Graphics cards

[456820 0]

Quote[/b] ]regular Flashpoint with DXDLL ran great too(40+fps), even mods such as Y2K3 ran fine(30-35 fps)

is something wrong with my comp according to Fraps i dont get any more then 20FPS it seems to run soothish not great but not crap.

Quote[/b] ]and with cash id saved get your RAM bumped up to 1GB

I thought for more RAM you needed a new processor ?

Anyway thanks for all of your advice

Ive noticed something the 6800 GS is only 30-40Å extra is it worth spending that much more for getting it ?

Also ill take your advice on using my spare money for my RAM

And about overclocking what is it no ones explained yet

From what you said i think it means like tuning it to be slightly better ? is that right and is it safe to do ?

Thanks for all of your adive and info

[uberkayser 0]

You say youve got 768mb RAM at moment so im guessing thats 1x256mb stick and 1x512mb stick...get another 512mb stick(assuming youve only 2 RAM slots)..you dont need to upgrade your processor to add to your RAM.If i was in your position and i absolutely HAD to get a graphics card right now to use DXDLL and run modern games at medium settings id go for the 6600GT from one of the links at Å100 because it will definitely work good with your system,youll see the increase in performance clearly and for Å100 its a great card(i wouldnt worry about which brand,theyre all good) as well as upping my RAM to 1GB total.If i was thinking smart id ask myself if i could carry on with my current system and put that Å250 towards what i said before,a refurbished/used/new? athlon 64/Pentium4 pci-express system or.....you could get new an A)athlon 64 processor for approx. Å100 B)a PCI-Express motherboard for Å50 C) a 450-500watt power supply for Å50+, use your old case,RAM,hard disc drive,cd/dvd/ROM drive and put remaining Å50 towards a pci-express graphic card,save another Å100 or so for the card(like a 7800 gt) and HEY! a new system thats gonna run games that come out this year and next,totally eat up OFP and is easy to upgrade for the near future.There are dozens of sites and forums full of guys who can tell you how to do this and help you with any problems.....lol thats what id do (have done),but failing that you wont be disappointed with the 6600GT,that with the RAM increase will probably up your fps into the high 30s/40s(but like ch_123 says above make sure your motherboard has an AGP8x slot not just the 4x-if you got the manual for it itll say in there,if you dont have manual have a look on the board itself..youd be unlucky if it was only AGP4x or less i think but try find out).Good luck. As for overclocking stuff...it almost always invalidates any warranty on a component(as far as i know only 1 graphic card manufacturer covers o'c ing in their warranty,eVGA i think)...small overclocks on processors and gfx cards are relatively easy and not so risky,but,well,most everyone wants to ramp things up "just a bit more".............

[456820 0]

i think ive almost solved it this is my plan

Im going to buy the 6600 GT for 100Å or whatever it was upgrade to 1GB of RAM buy myself a 20Å joystick

And with any other money left over ill buy my self a cake

nah not really ill probaly keep it maybe put it towards a new camera ive been after for quite a while

Thanks if i need anymore help ill just post a reply but i dont think i will cheers youve been lots of great help

[echo1 0]

As for overclocking stuff...it almost always invalidates any warranty on a component(as far as i know only 1 graphic card manufacturer covers o'c ing in their warranty,eVGA i think)...small overclocks on processors and gfx cards are relatively easy and not so risky,but,well,most everyone wants to ramp things up "just a bit more".............

Graphics Cards are much easier to overclock than a CPU, provided the fan can handle it. My Card came with an Arctic cooling NV5 integrated instead of the usual HSF, so I can push it from 375/500 to 425/560 or further. If you enable Nvidia's inbuilt overclocking utility, you can run an "Optimal Speed" test which will set it to an appropriate speed. CPU overclocking requires you to have really high quality components, especially RAM and cooler, and is very easy to f**k up your system if you do something wrong.

[Mr_Tea 0]

Yea, and if you get errors don`t forget that you overclocked your hardware.

[berghoff 11]

Well for OFP a 9800Pro is more than enough! I was able to play most modern games at high settings with this old card.

If you think about buying a 7800 then be informed that might have troubles running OFP. I do have these problems but the reason could also be due to the fact that I use a X2 processor!

especially if its the 256mb version, you'll be able to play games like COD2 and FEAR quite smoothly on high settings.

[guyguy1 0]

Nvidia just came out with it's dual SLI config for the dell XPS 600 today (jan 5). The SLI slots can be fitted with 4 256 MB Nvidia cards (6800 series and up). IMO they're overdoing it...I want vid card companies to come up with a good & reliable card that doesnt GUZZLE POWER (im not sure how much power this graphics config will use but im sure itll be insane). Anyways..just some news. If you want a new graphics card then you should stick to ATI for image quality but if you want stability then stick to Nvidia.

[Shadow NX 1]

Now that i read this thread i get a bit affraid

Just ordered a new gaming rig ( finally! ) wich will include a NVIDIA 7800GTX ( Always had ATI before but after reading some reviews that said it has huge 3d power combined with a very silent fan i though i take this one cause my ol ATIs were good but loud as hell ), i always had a bit fear it could cause probs with good ol OFP.

What errors do you get Albert Schweitzer?

[shadow 6]

No reason to be concerned with the 7800GTX and OFP.

If you get issues with that card and OFP its not the card's fault. I've had a GF3, GF4TI4600 and now a 6800GT running perfectly with OFP.

You should look forward to that card. If you dont like it I'll PM you my adress and take it off your hands for free.

[Shadow NX 1]

Hehe nice try Mr.Shadow

Good to hear the newer NVIDIAS run fine with OFP for you, im looking forward to the new machine for sure.

The most expensive PC i ever bought but from time to time you gotta give yourself a gift like this to know what youre working for every day

[brataccas 0]

ive recently bought a motherboard with an AGP and a PCI EXPRESS slot for my 6800GT and ready for when I upgrade to my 7800 512, (also supports m2 cpus

[456820 0]

Quote[/b] ]If you dont like it I'll PM you my adress and take it off your hands for free.

thanks for the offer but i think i would either take it back or ebay it

Well im going out today to the shops for my graphics card and a slightly faster AGP mother board since the 6600 takes 8x i got a 4x so im getting a new motherboard now im thinking why dont i just buy a PCI:E motherboard

Well ill see today if it was the right decision im sure it is many peole seem to recomend it so unless your just trying to waste my money it should be find

One last question do all the new drivers for the 6600 work with OFP ? or should i stick with the old ones

[Heatseeker 0]

My 6600GT runs on a 4x agp slot perfectly so you should try first because some of your current HW might not work on a new mobo, if your replacing mobo you would be insane not to move to pci-e, also consider what i posted before about the PSU, its important . The latest nvidia oficial FW 81:98 makes OPFR run like crap but with xtreme-G 81:98 tweaked one it runs like OPF never ran before here, high resolution, AA and AF and really smooth, looks amazing and the lods dont flicker half has much .

If your going to a HW store bring your detailed system specs and talk with the guy, if he knows his job and takes it half seriously he should help you out, if not pick another store .

[456820 0]

Well i did go out today to but the 6600GT but damn none in stock, im gonna stick with my mother board if it does work with 4x AGP and buy another 512Mb stick of RAM to get about 1024Mb RAM hopefully i can get a decent FPS in ofp

Also what is all of your average FPS mines about 20 at its highest will the new graphics card raise it alitle ?

[Daddl 10]

Well i did go out today to but the 6600GT but damn none in stock, im gonna stick with my mother board if it does work with 4x AGP and buy another 512Mb stick of RAM to get about 1024Mb RAM hopefully i can get a decent FPS in ofp

For OFP your cpu and ram are much more important than your gfx card. If your motherboard only offers 4x AGP then it must be quite old. I'd rather go and get a new motherboad & cpu (cheap bundles with ram can be found at most computer stores). Then you'll be able to fit a cheap middleclass PCI-E and play all modern games (and old OFP) at decent framerates. And if the gfx-power isn't enough you'll still be able to upgrade later.

[Heatseeker 0]

For OFP your cpu and ram are much more important than your gfx card. If your motherboard only offers 4x AGP then it must be quite old. I'd rather go and get a new motherboad & cpu (cheap bundles with ram can be found at most computer stores). Then you'll be able to fit a cheap middleclass PCI-E and play all modern games (and old OFP) at decent framerates. And if the gfx-power isn't enough you'll still be able to upgrade later.

I disagree with the CPU/RAM only mith, OPFR is scalable enough to run on a wide variety of HW combinations but a good graphics card is has important has everything else, especialy on Nogova like islands where the models and textures are of higher quality and density (buildings and flora). The game will run much smoother with a stronger GPU and the image quality will surprise you for a game this old. Explosions, smoke and other efects will not have much of a fps hit too and higher detailed addons wont lag you out. Then theres the advantage of playing smoothly and in higher resolution with antialiasing and AF (photorealism), this will help you identify targets over distance much better instead of shooting at shrubs and bushes.

The quality/performance increase betwean a GF4ti and a 6600GT is very significant and upgrading from a GF2 will make you very impressed with OPFR again .

[Daddl 10]

Yes, of course - but you can have those great visuals already with a Radeon 9600/9800 (or the respective Nvidia equivalent) or any mid range model of the current series of gfx cards. Most features of the new gfx cards are no use with an old DX 8.1 game like OFP, anyways - and they are all fast enough for a good viewdistance with FSAA & Aniso. Also the gfx card can never result in a faster rate of game frames than what the cpu can output in game cycles. Your card may be able to draw the scene 100+ times a sec - but what good does that do if the engine can only compute 2 frames because of a complex mission with shitloads of stuff going on? You'll still get major lag whatever your gfx card may be.

So the gfx is the icing on the cake, but first the base system has to be at least adequate - and a mobo with AGP4 only isn't. At least not when thinking about buying a gfx card that is of no use anymore once he finally finds out that he still needs a new mobo with better performance (as that will have PCI-E instead of AGP).

I'd rather wait a bit longer till he has the money to upgrade both - a new mobo with a modern cpu, good memory bandwidth and 1gb ram plus a cheap PCI-E gfx card that is still faster than the AGP card he's thinking about now. He'll have to shell out the money for a PCI-E card anyways, sooner or later - so why waste good money first?

[Heatseeker 0]

Well i have bought mine 1 year ago so i think it was well worth it, have a 6600GT on a 4x agp mobo and from all i've

read the diference betwean 4x and 8x isnt noticeable and the 6600/6800 series perform the same in either agp or pci-e has they use external power from the PSU, mine runs at the same clock frequencies has the pci-e one stock .

Its still a mid range card with respectable punch in it and it goes along well with a P4 CPU above 2 gig and 1 gig of ram.

I fully agree with you that if i was to upgrade today i would problably try to find a cheap 9800 card but considering the nice performance i got in OPF and that the card loved Doom3 and Far Cry it was worth it.

So i kind of agree with you that he should get something cheap now and start saving for a new machine for the future (DX10...), but if he wants something else we cant really stop him .

[shinRaiden 0]

Does anybody know of a generic app(s) that :

* Monitor GPU tempurature

* Do a VRAM load test and memory check

Thanks.

[Heatseeker 0]

For GPU temperature monitoring there is rivatuner and something smaller and to the point is nvTemplogger.

Mr. Frag mentioned BIT in some thread some time so i gave it a try, seemed ok to stress test my freshly reisntalled PC, lotsa stuff out there to be used though im not sure about what your after with a vram load test, HD problems ??

[uberkayser 0]

Does anybody know of a generic app(s) that :* Monitor GPU tempurature depends on the card;the 6600gt needs a BIOS flash to enable it;think the Ati 9000 series mostly cant be read tho' some makers added a chip but dunno which ones.

[Heatseeker 0]

Does anybody know of a generic app(s) that :* Monitor GPU tempurature                                                                                                                      depends on the card;the 6600gt needs a BIOS flash to enable it;think the Ati 9000 series mostly cant be read tho' some makers added a chip but dunno which ones.

Mine is enabled by default , its weird how the 6600GT's all come with a built in temp sensor but some manufacturers decided to leave it disabled, there is a tut topic on nzone explaining how to flash your cards bios if you really have to .

[456820 0]

well great for all of your help yesterday i bought the XFX Geforce 6600 GT with 256MB its great works great on my 4x AGP motherboard and i can already notice different whilst playing ofp i now get a round 40FPS i think cant totally remember it was around that mark seems to work great

[shinRaiden 0]

RivaTuner works nicely for GPU temp monitoring.

-edit-

Well, my card (6600GT) locks up when it hit's 102c. It idles at 67c, or if I pull the casw cover 57c. IIRC AMD says not to run a CPU above that, and I've got a GPU that can be used to safely cook any meat?! I've got 2 90cm fans on top of the video card blowing out when the case is closed, but that's obviously not helping.

[Colossus 2]

Lovely, now ATI's X1600 PRO is comming on AGP with almost same price as ATI's "old" X700-series.

Sapphire Radeon X700 PRO 256MB GDDR3 (AGP)

Memory interface: 128-bit

Pixel pipelines: 8

Memory Clock Speed: 430 MHz

Engine Clock Speed: 425 MHz

Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB DDR2 (AGP)

Memory interface: 128-bit

Pixel pipelines: 12

Memory Clock Speed: 800 MHz

Engine Clock Speed: 500 MHz

Hope I got it right now