Myst V: End Of Ages problem

[Ryan]

I've got a 2.51 Ghz Dell 8200 with Windows XP Home Edition, and I have service pack 2.  I'm having problems with Myst V: End Of Ages.  The sound card I'm using is a Turtle Beach SantaCruz.  Our computer also has 512 megabytes of RAM.  Now, here's the issue.  The game doesn't crash, and I get sound, but I've got some game performance problems.  If I set the game's video settings to the maximum, the game's video slows down and gets choppy. If I have the sound acceleration on full, crackling noises can be heard when any of the main characters in the game are talking, which makes some segments of their speech hard to make out, if I set the sound mode on hardware, Yeesha's journal voice is too low in volume.  And if I set the speakers on 5.1 surround sound, I hear nothing coming out of the characters.  Should I upgrade the RAM to 1024 megabytes for the video?  Should I look for a better sound card to fix the sound problems?  I'd like to improve the performance of the game.  Even re-installing directX, re-installing the game, updating the game, nothing works to fix the sound issue.  

[Flame]

What kind of video card are you using? Also, I would say that it is a good idea to upgrade your RAM to 1 gig. Especially for gaming. It sounds like your video issues with choppyness are due to low RAM. Add more to fix that. As far as sound, try updating your drivers and looking for game patches.

Flame

[Ryan]

I've got an ATI Radeon 9800Pro.  I've tried updating the game, but the game doesn't have any new updates available.  All I can get is the version on the game DVD.  I've looked for a patch and can't find one myself, and I couldn't even find one on Ubisoft's or Cyan's sites.  Can you do it, Flame?  I've tried updating the sound card drivers, but when I do that, the sound doesn't work.  Should I replace the sound card with a Sound Blaster Audigy 4?  I think that sound card is way better.

[Flame]

Try it. If you like that card more why not use that in the first place?

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