new vid card

[Cujo]

you really have to give us some more info. in game gfx settings and resolution would be a big help. tryin a newer benchmark the 2003 or even 2003 should be a decent indication. look for other x1600pro reviews and see what they got in the 3dmarks. anything newer then 2001se should be pretty vid limited and very little impact on the cpu side of things.

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=233288

 

that's pretty much your system. try downloading and running 3d mark 2k6 and see what you get.

 

yes he has 2gigs but that shouldn't make any difference on this test. also, ignore the cpu results cause his ram will be running in sync with his cpu.

 

just look at the sm2 and sm3 scores.

[FroBoZZ]

will do. my in game gfx are all on low, bilinear, simple reflections, 1024by768 or watever that middle one is. basicaly i have toned down everything to the max with no results. i will take a look at this link and check some reviews.

[Laz.e.rus]

tried running -dxlevel 81?

Good for 10-20 fps on my machine ( old P4 2.8 with 6600gt)

get about 96 on CSS video stress test.

[Cujo]

laz, good thought but he's in a cpu limited state. changing the dxlevel shouldn't have much, if any, effect. i was better then 20-35 fps in source with my 3200+ back in the day. i had an x800pro but even still it wasn't that low. i'm surprised it added fps to your game. any attempts i ever made at lowering it didn't seem to help much at all. a 6600gt should handle dx9 without any issues. maybe i'll try on my laptop sometime as i have a 6600go in it.

 

frobozz, definately try what i suggested a couple posts back. even 1gig of pc3200 in single stick for to replace your two 512mb sticks would go a long way.

 

btw laz, stress test and source are completely different. stress test is quite video card limited so changing dx level would help that. try doing fraps runs in actual, online gameplay, with 8.1 and 9 and see if there's a difference. you might be giving up video quality for nothing.

Edited May 31, 2006 by Cujo

[Laz.e.rus]

ahh, good point

[FroBoZZ]

hmm, never thought about my ram. good catch, it is the slower type isnt it. might try upgrading it as a start. need to see how the mark test runs first. doin that now.

[FroBoZZ]

yes sir, when my 1st cpu test was over i thought i would never see any number but 0. i was right. not so good.

 

i dont know how to insert an image without a url, so here are the results. i lost

 

3dmark score: 1764

SM2.0 score: 682

GT1 return to proxy: 4.992

GT2 firefly forest: 6.368

HDR/SM3.0 score: 718

HDR1 canyon flight: 6.566

HDR2 Deep Freeze: 7.786

CPU Score: 742

CPU1 Red Valley: .236

CPU2 Red Valley: .373

 

All those numbers are in fps. Yippee!!! i dont think reinstallen my driver will help too much. Hmm. really dont want to get a whole new cpu, might have to though. yep, that dude and i have awesome cpu's

[NOFX]

My analogy to your whole situation...

 

You have a geo metro...

You just put a turbo on it (your video card)

 

If you buy ram it will be like putting new tires on it.

No matter what you do, in the end you have a geo metro.

 

Sure you may squeeze a few more FPS out of the machine with some upgrades, but your basically getting no bang for your buck. A new CPU and mobo would have been a better upgrade than the video card.

 

Now you have an AGP video card, so when you upgrade your machine, your gonna have to find something with AGP(good luck) or your going to have to buy a new video card.

 

Send the video card back and wait until you can get a new cpu, mobo and ram. And then buy yourself a video card last.

[Cujo]

the thing about the ram is it'll help nicely now and if you upgrade to s939 it'll help in the future. just get a single 1gig stick of pc3200 and remove your old ram. notice his cpu scores are better then yours. your overall score is right in line with his so at least in 3d mark there's nothing wrong with your comp.

 

by comparison i get about 1fps in the second cpu test and my overall score is around 5000. your system is honestly not that bad and certainly better then a geo metro. more like a hyundai.

[NOFX]

hehe true cujo, my 1.4Ghz Athlon is on a 266fsb is around a metro...

 

But here is what Im thinking... we know he isn't going to upgrade mobo and CPU anytime soon.. By the time he does, don't you think DDR2 will be the standard? If it is, He will have to buy an older mobo and CPU to make it work with his RAM.

 

Well, now that I think about it, hes going to ahve to buy an older mobo anyway because he has an AGP video card.

[Cujo]

we're also talkin less then 100 bucks for a 1gig stick of value ram. i agree that ddr2 will be what he gets when he buys a new system. right now though his system should play source just fine. certainly cpu wise he's at least as good as your 3.2 was. once he gets his ram running at 200fsb that is.

 

frobozz, have you tried those two lines of code i gave you? i can e-mail you an autoexec config if you're not sure how to make one and just tell you where to put it.

[FroBoZZ]

ya i tried those 2 lines, but not in the autoexec config. i can make configs but dont know how to make em autoexec. all this hype about new gen ram and vid cards, is it true and when will they be out? i will definitely upgrade my ram. about the vid card, i guess i am stuck with it unless i am forced to go pci-e. in that case i am sure i can sell it or return it, depending on the time frame. oh well, live to learn learn to forget.

 

wat about this ram, seems pretty reasonable. i guess i want the pc3200, not the higher ones like the 4200.

 

some ram

[FroBoZZ]

well i was talking to my friend and he thinks that my motherboard might no be able to take advantage of pc3200. he thinks it could be too old and will just be a waste of money. is there a way to test wat speed ram is a computers max?

[Cujo]

if that is the case then your cpu was a waste of money.

 

give me the motherboard brand and model i can easily tell you.

 

all you'd want is basic pc3200. don't worry about anything else. also, is your 9800 still busted? why not return your x1600pro now since it didn't help.

[Tek-Almighty]

You know what, I just thought of something else.

 

any of the X800's or any ATI below X1000 does not support all the features of DX9....shader model 3.0 for example.

 

All the nVidia cards from the 6600 on up support all DX9 features.

 

hmmmm

[NOFX]

ahh I totally forgot, If your running a 3200+ AMD, then your RAM is rite on par with your CPU. Because those old bartons ran on a 333Mhz bus, PC2700=333Mhz RAM. some of the later motherboards allowed the memory to run at DDR400(PC3200), but theres not really an advantage because your CPU will still be bottlenecked at 333Mhz(unless you OC, which those 333Mhz bartons, ran on a 400Mhz easily)

 

I forgot how much RAM you have now,

 

if its 512, then yes you will see a difference if you buy some cheap ram for a total of 1 gig. I wouldn't worry about dual channel at this point because 1 gig non dual channel is better than 512 dual, and you are looking to do this on an old machine for cheap.

 

If its a gig, then don't worry about it, your ram won't make much difference at all.

 

 

*EDIT

 

Now that I go back and read one of your posts I see it is a 200FSB barton. so that means your RAM is the bottleneck....

 

Your cpu is on the right FSB, but you ram is slower because its only PC2700. You would probably see a difference if you bought a gig of PC3200.

 

But, after you spend at least $250 on this machine, just think.... That would have bought you a

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145505 - $80 RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103535 -135 AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2000MHz HT Socket

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813135216 = 48.99 ECS NFORCE3-A939 (For your AGP video card)

 

 

Total = $265 and you could even go cheaper if you go the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103537 - $108 AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2000MHz HT

 

$237

Edited June 1, 2006 by NOFX

[Cujo]

tek, sm3 is part of dx9.0c. not dx9.

 

nofx, good points. though if he takes the x1600 back and just goes with the 80 bucks for the ram it's much cheaper.

[FroBoZZ]

ok, just looking at those links u gave me. basically what you are proposing is a total revamp of my basic cpu. lets say i were to do something along these lines, how much of a performance boost are we talking about? I am seriuosly considering just buying a whole new computer because this one seems to be way ouot of date. The only thing holding me back from doing so is the rumor of the new gen mem and vid cards coming out soonish. if they are 1 year or more away i can safely say i am going to do some major upgrading. i am open to your thoughts before i start looking at new comps to buy (plus my case is just crappy, thats more than enough reason to upgrade). By the way if i were to get those 3 parts you told me about nofx, wat would i do aobut my vid card situation? could i go pci-e? or would keeping the 1600pro be best? cheers. for cujo, i went to device manager. dont know where to actually find my motherboard info, but this is 1 thing that might or mgiht not be helpful. yep its like trying to teach math to a ADD kid, i just dont know wats going on.

 

ACPI Uniproccesor PC

[NOFX]

it all depends man, it all depends... basically what you have to do is, Set a price you want to spend and then work from that.

 

I would take those three parts and your 9800 pro, over your old parts and the x1600. Because you can always drop a higher end video card in later and you would probably see some performance gain.

Edited June 1, 2006 by NOFX

[Batman]

Up till a few months ago I was still using my XP2500+ and I was using a ati9700pro.. I upgraded to a x800pro and didnt see any difference.. Now Im using a A64-3500 and I can now see a difference between my 9700pro and x800pro.. I had to put my 9700pro back in to flash the bio's...

[NOFX]

did you try your 9700 pro with the new MOBO?

 

I wonder if there would be a difference there. I think there would be somewhat because source is pretty cpu intensive.

[FroBoZZ]

aight, gonna decide on a price range. if i do go for those new parts that u posted, would i then go for a pci-e card or would i keep my agp one(s)?

[NOFX]

well, what I posted is the bare minimum for price. That is the cheapest "new" setup you can buy. That motherboard is an AGP motherboard, because I thought you had an AGP video card.

 

If your going to buy a new video card and return the x1600. then you should go with a PCI-E motherboard and vid card.

 

Let me know what you want to do with your video card.

a. you can keep it with the setup I posted above.

b. you can return it, buy the new setup above and use your 9800 pro, until you have money to drop on a better video card.

c. you can send it back and get a new video card also.(if you do this, the price range comes into play and would determine which route to go)

[Cujo]

i would honestly go with just getting the gig of pc3200 until you're ready to drop some serious coin on a computer. doing nofx's upgrade is a decent option but if you're gonna go vid card too then definately just buy a whole new system. if you go with nofx's your next upgrade would be a new computer anyway but his would let you make it til next christmas playin souce just fine. once the new games come out though no matter what i would just buy all new. i wouldn't even bother upgrading an agp vid card at this point as your 9800pro is still pretty good as far as agp goes.

[Batman]

did you try your 9700 pro with the new MOBO?

 

I wonder if there would be a difference there. I think there would be somewhat because source is pretty cpu intensive.

 

Yeah thats what I said, I had to put the 9700pro into my new mobo/cpu to flash it.. Im tryin to see just how far I can push this 9700pro, cause its an extra card just sitting here begging to be tampered with and molested..

 

And there was a difference in visual quality and speed between the 9700pro/x800pro..

Edited June 1, 2006 by Batman