Low video performance

[Bosun 0]

Yes l know this has nothing to do with guns or the army, but you guys seem pretty smart about your computors. I got a low video (50%) on my video performance (from pc world.com (pitstop). I have a pent.4, 1.6, 256 ram, xp, and a 64 geforce 2 mx with tvout and l run it on 1024x768, 16 million colors, accelaration enabled. Anyways it said that l was only running at 50% performance. I performed the pitstop test about a month ago and it was fine. Any suggestions.... I couldn't find any updates for my video driver, new machine. Thanks for your help.

[FallenPaladin 0]

Maybe you`re running your graphics card without AGP enabled?

Try to use Powerstrip to find out. If you have no AGP enabled you lack a lot of your systems graphics top speed. Most common is AGP 4X or 2X (for me, because I have a Kyro II card) .

[Bosun 0]

sorry l am a computor noob, a ofp noob,,,, could you run that by me one more time.

[Bosun 0]

Well yes l found the agp.. its not on either 4 or 2x, rather its checked for "let the application pick" something like that.

[Bosun 0]

Hi again. last question l hope. I changed it to 2x...everything seems to come up quicker but after running the test, still only get 53%.

[FallenPaladin 0]

Whoa, because english is not my native language that will be a little hard. But I`ll try. AGP means Accellerated Graphics Port (or something like that) . Your graphics card is plugged into that AGP-port in your computers mother board (that thing on which the processor and memory sits and all the other cards and stuff). AGP followed an older graphics card standard which was called PCI. With an AGP card you have the possibillity to enhance you graphic cards data transfer speed by setting the rate of the AGP transfer (4x, 2x or 1x). You can see the transfer rate doubles or even goes higher. So it becomes faster.

Here you can find powerstrip and other tools for graphic tuning:

http://www.g3dn.com/files/tweaks/

When you have installed powerstrip you have to look at your system information in that program, there`ll be a checkbox that shows your AGP transfer rate. But don`t play around with the clock set of your card or memory settings when you are a rookie. That can kill your card!

Hmm, so now you`ll have to look into your motherboards and graphic cards manual and find out what AGP setting you can set. The higher, the faster!

[Wobble 1]

for one thing the GF2 MX is FAR FAR FAR too slow of a card for that fast of processor..

if you upgrade to a GF2 Ultra or GF3 you probably would see a doubeling in your performance...

as for AGP, make sure its always at 4x

[FallenPaladin 0]

There`s another option in your computers bios to enhance graphics speed. (You get into your bios be pressing the del-button on your keyboard, while the computer is booting)

But again be very careful, changing stuff here can damage your computer!!

When you look through your options there you`ll find some data containing AGP. One of them will show a MB size and be called AGP Memory Size (or something like that). Because you have 256MB RAM you can set that Value to 64MB or 128MB. That can improve your graphics speed a little, too. But don`t change other values in your bios! If you don`t find that AGP memory option, just leave it. May be different from bios to bios. And the improvement is not so gigantic anyway.

That are my ideas so far. Maybe I come with more later

[Bosun 0]

Thank you very much. I set it to 4x. I don't quite understand where the 50% loss is....not something that l have noticed. Although do notice the quickness now with 4x. Its funny, these forums and the ofp mission editor have been wonderful for helping me learn about my computor. Thanks.

[Mister Frag 0]

The AGP rate will have less of an impact on performance than the AGP aperture size. In fact, the difference between 1x and 4x will hardly be noticeably unless the textures don't fit into the memory on the card.

Regarding sluggish video performance, make sure that you aren't using full-screen anti-aliasing while running the test. While visually pleasing, it causes quite a performance hit on any but the latest video cards.