Found my "golden bullet" for the Frame Rate Problems

[rstel01]

Hi all,

I dont know if my case is exact to what you might be experiencing but, it might be worth a shot.

I run an XP (SP2) machine, 2.6ghz processor 1gb or ram and a ATI 9250 card. Seemingly tied to the last update, my FR's went into the toliet to the point the game was becoming unplayable.

It was not my ISP as my wifes Vista Machine (she plays) allways maintains a good 60fps, on high res with no issues. I have been pulling my hair out. Turning all the resolution down to where it looks like pong, running everything as clean as posibile via FS autostart etc.

But still, FR's go to 1-7fps whenever many other contacts are around or fire/smoke etc.

Before I went out to get a new PC, I took a shot at a new Graphics Card except, this time I got an AGP slot card instead of the PCI bus I had before.

Voila! everything is now smoking fast with no issues at all. Oddly to my availibile amount of RAM also increased to the full 1024 from 956 it was showing (still dont know why).

Now I am up to full resolutions maintaining 50fps with no issues at 512mb. I have been increasing and am going to go with 1024 next to see how it works.

This might not be your case but, for me changing the card to one ofr the AGP bus instead of the PCI bus cleared everything up   

[SectorNine50]

Did you say you bought a new card?  I'm willing to bet that the old card was using some RAM as video memory.  Some video cards do that, prolly why the amount of RAM installed went up.

[rstel01]

Hi,

No, both cards have their own 256mb onboard memory. It came down to utilizing the AGP slot (which fixed it) versus the PCI which is what I was using with the performace problems.   

[Krusty]

Even cards with onboard memory can still use system RAM. It depends on the quality (or lack thereof?) of the card.

I'm willing to bet 100% that the card's power, not the interface, was the problem with your frames per second.

Also, generally speaking, PCI is so outdated you would be hard pressed to find an even halfway decent card in that format. AGP is much more open, and it's likely that your new card is just miles ahead of your old one.

What did you put in, as the new card?

[Hamltnblue]

AGP is significantly faster than PCI.  AGP x8 runs at 2100MB/S and PCI runs 132MB/s.

PCI express PCI-E is the standard now which is 4000-8000 MB/S (MB/s =Megabites per second).

So going to AGP from PCI is a big time jump.

[Krusty]

The interface itself is capable fo more, yes.

My point is they only build bargain basement, 8-year-old+ cards on PCI. Regardless of the interface, that SAME card on AGP would still have sucked.

Considering even bargain basement AGP cards *today* are better by several magnitudes than the bargain basement cards from almost a decade ago, it doesn't matter what format they have, I'm pretty sure the raw computing power of his card has just quadrupled or more.

That's what accounted for the improved FPS, rather than the pathway the frames took.

You're right, but that wasn't my point 

[rstel01]

Hi,

Nothing that great, just a Staples Special PNY/Nvida 8800GT (I think I check the exact when I am on that machine later). The original one I was using was a ATI Raedon 9250 

[Krusty]

Your AGP card now is about 30x better than your older one, BIG improvement.

[K-KEN]

I guess my only question is...if you had an AGP slot, why did the PC have a PCI card in the first place? What was in the AGP slot-if anything-or was their an integrated video card as original manufacturer mboard.  <shrug> I have an AGP Card, GeForce 7800GTOC 256 MB that is giving me issues after a year. I get "heat" errors, but with the case opened it runs less than optimal settings. New fan, regreased and reset the processor. Speculation is that my AGP slot may be getting overheated. <makes sense to me> You may have had a PCI slot overheating as well.  Moving the card to another open slot might tell the story too. Just saying.

[AKDogg]

hhhmmm, I didn't think the 8800gt had a AGP config.  Thought they were solely PCI-E.

[K-KEN]

hhhmmm, I didn't think the 8800gt had a AGP config.  Thought they were solely PCI-E.

Excellent point. My 7800 was supposed to be the best AGP card and last version still available. Me thinks it's PCIe.