new computer problem...

[curtisbouvier]

just upgraded to an A64 3700+ san diego, with 2 GB of crucial ballistix, audigy 2 and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, WINXP Pro with SP2 and latest drivers.

Only problem is i dont really notice any improvement at all in frame rates for games, over my old AMD thunderbird 1.33 ghz with 1gb sd ram... which is what I had before with the radeon 9800...

I'm using an ASrock ULI m1695 mainboard.

any ideas as to what types of frames rates i should be getting in Fear, WoW.

Fear = 4-10 frames a second
wow = 5-10 in some area's 30-40 in some areas

my mainboard had the ram set for 166 instead of 200, for some reason, i changed that to 200.

also had fast writes disabled, i enabled that..

Any ideas?

 

[curtisbouvier]

I also changed the ram from default to , 2-2-2-8, and 2T.
Dunno if that would even do anythin tho lol.

Using Crucial Ballistix PC3200 x4 (512mb)

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Those games are more demanding than a 9800, be more specific. What resolution are you running at? 1280 x 1024 ? Because that video card can't run F.E.A.R @ that or even 1024 x 768 probably.

 

[curtisbouvier]

yea everything set for medium, and 1280x960x32 with 4x AA and 8x AF

 

[curtisbouvier]

how much faster is the X850 XT over the 9800 pro.. and how much faster is the X1800 over the X850 Xt?

 

[JSFLY]

Originally posted by: curtisbouvier
yea everything set for medium, and 1280x960x32 with 4x AA and 8x AF

No wonder your getting 10 fps. Also, I doubt you could get those frames with your old thunderbird.

 

[JSFLY]

Originally posted by: curtisbouvier
how much faster is the X850 XT over the 9800 pro.. and how much faster is the X1800 over the X850 Xt?

in my guestimation: the x850 is 2x as fast as the 9800 pro and the x1800 xt is 1.7x as fast as the x850.

 

[curtisbouvier]

yea i'm starting to think i have a serious bottleneck here with such a powerful CPU. I will have to save up for an X1800 or an X1900, not sure which one but it will be water cooled by my exos. Any recomendations in regards to the 1800 or 1900?

 

[ta8689]

DER! fps is *mostly* dependant on video card. You can attain great fps with an average cpu and a good video card. Not with a good cpu and a slow video card though

 

[Never Knows Best]

Your 9800 is the bottleneck.

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Originally posted by: curtisbouvier
yea everything set for medium, and 1280x960x32 with 4x AA and 8x AF

Wow, you must be a rather wishful thinker to get FEAR to run at those settings on a 9800 Pro. If you're gonna upgrade, get a PCI-E card for sure since your mobo supports it.

1800XT 512MB w/ free Oblivion while supplies last
Very sweet deal IMO

There are a couple 1900xt's just under $400 at the egg as well, but Im a lil bothered by msi and gecube products, but you may not be. The extra $100 or so does justify the performance increase over 1800XT, but an 1800XT will run FEAR and WOW at those settings you have just fine. Your call.

 

[curtisbouvier]

Yea, I agree, Since i'll be paying $100 for the VID-200-L06 water block for the X1800/X1900 serese, I will purchase the ATI X1800 XT. for $598 CDN from Ncix.com