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Need help for Half-Life and Co

S

sammyunltd

Senior member
Hi! Recently I bought an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO from my friend and installed it. My specs are now:

HP Pavilion 7965
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
512 MB SDRAM PC-133
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128 MB (running @ AGP 4X) with Catalyst 6.6
80 GB Ultra-DMA HD

I decided to format the computer to try some games. I tried Moto GP 3 but it was no good. So I decided to reinstall Steam and CS/TFC. I tried TFC, it was horrible. FPS did not go over 60, and was in the 20-40 range all the time. And I was playing in 640*480. I even tried older drivers (Catalyst 4.6) but it didn't change a thing.

After I tried CS. I downloaded HI-FPS skins and models and HL Toolz. It improved my Framerate, but I'm not doing "80+ fps" (like my system should do, at least according to benchmarks and FutureMark Game Advisor). I'm playing in 640*480 with pixels the size of my screen. It's ugly, I can't even read the numbers on the HUD, and I only get 40-60 fps and on some map 20-40.

The bizarre thing is that when I create a server, I get 80+ fps all the time, even surpassing 100 fps (130-140 sometimes). I know the increase is normal, but what's not is that I can't reach these "reachable" levels in a real game. Heck, my old TNT was about 5-10 fps less and it was as beautiful, if not more than now.

I'm playing in OpenGL, no AA, no AF, no V-Sync, only MipMap for performance and Catalyst AI on Standard or Advanced.

I really need help. I'm desperate. I don't know what to do. It seems I probably did the best I could, but I still get the same crappy performance, even though I changed video card and I customized the game in order to be "framerate-friendly". Hell, my other friend who had a Dell (P4 1.7 GHz, GeForce 3 Ti 200/500 and 512 MB RDRAM) was playing 60 fps fix (he had V-Sync On) and when he removed it, he was playing at 90+ fps all the time, no drop at all.

How's that. I know my RAM is not very good, but I don't think that's the problem. Something else is, but I don't know what it is. I hope you'll be able to help me!

Thank you!
 
You're using SD-RAM in a P4 machine? I didn't even know they made boards that were available that way count on HP to do something retarded with RAM I guess. Your best bet would be to switch from OpenGL to Direct3D because to be honest ATi's cards do not do well it seems with OpenGL (which is where nVidia really excels hence part of the reason they do so well in Linux) as they do with Direct3D. Running the card at 4x as opposed to 8x has got to be slowing it down as well but if that's the most the board supports then there's nothing you can really do about that short of getting a new PC.
 
Originally posted by: nsafreak
You're using SD-RAM in a P4 machine? I didn't even know they made boards that were available that way count on HP to do something retarded with RAM I guess. Your best bet would be to switch from OpenGL to Direct3D because to be honest ATi's cards do not do well it seems with OpenGL (which is where nVidia really excels hence part of the reason they do so well in Linux) as they do with Direct3D. Running the card at 4x as opposed to 8x has got to be slowing it down as well but if that's the most the board supports then there's nothing you can really do about that short of getting a new PC.
Click to expand...

Nope - always use OpenGL in Half-Life. HL was originally made with OGL, DirectX was an add-on for it. The SD ram is probably the culprit. Or it could be a virus or a driver-install gone bad.
 
Well. That can't really be a Virus because I just formatted and scanned with Spybot, Ad-aware and such and didn't find a thing. I tried Symantec Online thing and it detected nothing.
But I know that I am having some problems with Microsoft .NET Framework (the thing needed to run ATI Catalyst Center). Also, I know that I got some problems with my sound drivers (and I got svchost.exe taking more than 25 MB of memory). Other than that, there's nothing troubled in my computer that I know.

One of my friend got 256 MB or 512 MB of SDRAM, a P3 533 MHz and a GeForce 2 MX and was running the game 30-60 fps all the time. There must be a problem.
 
Originally posted by: sammyunltd
Well. That can't really be a Virus because I just formatted and scanned with Spybot, Ad-aware and such and didn't find a thing. I tried Symantec Online thing and it detected nothing.
But I know that I am having some problems with Microsoft .NET Framework(the thing needed to run ATI Catalyst Center). Also, I know that I got some problems with my sound drivers (and I got svchost.exe taking more than 25 MB of memory). Other than that, there's nothing troubled in my computer that I know.

One of my friend got 256 MB or 512 MB of SDRAM, a P3 533 MHz and a GeForce 2 MX and was running the game 30-60 fps all the time. There must be a problem.
Click to expand...
is that all? :Q
good lord . . . Format C:

reinstall your OS . . . your computer is in trouble.

you simply can't have those conflicts - fix or format . .. and congrats on the self-diagnosis. 🙂


 
Enlighten me about this. I merely understand what you're trying to tell me.

Ah, I forgot. When I play CS, in the console, I always get this message : Overflow 500 Temporary Ents . Furthermore, I get a lot of chokes (from 10 to 60).

I think I'll format again. Can I backup the whole Steam folder because I can't afford to re-download everything (I'm tight on internet usage)?
 
if you are having really difficult problems with a new videocard AND you have existing multiple problems and/or conflicts, a ReInstall of your O/S is usually in order - especially if there is no easy 'fix' for it. Back up everything and make SURE you already have the latest drivers and patchs ready for the installation.

i think you can b/u the Steam folder . . . there was a recent thread about it here [this week?]

you also didn't say what videocard you had before the 9800p [i assume it ran perfectly before your friend sold it to you, also] . . . if it was not ATI, you may also have conflicts if the old drivers were not completely UNinstalled. 😉
 
Well, I got a TNT2, but I installed the 9800 PRO before I formatted. I formatted like a week ago.

About the backup. It's OK. I found it.
 
make SURE you install the latest MB chipset drivers 😉

and your AGP slot DOES support the correct voltage for the 9800p?
:Q
 
Wow! You lost me.

Install the latest chipset drivers? How can I do that?
Also, how do I install the back up I made of Counter-Strike.


System BIOS : 08/28/2001 - I845 - P4B-LA

 
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