Hi Mark S Borders,
The section where you post your message will not define when it will be answered
Regarding your questions
First of all, please follow this maintenance steps
1 - Check the website of your video card manufacturer and update the drivers
2 - Go to
www.microsoft.com/directx, and see what version is current and check if you have this version installed in your computer
3 - Right click on the wallpaper (look for a place without icons)--> Properties--> Settings--> Advanced--> Open GL--> Compatibility Settings--> Force 16 or 24 bits--> Apply--> OK --> this is specially important for ATI Fire VCs
4 - Set your video color depth at 24 or 32 bits ("true color")
5 - Check your computer for adware, spyware and such. Some users experienced "crash issues" and error messages caused by these programs
Lavasoft is an excellent (and free) application to clean you computer
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ Some additional notes
Yes, in my opinion, for Punch purposes, the ATI is the best VC. I am an ATI Radeon user since 2003 and the performance is excellent. I run Punch (all the Windows versions) with full accelerations
However, the driver of the ATI Radeon series (Catalyst) is different from the driver of the Fire GL series (Hydavision), and believe or not, this makes a difference. The ATI VC of my laptop uses Hydravision and I feel the difference
Not sure if you have XP or Vista, but if you have Vista, I'd suggest that you check the compatibility between ATI FireGL V3350 and Vista (HP sells this VC to be used with XP)
Hope this helps
Patricia