Graphics Card Question

XFX's warranty system was pretty awful last year (at least for European users), but Sapphire are one of the better brands. Some good coolers too. I've no experience of that one, but their Vapor-X coolers are meant to be pretty damn good.

Well hope it works good, thanks for all your help gav.

Well added the new card and it didn't improve the FPS, also for some reason it will not load the catalyst control center. I click it and the cursor moves like its loading but nothing ever pops up.

Wow, going from a Nvidia 9800 to an HD 6970 with no improvement? Are you sure? I can only assume your CPU is the bottleneck, but I can't think how that would be possible with any cpu from the last few years really. What CPU do you have?
Can't help regarding the CCC I'm afraid, other than suggesting trying an older version (or newer if you installed it from an included disc).

---

Batracer - the online racing manager game - join here [batracer.com]

It added like 2 more FPS to my game, what do you mean by the CPu, not sure what that is?

What is the game?

What is your CPU?

You've just upgraded the graphics card to one that's probably 4 times faster than your previous one.

What's a CPU? Is it the processor or motherboard?

The game is NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, but GP4 doesn't run as good as I would like either.

Plus with the control panel not loading all the cars are jagged and I don't know how else to get the control panel for the card working.

CPU = central processing unit, ie processor (google could have told you that though)

tbh, both Nascar 2003 and GP4 are really old and are not necessarily going to benefit from such a strong graphics card as much as any new games would, but you certainly should notice a significant improvement all the same.

for the catalyst control centre, try uninstalling then reinstalling the latest ATI graphics drivers

---

Batracer - the online racing manager game - join here [batracer.com]

NR2003 should run on the old graphics card with very decent specs.

You don't need CCC to control the anti-aliasing in NR2003 - it has the options in the 3D settings which will be passed through itself.

Still, yes, uninstall all the old drivers, reboot, then install the 11.12 drivers.

Robert the processor is a:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K (2.4GHz /1066 MHz) 8 MB L2 cache; Quad Core (95W)

I replaced the old one which was a:

Core 2 Duo E7500 (W) (2.93GHz /1066 MHz) 3 MB L2 cache; Dual Core (65W)

The other 2 options that were compatible:

Core 2 Duo E8300 (W) DC (2.5GHz /1333 MHz) 4 MB L2 cache; Quad Core (95W)
Pentium E5300 (W) (2.6GHz /800 MHz) 2 MB L2 cache; Dual Core (65W)

I was told that the Q6600 would be the best option.

In the meantime I will try to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, also I have Windows Vista so I don't know if that would cause any issues.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2012 02:51PM by Renault#1Fan.

That would be fine. There's something up with that setup, as though the CPU is getting on, it's still a very strong processor.

I couldn't get control panel to work, but I found can access the feature through the toolbar. Unfortunately I spent all this money to see no improvement. Thanks for your help anyway guys. Gav when you say something with the setup, is there something I can do, should I look into a new motherboard or processor, or just stop and get a new computer.

Well the Q6600 is as gav says still a very good cpu, and you have a suberb graphics card, so there must be something seriously wrong somewhere else, either software or hardware, if you've noticed no improvement. Certainly getting a new computer would be a waste considering the components you've already bought. Could you give the computer's full spec (motherboard, memory, hard drive etc.)? Also, do you have any newer, more graphically intensive games you could test the performance of?

---

Batracer - the online racing manager game - join here [batracer.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2012 06:45PM by Robert.

Quote
Renault#1Fan
Gav when you say something with the setup, is there something I can do, should I look into a new motherboard or processor, or just stop and get a new computer.

Something is probably messed up in the software rather than the hardware. A new motherboard isn't going to make a system faster. The processor you have is more than adequate. Personally I'd make sure all drivers are the latest versions and if not, I'd look at doing a backup and then reinstalling Windows.

The problem with the games you mentioned (NR2003 and GP4) is that they're old games. NR2003 out of the box would run fine, but if you've got the updated addons with their huge textures, I can imagine it would slow the game down. The problem is, modern games don't just have massive textures everywhere, they have other features that the graphics card can process the more efficiently yet achieve better graphics (features such as tessellation).

We used to do endurance races with the GTP addon for NR2003, and people posting their own cars were encouraged to use sensible texture sizes (512x512 or perhaps 1024x1024 rather than 2048x2048). Poor addons or individual cars often use the larger textures and there would be little noticeable difference in game, yet you're still asking the game to process massive textures. It's like trying to hammer in a nail with a sledgehammer.

I can't speak of GP4 as I've not played it for half a decade or so.



So again, I can't recommend upgrading the rest of your system as the chances are you'll see little benefit, but perhaps a clean install of Windows would help, as despite the potential texture issue, your hardware should be able to cope. Make an image of your Windows installation (using Acronis True Image or Easeus Todo Backup Free), reinstall Windows from scratch, install the latest drivers and see if it helps. If it doesn't help, restore the backup you made.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 09:58AM by gav.

Well I tried the game out yesterday and maxed everything out and it ran fine, no skipping or the screen going crazy. I thought it didn't work because the FPS number never got any better than the card before, but the more stuff I added for eye candy, yes the number lowered but unlike the old card I had the game remained stable. So I think its fine. The track that hurts on FPS the most, with 42 other cars infront of me, I start at 32FPS, and it drops to about 18 FPS on the frontstraight so it seems like it should be alright. The old card had the same FPS' number but when it got below 24 FPS the game had issues and I therefore could not max everything out.

In the meantime thanks for your guys help, unlike the HP forum you guys were a really big help.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 03:29PM by Renault#1Fan.

Just have one small question, if I got a new case, can I move all my old part (motherboard, processor, hard drive, PSU, etc.) to that new case or would I have to buy all new parts?

It should all fit fine. Just make sure you get a case big enough to fit your motherboard. A microATX case won't fit an ATX motherboard, but an ATX case would fit a microATX motherboard.

Thanks Gav