Author Topic: Curses! (Read 1031 times)

FOGOLD · « **on:** February 10, 2004, 06:54:17 AM »

Bought a Geforce 5700Ultra before Christmas. Now 9800Pros are cheap as hell!:mad:

Still, I expect my Athlon XP2000+ would be underpowered for it anyway.

Defiance · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2004, 09:34:24 AM »

Hiya,
Yeah t'is the way of the PC lol

I now tend to wait n get cheaper instead of buying asap somert news out

Even like 2mth after a launch prices start dropping nicely

Get stung on cost of pc goodies over here (UK) so i wait n lurk for a bargain lol

FOGOLD · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2004, 03:16:15 PM »

Bought a 9800 Pro 128 mb. £150 !!!! Couldn't resist. Think I've got a route for my nearly new 5700 Ultra which cost the same! I must be bonkers. When I bought the 5700 I thought "no, no , be sensible. £250 for a video card is too much."

Usually they disappear before they get cheap as this at the top end.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2004, 10:41:55 AM »

Jeez, now I'm nervous. Seem to be a mountain of issues with various games and dodgy Catylist drivers. I know all about clearing out Nvidial drivers including reg etc before installing the new card, but I have had zero trouble with Nvidia cards over the years.

Is that about to change?

ChasR · « **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2004, 11:37:06 AM »

I have 4 Radeon equipped computers and haven't had any problems with them. The 9800 Pro I play AH with runs @ 85 fps (monitor refresh rate) 100% of the time with quality settings @ max. except AF, which is set to app preference. In AH, with AF on, text becomes blurry on the map & radio text buffer. The Radeons don't seem to run AH2 as fast as the similarly priced nVidia cards. My system runs it in the 60-70 fps range.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2004, 03:28:41 PM »

Thanks for the reassurance!

I currently run an xp200+ on 1gig PC2100. I hope the Radeon can stretch its legs properly as I'm probably a bit underpowered.

guttboy · « **Reply #6 on:** February 12, 2004, 11:24:01 PM »

I have some issues with the ATI 9800 XT with 256 mb ram on it.

It runs great for AH 1 but in AH 2 it does not run very well at all. I have posted some stuff on this in the AH2 forum.

I hope that Skuzzy and company are working those issues out. I am sure that they are trying to get it to work.

I love the ATI 9800 for AH1 and other games such as HALO etc....great graphics!

FOGOLD · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2004, 05:42:11 PM »

Well, got it all set up. No issues with any games. Right enough AH II is quite crap, runing aroung 40-45 FPS! I know my setup (XP2000 AMD) is proc limited, but that's still crap. The biggest surprise was Forgotten Battles which got a huge boost.

I still think AA and AF gives a performance hit.

On balance, I don't think i would have been that happy to have paid a lot of money for this card.

I certainly don't get this " turned all settings to max and still get 85 FPS".

ChasR · « **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2004, 10:52:11 AM »

Fogold,
The 9800 Pro is very overclockable. If you want to squeeze some more out of it, download Rage3D Tweak and run the overclocker program. It should clock up to 9800XT speeds. It will likely clock to 425/740(DDR 370 x 2) with stock cooling. The XT is 412/730. Free added performance. You will need a faster cpu to get everything out of the video card.
I don't get 85 fps in AH2. I just downloaded beta 13 and I'll let you know what I get in in it.

ChasR · « **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2004, 11:48:14 AM »

Fogold,
AH2 beta 13 - Spit IX on runway, looking out windsceen
70 fps
1280 x 1024 AA x6 AF off, all others max quality.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #10 on:** February 15, 2004, 02:40:59 PM »

That's pretty good. I only get mid 30's. Have uninstalled AH2 beta as I consider it unplayable at the moment.

All other games including AH 1 run fine 75-85 FPS all the time.

I only have an XP2000+ though.

ChasR · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2004, 02:22:19 PM »

Fogold,
I tested one of my AMD/ATI computers:

AMD XP 2500+ (Barton) @ 2.15 GHz (200 x 10.5)
Abit NF7-S
Corsair TwinX512 DDR400 ram
ATI 9600 Pro @ 484/688 (344x2) Cat 4.1
AH2 Beta 13
1280 x 1024 AA x6 AF off, all other settings max quality.

Spit IX on runway through windscreen 52 fps

Lesser card (oc'd a bit) but more processor = more fps than you're getting. I think that confirms your XP 2000+ is throttling the 9800 Pro. For another $200 you could upgrade mobo & cpu and AH2 will be playable. Gee it's fun to spend someone else's money.

But this year is supposed to see some big changes in hardware, DDR2, PCIX, etc. so I'd wait awhile since everything except AH2 plays fine. I'm sure HTC will get the radeon issue in AH2 solved and you won't have to upgrade.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2004, 04:01:01 PM »

)No, I just bought a new card and said "no more for a while". PCI express is coming out and I am due a little windfall about a year or so hence. I spend too much on PC stuff. If an XP2000+ and 9800Pro with 1 gig of ram can't play AH2 better that 40FPS on the runway I might have to forget it.

HOWEVER, I think HTC have some tweaking to do yet or they will be losing a few customers.

Our best pilot (Bozon- sorry othet guys:D) still plays with a Geforce 2.

FOGOLD · « **Reply #13 on:** February 16, 2004, 04:04:35 PM »

Actualy Chas, I would buy a faster processor tomorrow, but this darned MSI K7T266 Pro RU can't run Thouroughbred processors, damn them!! I believe there is a mod involving cutting off a diode or something, but to hell with that:rolleyes:

You're right though, I know this 9800 is choked by proc. I wouldn't hae got it but for it was so cheap.

If I upgrade I want to go the whole way up and take this machine for work (Currently athlon 800. 512Mb PC100)

FOGOLD · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2004, 04:07:26 PM »

Still something fishy. I think I should be getting better frames than that. Still, I've noticed an improvement in COD and Il2 FB.

Might download the next beta release and try it.

Thanks for chatting. I love chatting hardware. It is a MONEY PIT THOUGH:eek: