Command and Conquer 3 MAX Graphics no longer works

I have been playing CNC 3 for weeks, with my graphical options set at maximum. It has run great, smooth and a LOT of fun.

One day it began chugging. Real bad, FPS was around 3, and selecting units took 3-4 seconds. So I turned all graphics down to minimum and this did not help. Same thing.

I reinstalled the game, and reimported my save game files, and it worked again for another few weeks. Until yesterday. Same symptoms. I reinstalled it again, but this time no fix. I always run both 1.08 and 1.09 patches.

Oh, BTW, before reinstalling, I always boot from OSX disc 1 and Repair permissions and disk.

What a great game. It is frustrating me, though. HELP!

I have a MBP 2.4Ghz with 2MB ram with a GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB VRAM. I have around 13GB of free harddrive space.

Little help here? Anybody..? Bueller. . .Bueller. . .?

Nobody else is having any problem with this game? Never had to reinstall it?

I am a little new to the Mac world, so maybe there is a piece of info I just haven't discovered yet. . .

cogmission said:

Do you notice a gradual degradation in fps? Or is it a sudden loss?

Click to expand...

Game menus are fine. When I open the tutorial level or ANY saved game, or ANY campaign, it is a constant slow frame rate.

No matter what I play, it is as if the screen is redrawing 3 times a second.

What is getting corrupt that is making this reoccur? Any thoughts?

Problem discovered. . .

Ok, well, no thanks to YOU guys, I found the problem.

As I said, I am a little new to macs. I have been fighting this problem since my OP, and have tried repeatedly to reinstall, delete preferences, change graphics levels, etc., to fix the problem, none being successful.

I recently discovered the Apple Hardware Test, on disc 1 of OSX. Ran the 3 minute short test and discovered a problem:

4 VDC/1/40000003 VideoController Error

After a short net search, found that MBPs built in 2007 with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB Graphics card have failure issues thanks to NVIDIA. Apple is replacing these up to 2 years after your warranty is gone if you have video issues.

So, everybody oughta check your video card in this way if you have a similar MBP, even if you don't see a problem. Mine has ONLY manifested itself in this game, and I have been doing a lot of work as of late in Final Cut.

Here's the Apple link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

Hope this helps the next guy!