Hardware Problem. VERY ADVANCED!

[Quicksilver04]

Okay well i had a problem with my video card dropping fps while fighting in game so i went out and bought a gainward gf3. In game my fps still drops to 40 or less when i really should not be getting any less then what my max is set at which is 85 due to my monitor hz. I have a 1.4 athlon with a ECS k7ama motherboard and 256mb pc133 sdram and a 40gb 7200 hd. i have already formated and updated drivers, flashed my bios and done everything i could think of to fix the problem, if u know of any solutions please let me know. K well i also hooked my vc up to my friends comp and it worked fine along with hooking my processor with it. I tested his hd in my system so my hd is not bad so i think it might be my problem. Has anyone ever head of this? I am running win2k with the latest updates and revisions on it and my mb. my resolution i set is 1024*768 with factory settings on my gf3 drivers cause i LOVE vsync and i have the patch so i can hace 85hz on my monitor for win2k

 

[lastig21]

What OS, What drivers, What game, What resolution, What settings do you have on your video card (fsaa mainly)? These will be important for starters. I would make sure your bios settings are correct first.

 

[AndyHui]

The K7AMA board is based on the first revision of the ALi Magik1 chipset. You have chosen to pair it with PC133 SDRAM.

This chipset is known to be an EXTREMELY poor performer in that configuration when compared with other chipsets for the Athlon processor.

Make sure that you have the latest AGP driver for your motherboard, version 1.82.

 

[Byte]

games dropping frames i common depending on teh condition. It won't sync with your monitor unless your video can pump stuff that high.

 

[Quicksilver04]

well i have a geforce3 no ti200 crap so the core is better. i know someone with the exact same card and he makes 85 fps easy with no loss ever. i think it is a motherboard problem

 

[qeru]

don't think win2k is quite right for games. might wanna switch to Me or 9x
I know, Me isn't quite stable. 98SE is

 

[RSI]

<< don't think win2k is quite right for games. might wanna switch to Me or 9x
I know, Me isn't quite stable. 98SE is >>

ROTF! Right... Exactly what game do you use that has problems with Win2K? Every video card has drivers being written for Win2K now, in fact, the BEST drivers are probably for Win2K at this point, and later Will be XP. Nobody makes 9x drivers anymore. Nobody cares about Windows 95 (98 is 95, face it) anymore. WinME continue to be supported for a short while, but that'll die pretty quickly as well.

Just stay with 2K, and fix your hardware.

-RSI

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Welcome to Anandtech qeru!

RSI, is right though. Windows 2000 has reached a point where most (if not all) companies are writing drivers for it first and the other OS's second. Since replacing the vc didn't improve performance, speculation must fall to the other components in the system. That board does have the older stepping of the ALi Magik chipset (1645) instead of the newer "C" stepping (1647). Reviews of this older chipset were quite negative. PC133 doesn't help the situation either. 😱

 

[Scootin159]

for being very advanced thread english not so good here

My guess is that it's the chipset that's your downfall. Unfortunatly the only way to fix that is with a new motherboard. If you want to keep your RAM I would reccomend an Iwill KK266 to ya (KT133A chipset).

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

for being very advanced thread english not so good here

Thanks for raising the bar...😉

 

[WarCon]

I know this may be a very stupid question, but I have seen this problem be the cause for others torment here. Are you running a 133mhz bus or a 100mhz bus? If your 1.4gig chip is a 266mhz internal bus then your multiplier is lower and at 100mhz it would be running at just over a gig. (1.05gig)

I honestly don't know if you can even change that setting on that mobo(either jumper or bios setting most likely), but you would think so.

.........edit..........
Mainly because my english tonight is suck.

 

[Scootin159]

<< for being very advanced thread english not so good here

Thanks for raising the bar...😉 >>



It was meant to be spoken the same way as the rest of this thread.