Author Topic: Need Advice On Video Card (Read 703 times)

SirLoin · « **on:** June 04, 2002, 08:35:35 PM »

My video card(GF2 mx400 64meg) has given up the ghost.I'm not that up to date on what the best cards for the money are so any advice I would greatly appreciate.I don't plan on upgrading my PC anytime soon so should I splurge for a GF4 or go cheap again with same card again?....

P3 1ghz
520 Meg ram
SB Live Value
19" KDS flat screen monitor
LG 52X CD rom
MS FF Pro Joystick

Animal · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2002, 12:52:36 AM »

Geforce 4 Ti4200 w/128mb RAM

Thats the perfect logical choice for your system.

Staga · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2002, 05:29:19 AM »

Yep; GF4 Ti4200 will propably be my next card. Read more from Tom's Hardware.

Wanker · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2002, 08:14:07 AM »

Hey SirLoin ,

I have a GF4 Ti4400 otw, but I agree with Animal and Staga that a Ti4200 would be better with your system specs, unless you really want to spend another $50-80 for the Ti4400.

Heh, I always look at failed hardware as an opportunity, not a liability.

SirLoin · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2002, 06:13:30 PM »

Thnx for the info.Looks like I'm going shopping for a F4 Ti4200..

AKWarp · « **Reply #5 on:** June 06, 2002, 10:21:39 PM »

I just installed a brand new GF4 ti4600 in my system yesterday. Frankly, I am a bit disappointed.

The card it replaced was a GF2 Pro. Performance-wise, I now get steady 100-105 fps as long as nothing is on the screen other than the background landscape. Put 4-5 planes in it and the performance is no better than what I had with the GF2.

I have tweaked and played, changed drivers (all the way up to and including the latest detonators v28.32). I run in the same resolution, mipmapping detail, etc, etc settings for both cards.

I have come to the conclusion that my bottleneck has to be the rest of my system, but I fully expected a 1.4ghz T-Bird, 512MB of CAS 2, 266mhz DDR memory to be sufficient to provide a lot higher performance from the ti4600 under heavy graphics.

Another reason (and the biggest) why I think it is a bottleneck is because I can now turn on antialiasing (QUINCUNX) and the performance is the same with literally no degredation in frame rate, so it has to be the CPU that's keeping the fps down low.

All in all it's not bad because the ti4600 is only the first component of the new monster box I'll be building over the next couple of weeks (permission to buy the parts was given by CINCHOUSE as my birthday present), so a SOYO Dragon Ultra mobo, AMD XP 2100, and a gig of 333mhz DDR memory is next......hopefully that will cure my ti4600 blues ;-)

ps.s for those that don't know, CINCHOUSE = wife ;-P

Animal · « **Reply #6 on:** June 06, 2002, 10:51:22 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by AKWarp
I just installed a brand new GF4 ti4600 in my system yesterday. Frankly, I am a bit disappointed.

The card it replaced was a GF2 Pro. Performance-wise, I now get steady 100-105 fps as long as nothing is on the screen other than the background landscape. Put 4-5 planes in it and the performance is no better than what I had with the GF2.

I have tweaked and played, changed drivers (all the way up to and including the latest detonators v28.32). I run in the same resolution, mipmapping detail, etc, etc settings for both cards.

I have come to the conclusion that my bottleneck has to be the rest of my system, but I fully expected a 1.4ghz T-Bird, 512MB of CAS 2, 266mhz DDR memory to be sufficient to provide a lot higher performance from the ti4600 under heavy graphics.

Another reason (and the biggest) why I think it is a bottleneck is because I can now turn on antialiasing (QUINCUNX) and the performance is the same with literally no degredation in frame rate, so it has to be the CPU that's keeping the fps down low.

All in all it's not bad because the ti4600 is only the first component of the new monster box I'll be building over the next couple of weeks (permission to buy the parts was given by CINCHOUSE as my birthday present), so a SOYO Dragon Ultra mobo, AMD XP 2100, and a gig of 333mhz DDR memory is next......hopefully that will cure my ti4600 blues ;-)

ps.s for those that don't know, CINCHOUSE = wife ;-P

No, your hardware is fine.
The must be something wrong there. Try the latest nvidia drivers at http://www.guru3d.com 29.41 WHQL

I can play at 16000x1200x32bit with anti aliasing, and I still get higher framerate than what i used to have in my geforce 2 at plain 1200x1024 with no anti aliasing

Swoop · « **Reply #7 on:** June 07, 2002, 02:20:42 AM »

Yeah, something's definately wrong.

I have a Ti4600 128Mb on an AMD 2Gb CPU with 512Mb 266 RAM and get stupid frame rates all over with maximum everything. I dont even slow down in smoke any more.

Operation Flashpoint went from mildly choppy with view distance set to 600m (on an AMD 900Mhz with a GF2 GTS) to smooth as silk with view distance set to 4km.

Swoop

beet1e · « **Reply #8 on:** June 07, 2002, 05:00:14 AM »

I apologise if I seem to be taking this thread off topic, but I have a question in this general area.

My vid card is an Elsa Gladiac Ultra - one of those Nvidia G-Force 2 64MB jobs. Just recently, I upgraded the drivers for it as a matter of course, as I like to keep all my software up to date.

Since I updated, I've been getting screen freezes in Aces High - using Windows ME for my games platform. Unfortunately the ELSA website http://www.elsa.com seems to have disappeared! Where should I now be looking for support and downloads?

MANDOBLE · « **Reply #9 on:** June 07, 2002, 05:07:31 AM »

A note about Detonator drivers. I tested several ones with GF1 DDR and GF3 Ti500 (W98 + DX81), the latests ones are the worst performers for both cards by a wide difference.

1 - Be sure to have AGP aperture size to a minimum of half your available RAM (this is set in bios).
2 - Be sure to enable AGPx4 (bios or drivers)
3 - Start testing different versions of detonator drivers:
- Set SVGA
- Install new drivers
- Test your programs
- Uninstall drivers
- Set SVGA
- Install drivers
- Test your programs
and so on

Do not install a detonator version over another detonator version. First select SVGA, then install drivers and test performance.

Wanker · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2002, 07:53:44 AM »

I just spent my first day with a new Abit Siluro GF4 Ti-4400 last night. My system:

Soyo K7V Dragon+
AMD 1.4ghz T-Bird
512MB Crucial DDR RAM
Windows XP Pro

1280x1024x32 w/ 4x FSAA
42.29 Detonator drivers

Sitting on the runway looking out the front, I get about 40 fps, flying I'm getting around 62 fps. All in full 4x FSAA glory!

When I went down to 2x FSAA, my flying fps goes up to around 75.

Gonna order an AMD 2100XP today.

Eagler · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2002, 08:08:47 AM »

ti 4400
XP 2000
512 ram
run ah 1280x1024x32

get a 85 fps solid as that is the monitor res limit

how are you guys getting so high fps? vsync off or lower res or I'm missing something?

I had to reinstall OS and start fresh to see greatest improvment from prevoius geforce2 ultra card

also have found 2D text better with ge4 than ge2 card

Wanker · « **Reply #12 on:** June 07, 2002, 09:13:56 AM »

85 fps sounds just fine to me, Eagler. No need to turn off Vsync. As you noted, your monitor refresh rate is holding you back from further fps. But that's a great situation to be in! You've got a great system there!

qts · « **Reply #13 on:** June 07, 2002, 03:33:38 PM »

Mandoble, I think you're missing a step or two. The way I'd suggest installing a new video card is as follows

1 - Switch to VGA
2 - Reboot
3 - Shutdown
4 - Swap card
5 - Boot and install driver.

The difference here is that Windows has a complete cycle of VGA mode.

AKWarp · « **Reply #14 on:** June 07, 2002, 04:34:49 PM »

Yep qts, I did all that, and I went one step further and went into the registery and removed ANY references or settings for the GF2. As far as my system is concerned, the GF2 never existed.

I am currently running at 1024x768, 32 bit, QUINCUNX antialiasing, mipmapping on and set to "blend" performance.

When the skies have no other planes around, I get 100-105 fps. FPS varies wildly while flying, anywhere from the 70's to as low as 35. I get the 30's and 40's when I am near an airfield that has some smoke and more than 3-4 planes around. Once it dips that low, it is constant. Granted, anything over 30 is fine, but I got that with the GF2 with same settings, except for the antialiasing. I fully expected the ti4600 to never drop below 60-70 except in really insane circumstances (like the start of a large mission or something).

Other than the ability to use QUINCUNX antialiasing, I havent really gained anyhting with the ti4600 performancewise. I'm a tad disappointed since this card costs $300.

I will try a total low level of my hard drive and reinstall everything and hope that clears up the problem....but either way, I am more concerned that this isn't aproblem once the new mobo, cpu and memory arrives.