Need Help with computer 9700 Pro problems

[Bistandard]

Recently, I upgraded my video card to a Sapphire 9700 Pro, but was rather disappointed with its preformance, but since I had read so many good things about the 9700 Pros, including the anandtech benchmarks, I think my preformance is being slowed by another compenent. In Counter-strike, I rarely get above 60fps at 800x600 and whenever I start shooting, it drops to around 15 or 20 fps. I have the Catalyst 3.9 drivers installed, and tried the 3.6 drivers as well, but no change. My system configuration is as follows:

GA-7DX+ Motherboard
AMD Duron 1200 Mhz CPU
128 MB Crucial RAM
Sapphire 9700 Pro Video Card
Windows XP

Also, I can barely overclock the card without it overheating. Any suggestions anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MedicBob]

Completely remove all the video card drivers from ATI and reinstall them. Watch out thre is a specific way to install them, something along the lines of not rebooting between installing the drivers and the control panel.

 

[Bistandard]

I removed the drivers completely, reinstalled the drivers and the control panel without restarting in between but it had no effect. Any other ideas?

Bistandard

 

[JimRaynor]

Well, I don't think you can expect a whole lot even with a 9700 pro when other components in your system are gonna hold you back; i.e. your cpu and ram.

 

[poppyq]

I would recommend getting at least another 128 if not more of memory. On another note, in CS what do you have your video mode set to? Software, OpenGL, or Direct3D?

 

[JamminJimmy]

You should have about 512 ram for optimal performance.

 

[Brian48]

CS is not a very graphically intensive game. It stress the CPU much more than the video card. Being built on a modified version of the original Quake 1 engine, it would run well even on a Voodoo2. A Duron 1200mhz is not exactly a trail blazer. I'm not sure I would have invested the money on a 9700 Pro in your given situation. And as mentioned before, 128mb of RAM is rather light for your system. I'd recommend 256mb minimum, 512mb preferred.

Still there has been some issues the HL and it's derivatives with recents driver releases. I'd stop over at Rage3d.com's forum to research this. As I recall, there were a few massive threads regarding HL and CS performance issues. I haven't seen them of late so I assumed the perfomances problems have been resolved.

 

[Mem]

AMD Duron 1200 Mhz CPU= Bottle neck for your 9700Pro,I would recommend something like the XP 2000+ at least to get the most out of it,looking at your board,the homepage says" Supports 500MHz ~ 2000+ and faster " so a cpu upgrade would certainly help a lot.