Graphics Cards and FPS

What is the best spec to use for GP4 ?

AMD XP2800/P4 3.06
ATI RADEON/GeFORCE 4

At the moment I have:

P4 2.53Ghz
512 PC2700 DDR RAM
80GB 7,200rpm HDD
GeForce 4 128mb Ti4800SE, Latest Drivers
PCI 6.1 SS Sound Card
Windows XP Home, all Windows Updates

and all I can pull is 22fps, it hurts bad!

Hope someone can help me!!




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See my specs below. For GP4 we all know the CPU is very important, cos the game uses the CPU more than others. However a post here a while ago got me to switch on x4 anti aliasing and 16x anisotopic filtering with my 9700 pro. The game suddenly became much more beautiful, goodbye jagged edges and the cars started shining beautifully, and my fps stayed the same! Sounds incredible, but it's true. I have fps set at 34 and I have everything maxed including heat haze and so on running at 1280x1024. Watching a trackside race in the rain will drop the fps to 29-30 and then it's back up again to 34.

In getting there I noted two other matters. One thing was my sound card. I changed my old SB 512 pci for an Audigy. This had a big effect on the graphics- there was aproblem with that old card. Secondly I tweaked my bios (adv. chipset). I have not oc-ed my cpu but I have memory settings at turbo. I am happy with the radeon- but if you like to play cmr2 or certain other codemaster games (like racing driver 2) , there are serious problems. Codemasters refuse to do anything about it.

Good luck



Post Edited (08-25-03 08:51)

Larry
AMD 3000+,Epox EP-8RDA,Ram 1536mb 333 DDr, Rad 9800 pro omega 2.4.96, dx9b, Audigy, MOMO FF,winxp

As Larry said, its has a lot to do with cpu. I have posted on this forum earlier with my pc's specs. P4 3.0ghz/800fsb, radeon 9800pro and I believe this is the minimum you will need to run the game at 60fps with everything set to its highest level and maintain cpu occupancy around %100 or less.

mick



P4 3.2ghz/800mhzFSB; XFX 7800GS; 2Gig PC3200(400mhz) DDR; Seagate SATA 10krpm HD x2 ;SB AudigyLS .

AYRTON SENNA: F1's Undying Legend.

@larry m: when you talk about x4 anti aliasing and 16x anisotopic filtering is this stuff just contained within the windows based graphics card properties, and if not how do you adjust these properties

These are in the Radeon control panel. If you have a radeon you should have the same options available. Right click on your desktop. Click on properties. Then click on advanced. There should be a number of leaves to choose from. Choose D3D and you will find the options there.

Other cards support these properties but I do not know how well this works. These settings work fantastically with GP4 but they cut my fps in F1C by 50%! They reduce fps in IL2 Forgotten Battles by a few fps. 5-10, but the game looks even better and its worth it. GP4 seems to be special, I couldn't believe it till I saw it with my own eyes. :-0



Larry
AMD 3000+,Epox EP-8RDA,Ram 1536mb 333 DDr, Rad 9800 pro omega 2.4.96, dx9b, Audigy, MOMO FF,winxp

If you want my advice, hang around for the AMD 64




PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

From what i have heard at work there is no point getting the AMD 64 as it will be years before games are out for it and its only gonna really be for big servers, it will not make current games or progs run any faster and Windows XP will not use it properly either.

Can i just ask you guys i am in a real head spin with what graphics card to choose. I am thinking about a fx5600 but i keep reading that the geforce 4 is still really good compared to these. From what i can see the geforce 4 ti4200 and 4800 ae widely available at sub £120 price. However the fx chips seem more modern and future proof. I am quite confused what they have to offer what would be the best bet i play gp4, flight sims, and shooters mainly. Im looking to spend no more than £120 really. Im posting this cause i cannot find any decent advice on the web in hardware forums the info out is really confusing thanks.

get a radeon 9800pro if u can afford it

Thats around 300 quid bit dear i think. Any more realsitic advice. I think on my budget its gonna be a fx5200 for around 70 quid i can get it. Are there any gf 4 cards that are better than it though for the price? By the way i dont really like ati i have had issues with their cards in the past such as flashing images etc on many games, i tend to prefer nvidia. So fx5200 or a gf4??

Don't forget the quality of the motherboard chipset either. Memory bandwidth of the motherboard chipset can also be a very important performance factor, as well as graphics card and processor.

The key as always is to have a well balanced and reliable system.

ok thanks i was going to make sure of that but please someone which graphics card????

Take the best Radeon you can get for the money available.



Larry
AMD 3000+,Epox EP-8RDA,Ram 1536mb 333 DDr, Rad 9800 pro omega 2.4.96, dx9b, Audigy, MOMO FF,winxp

i said above though i am not interested in a radeon as i have had problems with them in the past. i have thought now of a fx5200 or a g4 of comparable price what is best a gf4 or a fx??

Just to underline i had a radeon not long ago and almost half of my games had flashing textures, missing parts of roads etc in games such as gta3 and project igi 2. They may be good for games such as gp4 but a nightmare all round from my experience. I have not got much money so its nvidia fx5200 or a comparable priced gf4 so please out of these 2 cards what is the difference in the chipsets and what makes the fx more modern and (better????) than the GF4???



Post Edited (08-26-03 10:53)

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sounds like driver problems or maybe Directx?. Maybe you had a faulty card? I have problems only with Codemasters games (CMR2 crashes and Toca RD freezes) and Codemaster won't fix them.

In my Pc my son and I play:
Gp4 (really rocks aa and af included)
F1C, Rally Trophy, Rally Championship, MOHAA, Black Hawk down, Soldier of Fortune 2, IL2 Forgotten Battles (superb game), Medieval Total War, etc. etc.

They all look and perform marvellously. The Radeon 9700pro is the best card I have ever had. I understand your feeling though - "once bitten twice shy"



Post Edited (08-26-03 13:08)

Larry
AMD 3000+,Epox EP-8RDA,Ram 1536mb 333 DDr, Rad 9800 pro omega 2.4.96, dx9b, Audigy, MOMO FF,winxp

Pop over to Tom's hardware guide and do some studying of the Grahics card guide including performance tests of a wide range of graphics cards, plus technical info and advice.


[www.tomshardware.com]

OKAY I WILL LOOK THERE THANKS TO ALL FOR THE ADVICE GIVEN

i ahev just had a look at that site and it has no reference to the fx range of cards. Does anyne have any knowledge of how these perform in relation the the gf4 cards. I can find very little mention of their performance on the web thay are a bit of a mystery to me. Any feedback is appreciated

There is a lot of information on the Geforce FX range at the site mentioned if you look down the lists from the graphics card option on the "toms guides" toolbar on the left. Or just use the on site search engine...!!!

I found these in about 20 seconds

[www17.tomshardware.com]

[www17.tomshardware.com]

[www17.tomshardware.com]

[www17.tomshardware.com]

[www17.tomshardware.com]

plus an older video comparison (Geforce 4 Ti series etc) at this address

[www6.tomshardware.com]


There should be plenty read and advise here....!!!

i also wanted to get the ATI cards but after having driver issues i'm looking towards nVidia for my graphic card

first time it somehow hosed my entire XP, second time got all sorts of funny characters

never had a problem with nVidia...kind of disappointed regarding the driver issues...i have to set stability as a high priority over performance

ATI great hardware and image quality but weak buggy drivers