Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

I already told...

Anyways, I played BF2 with everything on full, including 1600x1200 and 6x AA.
But I can get up to ahm, well 100 frames max. of course, but it's usually like 50 to 80 or something, and it can get down to the 20's and stuff like that.
Plus the stress is really high, the times between frames can be and usually are in the 30-40's.
The lowest time you can have there is 10.00 or something so...

Like I said, it still shuts down sometimes, only this time not during the built-in overclocking-test.
After which it found the maximum overclock was the best setting.
I didn't see if it went all the way through the 3DMark06 Demo yet, but it's getting low framerates there too.
Again, slightly better than the previous card, but it's not good...

I guess it plays acceptable, even though it still gives some stutters with BF2 on the completely highest settings.
But it's not acceptable that it can't take it and performs not good enough.
And also, I still can't play Rainbow Six Vegas without a problem, which it should also be able to.
Plus, BF2142 is heavier than BF2, except BF2 just stutters more.

Then I doubt it would go well with other games like Colin McRae DiRT, and I don't know... Need For Speed Pro Street will be something new I guess... games like that.
I can try the Demo for DiRT, never tried it with this card...

 

damn man, thats better than my x1950xt!! I play with medium/low and the view on 100%, 1280x960 75hrz and no aa/ff, and i only get around 20-35 on multiplayer!

how are you getting this frames???? 50 or 80???? Thats way better than mine!

I guess you just have to worry about the heat then.... i wish i had your card, because I've got the heat/restarting problems under control...

Did you do anything else to this card differently than your other one?

Also, what system are you running? Maybe yours is better than mine and thats why I get lower frames...

 

Well, you have to know that on the heavier maps and when there are more players the frames will drop drastically here.
I've only played a couple of maps in single-player with 15 bots.
Which are actually heavier on the CPU since they have to be processed by it, but to render 20 to 64 players is another situation.


Your system is already slightly better than mine.
I have a P4 HT 3GHz+, and the plus is because some applications see it as 3.1 or 3.2 sometimes, so at least 3GHz.

Then I originally have 1.5GB of RAM, also PC3200 (at 200MHz).
But like I said before, for some reason there was a stick of a GB of Kingston Value RAM in the box that the store of the card sent.
So I thought I'd just try it out with the extra RAM, so I played with 2GB.
It might have helped just a little bit, but I already had enough.
You don't need much more than you need, just a good speed of RAM and a little extra than you need so the system doesn't get choked up.

The hard drives are pretty mediocre, but I keep good maintenance on them.

What else is there... I keep it as cool as I can.
And I didn't do anything about the card, the cooler was attached right this time, also simply left the standard thermal- ehrm tooth-paste on there.
But the performance was only a little better I found, it's not good.

You shouldn't accept this... I'm not.
But like sammorris said, it's probably because of some technical issue with the high-end specifications trippin' on an AGP.

I wonder if I could get my hands one of those versions on the picture I mentioned, it seems a more standard cooler but I hope they fixed the whole card to work correctly.

 

Btw, also Rainbow Six Vegas was actually worse than BF2 this time unlike with the previous card it was better than BF.

And I also tried the Colin McRae DiRT Demo, and it was on lowest settings at 1024x768.
It was pretty unpleasant to drive, it went OK but too many stutters and low framerates.
It's not satisfying but still this game looks so good, it's surprisingly realistic or good looking on the lowest settings.

I wish I could build a PC by just picking the parts 1 by 1 to get the minimum performance I want.
Like no weak spots and enough upgradeability and no problems with changing anything later.

Too bad I have to put most of my money in my musicians-life, which is even more expensive .
Or I had a couple of thousands to spend right now...
DAMNED EXPENSIVE HIGH-END EQUIPMENT!

 

Hm, for some computer-free-will-reason, today I can only get ok performance at Medium settings or less.

This card does whatever it wants, it's lazy!

 

Which motherboard chipsets do you both use? The heat problems are just shoddy design by Gecube it seems, but the wavering performance is probably chipset bugs, which is why nobody else has made this card.

 

Hm, I'm not sure?...
But this is my exact Motherboard:
http://www.gigabyte.eu/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1759

 

Hmm, with older chipsets it's hard to tell, I've only really kept with the 'which chipset is best' race in the last few months, so although I was interested in building PCs back when those were made, chipset-wise they're a bit before my time.

 

Ok.

I might have another point that could be the problem with someone I know on another forum.
If he tells me what to do about it, I can see if that fixes it.
I'll keep you updated of course.

 

What's he said, out of interest?

 

That it could have trouble with this chip that converts from PCIe to AGP or the other way around.
And adding speed to the AGP-bus might help as he had experienced before with something else.

 

You mean upping the frequency of the bus? I suppose it's something you could try. Hope your BIOS has an auto reset though, because if that causes a problem, you'll need to reset to default settings to make your PC work again, since it's an old motherboard (hence AGP) it may not have such a feature, which will mean you'll need to take the BIOS battery out with the PC unplugged form the mains for about half an hour, then put it back.
If there is a chip specifically to convert from PCIe to AGP, then I see the problem, that chip will need to be ludicrously powerful. Usually the boards should be made to run the bus they are being plugged into!

 

Well, he said he was pretty sure about the things he mentioned.
He has an X1950XTX himself, so the XTX in PCIe.
I know that mine is not an XTX though, as most are deceived by the name 'X1950XT X-Series'.
But I mean, it's pretty similar, I think he's also more into ATi and stuff.

I think the converter is needed, because when I cleaned the core, there was the PCIe-logo engraved on the surface.
So it is, like we actually know, the PCIe-version modified with an AGP-interface.
Could it be this thick piece of silver metal is the converter?
The other guy said the chip would be close to the actual AGP-interface.
But there are a couple of chips so...


I'm not sure if my motherboard has that feature, but it's got a bunch of features.
I know it has Dual BIOS, but that's probably more for if the original BIOS fails that the second identical one backs up for it.

This Motherboard isn't really that old feature-wise I think though.
I mean, I know technology gets old within months these days and even quicker as time goes by.
So while this Motherboard is from 2004, 3 years is a lot for technology.
Only motherboards don't get old as quickly as most other parts do they?
They're probably the most raw thing of all the cards, which you could use for years to come and upgrade with other cards.
Except for maybe cards like audio-cards, which you could use for years longer I guess.


Sooo, do you know how to speed up the bus? lol...
I have almost no clue, I guess in the BIOS again?

 

yeah, you're looking for AGP bus frequency, don't go too mad though, unlike with CPU overclocks, the changes will be quite big (like 33,50,66,100 etc, rather than 303.1, 303.2 etc or whatever)
As for motherboards getting outdated, I'd say they're a little bit better than CPUs, most of the time when you upgrade your CPU, you need a new socket and/or chipset, and therefore new motherboard, but on occasions you can make the change without, one of the most common ones is from an Athlon 64 (say, 3500,3700+) to an X2 (say 4200+,4600+)

 

He said I should add maybe 33-66MHz, what do you think I should go with?


And yeah, that's what I meant, it's usually easier to leave the Motherboard, there doesn't really change much about them, and upgrade the parts that are on the Motherboard.
But yeah, the processor, even though sometimes faster versions of the same technology or series are released, you usually keep it for so long or don't want to spend so much on a slight upgrade that you'll wait until the next generation anyways.
And you'll have to upgrade the Motherboard along with the CPU.

That's how it usually goes here, but I'm skipping the C2D though.
My dad probably won't buy anything for some years since this computer came in end of least year.
And I can't spend too much myself, I'll save up for a... ahm... what's next?
Pentium V 64bit with renewed HyperThreading or something like that lol.
Maybe a motherboard with 32x PCIe?...

 

I doubt much of that. Hyper Threading never really caught on, and 64-bit hasn't, although it probably will eventually.
As for skipping the core 2 duo, it's understandable from a normal user's perspective, but from an enthusiasts' point of view, it's madness!

 

Ok, I *think* my card is working.... It gets decent frames in bf2 now, around 40-50 at 1280x960 and medium/high settings.

Is that ok?

 

That sounds about right.

 

Well, it's not that I get all horny over hardware or anything when there's something new out.
Do I find it kool and exciting to see some new extremely fast CPU or things like that, sure.
But personally I just like games and the convenience of computers in general, how much you can store on it and everything.
Also how it works and everything since I've always been pretty technical and all.

BUT, when you want a computer to work right, and when you want it to do what you need it to do, you will need to know something about it and make it do what you want yourself.
Since I don't have or actually can't spend the money on a computer, I can't keep upgrading every release or generation.

Why I actually skip the C2D too is that I read the next Windows will be 64bit only, and people with C2Ds will be stuck with them.
Sure, the computing maniacs will just upgrade to whatever comes out .
But since I'm not completely one, I'll both conveniently and inconveniently bypass it and wait until I can buy my own computer with Windows Vienna plus a 64bit processor apparently.
IF I can get some kind of deal before that time I might just get a system with a C2D for a while, depends depends...


I understand of HyperThreading that it was never this too big of deal, and only useable or effective in certain applications or situations something like that.
Which btw still makes me wondering if I should turn it off(?)...
But note that I both play games and multitask heavily.

Only, when I researched on HT a bit, I found that they're about to ressurect it or something.
That they'll take the existing HTT and then use the same kind of principle or idea on the next processors.
And also read something about a new Pentium (5) or something.
So that's why I just made up the name 'Pentium V HT' quickly lol.


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Anyways!...


I have a picture of a BIOS-page here:
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u305/DamageIncM/BIOSFrequency-VoltageControlScreens.jpg

As you can see:

CPU Host Clock Control
Memory Frequency For

And when I activate those, the 2 options/lines under each will become editable.
Which are:

CPU Host Frequency (MHz)
(Which I guess I shouldn't mess with since it says CPU.)
AGP/PCI/SRC Fixed
(It says AGP, but I don't know if I change that it will cause trouble with the PCI and SRC.)

Then the next 2:

Memory Frequency (Mhz)
(Looking at the '400' behind it looks like that's for the System RAM?)
AGP/PCI/SRC Frequency (Mhz)
(THAT seems like the one I need, 'AGP' and 'Frequency', but again 'PCI 'and 'SRC' are included, so I don't know if it would mess anything up.)
I did btw see a lot of options opening the last option, hard to pick.

 

You do know that Core 2 Duos are 64-bit right? Besides, given that I still refuse to touch Vista, the next OS will be a long way away for me.

Anyway, the AGP/PCI/SRC frequency seems right, try going one setting up on that.