ATI 2600 & Rise of Legends

"Rise of Legends"

• "Rise of Legends," released for the PC in 2006, is a real-time strategy game in the "Rise of Nations" series. Developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft, "Rise of Legends" is supported by Windows XP and Vista; it does not include Windows 7 compatibility. Due to its genre, "Rise of Legends" does not feature the same cutting-edge graphics found in other genres, such as a first-person shooter; this allows the game to run on a variety of hardware components both old and new. Like other real-time strategy games, "Rise of Legends" features both single-player and multiplayer game modes.

ATI Radeon HD 2600

• The ATI Radeon HD 2600 series of video cards was released in 2007, one year after the launch of "Rise of Legends." It is fully compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows 7, along with DirectX 10, and has the ability to use CrossFire technology. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 series was distributed in both 256MB and 512MB models and is available for both desktops and notebooks.

Compatibility

• "Rise of Legends" is fully compatible with the ATI Radeon HD 2600, which is to be expected as the 2600 was released a full year after the game and has the necessary power to run it. The only video card requirement for "Rise of Legends" is that you have a video card with at least 64MB of RAM; both versions of the 2600 far exceed this requirement.

Drivers

• Drivers -- software files that tell your video card how to best handle any incoming data -- are provided for free on the manufacturer's website. For the ATI Radeon HD 2600, these driver files are provided by AMD and are available to download on their official website. To achieve optimal performance in any game, including "Rise of Legends," it is important that your 2600 is updated with the latest drivers. After downloading the drivers from AMD's website, double-click the executable file for the drivers to automatically install. Restart your computer when the process is complete.

Graphics Settings

• If you are experiencing slowdown in "Rise of Legends," this can be due to the graphics settings being set too high. While the ATI Radeon 2600 HD is more than capable of running the game on maximum settings, the game also relies on the rest of your computer's hardware components. For example, if your CPU or RAM do not meet the minimum requirements of the game, you cannot harness the full power of your video card. In this instance, you must lower the graphical settings. This can be done by selecting "Options" in the main menu, followed by "Video," and lowering the settings until you achieve optimal settings.