Problems with nVidia GeForce 6200 card

[Borg20001]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200, with 256M RDRAM and replaced a 64 Meg AGP Geforce 3 Ti-200 card with an Arcade GF 6200 AGP card with 256M video memory with a 128Meg interface.

I had hoped that this would provide a small bump in video performance for my older PC, since it had the DirectX 9 vs. 8 and 256M with a 128M interface vs. the 64 Meg of the GF3 Ti200.

I loaded the latest video drivers from Nvidea's website, but with the older games such as BF 1942 Secret Weapons or BF Vietnam, I get considerable slowdown and studder even at the lowest settings, where as before with the GF3 Ti200, at lease BF 1942 Secret Weapons played well.

Can anyone provide any guidance?

The video card is passive cooled but according to the monitor, it never goes above 55C in core temp.

The Dell only has a 250W psu, but I am not getting any errors that indicate a lack of power.

Can anyone steer me in the right direction as to how to fix this?

Should I just return the 6200 card and chalk it up to lessons learned about teaching an old Dell new tricks?

Thanks,

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Borg20001
I get considerable slowdown and studder even at the lowest settings

The Dell only has a 250W psu, but I am not getting any errors that indicate a lack of power.
Thanks,

That error very well may indicate a lack of power.

Before we attempt that route, what driver revision are you using? What AGP aperture and other settings do you have set in the BIOS?

 

[Borg20001]

AKA,

I am not sure what AGP aperture or other settings I have in the BIOS. I did not make any alterations to those settings myself, unless they occured when I updated the drivers, so the settings are what they were when I originally received the pc from Dell.

As for the drivers, I ran the driver update from nVidia's website for Windows XP/2000 32-bit - ForceWare Release 90
Version: 91.31
Release Date: June 23, 2006
WHQL Certified

If you can let me know how to check those settings, I would greatly appreciate it, then I can get back with better information.

Are there links that can tell me how to check these settings or what settings are germaine to this video card changeover?

Thanks,

 

[Ika]

Try downgrading to the 84.xx drivers. Some people have better performance with those drivers than the new ones.

Your PSU is not at fault - I'm running a 6800NU on a 300W Dell PSU and it's fine. the 6200 consumes even less power so don't worry about that.

also, I'm not sure about the performance of the 6200, so there's always the possibility of the card not being able to handle DX9. I had a 9550 for a short while and DX9 performance was bad enough that I had to switch it down to DX8.

 

[Borg20001]

Thanks Aflac,

I will look around for the 84.XX drivers from nVidia.
(I found nVidia Forceware 84.80 from TweaksRUs and will try that).

Based on all the info on the 6200 cards, I thought that they supported DirectX 9 natively whereas my GF3 Ti200 could only support DirectX 8.

Would I go into the nVidia control panel to change it down from DX9 to DX8?

 

[betasub]

Yes, the 6200 series cards support DX9 features. That doesn't mean they are powerful enough to run DX9 titles at a respectable speed

 

[Acanthus]

Battlefield 1942 is a DX 8.1 title, you dont need to switch any settings in that title.

I would make sure you are not using AA, and what resolution are you running the game at? Is it the same settings you ran on the Geforce 3?

BF Vietnam at high settings consumes more than 512MB of memory, so stuttering would be expected. However, 1942 shouldnt have an issue with 256MB as long as you arent running max settings.

Also is your Geforce 6200 a "turbocache" model? They use your system ram for graphics memory, which could be causing your issue as you would be consuming more memory than you were with the Geforce 3, which has all of its memory stored locally on the card.

Edit: and if you need more memory, prepare to bend over for rambus... Youd be better off getting an entire platform change than buying rambus.

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Battlefield 1942 is a DX 8.1 title, you dont need to switch any settings in that title.

I would make sure you are not using AA, and what resolution are you running the game at? Is it the same settings you ran on the Geforce 3?

BF Vietnam at high settings consumes more than 512MB of memory, so stuttering would be expected. However, 1942 shouldnt have an issue with 256MB as long as you arent running max settings.

Also is your Geforce 6200 a "turbocache" model? They use your system ram for graphics memory, which could be causing your issue as you would be consuming more memory than you were with the Geforce 3, which has all of its memory stored locally on the card.

Edit: and if you need more memory, prepare to bend over for rambus... Youd be better off getting an entire platform change than buying rambus.

Acanthus,

By AA I believe you mean anti-aliasing? And no, I am not using AA. I have the settings for the BF 1942 Secret Weapons the same as I had for the GF3 Ti200, basically just 1024 x 768 resolution and nothing cranked up. As for probs with BF Vietnam, I was afraid that it would come down to RDRAM issues. I'm looking for a cheep fix to get some pre-owned 256M sticks that will get me closer to a Gig in RDRAM.

The GF card that I bought is not Turbocache as far as I can tell, tho it came without any real support literature or specs, but the site on newegg didn't list it as a TC version.

Re: RAMBUS memory, yes, unfortunately, I am only too aware of the cost of upgrades - should have been named RAMBUTT since that's how the prices end up getting you..sigh.

Thanks

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Borg20001

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Battlefield 1942 is a DX 8.1 title, you dont need to switch any settings in that title.

I would make sure you are not using AA, and what resolution are you running the game at? Is it the same settings you ran on the Geforce 3?

BF Vietnam at high settings consumes more than 512MB of memory, so stuttering would be expected. However, 1942 shouldnt have an issue with 256MB as long as you arent running max settings.

Also is your Geforce 6200 a "turbocache" model? They use your system ram for graphics memory, which could be causing your issue as you would be consuming more memory than you were with the Geforce 3, which has all of its memory stored locally on the card.

Edit: and if you need more memory, prepare to bend over for rambus... Youd be better off getting an entire platform change than buying rambus.

Acanthus,

By AA I believe you mean anti-aliasing? And no, I am not using AA. I have the settings for the BF 1942 Secret Weapons the same as I had for the GF3 Ti200, basically just 1024 x 768 resolution and nothing cranked up. As for probs with BF Vietnam, I was afraid that it would come down to RDRAM issues. I'm looking for a cheep fix to get some pre-owned 256M sticks that will get me closer to a Gig in RDRAM.

The GF card that I bought is not Turbocache as far as I can tell, tho it came without any real support literature or specs, but the site on newegg didn't list it as a TC version.

Re: RAMBUS memory, yes, unfortunately, I am only too aware of the cost of upgrades - should have been named RAMBUTT since that's how the prices end up getting you..sigh.

Thanks

Yeah, the whole rambus situation is rather unfortunate...

If it isnt a Turbocache model (with most makers itll have "TC" in the part number) you should be ok as far as memory usage. The easiest way to tell if you are running way over in the memory department is to hit ctrl + alt + delete (this assumes you are using windows 2000/2003/XP) and go to the performance tab. Then just play the game until you experience the stuttering, and alt+tab to minimise the game and check the memory usage.

Whats confusing me is if you are using the same settings and its not a turbocache card, it doesnt make any sense that you are having stuttering issues.

Is it just slow and choppy in general, or is it like sudden freezes during what would be normal gameplay?

The sudden hitches during smooth gameplay indicate memory/caching problems.

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Yeah, the whole rambus situation is rather unfortunate...

If it isnt a Turbocache model (with most makers itll have "TC" in the part number) you should be ok as far as memory usage. The easiest way to tell if you are running way over in the memory department is to hit ctrl + alt + delete (this assumes you are using windows 2000/2003/XP) and go to the performance tab. Then just play the game until you experience the stuttering, and alt+tab to minimise the game and check the memory usage.

Whats confusing me is if you are using the same settings and its not a turbocache card, it doesnt make any sense that you are having stuttering issues.

Is it just slow and choppy in general, or is it like sudden freezes during what would be normal gameplay?

The sudden hitches during smooth gameplay indicate memory/caching problems.[/quote]

Thanks for getting back. That's what I find confusing, is that there shouldn't be a problem but there is.

When we load up BF Secret Weapons, everything is fine (i.e., the opening trailer is fine and the selection menu looks nice - the appearance is crisp and sharp) until you actually select a single play - instant action scenario, and get into the game, then it is choppy from the start and as you progress in the scenario, it will freeze up. We have not tried to go online with it.

I have received a "Virtual Memory is low - resetting Virtual Memory" message after closing up the game one time after it stuttered and then froze up.

 

[Acanthus]

Virtual memory low messages indicate that your swapfile on the hard drive is low on space.

Id free up some space, defrag, and see if that clears it up at all.

I would guess that you have less than 1GB free on the HD with the swapfile on it.

Im still leaning tword you not having enough memory. Either the card is a TC, or something the game autodetects for graphics is set higher than normal.

Edit: The "texture" settings are the ones that consume the most memory, id make sure those are all set to low.

 

[LTC8K6]

Well, the GF3 ti200 appears to have the same memory bandwidth and higher texel fill rate....

The 6200 is AGP, so no turbocache.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Well, the GF3 ti200 appears to have the same memory bandwidth and higher texel fill rate....

Yeah, i already checked that, but the 6200 should be more efficient by a longshot.

 

[blckgrffn]

Anybody else think the poor thing is overheating? Does it have a fan? If so, then you should be fine...

More ram is almost a given, but I wouldn't be surprised if a 6200 didn't offer amazing performance in BF1942 over a GF3ti, it probably has nearly the same guts for that kind of rendering. I thought that BF1942 was mainly DX7, anyway.

Nat

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Virtual memory low messages indicate that your swapfile on the hard drive is low on space.

Id free up some space, defrag, and see if that clears it up at all.

I would guess that you have less than 1GB free on the HD with the swapfile on it.

Im still leaning tword you not having enough memory. Either the card is a TC, or something the game autodetects for graphics is set higher than normal.

Edit: The "texture" settings are the ones that consume the most memory, id make sure those are all set to low.

Hmmm, I know that my HD has several gigs free and I regularly defrag my HD. It is partitioned, but the C: drive which I think is where the virtual memory would be using has at least 10 Gig, out of 85 free, but maybe some more housekeeping is in order. I had previously ran the disk cleaner tool in XP to free up space and remove a bunch of temp files.

Pretty sure the card is not TC (it is officially listed as an Arcade FX GF6200AGP256 GeForce 6200 256MB GDDR2 AGP 4x/8x video card).

I seem to recall in the nVidia control panel (or somewhere) there was a place to fix the settings and mine was set to autodetect from the software or program. Maybe I can reset that to a specific framerate (like 30 fps?) and see if that helps.

I will also recheck the Texture settings and move them lower than they are.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Thx

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
Anybody else think the poor thing is overheating? Does it have a fan? If so, then you should be fine...

More ram is almost a given, but I wouldn't be surprised if a 6200 didn't offer amazing performance in BF1942 over a GF3ti, it probably has nearly the same guts for that kind of rendering. I thought that BF1942 was mainly DX7, anyway.

Nat

Nat,

The memory core temp monitor shows the temp steady at 55 deg. C. Is that hot? The temp monitor program that I found in the nVidia control panel had a preset for performance breakdown once the core temp reached above 145 deg C.

Is 55 deg C too hot?

BTW, the 6200 that I have is the same as my GF3 Ti200, both are fan-less with just a large heatsink on the card.

 

[LTC8K6]

You could run DXDIAG and make sure AGP acceleration is working.

 

[Acanthus]

55C is normal.

And i had just woke up and wasnt thinking, theres no such thing as a Turbocache AGP card if i recall correctly, so that certainly isnt it.

If you have that much space free, seeing a virtual memory message of any kind is indicative of some kind of problem.

And nat is right, its mostly a DX7 level game for graphics, with some 8.1 stuff slapped in later on. A 6200 should run the game well at low settings, better than a Ti200 for sure.

From the sound of it the game never runs smoothly... Can you hear the HD thrashing the whole time you are playing?

Could you on the Geforce 3?

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
You could run DXDIAG and make sure AGP acceleration is working.

Yup, I ran DXDIAG and the Direct Draw as well as 3D imaging were working correctly based on the tests the program ran.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

agp 6200 with the 128 bit bus....shouldn;t this unlock to 8 pipes? I'm sure doubling the "power" of the card can't hurt

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
55C is normal.

And i had just woke up and wasnt thinking, theres no such thing as a Turbocache AGP card if i recall correctly, so that certainly isnt it.

If you have that much space free, seeing a virtual memory message of any kind is indicative of some kind of problem.

And nat is right, its mostly a DX7 level game for graphics, with some 8.1 stuff slapped in later on. A 6200 should run the game well at low settings, better than a Ti200 for sure.

From the sound of it the game never runs smoothly... Can you hear the HD thrashing the whole time you are playing?

Could you on the Geforce 3?

Acanthus, actually the game ran pretty smoothly with the GF3Ti200 card before. did not hear much grinding from the HD as I recall, though in some areas, when lots of bots were generated, it did stutter and slow down a bit, but it never froze like this one does to the best of my knowledge.

When I run BF SW and it freezes, I don't think I hear the HD thrashing about, but I am not really sure I remember - one more thing to check out tonight.

When I first installed the card, before adding in the 91.30 drivers from nVidia, I tried Halo and it seemed to run fine without any pauses. It was also running fine with the old GF3Ti200 card in it before so not sure if Halo is a good testing program for this. Have not tried to run Halo since I installed the 91.30 drivers.

I probably will install the 84.80 drivers to see if that helps out tonight.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Looks like all the issues people have suggested have checked out.

Look into your swap file and make sure it has sufficient space. If possible, you can put it on a different hard disk.

To eliminate software issues, I would clean out the drivers and do a fresh install. Here is what I would do for that:

*Download & install DriverCleaner
*Uninstall NVIDIA drivers.
*Reboot into Safe Mode.
*Run DriverCleaner and clean out NVIDIA drivers. Also use the CAB Cleaner function to clean the Drivers.cab and SP2.cab files.
*Reboot and install latest NVIDIA drivers.

If that doesn't fix it, we can go from there.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, please install the older drivers and let us know how it goes I am really pulling for this easy fix!

The 6200 should play the game decently... I haven't played it on less than a 9500 Pro recently, and that card ran it without much issue @ crazy high settings w/AA&AF.

Actually, a buddy of mine was just running it on a 9200 for a long time, then went up to a 5700 256 meg. Nice big improvement, could use a little AA and a lot of AF without issue. On that 6200 you should be seeing similar results with AF basically coming free.

Good luck!

Nat

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Looks like all the issues people have suggested have checked out.

Look into your swap file and make sure it has sufficient space. If possible, you can put it on a different hard disk.

To eliminate software issues, I would clean out the drivers and do a fresh install. Here is what I would do for that:

*Download & install DriverCleaner
*Uninstall NVIDIA drivers.
*Reboot into Safe Mode.
*Run DriverCleaner and clean out NVIDIA drivers. Also use the CAB Cleaner function to clean the Drivers.cab and SP2.cab files.
*Reboot and install latest NVIDIA drivers.

If that doesn't fix it, we can go from there.

OK, I will work on a clean reinstall of the 84.80 nvidia drivers by following the instructions on DriverCleaner Pro 1.5.

As you suggest, I'll try installing DriverCleaner, uninstalling nVidia drivers and reboot in Safe Mode. Then run DriverCleaner and Cab Cleaner functions, then rebooting and installing the 84.80 nVidia drivers.

Thanks for the input and suggestions. I'll let you know what happens.

In the meantime, if anyone else has any suggstions, I'd like to hear them.

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
agp 6200 with the 128 bit bus....shouldn;t this unlock to 8 pipes? I'm sure doubling the "power" of the card can't hurt

I thought of this, but it has to be the 43 version and they are rare these days. This one is the 44 version I believe with no pipes available to unlock so I'm stuck with the 4 pipes only.