9800 XT & Athlon XP 2400+

13-07-2005, 11:42

Ok If any of you saw my other thread (the Athlon XP 3200+ with PC2700 memory one) I was going to get an Athlon Xp 3200+ to speed up my memory, but it may look like I need it for my 9800 XT graphics card instead

I've had this 9800 XT since yesterday, and I'm positive it's not running as fast as it should be. With everything set to full in UT2004, 1024x768 or 1280x1024 my frame keeps dropping to about 10-40 in almost all Onslaught maps, Half-Life 2 gets quite a bit of frame drops like my 8500LE did too. Medal of Honor with everything at full and at 1280x1024 my frame keeps dropping to 20-40, so something can't be right here

I've heard all 3 of those games depend quite a bit on the CPU, which is why I have tested Halo at 1024x768 with everything turned on and at max (I was told Halo wasn't CPU intensive) and Halo seems to run with a frame well over 60 almost ALL the time, even the fact that Halo PC has a crap coded graphics engine and on my 8500LE it used to get a frame of 20 at the same resolution, with some of the graphics settings turned off.

My question is, would getting an Athlon XP 3200+ help these frame problems? I've got an Athlon XP 2400+ (T-bred core) at the moment.

I get the following scores on 3DMark03:

3DMark score: 6075
CPU score: Very slightly over 400

Thanks

Mauldor · 13-07-2005, 12:08

Can you remind me how much RAM you have please (As I missed your other thread). I can semi compare some numbers for you though:

Athlon 2600 TB Core, 1 GIG Ram, ABIT NFS Board, ATI 9600 XT 256Meg ram

I always run all games (apart from Battlefield 2) at 1280x1024 with everything set pretty much High and I have not seen any lost frames when I play. My Games though don;t quite match yours but the one's I play are:

MOHAA Breakthrough/Spearhead
Call of Duty
Call of Duty United Offensive
FarCry
Halo
Battlefield 2 - this I can run @ 1024x768 with everything set to Med some High.

Personally I would step into the World of 64Bit chips but this would mean replacing everything you have, well Motherboard, CPU and Gfx card anyhow.

13-07-2005, 12:31

I've got 1.28GB PC2700 memory, and I don't want to go 64-bit yet as there isn't much point, and I'm hopefully going 64 next year any way.

Bifta · 13-07-2005, 12:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauldor

Personally I would step into the World of 64Bit chips but this would mean replacing everything you have, well Motherboard, CPU and Gfx card anyhow.

No it wouldn't, there are plenty of S939 and 754 AGP boards.

13-07-2005, 13:11

I'm really starting to get sick of this now, even running UT2004/Half-Life 2/Medal of Honor in settings LOWER than I had with my 8500LE it's still giving me frame drops

Nemesis · 13-07-2005, 13:16

I told you the 8500 was good

13-07-2005, 13:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon M

I told you the 8500 was good

I've actually just been told by someone that my CPU is the problem. It's too slow to run the 9800 XT, so I'm gonna order an Athlon XP 3200+ this week.

Aragorn · 13-07-2005, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

I've actually just been told by someone that my CPU is the problem. It's too slow to run the 9800 XT, so I'm gonna order an Athlon XP 3200+ this week.

Are you sure your mobo supports the 3200? If the 2400 was top dog at the time you bought the mobo it may not support the clock speed of the 3200 !

13-07-2005, 13:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Are you sure your mobo supports the 3200? If the 2400 was top dog at the time you bought the mobo it may not support the clock speed of the 3200 !

I've got an Asus A7V600-X motherboard, it supports all Athlon XP, Duron, and Sempron

Aragorn · 13-07-2005, 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

I've got an Asus A7V600-X motherboard, it supports all Athlon XP, Duron, and Sempron

Glad to hear it

jtwn · 13-07-2005, 16:51

R350/R360 cores are destroyed by AA over 2x in detailed games nowadays, aswell as AF over 8x turn it down or turn it off.

Nvidias new offerings overcome this and higher resolution fps drops, so hopefully its just a new generation thing across the entire board.

13-07-2005, 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtwn

R350/R360 cores are destroyed by AA over 2x in detailed games nowadays, aswell as AF over 8x turn it down or turn it off.

Nvidias new offerings overcome this and higher resolution fps drops, so hopefully its just a new generation thing across the entire board.

I always leave AA and AF off, I've got a TFT monitor so it's good quality anyway

jtwn · 13-07-2005, 17:56

You mean all that jaggedness is blurred because its a tft

13-07-2005, 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtwn

You mean all that jaggedness is blurred because its a tft

AndrewJ · 13-07-2005, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtwn

You mean all that jaggedness is blurred because its a tft

Eh?

I love gaming on my tft definatly a improvement on a crt, although the top end CRT's are very good.

Also love my X700 Pro Pci-e