help. inadequate 9700 pro performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter zlo
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zlo

I have an iWill KA266 mb, 512 DDR, 1.2 athlon, and 9700 pro with newest
drivers. My agp is only capable of 4x, and my agp aperture cannot be set to
more than 128, or else my system will not start up with the 9700 pro in it,
so it is set at 128. 7200 rpm hdd 8.9 ms

I thought i was going to get awesome framerates and so forth, especially
with older games like MOHAA. I thought i would be able to play that game at
60fps with all details with a 9700 pro. I replaced an old geforce2 mx. My
framerates on some games are not that great.. other games it is nice
sometimes. I don't even use AA or AF...

And something else that is weird.. i have tested well over 10 games so far,
most of them newer and graphically intensive. ALL of them run better in
1600x1200 than they do at 1024x768. That is just weird to me, and i'm not
complaining, but i just don't understand why that is. It is very evident.

Why am i getting mediochre performance from such a kickass card?
 
zlo said:
I have an iWill KA266 mb, 512 DDR, 1.2 athlon, and 9700 pro with newest
drivers. My agp is only capable of 4x, and my agp aperture cannot be set to
more than 128, or else my system will not start up with the 9700 pro in it,
so it is set at 128. 7200 rpm hdd 8.9 ms
Click to expand...

Leave it at 128. It may not complete the 64 meg texture test in 3dm '00 if
set any lower. These cards work fine at 4x AGP. There really is not much
difference at all running them at 8x, so this isn't an issue. You have the
latest ALi chipset drivers installed, I'm assuming, and at least DX8.1? You
also thoroughly cleaned out the traces of the old video card drivers in your
system too, before installing the new card?
I thought i was going to get awesome framerates and so forth, especially
with older games like MOHAA. I thought i would be able to play that game at
60fps with all details with a 9700 pro. I replaced an old geforce2 mx. My
framerates on some games are not that great.. other games it is nice
sometimes. I don't even use AA or AF...
Click to expand...

Prolly won't notice much of a performance hit enabling them with your setup,
so you may as well enable them and enjoy the better eye candy...
And something else that is weird.. i have tested well over 10 games so far,
most of them newer and graphically intensive. ALL of them run better in
1600x1200 than they do at 1024x768. That is just weird to me, and i'm not
complaining, but i just don't understand why that is. It is very evident.
Click to expand...

This clearly = CPU bottleneck. I have a softmodded 9500 NP with an Athlon XP
2400 on a SiS 735 Leadtek mobo and it's still bottlenecked (no problem with
framerates, even with AA and AF enabled, and it scales more noticeably with
res. increase). Even the 9700 in the intel Box From Hell in the other room
seems like it has more headroom to go. A GF4 4200 or Radeon 8500 level card
would have been a better match for your current box, but you definitely have
some room to grow into now...
Why am i getting mediochre performance from such a kickass card?
Click to expand...

I really think your CPU is a big limiting factor, as is the older ALI
chipset mobo. In order for the current crop of video cards to become really
effective, they need more CPU grunt and memory bandwidth. If you were to
swap in a new 800 FSB intel mobo and even a middlin' 2.4 HT CPU, or a Nforce
2/Barton 2500 running 400 MHz FSB combo, with some decent PC3200 or 3500
DDR, you'd see performance taper off a bit more from 1024x768x32 on up (and
still be quite acceptable). Even a CPU upgrade for your current mobo might
be beneficial. I think up to a 2100+ *could* work in there. I know at least
a 1700+ will; your mobo has official multiplier support up to 12.5x which
suggests you could stick in a 2000+ at 133 FSB and 12.5x multiplier (or try
bumping up the FSB a little if you feel brave...), though I have no idea
what BIOS might ID it as being. Though my first inclination would be to pop
the card in a faster box and either set the old one up as a spare or give it
to some poor, unsuspecting family member...
;-)
 
Looks like your at the same point i was at last week.
ati 9700pro 1 gig ddr 2100 ram ati 1800+. newer games like planet side were
droping to 30fps or so in large fights.
"planetside is a mem hog" at 25fps my sys was crashing the game. so i got a
new board nforce 2 chipset and 2500+ cpu. i ordered 1 gig of ddr 3200 ram
but its not in yet. even with out the ram the cpu made a big diferance in
how my games were runing even with out the new ram. the upgrade was $166
total with out ram. best $ i spent latly.
to me i still think the 2500+ is holding the 9700 back some. i clocked it at
200 fsb showed up as 3200+ was stable as a rock but one problem in games the
sound was out of sink. has something to do with the slow ram it improves if
i run the ram at 70% of fsb speed at 75% is crashed after 10 min of
benchmarking but seamed to clear up the out of sink problem runing the demo
in 3dmark2003.
if you do upgrade get a 2500+ and get some ram that will run at same speed
as the cpu fsb.
getting somthing like a 2000 or a 2100+ is a waste of $ your not gona get
that much of a improvement from what you have. for around the same price as
the 9700pro you can upgrade to a damn good gameing sys
cpu amd 2500+ $90 at newegg
biostar M7ncd Pro $57 after rebate
512mem DDR 3200 $80

you might want to get 1 gig or if its out of price range get 2 x 256 megs so
you can use the dual chanel.

one final note i love the biostar M7ncd Pro great overclocker and stable.
you can even save some $ and not get ram right away this board will run the
ram at slower speeds than the cpu. like im doing now with ddr 2100 ram "133"
and cpu is at ddr 2700 "speed 166" im shur im getting a hell of a
preformance hit for the ram but it will work till i get my new ram in.
 
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