SLOW Radeon LE: Help!

[Hardmage]

I'm not exactly sure what I am doing wrong, but I just installed a radeon LE into my budget system (replaced an older geforce DDR) and it is very slow... For example, even in a simple game like counterstrike, when people get on screen, the frame-rate crawls at about 27-45... whereas on my old card, no matter what, it never dipped below 60 (1024x768)...I downloaded that "overflow" patch for counterstrike as well...

I have installed the latest drivers, the card has been flashed to "normal" radeon DDR, I have tried overclocked and not overclocked...so uhhh.. I even downloaded a tweaker program sepcifically for Radeons... AGP 4x is working, so is hyperZ...i dunno what is wrong...it SHOULD be running at a minimum 90 fps average, and never dip below 60, like my old card...

System: Duron 950 @ 1000, 256 Ram, Abit KT7a... Never had problems before...I have the via 4in1's installed and updated...latest motherboard Bios...

Any ideas here...? Thanks in advance (I really want to unlock the potential of this card here because now my mini-Lan is useless!!!)

 

[Xtasy]

You need to get the cs ATI patch.

 

[MaskedAvenger]

I'll be the first to ask: did you remove the old video drivers before you installed the 8500? If you don't, then all sorts of bad things can happen. I installed XP on a new hard driver with my 8500 and never had any probs. When I hooked up by old hard drive with Win ME on it (so that I would have a backup system), which still had nvidia drivers on it (from my GF2 pro), I had all sorts of problems.

 

[Hardmage]

Someone just suggested that "trueform" was enabled... and that it was being done in software = slow.. So how do I turn this off if this is the case?

 

[Hardmage]

OK, the old drivers have been completely removed.. (thanks for the suggestion, it is a good one)..

I had already downloaded the counterstrike ATI patch (the "overflow" patch right?)

This is NOT a Radeon 8500, it is the regular Radeon LE flashed to the regular radeon DDR with hyperZ enabled..

I disabled trueform now and the framerates are much better, but still not satisfactory for some reason...They do dip when many people are on screen...but now the lowest is about 45-50 (when more than 4 players are on screen at a time), and it is usually above 90 now...

Is this about right? It still seems a bit slow...My geforce DDR was still a bit faster....though not by much now...

 

[DieHardware]

I've got a similar system. Which OS and driver version are you using? I like runnin' the 7184s on my radeon le/w98se/kt7a/1.2G Athlon rig, seems to run all my games liquid smooth.

 

[Hardmage]

I'm running the 7189's.. are the 7184's supposed to be better? I am also running win98se... Now the card is running at 195/195 no artifacting... But still the frame-rate lag... It must be some queer setting in the config file... I just don't know which ones...

What have you done to your card? Or at least, to your counterstrike? It seems fine elsewhere (other games)

So now it has turned into a counter-strike only problem!!! LOL...

Hehe...any further recommendations are appreciated...thanks in advance..

 

[Xtasy]

Where can i find the radeon ddr bios to flash over my radeon le and also where how can i disable truform? my radeon le is really slow.

 

[Hardmage]

Anandtech itself has a guide on how to flash to the "regular" card... Check it out...

I only disabled truform in Counterstrike... I did it by going through the counterstrike directory in half-life.. and modifying some values in the config.cfg file

set the following values to zero: ati_npatch and ati_subdiv


that is what I did...you can feel and see the difference...but I am still getting low frame-rates for some queer reason here...

 

[DieHardware]

Hardmage are you overclocking the FSB on the kt7a? The reason I asked is when I set the FSB higher than 135 on my kt7a, game play with the Radeon would get chuggy. BTW I never flashed my card, I just used the HyperZ reg hack and overclocked the card with Rad5.

 

[Hardmage]

I actually didn't even unlock my processor because this is a budget system (pity that I have 160 fsb capable ram in there)... So I am running 9.5x105 or something like that... there is a "fsb +" option to force a couple added mhz to the bus or something...that is all....

I was thinking of unlocking it and running maybe 150 or so fsb at a lower multiplier such that it is around 950-1050 in the stable range...but I don't feel like taking the heatsink off.. I am using the alpha pal8045 on this chip, and I'd have to take the mobo out... = a pain in the ass to do! But if I ever need to install something soon, I shall do it...I guess...

I just downloaded some more of those tweaker programs.. they are great!!! oR at least they seem to be great, they improve my frame-rates in other applications...hehe...oh well..

I'll keep on trying here...hehe

 

[oslama]

where is the bios flash to "regular" DDR

i tweaked it @198mhz and enabled hyper Z. ocassionally loose video in dvd & 3d games.

 

[Xtasy]

When u say flash, do u mean bios flash or tweaked? I'm looking for the bios flash as well.

 

[UncleWai]

no no no.....
He must have used Software, He needs to click on OpenGL in Config.-video mode.

I put the radeon le in my friend's system, and he was screaming at me about the crappiness too. that's because the default was at Software.

 

[oslama]

i flashed LE to DDR. i am stably running @200mhz.

picked up bios at radeonfaq.

i also tweak w/ radeon tweaker.


went from 4500 to 5125 on 3dmark99

 

[Xtasy]

Weird, i just flashed my card to the retail 32 mb ddr bios, but the stock speeds are 164? not 183. Also, i was hoping to OC more, but i only get like 4 or 6 mhz more oc.