL i845 (INTEGRATED)
We recommend you to run with minimum details in 640x480 resolution. Cube mapping option should not be used as it may cause visual artefacts.

ATI RADEON

General: Some older ATI Radeon based cards don't support the in-game Gamma control. You should adjust gamma from ATI Radeon's display driver control panel if needed.

Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100 and 9200 series:
Pixel Shader Skinning looks incorrect. This may be fixed to future ATI drivers.


Matrox Parhelia

16x Anti-Aliasing doesn't work if enabled from Max Payne 2 Options (You will get an error message). Please enable from Matrox Display Control Panel if you wish to use it.

Parhelia doesn't render cube mapping if you are running on Software T&L. Please use Hardware T&L as this card supports it and it is faster.

SUPPORTED GRAPHICS CARDS

Max Payne 2 requires a DirectX 9 compatible graphics card in order to run. The following table lists graphics cards (3D accelerator chipsets) supported by Max Payne 2:

  • ATI Radeon series
  • NVIDIA GeForce, GeForce FX and NForce series
  • Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (integrated i865G)
  • Matrox Parhelia
  • SiS Xabre series
  • 3dlabs Wildcat VP

Notes: There may be certain issues with specific settings with the above accelerators. See above for more details. Additionally, most 3D accelerators listed will not run satisfactorily on maximum detail level settings.

The following unsupported 3D Accelerators may work with Max Payne 2, but all game visuals may not be correct and performance may be unsatisfactory:

  • ATI Rage 128, 128 Pro
  • Intel Extreme Graphics (integrated i845G)
  • Matrox G400, G450, G550
  • NVIDIA RIVA TNT, TNT2, TNT2 m64
  • PowerVR Kyro II
  • S3 Savage4, S3 ProSavage and integrated solutions based on S3 cores
  • SiS 315 series

We recommend that minimum details and 640x480 resolution be used with the above graphics cards. Please note that we can not give technical support for these graphics cards.

The following unsupported 3D accelerators do not work with Max Payne 2:

  • 3dfx Voodoo, Voodoo2, Voodoo3, Voodoo Rush
  • 3Dlabs Permedia, Permedia2
  • ATI RAGE II/II+/IIc, RAGE PRO, Rage Fury Maxx
  • Cirrus Logic Laguna3D (CL5465)
  • Intel i740, i810 integrated, i815 integrated
  • Matrox Millennium II, Mystique, G200
  • NVIDIA RIVA 128/128ZX
  • PowerVR Neon 250i
  • S3 Savage 2000, Savage3D, Trio64 3D, Virge/DX/GX/VX
  • Rendition Verite V1000/V2200
  • Some older integrated / laptop display adapters (Neomagic, Trident)