Author Topic: Need help with ATI Radeon 64 DDR, Skuzzy et all plz (Read 599 times)

Li`l Snorkey · « **on:** April 23, 2001, 06:20:00 PM »

Hi folks,

I'd appreciatte any help:

System:
p3-800
256 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 64 mb DDR (driver: 4.13.7075, and DX 8.0)
Soundblaster Live
56k Modem

Aces High Video Settings:
1280 x 1068 at 32 bit, "use z buffer" and "disable triple buffering" boxes both unchecked.

Problem:
Whenever I set it to 1280 or 1600 rez, I get an irritating "jerkiness" especialy when flying close to clouds, but not limited to this. It just happens, while frame rates are not affected at all. This can be frustrating when maneuvering for a snapshot.

Turning down to 16 bit colors or reverting back to 1024 x 768 x 32 eliminates the jerkiness alltogether.

Again, this has nothing to do with frame rates, while at 1200 or even 1600, frame rate will go down to the vicinity of high 20's to low 30's in the clouds and stay there. I suspect its an alpha blending issue.

Has anybody else with a Radeon encountered this ?

What settings would you recommend in the D3D card tab of the ATI settings ? Do they have an affect at all ?

ATI come out with many drivers for the card, some experimental ones as well. Anybody know of a driver that AH benefits from the most ?

Keep in mind I have not tried working with RAD Tweak yet, but like I said since I suspect its an alpha blending issue I don't think that will help much.

Many thanks in advance to anybody who will take the time to shed some light and advice on what settings/drivers/changes to my system that I should use/make.

<S>

Li`l Snorkey
56th FG "Zemke's Wolfpack"

Fatty · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2001, 06:24:00 PM »

I haven't seen those probs, so I'm not sure.

As for drivers, I'm using 7099 with good results, I think someone else said they were happy with 7093.
www.rage3d.com is good about keeping the latest beta drivers listed, or if you want to be more conservative you can wait for ATI to list them at www.ati.com (under support->drivers). I think they're up to 7093 or so on their site.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2001, 07:19:00 PM »

Snorkey, your system is almost identical to mine.
I do not see any of the jerkiness you speak of.

Did you happen to replace another video card with the Radeon? Is the SBLive card or the Radeon sharing interrupts with anything else?
If you replaced a previous video card and did not go through the correct procedure to eleminate the previous video driver, this could be the culprit.

Now, I do not use DX8, but still have DX7a on my system, but same CPU and 128MB of ram.

------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

Fishu · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2001, 07:51:00 PM »

I prefer 7075's, definately after I found out that newer drivers has serious flaws in some games.
can even be up to unplayable level with 7099 compared to 7075.

Li`l Snorkey · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2001, 05:47:00 AM »

Thanks all, and Skuzzy, yes I did replace a previous video card with the Radeon.

It was a MGA-200 card backed up by 2 x voodoo 2 cards for 3d acceleration.

What should I do?
Should I do a clean install of windows or is there a page at atitech that guides you how to get rid of old driver files still lurking deep in the registry?

Snork

Sancho · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2001, 06:03:00 AM »

What brand and model modem do you have? Does this problem occur offline as well as online?

Li`l Snorkey · « **Reply #6 on:** April 24, 2001, 06:31:00 AM »

Yes it occurs offline as well. I have a 56k usrobotics internal, and have never had any trouble with it.

I'm almost sure its a memory management issue/conflict with the alpha blending as soon as clouds appear.

The closer I get, the more pronounced the jerkiness becomes, while frame rate is barely affected. It feels like its stopping every 2 or 3 seconds to refresh the card memory.

I was fiddling around with the D3D options, especialy the alpha blending options, and they had no affect whatsoever.

Snorkey

-lynx- · « **Reply #7 on:** April 24, 2001, 07:11:00 AM »

(listening in cuz Dabs.com have finally delivered my Radeon after a month of waiting for stock - yipee!!!

)

Skuzzy · « **Reply #8 on:** April 24, 2001, 02:12:00 PM »

Snorkey,..you are in for some work,...possibly.

Read this: http://www.benchdata.com/hints/install.html

My guess is that you may not have gotten all the stuff related to your old video card drivers removed from your system.
Could be wrong,..but it is worth a shot.

------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

DukeMskt · « **Reply #9 on:** April 28, 2001, 11:28:00 AM »

I just got the radon 64...and put in 256 mem.
I am using a 400amd k62, and still am at 4 frames a sec refresh rate(goes up some but 14 is about all I can get) any thoughts? I am now installing the new recomended drivers.
I have tried evreything I know. would LOVE to have a decent refresh rate...Duke

Fishu · « **Reply #10 on:** April 28, 2001, 08:56:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by DukeMskt:
I just got the radon 64...and put in 256 mem.
I am using a 400amd k62, and still am at 4 frames a sec refresh rate(goes up some but 14 is about all I can get) any thoughts? I am now installing the new recomended drivers.
I have tried evreything I know. would LOVE to have a decent refresh rate...Duke

I assume you're talking of frame rate per second..
refresh rate is bit different thing as far is know..

anyways, im sure that your K-6 400mhz CPU sucks in this situation.
Video card really doesnt help much if CPU is too slow.

DukeMskt · « **Reply #11 on:** April 28, 2001, 10:40:00 PM »

Ya...I figured that out. I went down and got a T-bird. that should make the game more interesting.

-lynx- · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2001, 10:20:00 AM »

Dunno...
No jerkiness here (T-bird 1Ghz, KT7a, 256MB, DirectX 8.1, 7099 drivers), fab FR - flew last frame of HS at 1600x1200x32 and 2001 test yielded 2679 points.

On the other hand - FSAA sucks compare to V5. I guess it's either one or the other - quality vs quantity

LePaul · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2001, 03:15:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by DukeMskt:
I just got the radon 64...and put in 256 mem.
I am using a 400amd k62, and still am at 4 frames a sec refresh rate(goes up some but 14 is about all I can get) any thoughts? I am now installing the new recomended drivers.
I have tried evreything I know. would LOVE to have a decent refresh rate...Duke

Been there, done that....had an AMD K62-400. FPU is lousy, and you'll be lucky to endure flying near a CV or smoke with that CPU. Pentium 2's are really cheap, and that's what I did while saving for the super-athlon system. I'm running a P2 450 (cost: $75) and upped to 327mb of RAM and a fresh install of Windows 98SE2. See average of 30 FPS all around, smoke still a big hit, but not nearly as bad as the K6-2.

Replace motherboard and cpu and watch the FPS rise.

------------------
Paul J. Busiere

Aces High Arena handle: BD5Pilot
http://bd5.checksix.net
BD-5 "T" (TurboProp) 90% complete, first flight in 2001 (We hope!)