Video Card Question

VMX_PanicRev · October 22, 2004, 11:20:25 AM

Well, this morning I called Best Buy to be sure they had a 6800 gt oc They said they had one and I asked them to hold it. They said no problem. I got there an hour later and it was gone. I was so pissed it was all I could do to get out of the store.

Sooo, I went across the street to Circuit City and bought an X800 Pro.

Even though I realize that the 6800 gt oc is likely a better card I'm not really much of a benchmark freak so I'm still totally happy with my purchase, Race Driver 2, UT, Painkiller all look awesome.

However MCM2 runs like crap. It looks amazing cranked up, but even at 800x600 my fps is total crap with the graphics set anywhere but low, if I go really low ( 1 or 2) I can get about 80fps. NOT ACCEPTABE ! I tried killing the anti alias but it didnt seem to help at all. Anyone ...PLEASE..
PS.I believe I have smartgart uninstalled now but it's sorta hard to tell. I can still see it on the menu but I am unable to turn it on and it is currently in the off position.

Thnks in advance, Glen

UPDATE :: I went to the advanced graphics tab in mcm2 and set "force textures to fit into video memory" It's somewhat better now,
I can get near 100 fps at 800x600 with graphics up half way but I'm sure this card can do much better...just wanted you to have all the info.

Also, yes my mobo does support 8x agp and I do have the aperature set at 256.

Lates, G

mx_sk8rkid_69 · October 22, 2004, 06:54:42 AM

not that this has anything to do as for an awnser to ur question lol

u sound like a smart man just from that paragraph there we need more smart people like u in the world

LOL Really!

VRT_RIDEBLUE · October 22, 2004, 07:38:53 AM

What catlyst drivers are you using, I have a 9700 pro at 1280x1024 and grahice settings to 7 i am getting 125 fps, I also use a radeon tweaker to overclock, not for more fps, to stop it from botting me in mcm2,http://www.rage3d.com/index.php?node=r3dtweak
I am not sure if you card is supported, read more there

Bunny · October 22, 2004, 01:44:12 PM

I've always wanted to know this since the new catalyst drivers came out, what wuld happen if I were to use the drivers intended for like radeon 9600 and above on my radeon visiontek xtasy 9100?

metal_miracle · October 22, 2004, 03:48:09 PM

i had some what of same problem for me the problem was that 98 and new vid cards didnt work

i did try
like crank the rez up to 1600 but my screen wont go higher.. it did help a little..

but i had no choice but get Xp (hate it) but thats the only way it run smooth for me..

VMX_PanicRev · October 22, 2004, 07:26:08 PM

Hey Blue. I am currently running the latest driver off from the ATI site. 4.10 I believe. I started out with the new installation of the card using only the 4.10 drivers from ATI's site. I didn't install any of the extras.

I was overjoyed untill I tried to run mcm2. the only way to get 100+ framerates is to have the texs forced to video memory and run 640x480.

So next I ran the installation CD and updated drivers only. No good. So then I used the cd and let it do it's thing and install ATI's plethora of BS with the same results (the control panel is sorta cool though).

Then I found a smart gart removal too and killed smartgart...same results.

It doesnt seem to matter what I do with the performance settings, even with everything set to 100% performance mcm2 is a lame duck.

It's playable at low res and I guess I could live with it if I had to, after all I didnt get this card to run mcm2. It just sucks that a top end video card can't manage to run mcm2. Hell I was getting such high fps with the 9600 it was hard to preload and the bike would squirt outta the corners.

I'll take a look at the overclocking tool you posted next. I'll probably be back to ask questions about it next.

Thanks for the help, Glen

BTW, mx_sk8rkid_69, thanks for the kinds words. I needed it.

VRT_RIDEBLUE · October 23, 2004, 04:04:34 AM

hey Glen, what operating system you on? I have been doing some reading on this, I think Spode had a similar problem on xp, a good place for help may be "Toms Hardware" too http://www.tomshardware.com/ Let me check what drivers I am running and if the x800 and 9700 pro use the same drivers.. Ill report back soon

VRT_RIDEBLUE · October 23, 2004, 04:13:33 AM

I use these drivers for win 98se CATALYST™ 3.10
Driver Build 6.14.10.6404
7-962-031202m1-012924c I spent alot of testing here just for mcm, this is on 98se

VMX_PanicRev · October 23, 2004, 07:47:19 AM

I gave up the ghost on 98se about a year ago. But like you I was a real holdout.XP's not too bad as long as you have about a gig of good memory.

I did some overclocking and man! That thing will sure take an overclock. I went up over 15% on the core and memory both and it didnt phase her. Didnt phase mcm2 either

. From what I'm reading it'll go way higher but I still have it aircooled. Didn't wanna remove the fan untill I was sure it wasn't going back.

If I can't nail this down in the next few days I may have to let Ciruit City have their 15% restocking fee and go get a BFG 6800 gt oc.

I dont truly play the game that much any more outside of beta testing but I still want it to run like it should.

Anyone has any other clues on the x800 thing just chime in. I havent given up yet.

VMX_PanicRev · October 23, 2004, 09:41:57 AM

Well, the truth is somtimes stranger than fiction. I dont know if I finally hit a sweet spot with the settings or if I had just been getting fooled but this card runs mcm2 terribly at 800x600 or 640x480. I'd been testing at 800x600.

After that it appears to get better as you up the resolution. Currently at 1280x1024 I'm getting average 131 fps with all the sliders at 7... although I had to take a screenshot to see the numbers , they are some small and rolling so franticly it's almost not legible.

This is with no overclocking at all.

.

Thanks for all the help Blue and everone else. Imay end up keeping this card after all. I'd hate to trade it in for the gt oc and go through the same hell. LOL Besides it overclocks very nicely.

VRT_RIDEBLUE · October 23, 2004, 05:01:52 PM

Yea thats the res I run, but here is how to fix it,set your desktop to 1280x1024 and set it to Large fonts, so you can then read all the text.

MotoX395 · October 23, 2004, 06:12:28 PM

I think that you either need goggles/stronger goggles or a new monitor if you need to nod up the system font size just to be able to use a fairley low resolution like 1280x1024.

Personaly I allways run with the highest settings aviable in the game unless I play online, I get good fps and yet my pc is a pure pile of poop right now. I all in all don't understand how those extra 30 fps can be so important.

VMX_PanicRev · October 23, 2004, 07:14:48 PM

You're right I do need stronger goggles. I'm 40 and need reading galsses to read the paper, LOL

"all in all don't understand how those extra 30 fps can be so important."

I wasnt looking for 130 fps. I was trying to turn up the sliders without killing the fps and it wasn't happening. My fps at 800x600 with the sliders at 5 was around 30. I could get 80 with the sliders at 1. Maybe read more than the last post in the thread

The difference between 80 fps and 130 fps is visually obvious and also allows the bike to "ride smoother" and carve a line better which equates to better lap times. Besides, I just expect a 400 dollar card to perform better than a 120 dollar card.

MotoX395 · October 24, 2004, 03:54:40 AM

Gotcha now.

Some older games (which mcm2 is sadly) tend to work bad or sometimes not at all with new hardware. Usually there is some kind of fix, since I know nothing about that I'll gently leave this thread.

VMX_PanicRev · October 27, 2004, 02:39:46 AM

I got sick the ATI. It had problems, it changed profiles at will and was super finicky when set to performance specs and last but not least it repeatedly crashed me out of Race Driver 2 during online racing just like the 9600 I had....

Aftre I took the x800 back to ciruit city I stopped over at a local shop named Computer Pros where I have known the owner for years and he gave me an incredible deal on an ASUS V9999 Gamers Edition. Its ASUS version of an GT OC I guess, It comes with an overclocking tool and is clocked like a 6800 Ultra I think. The benchmarks I found put it between an GT OC and an Ultra and a bit above the x800 pro.

But in the real world on my PC it flat blows out the ATI card and it runs mcm2 at maximum res and maximum quality with plenty left over.

Add to this that it was packaged with 4 games and a webcam and assorted other goodies and I paid about the same as I had into the ATI. Supposedly its normally 500+ bucks but he had it out of the box playing Doom 3 with it when I went in to see if he had a gt to sell me and it offered me a great deal on it.

Damn I am so glad I took that x800 back. My computer and it did not get along.

VRT_Moto · October 27, 2004, 07:07:58 AM

Great thread guys,

I just picked up the Nvidia eVGA 6800 Ultra 256MB card today. So far, I've only tried it with Battlefield Vietnam and it looks great! I will install MCM2 now and see what kind of results I get with it. I've had nothing but excellent results with prior Geforce cards, so I'm hoping this will be no different. I've been searching and searching for this card.. and found a great deal on eBay. $500.00 flat!, with FarCry. Yes, this is a steep price for a video card but I wanted something that will last me some time.

Anyhow, my specs. are:

ASUS S.E Deluxe 800FSB Mobo
Athlon 64 3400 + CPU (2.2Ghz) 1100FSB
1 GB Corsair Value Ram (3200)
Nvidia eVGA e-Geforce 6800 Ultra 256 Mb Video card

Wish me luck!

-Moto

VRT_Moto · October 27, 2004, 09:27:37 AM

I'm not sure if this is working right.. or that I broke something.

I have V-Sync turned off... Resolution at 1024x768, all the sliders up, and I'm cranking 240+FPS. No joke. I have an older monitor.. so I will have to play around with the settings..but I put the sliders at 9 and turned on the shadows/particles option.

I've been playing all my games at 1024x768.. would you guys recommend goin' on on the res any?

-Moto

VMX_SKYmx99 · October 27, 2004, 03:30:29 PM

Well.... I'd try it. It couldn't hurt. 240fps my god!. lol

DBR_Dodgy · October 27, 2004, 07:26:05 PM

lmao........ i just about get 60 fps and thats all ive ever got. i must get myself some better settings or maybe get rid of my steam drivern CPU hehehehe

Ian.

VMX_HoleShot1 · November 02, 2004, 12:45:25 AM

240 FPS !!!! You gotta be kidding me !! I can't even imagine. Our old desktop was at about 20 FPS, then we upgraded the video card, and pumped it up to a whopping 30 or so , but I was totally pumped when I got my new laptop and right out of the box it pumped out 55 to 59 FPS on stock tracks. We just upgraded the ram from 256 to 768, and it raised the FPS to 59 to 61, not bad for a laptop, LOL. I just can't even imagine 240, LOL.

Later, HoleShot.