ATI Radeon 9800 a worthy card?

[Rev Marc]

Bought at Best Buy, after all the rebates, reward zone points, preferred
customer discount, etc...my cost was $184 + tax

How-ever, the game occasionally stalls when playing vice city 3. How-ever,
there may be other apps runningconcurrently, perhaps 2-3 browsers, outlook
express and an excel spreadsheet.

Furthermore, Norton AV is running in the background.

Is the occasional "stutterting" normal? Am I pushing it too far, or is it
the card?

All 3D benchmark tests came back normal, and I am running a P4 2.4 800 mhz
cpu, with a 800 mhz MSI mb and 512 mb 400 kingston ddr ram, on a LCD screen.

Any input please?

 

[Ben Pope]

Bought at Best Buy, after all the rebates, reward zone points, preferred
customer discount, etc...my cost was $184 + tax

How-ever, the game occasionally stalls when playing vice city 3. How-ever,
there may be other apps runningconcurrently, perhaps 2-3 browsers, outlook
express and an excel spreadsheet.

That's the loading between levels

Seriously though I don't notice any stuttering or stalling on mine.

Furthermore, Norton AV is running in the background.

Is the occasional "stutterting" normal? Am I pushing it too far, or is it
the card?

Shouldn't be the card.

All 3D benchmark tests came back normal, and I am running a P4 2.4 800 mhz
cpu, with a 800 mhz MSI mb and 512 mb 400 kingston ddr ram, on a LCD
screen.

Is it random or specific locations? Could it be hard disk activity or some
other I/O?

Ben

 

[JAD]

I think that there is a slight misconception about stalls,speed,and OS's. There is little that the speed of modern boards lets say
3 years and newer that will cause stalling while playing games. Things running in the background are more important to what OS your
running and the file system. How that OS will distribute resources when called upon. If your running a 9x version of windows then I
like to set 'typical role of this computer' to network server. This may effect how a game runs as it directs a little more resources
to the file system. If a game uses many open files to run , it could help. If a game call for huge resource it could slow it down.
Hit or miss.

Close Norton (personally I won't have that stuff on my machine(system works and the like) it always been a PITA for me. It uses
allot of resources. experiment with closing the background stuff. If your using the 3.8's I would say revert back to 3.7, I am
having resources problems with a 9700 and 9x OS's. I don't think that the OS is giving back resources to the video system, over time
I have to reboot(not while playing,but rather if the system has been running for a few hours then try and play) to get COD demo to
run smooth.

Try a fresh boot then immediately use the game, any better?

 

[Rev Marc]

Well, my cdrom player reads only at 40x.

All else seems copeseptic.

---------------------

 

[Gamer]

It could be the Norton! I tend to turn off my autoprotect during gaming
sessions--I'm not SURE this helps but assuming it might free up your cpu and
memory a bit it could be worth a try.

~G

 

[Rev Marc]

Where can I find the 3.7's?
The installation cd came with 3.4's and the ATI web update page has the
3.8's.

TIA!

I think that there is a slight misconception about stalls,speed,and OS's.

There is little that the speed of modern boards lets say

3 years and newer that will cause stalling while playing games. Things

running in the background are more important to what OS your

running and the file system. How that OS will distribute resources when

called upon. If your running a 9x version of windows then I

like to set 'typical role of this computer' to network server. This may

effect how a game runs as it directs a little more resources

to the file system. If a game uses many open files to run , it could help.

If a game call for huge resource it could slow it down.

Hit or miss.

Close Norton (personally I won't have that stuff on my machine(system

works and the like) it always been a PITA for me. It uses

allot of resources. experiment with closing the background stuff. If your

using the 3.8's I would say revert back to 3.7, I am

having resources problems with a 9700 and 9x OS's. I don't think that the

OS is giving back resources to the video system, over time

I have to reboot(not while playing,but rather if the system has been

running for a few hours then try and play) to get COD demo to

 

[JAD]

when looking at the 3.8's scroll to the bottom of the page...'previous versions of driver'

 

[Ben Pope]

Well, my cdrom player reads only at 40x.

It's on my hard drive and level loading is almost seamless (takes about a
second)

Ben

 

[Ed Forsythe]

Hi Marc,
I don't believe it's the card. Try disabling NAV. Not just Auto-Protect
but *everything*. If that doesn't work shutdown all background apps.
Please keep us informed.

 

[Ed Forsythe]

BTW, Marc, what OS are you using?

 

[Rev Marc]

XP

BTW, Marc, what OS are you using?

 

[KCB]

It could be the Norton! I tend to turn off my autoprotect during gaming
sessions--I'm not SURE this helps but assuming it might free up your cpu and
memory a bit it could be worth a try.

~G

I have seen two different computers upgraded from ME to XP have this
stuttering thing. A clean install on both cleared it up.

 

[JAD]

I agree (although I don't see where the OP did that) I dont think windows should be ABLE to do a 'dirty' install

MO of course

 

[Manu T]

There are several factors.

First a PC was NEVER designed to play games. Smooth scrolling is a vital
part of Playstation or Ninento machines. Hell, even a old 8-bit Sega master
system had smooth scrolling landscapes in racegames etc... The X-Box suffer
from the same jerkiness as a regular PC in this respect. It's not that PC's
allways behave jerky. They don't, for example the old GTA3-game (everybody
remmembers that, don't they?) only starts to jerk when cornering streets.
But straight line racings DOES go smooth???

Many programmers (e.g. Codemasters) can't program. I mean with this that it
seems very difficult to generate a smooth scrolling landscape or so on PC's
despite their suposedly awesome graphics-power. Also many programs eat way
too much cpu-cycles (again incompetent programming) than what they're
suposed to do (e.g. McCaffe virusscanners are noteworthy in this respect)

Windows is quite crappy in the multitasking level. Though I haven't seen
much Lunix-games but it seems that cpu-power is much more leveled between
apps in Linux than on Windows.

So I guess that if 'smooth' scrolling is a vital part of your gaming
experience and you don't mind being less able to find pirated software (the
mean reason why Windows PC's are so popular) then you should buy a console.
Because for most of these games it doesn't give a shit if you've got the
latest PC with all the bells and whistles. Just play GT3 or Colin McRea
Rally 2 (yep those old buggers) on the latest DX-whatever, Pentium whatever,
Radeon 1000XTPRo SE whatever. These games STILL stutter despite the increase
in both gfx-power and cpu-power over the last couple of years. Keeps you
wondering what the truth is behind these socalled 800MHz Front side busses?

Where were the days when they could cramm everything in the 48KB of a ZX
Spectrum and STILL managed to get a smooth scroll?

Regards,

Manu T

 

[Manu T]

I have seen two different computers upgraded from ME to XP have this
stuttering thing. A clean install on both cleared it up.

Yeah right... let's re-install our OS whenver we want to play a new
game...djeezzzz.

This makes you really wonder what the hell Windows was designed for anyway.
But again nobody seems to question these things. Ppl shouldn't take things
for granted because after all those years Microsoft should be able the
create a OS that's able to play games (especially since gaming is what
'home-computers' are used for). Or did Microsoft spend all that money over
all this time just to destroy any possible competition instead of really
improving their products like they should have?

Who will know?

 

[J.Clarke]

Yeah right... let's re-install our OS whenver we want to play a new
game...djeezzzz.

That's not the point he was making. The point he was making was that
the particular machines had been running ME and XP had been installed
over ME using the upgrade process and not installed clean. No version
of Windows has ever run as well when installed using the upgrade process
as it has when installed clean, so why would XP be an exception.

It's not a matter of "re-install our OS whenever we want to play a new
game", it's a matter of if you're going to install a new version of
Windows then do it as a clean install and not an upgrade that carries
over a lot of baggage from the previous version.

 

[Ben Pope]

Windows is quite crappy in the multitasking level. Though I haven't seen
much Lunix-games but it seems that cpu-power is much more leveled between
apps in Linux than on Windows.

Linux 2.6 allows pre-emption of the kernel too. And some of the new
schedulers are excellent.

Where were the days when they could cramm everything in the 48KB of a ZX
Spectrum and STILL managed to get a smooth scroll?

Weren't they the same days you could code a game in your bedroom when you
were a kid and actually sell it on shelves?

Does make me wonder though... some of the games that came on floppy for
Atari ST and the like, impressive when you think about it. But then, things
have come a LONG way since then.

Ben

 

[patrickp]

There are several factors.

First a PC was NEVER designed to play games. Smooth scrolling is a vital
part of Playstation or Ninento machines. Hell, even a old 8-bit Sega master
system had smooth scrolling landscapes in racegames etc... The X-Box suffer
from the same jerkiness as a regular PC in this respect. It's not that PC's
allways behave jerky. They don't, for example the old GTA3-game (everybody
remmembers that, don't they?) only starts to jerk when cornering streets.
But straight line racings DOES go smooth???

Many programmers (e.g. Codemasters) can't program. I mean with this that it
seems very difficult to generate a smooth scrolling landscape or so on PC's
despite their suposedly awesome graphics-power. Also many programs eat way
too much cpu-cycles (again incompetent programming) than what they're
suposed to do (e.g. McCaffe virusscanners are noteworthy in this respect)

Windows is quite crappy in the multitasking level. Though I haven't seen
much Lunix-games but it seems that cpu-power is much more leveled between
apps in Linux than on Windows.

So I guess that if 'smooth' scrolling is a vital part of your gaming
experience and you don't mind being less able to find pirated software (the
mean reason why Windows PC's are so popular) then you should buy a console.
Because for most of these games it doesn't give a shit if you've got the
latest PC with all the bells and whistles. Just play GT3 or Colin McRea
Rally 2 (yep those old buggers) on the latest DX-whatever, Pentium whatever,
Radeon 1000XTPRo SE whatever. These games STILL stutter despite the increase
in both gfx-power and cpu-power over the last couple of years. Keeps you
wondering what the truth is behind these socalled 800MHz Front side busses?

Where were the days when they could cramm everything in the 48KB of a ZX
Spectrum and STILL managed to get a smooth scroll?

Regards,

Manu T

I think that M$ and the PC industry have found great profit in bad
programming and bloated software, Manu. It drives hardware speed and power
upgrades much faster to deal with that bad programming and bloat, and means
we have to keep spending all our hard-earned ackers on our machines just to
stay in the same place relative to the market.

 

[JAD]

Yeah right... let's re-install our OS whenever we want to play a new

game...djeezzzz.

dumb ass... not every GAME you PLAY, when you upgrade major HARDWARE, not reinstall but to not install OVER original but to load
clean...... did you even read the post oR just jump in when your opinion flared>?

 

[JAD]

yeah hmm hmm sure...... GTA3 remembering.... ? remember PONG? when computers first hit the home, games have always been a
major part of home computing..... I don't think your life experience goes back far enough...