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I put together a computer last year for, among other things, playing The Force Unleashed. (OK, that and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). Anyway, IJATFOA worked just fine, but TFU always froze on me. I eventually got in touch with Steam, then Lucasfilm, then the actual developers, and figured out that I was using an unsupported GPU. I downloaded Portal to try that as well, and it turned out THAT froze too.

So, I think I'm just going to ditch the Nvidia I have now and replace it. But I want to make sure that the board I end up buying will work with as many games as possible. How can I pick cards that will be compatible?

Edit: Mobo is ASUS Sabertooth X58; GPU is nVidia 470. I don't need specific buying recommendations; it seems like I don't understand how GPUs should be chosen. Like, do I need to check every game I buy to make sure that my card is SPECIFICALLY supported before buying it? Is it normal to have two or three boards, one compatible with some games that the other doesn't support and vice versa, and have to switch them out when I want to play the games that need them? Or is my problem maybe not my board at all; the devs I talked to were wrong, and I should look somewhere else for the reason I can't play my games?

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    Generally, any card within two generations of the current generation should last for the next two generations or so. By that I mean you could play just about any game with reasonable performance. Though don't expect to be able to play at the highest settings when you're two generations behind.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 0:38
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    Right now this question is impossible to answer. No information on the card purchased previously and no information on the motherboard being used to properly recommend a card. Question might also be too localized.
    – Thrillho
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 1:17
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    could it be an issue of the motherboard not supporting the right chipset, because I built my own computer using a Nvidia GTX 470, and for the first bit my gpu driver kept failing but it was a hardware issue, since I got my gpu replace my 470 has worked flawlessly with any games Ive played such as (dirt 3, deadspace 2, portal 1/2, wow, SC2, borderlands, witcher 2 and more) but ive never had a problem
    – Beef
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 17:09
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    You could try using BurnInTest to see if it reveals any hardware errors: passmark.com/products/bit.htm
    – Ryre
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 22:21
  • @Beef: I'm sorry - you replaced your 470 with another 470?
    – StormShadow
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 2:32

3 Answers 3

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Actually I think this is a case of the developer / support being "lazy". I say this because the Steam store indicates TFU "supports" the following nVidia chipsets:

NVIDIA GeForce 8600, 8800, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800, 250, 260, 275, 280, 285, 295

All of which are older that your 470. So, in other words, because your card is newer than their game they don't bother to officially support it. However, it really should still work in this case, even if it's not on the "supported" list.

For comparison, I've a nVidia 460 (a step or two down from your card) and it has played everything I've thrown at it - very new and very old. I'd be inclined to check / update / reinstall the card's drivers and maybe even check / update / reinstall DirectX.

If that doesn't work you're in the realm of something more obscure being the problem - potentially including hardware faults - that will be quite hard to diagnose.

Replacing the graphics card may help, but unless you're going to buy something several generations old to pick up a 200-series card, it's not going to be "supported" by The Force Unleashed, as per the list above.

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  • Thanks! That actually is just what I needed to know. I will doublecheck my drivers and DirectX.
    – StormShadow
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 8:43
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The easy answer is to get a GPU that uses an nVidia or AMD (formerly ATI) chip.

The Force Unleased requires an nVidia 8600 or newer, or an AMD/ATI Radeon 2900 or newer.

After the 9000 series, nVidia rolled back around to three digit card models. The current nVidia Series as of this writing is the nVidia 500 series.

The current Radeon series is the HD6000 series, which is subdivided into 5 families: The 6400 series, the 6500/6600 series, the 6700 series, the 6800 series, and the 6900 series.

As a general rule, with both manufacturers, the higher the number the better the card.

I can't recommend a specific card, because that would make this question a shopping recommendation, which is largely frowned upon on this site.

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  • Thanks! I have an nVidia 470 if I remember correctly. It's a 4xx anyway. So, according to you, I should be able to play TFU. But the developer told me that my issues arose from an unsupported card. So, should I look at this as just bad luck and a defective card? Or are there some GPUs that are just not good for games out there and I need to check my card against each and every game I want to play before buying it?
    – StormShadow
    Commented Oct 5, 2011 at 4:29
  • @StormShadow: That sounds quite odd. The nVidia GTX 470 is a somewhat recent card, and is certainly higher in specs than the ones mentioned in the Force Unleashed's system requirements. I don't own the game, or I'd see what it does my dual-GTX 570 cards.
    – user2974
    Commented Oct 6, 2011 at 22:23
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I know this post is old, but after a year or more of futtering about, I found the problem. My power supply. I thought I had gotten one large enough to cover everything, but it turns out I had bought a larger and more power-hungry GPU than I realized. So every time I started up a 3D game, it pooped out and took my PC with it. Mystery solved. Thanks guys, for all your time and support.

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