What's wrong with my 9800Pro?

[fwtong]

Although I'm not a huge fan of Doom 3, using it as benchmarking platform for future games based on Doom 3 is pretty useful. So far, on timedemo 1, i've only gotten about 32 fps on the following settings:

High Quality 1024x768
High Quality 800x600
Medium Quality 1024x768

Since all three settings are about the same, 32 fps, is there something wrong with my 9800Pro, because I've seen benchmarks using 9800Pros getting framerates of about 40fps. My cpu is an AMD2400, and on Anandtech's Doom 3 CPU guide, the AMD2400 was getting framerates of about 40fps with a 6800GT. Since the 6800GT is CPU limited by the AMD2400, I was hoping to get about 40fps with my 9800Pro.

 

[Bucksnort]

I assume that you have a 266 fsb? Thats much of the reason. How much ram u have, u didnt give much info. To make the game smoother, in the advanced system settings menu of game change v sync to yes. Next open your ati control panel and in the gl part set v sync to default off then clik on the compatability button and enable triple buffering.

 

[fwtong]

Originally posted by: Bucksnort
I assume that you have a 266 fsb? Thats much of the reason. How much ram u have, u didnt give much info. To make the game smoother, in the advanced system settings menu of game change v sync to yes. Next open your ati control panel and in the gl part set v sync to default off then clik on the compatability button and enable triple buffering.

Sorry for not giving out my rig info:
1GB Ram
CPU: AMDXP2400+, running about 2200 (15*147)
Mobo: AN35N-400
Video Card: ATI 9800Pro 128, overclocked to XT speeds
Driver: Omega 4.8

I went into the control panel and changed the opengl to optimal performance and squeezed out an extra 5fps, to about 37fps. Anything else I can do to squeeze out a little more fps?

Thanks

 

[Manzelle]

That seems about right...I have a 9800 Pro (overclocked to 450/780) and I only get 50-51fps on those settings (1024x768 (Ultra, High)...
I am also running an Athlon XP @ 2.366GHz (206x11.5) and 1GB Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO with the Catalyst 4.9 drivers...all on an Epox 8RDA3+

 

[Viper96720]

your cpu is limiting you some

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: fwtong
Although I'm not a huge fan of Doom 3, using it as benchmarking platform for future games based on Doom 3 is pretty useful. So far, on timedemo 1, i've only gotten about 32 fps on the following settings:

High Quality 1024x768
High Quality 800x600
Medium Quality 1024x768

Since all three settings are about the same, 32 fps, is there something wrong with my 9800Pro, because I've seen benchmarks using 9800Pros getting framerates of about 40fps. My cpu is an AMD2400, and on Anandtech's Doom 3 CPU guide, the AMD2400 was getting framerates of about 40fps with a 6800GT. Since the 6800GT is CPU limited by the AMD2400, I was hoping to get about 40fps with my 9800Pro.

^That is not how CPU limiting works, not exactly. Just because a 6800GT gets 40fps on a 2400+ doesn't mean that a 9800 Pro will get 40fps also - it isn't entirely CPU limited and it's not an exact, all or nothing cutoff by having a slower CPU.

With that said, it's a moot point anyways because you said in your next post that you are running at 2.2 Ghz, well above the 2400+'s rated speed of 2.0 Ghz.

The other thing you should try is the "cachemegs" change - it will probably give you a big boost if you're getting mysteriously low framerates now. Go into your Doom 3\base directory and find the file called "DoomConfig.cfg" and open it with notepad or wordpad.

Find the line that says seta image_cacheMegs "XX" (it will probably be set to 20 or 32 megs)

Change that setting (in the quotes) to 256 or 384 to give Doom3 a lot more memory (since you've got a gig of memory, either will be a huge improvement). This *should* give you a nice boost in D3 - it seems to have helped a lot for me.

Best of luck!

 

[fwtong]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: fwtong
Although I'm not a huge fan of Doom 3, using it as benchmarking platform for future games based on Doom 3 is pretty useful. So far, on timedemo 1, i've only gotten about 32 fps on the following settings:

High Quality 1024x768
High Quality 800x600
Medium Quality 1024x768

Since all three settings are about the same, 32 fps, is there something wrong with my 9800Pro, because I've seen benchmarks using 9800Pros getting framerates of about 40fps. My cpu is an AMD2400, and on Anandtech's Doom 3 CPU guide, the AMD2400 was getting framerates of about 40fps with a 6800GT. Since the 6800GT is CPU limited by the AMD2400, I was hoping to get about 40fps with my 9800Pro.

^That is not how CPU limiting works, not exactly. Just because a 6800GT gets 40fps on a 2400+ doesn't mean that a 9800 Pro will get 40fps also - it isn't entirely CPU limited and it's not an exact, all or nothing cutoff by having a slower CPU.

With that said, it's a moot point anyways because you said in your next post that you are running at 2.2 Ghz, well above the 2400+'s rated speed of 2.0 Ghz.

The other thing you should try is the "cachemegs" change - it will probably give you a big boost if you're getting mysteriously low framerates now. Go into your Doom 3\base directory and find the file called "DoomConfig.cfg" and open it with notepad or wordpad.

Find the line that says seta image_cacheMegs "XX" (it will probably be set to 20 or 32 megs)

Change that setting (in the quotes) to 256 or 384 to give Doom3 a lot more memory (since you've got a gig of memory, either will be a huge improvement). This *should* give you a nice boost in D3 - it seems to have helped a lot for me.

Best of luck!

I did change the cachemeg setting to 384, and I'm up to 38 fps in the timedemo. I'm still getting bad framerates in shootouts, drops down to 7 according to FRAPS. Is this all I can get out of my system running at HQ at 1024x768?

 

[Bucksnort]

I have 2400+ 1 gig pc2100, 9800p no oc's and i get 37. I made my game play smooth as silk by doing this:
Again, in the advanced system settings menu of game change v sync to yes. Next open your ati control panel and in the gl part set v sync to default off then clik on the compatability button and enable triple buffering.
Increasing cache megs alone does nothing, you need to change all these to this setting:
seta image_useCache "1"
seta image_cacheMegs "256"
seta image_cacheMinK "20480"
After making these changes you should have a fluid smooth gameplay, do not go by fps reading in timedemo, go by how the game plays!

 

[Keysplayr]

Go here and see if there is a system that closely matches yours for a comparison.

 

[fwtong]

I've done all the suggested tweaks, and managed to get within 5-6 fps of Anandtech's Doom3 Graphics Benchmarks based ont he timedemo demo1. Overall, the game is much more playable now, and it looks like my current rig will be able to handle Doom 3 based games in the near future, and I won't have to do any massive upgrading soon. I'm going to try to overclock my 9800Pro a little and hopefully I can squeeze a little more performance. After, that's why I have a VGA Cooler.

 

[Todd33]

Run "timedemo demo1 1", don't leave out that last one, it pre-caches the level.

 

[memories2002]

is there a way to precache a level, while playing? other than load it, then reload it manually?