Is this the performance I should expect w/ Radeon 9700 Pro and UT2003

[PenCapChew]

Can you help me figure out why I am getting such low miniumum frame rates?? When there is mulitple bots on practically any map, my frame rate will dip below 60 FPS, and it has reached in the 30's before. I thought with a Radeon 9700 Pro you could play this game with settings maxed out. I tried lowering settings in the game to normal and to lowest. It helps on my max frame rate but my minumum frame rate drops to the 40's at times.I even have my settings for my ATI card on performance settings, no AA or AF enabled. V-sync is not enabled in the game or my vid card either. How does Tom's Hardware and other sites say that their min. frame rates don't drop below 60 w cpus and vid cards corresponding to my own?? My cpu is a Pentium 4 Northwood 2.53 Ghz w/ 533 bus and I have a ASUS P4PE mobo w/ 512 Megs of DDR PC 2700. My vid card is a Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro. What can I expect from this game in terms of frame rates with my hardware???


Max frame rates usually go up to 140 's at times
Min frame rates have dropped to the 30's, usually in the 40's though

 

[AnAndAustin]

While reading through your post I first thought you had a lesser CPU, then I thought you had slow or inadequate system RAM and then right at the end the answer stared me in the face ... CRUCIAL Radeons are known to use significantly lower clocks, I had heard that the huge variance through the diff manus of Radeons was a past memory with the 9000 - 9700 cards but maybe we'll all have to look very closely before parting with our cash. Of course even a slower clocked 9700 will still kick a GF4TI4600's a$$ ... of course I could be way off base here but I'd suspect all of Crucial's Radeons are signif lower clcoked than is standard ... their RAM still rules though!

 

[Budmantom]

Do you have other apps running in the backgroud?

 

[Kowan]

All 9700 Pro cards no matter if Retail/OEM/Built by/Powered by are the same clock speeds, (325/310 core/memory).

 

[Orbius]

Try DX9 and the new Catalyst 3.0 drivers, they're supposed to fix some of the min framerate issues. Go to www.rage3d.com for information on how to properly uninstall your drivers.

 

[Rand]

Originally posted by: Kowan
All 9700 Pro cards no matter if Retail/OEM/Built by/Powered by are the same clock speeds, (325/310 core/memory).

I'll quote this as it's well worth re-iterating, to extend that ALL Radeon 9XXX GPU's period are clocked identically regardless of OEM/Retail/Manufacturer. ATi has finally started strictly mandating clockspeeds.
Crucial's R9700Pro is no exception... 325/320 just like any other 9700Pro board, unlike their rather pathetic 8500LE.

 

[BoomAM]

You should be looking at the average fps not the minimum. Even top of the range video cards dip to very low fps every now and then.

Dont worry about the miniumum fps, its the average that you should be looking at.

 

[Shalmanese]

Originally posted by: Rand

Originally posted by: Kowan
All 9700 Pro cards no matter if Retail/OEM/Built by/Powered by are the same clock speeds, (325/310 core/memory).

I'll quote this as it's well worth re-iterating, to extend that ALL Radeon 9XXX GPU's period are clocked identically regardless of OEM/Retail/Manufacturer. ATi has finally started strictly mandating clockspeeds.
Crucial's R9700Pro is no exception... 325/320 just like any other 9700Pro board, unlike their rather pathetic 8500LE.

uhh... what about those R9700's in the thread in GH that are selling for $258. Those are clocked at 310/310 apparently.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Someone on these forums was also talking about a Dell Rad9700PRO-TX which used abnormal clocks ... if memory serves me correct. Of course the TX is there for a reason LOL!

 

[Alkali]

I think you were expecting too much if you expect the card to stay above 60fps all the time.

I personally run my card at 6xFSAA and 16AF at 1024x768 or 1280x960/1280x1024. Most games give me between 60-90fps, UT2003 about 50fps with those settings. RtCW has been the one to nail it hard occationally, (although 70-90 on most maps) on some very complex maps dipping to 30fps or so, its normal. MohAA also stretches the card on those FSAA and AF levels, pulling my card down to 25fps in a heated battle on some maps (normally 40-50fps).

 

[rbV5]

Someone on these forums was also talking about a Dell Rad9700PRO-TX which used abnormal clocks

The Dell card is not a Pro card, its a Radeon 9700TX....All the 9700Pro cards are the same like Rand says.

 

[TheWart]

Just turn on AA and AF and enjoy the show...Granted, there will be slowdowns with any card, but I mean, how often do they occur? On CTF Face, offline with bots, it is pretty intense for my system, but then on Asbestos (sp?), it is like butter. Just enjoy the card with the goodies on, as long as it doesnt jerk too often, youll be fine.

 

[PenCapChew]

Thanks for the replies...guess I was expecting to much from this card...however people on the unreal tournament 2003 forums say they never drop below 60 fps because they are using a geforce 4 ti4600...didn't know that card could beat the 9700 pro in min frame rates.

 

[BFG10K]

When there is mulitple bots on practically any map, my frame rate will dip below 60 FPS, and it has reached in the 30's

Depending on the map and on the number of bots, that scenario is completely reasonable. UT2003 is a very CPU taxing game, especially when you use the most realistic physics combined with a lot of bots. There isn't a system in existance that can push UT2003 well in all situations and sometimes it will slow down.

Other than that, make sure you have the latest BIOS and chipset drivers for your system (chipset drivers are extremely important, even for Intel chipsets) and make sure you don't have any programs running in your system tray.

 

[WyteWatt]

Miniumum fps is very important on any video card. More important than any other frame rates because you don't want your miniumum fps to be 1 to 15 fps in heavy fight scenes. All reviews should have miniumum fps in all games they test.

 

[Alkali]

Originally posted by: PenCapChew
Thanks for the replies...guess I was expecting to much from this card...however people on the unreal tournament 2003 forums say they never drop below 60 fps because they are using a geforce 4 ti4600...didn't know that card could beat the 9700 pro in min frame rates.

I bet you £4,322 that these people with Ti4600's are not running with FSAA and AF on.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I do know the 9000's had a prob with minimum FPS esp compared to GF4TI series but I wouldn't expect the same to be true of the Rad9500PRO - 9700PRO. In any case I'd bet maxing out AA and AF even on these fantastic cards may be pushing them a little esp in such a demanding game and I seriously doubt even the 4600 could run that game well with AA and AF, 2xAA and 2xAF might even be pushing it!

 

[DevilCooling]

i'll have my computer together in a couple days and then i post what i get for frames but it should be nice .

LOL my old vid card was a Diamond MM Viper 770 Ultra im gonna have a stroke with this new card or just stroke it not sure yet .