How to tweak system

[Greese]

Well, I have the following system we bought not too long ago, but I want to know what to do about the video card.

Dell (so video card, motherboard is house brand, not Asus, etc...)
1.4mz PIV
32meg Dell Geforce2 GTS w/latest drivers
256meg RDRAM
WinME (which I like, some hate)

My question is:  It seems like I should be getting higher fps than I currently am.  I run at highest resolution available on AH menu, and 32bit.  My frame rate usually is around 30 when there is action or clouds, can go up to (I think) 50.  These are not exact numbers, but I hear of people with lesser systems getting much higher frame rates.  What are things I can do to get my frame rate up, not that I would notice much difference, but I want to get max video performance out of a high performance system?  Do I need to resign to lower AH video settings?

[Animal]

whar res are you using, and are you running FSAA?

that has a big FPS hit.

[bloom25]

The restore junk in Windows ME has probably cluttered up your hard drive and caused this.  (Windows ME makes a copy of EVERY file downloaded and accessed and saves them in a hidden directory called _Restore.  In addition to filling your harddrive twice as fast as 98, there is almost continuous disk activity.)  This is the reason why ME is generally considered bad and is slower than 98.

Your system should be faster regardless.  I haven't messed with P4s much, and frankly they haven't impressed me.  My Athlon system has outperformed all the ones I've seen.

You might try checking to see what your monitor refresh rate is.  The framerates you will see are determined partially by your refresh rate.

You might also be able to slightly increase system performance by doing the following:  Start, control panel, system, performance tab, file system button, set type to "Network server" instead of "Desktop computer"  this will allow the system to make better use of your harddrive and ram.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Sky Viper]

 

Originally posted by Greese:
Well, I have the following system we bought not too long ago, but I want to know what to do about the video card.

Dell (so video card, motherboard is house brand, not Asus, etc...)
1.4mz PIV
32meg Dell Geforce2 GTS w/latest drivers
256meg RDRAM
WinME (which I like, some hate)

My question is:  It seems like I should be getting higher fps than I currently am.  I run at highest resolution available on AH menu, and 32bit.  My frame rate usually is around 30 when there is action or clouds, can go up to (I think) 50.  These are not exact numbers, but I hear of people with lesser systems getting much higher frame rates.  What are things I can do to get my frame rate up, not that I would notice much difference, but I want to get max video performance out of a high performance system?  Do I need to resign to lower AH video settings?

Your title is VERY scarrrrrrryyyyyy!
If you have a new Dell P4, you should get a much higher range and if you are not, then something is wrong.  
Tweaking on this system is HIGHLY discouraged from my point of view!
I would try 3DMark (  http://www.madonion.com  and see how your number compare to other P4 256M Systems.

If they fall well short, then you may want to use the warranty to have it checked.
If they tell you that nothing can be done?  Well, if it were me, I would jam it up their...err...return it and buy something better.

Hint: the latest Intel Product does not mean the best perfomance any more.



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Sky Viper

[TheWobble]

IT a box sold system (dell) there is the "problem"


 

This is the reason why ME is generally considered bad and is slower than 98.

ME runs just as good as 98 for games or anything else, you can turn off the backup crap simple enough, I have done extensive testing on this and unless your a total idiot and have every farging option in ME running at once there is no difference.

[MrSiD]

I'm pretty sure that your problem lies with the 'brand' computer..

Dell Geforce? I haven't seen any of those in the market.. Dell drivers? Probably Dull drivers and dull performance.

Try using Detonators and see how that hits your framerates.

If driver update wont do the trick, complain to the technical support about it.

[Greese]

Well, I don't really see the big problem with a name brand system.  I already installed the latest detonator drivers from Nvidia, and I cleaned off all the Dell installed crap.  Can't complain about the choice, my company put up the dough.  Other than price, what's the big issue?  Like I said, it has the latest drivers, and my hard drive is VERY empty (after cleaned off all the Napster crap...).  Anyhow, thanks for the help, I will probably play some tonight and see if the change I made (set the computer as a network server) did any good.  I will also download that benchmarking program, but since I don't have anything more than a standard 56k, not sure when.  
     Is there a way of seeing if something is using all my RAM?  

Greese

[LJK Raubvogel]

Maybe try starting Aces High, then alt+tab out. Hit ctrl+alt+del, and shut down everything except systray, explorer, and aces high. Go back in and check the results. Might have something leeching in the background.

[Sky Viper]

 

Originally posted by LJK Raubvogel:
Maybe try starting Aces High, then alt+tab out. Hit ctrl+alt+del, and shut down everything except systray, explorer, and aces high. Go back in and check the results. Might have something leeching in the background.

I think you want to leave Rnaapp running as well...Dial Up networking.

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Sky Viper

[Fishu]

When I do want every resource in use for something (specially with B-17 II game!), I open program called 'msconfig' by run option in the start menu and once msconfig menu comes up, I go to 'startup' menu and then remove everything unnecessary stuff from loading at the startup (at he best, I get 99% system resources instead of 86% with all the programs loaded at startup)
Only things that I leave, are explorer and systray.

I don't know if ME has this msconfig as it is in win98, but you might want to try it.
In B-17 II, this caused big difference.

[Greese]

Thanks.

     I did run msconfig (it is there in ME) and unchecked A LOT of programs.  I now leave explorer and systray running, but that is it.  It seems to have solved only to some small extent my origional problem.  I believe that on my system, my little 32meg Geforce2 GTS is the bottleneck.  Hard to imagine, but I think I will be upgrading in a few years.  It does fine for now, to be sure, but it will probably be the first thing that I upgrade (Geforce5  

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions, next time I will build my own system and probably go with AMD since they seem to be the best value right now.  I own a P4, and have yet to see what the big advantage is...

-Greese

[Fishu]

I don't think it is that bad bottleneck..
GF2 GTS should run good with game like AH.

no wait a minute, it is a bottleneck, its useless.. just give that crap for me thanks  

Many experienced computer users are saying that P4 is worse than AMD 1ghz in comparison..
Though, I don't believe it would make any big hit with AH, which runs on fairly old comps.

Maybe you should try disabling FSAA if you havent yet done so.

oh.. you still haven't told what resolution you're using.

[bashwolf]

Hello all,

I really like to know what FSAA does and how i disable it what disadvantage it causes.  I have the TNT 2 Ultra by Creative.  I dont see FSAA on my settings.  Few tips or insight will be apprecaited. Thank You

Bash

[AKSeaWulfe]

Greese, pay no mind to the uneducated about your particular brand of system.

Dell has made and continues to make some of the greatest PCs for businesses and for home uses. Their parts are high end, and are very reliable.

Gateway and Dell had been neck and neck, however Dell could not keep up with supply demands and their systems are slightly more expensive.

However, I'd have to say it's the software... If it's factory pre-sets then you need to do a little digging, something you may not want to do if you are new to computers.

I don't know WinME, I'm a 98 user myself. WinME isn't a worthwhile upgrade for gaming machines at the moment, but are good/decent for applications (Office 2000 and such).

Anyways, make no mistake. If you have a Dell machine, you've got a very high quality machine.
-SW

[bloom25]

A couple things I felt like saying:

1.) Dell makes pretty good systems.  If you are forced to buy a name brand system, I'd probably go with Dell.  That said, I've seen some P4 systems from Dell that have Tnt2 M64 video cards!  That's like buying a sports car and towing a yacht and hoping to go race.

2.)  Wobble, of COURSE you can turn it off.  Now, how many people know you should turn it off?    Also, answer me this, do you see ANY benefits to WindowsME worth paying at least $50 for?  If I were building a new system, I'd still put 98SE on it if 2000 wasn't an option.

3.)  In the past Intel was, without a doubt, THE only brand of PC processor you should use.  Today the situation has changed.  Intel's current processors are neither faster, nor a better deal, than AMD's Athlon.  (I guess you could justify buying an Intel processor by knowing you're keeping 3 blue mimes employed.   )

I'm glad to hear you got the system running as fast as it should now though.  



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS