just bought a x1900xtx need advice

[Dogbyte]

Hey guys, its been a long while since i bought a video card, and now that i have a x1900xtx coming, i guess i need to know what all this talk about AA's and filtering and all that jazz. i hear alot about using ATItool along with cards to set fan speeds and advanced video settings.
i guess im asking for a good starting point so i can review how im supposed to set this sucker up to get all what i paid for. I play BF2 alot and expect to play BF2142 when it comes out. so is there any place or anyone that can tell me the basics of setting up this card to get the most out of what i play atm? ive tried to read alot of posts having to do with this card, but i get bogged down in all the acronyms, i dont know what any of them stand for unless i get lucky and read a newbies post asking that sort of question. any advice to what i need to beef up on? or how i need to go about doing it? this card is still in the mail, and i expect it tomorrow, after getting my new computer built and up and running, i want to start tackling the video set up for games. thx for any advice in advance.

 

[soydios]

To play BF2, just install the drivers and put all the settings at maximum. It's what I did (including setting the resolution to 1680x1050 by inserting "+szx 1680 +szy 1050" in the target line of the shortcut), and my system runs fine (X1900XT, C2D E6600, both stock).

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Leave AA to app preference for BF2 and 16xHQAF for AF.
Always leave your mipmap settings to high quality. Cat AI should almost always be left on Standard cos it uses some tweaks that make the game run faster or even run in the first place. Advanced Cat AI uses some techniques that slightly improve FPS but image quality takes a hit.

I would look into a 3rd party cooler cos @ 100% the fan is a blowdryer...I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I recommend the Accelero X2 -- just don't use their mem pads (use the default ones that come with the card) cos they have permanent glue (=big no no).

2D Clocks auto when on your desktop. 3d auto when you lauch a 3d app. If you use ATI Tool, you will need to specify how the card should behave in this regard. When you get ATI Tool, the first thing you should do is turn up ONLY the gpu voltage to 1.45 which is the default xtx voltage. Later on you can fiddle with this -- mostly try to use less voltage vs higher, hotter clocks.

I have a custom bios you can use that gives you a slight OC and turns up the fans (=no need for ATI Tool): My Custom Bios Thread

 

[Dogbyte]

where am i to leave the AA and 16xHQAF for AF at? in atitool? or in the game settings? all these abreviations are confusing for someone just learning.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Dogbyte
where am i to leave the AA and 16xHQAF for AF at? in atitool? or in the game settings? all these abreviations are confusing for someone just learning.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

 

[Dogbyte]

ok thx alot

 

[Dogbyte]

can anyone recommend the latest driver for the x1900xtx? im seeing some different so called "latest drivers" on the web, like what is this NGO ATI driver, and i guess the ATI driver from their website is called Catalyst? im gettin confused. im just tryin to get the latest driver for this card.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

WarCats 6.8 are good. I use their 6.6 chuck version for oblivion AA+HDR (6.8 has chuck too but 6.6 is the best crossfire implementation)

TweaksRus

 

[Dogbyte]

ok thx ill look at that