Author Topic: Poor man upgrade (Married guy if you prefer :)) (Read 810 times)

straffo · « **Reply #15 on:** May 12, 2005, 12:00:26 PM »

So far it's stable and running since 8 hours ..

Ichabod · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2005, 12:00:54 PM »

2 words

BIOS TWEAKS!!

I have an X800 and Abit AG8 third eye mobo, running 1 gig dual channel ram and I get 125 fps. Its all in the tweaking! Before tweaking bios i was getting about 50 to 60 fps.

Check the memory leave, bios shadowing, memory hole, ram and sync timings, aperture and play with them to see what helps. Be carefull on voltages as you can destroy hardware if you push them too high on ram and cpu. remember more voltage and faster timings mean more heat also. Depending on who manufactured your motherboard or system you may or may not be able to.
If your system wont post after trying settings then go back in and reverse changes or reset bios optimal defaults then start over from there.

For some good info onoverclocking see here

http://forum.abit-usa.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=23

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 12, 2005, 01:44:20 PM »

Playing with BIOS settings until your computer wont start is just silly. You can do all sorts of damage that way. There are plenty of good tweak guides out there to tell you how to set your BIOS for best performance.

http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

This is an excellent guide for tweaking your ATI video card settings, and he will provide you with links for tweaking your BIOS and Windows in the article for max performance.

Ichabod · « **Reply #18 on:** May 12, 2005, 02:42:57 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
Playing with BIOS settings until your computer wont start is just silly. You can do all sorts of damage that way. There are plenty of good tweak guides out there to tell you how to set your BIOS for best performance.

http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

This is an excellent guide for tweaking your ATI video card settings, and he will provide you with links for tweaking your BIOS and Windows in the article for max performance.

Thats why I put the warning notes in the message

.... Certain people like to tweak and tune systems to get the max ammount of performance and it is safe within certain limitations. Its not for everyone. Thats also why I refferenced the bios tweak thread in my post.

buzkill · « **Reply #19 on:** May 12, 2005, 04:04:59 PM »

i think i'm goin for the x800 pro...the xt did perform a little better, but not enough to justify the extra cost. my next big upgrade will be to a 939 board (probably 3700+) and pci-e. so x800 pro is about as much as i want to pay for a card i'm gonna use for 6 months

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2005, 05:15:31 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Ichabod
Thats why I put the warning notes in the message .... Certain people like to tweak and tune systems to get the max ammount of performance and it is safe within certain limitations. Its not for everyone. Thats also why I refferenced the bios tweak thread in my post.

You referenced a link to a bulletin board forum for overclockers. While there may be useful info there, nothing is laid out neatly for the average user to assimilate easily, nor is it aimed at BIOS tweaking. I stand by my statement that playing around with BIOS settings without knowing what you are doing is silly when there is so much information available on what settings are safe and what settings should be left alone. That link wont help with that specific point.

Straffo originally posted his financial limits for upgrading his computer, I doubt that includes replacing the entire rig because he "played" with the wrong thing. I'm not denying your information could be useful, just saying it wasnt the most appropriate for the subject of BIOS tweaks, nor was advice such as this the kind I would recommend following:

Quote

If your system wont post after trying settings then go back in and reverse changes or reset bios optimal defaults then start over from there.

If you are at the point where your computer wont Post after playing with the BIOS, you played with things you dont understand and shouldnt have messed with.

38ruk · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2005, 07:10:20 PM »

Hey buz, unless your getting a real good price on a X800pro , you should look at the x800XL (not the XT) the XL is cheaper than the X800pro , and faster . Hope you didnt think i was talking about the XT in my last post . The XL is the way to go , all these different XT XL's can get confusing hehe 38

oh and ichabod, bios tweaks are all well and good , i know my bios inside and out . But if you doubled your frame rate with bios "TWEAKS" sound like something was misconfigured in the first place, and you just happened to correct it

buzkill · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2005, 08:17:42 PM »

just looked and it does have 16 pipelines and all the speed i'll be able to use...thanks...all i have to do is find one that's in stock and not the all in wonder thing...too many bells and whistles:aok

Ecliptik · « **Reply #23 on:** May 18, 2005, 01:10:44 PM »

*Laughs at the rest of you while polishing his X850 XT PE and TV Wonder Elite*

Okay, okay, I work at ATI... I get some perks.

JimBear · « **Reply #24 on:** May 24, 2005, 01:15:13 PM »

If your still looking for a good price on a ATI card
this is pretty incredible... wish It had been this cheap couple months ago and saved a couple $