Hi , I might be having a serious problem in which none of my games that uses Direct3D would perform well on my computer. Before I explain my problem here are my computer's specs:

AMD Althlon XP 2000+
Geforce3 Ti 500
512 DDR Ram
Nforce Asus Ultra Mainboard
Windows XP Pro

I have all the latest drivers for every single components in my computer. I am up to date with Direct X 8.1

Here's my problem.. Any games using Direct3D at no matter what video settings will run at low frame rate. My frame rate when playing any Direct3D games will just be extremely unstable. I usually use 1024X786 resolution. I get an average of 20 - 40 frames per second or lower on ANY games using Direct3D. And I would usually get a lot of slow downs in the frame rate. I get slow downs when like I am looking at sceneries that has a lot of stuff. I especially get slow downs during a lot of action in the game such as shooting , explosion ect. My frame rate would usually drop to around 5 - 15 fps when there is a lot of shooting in ANY games using Direct3D. While games using Open GL like Quake3 would maintain a high frame rate of about 150 fps at highest settings, even when there's a lot of things and action going on in the game.

I play games like Deus Ex, Giants : Citizens Kabuto, Operation Flashpoint, or Morrowind. Now my question is , is this normal? Is anyone else experiencing this "problem"? Are Direct3D games suppose to be THIS slow , that the games are almost unplayable? If so why is it that most games uses Direct3D?
Please help me out here... Thank you.

No, that doesn't sound normal, certainly not for Giants : Citizens Kabuto & Operation Flashpoint at least (dunno about morrowwind).
Try downloading this utility http://developer.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=agp_memoryapp
If it says Zero, try installing newer nForce drivers. for now be sure your AGP aperture size is at 64MB, or even 128MB. Also, what FSAA mode are you using? Be sure its set to Off, well, not 4xS anyway.

I get an average of 37 fps in giants: citizen kabuto , how much do you get? And when there is a lot of shooting it would drop to around 10 - 20.


Where do I check my FSAA mode? My Direct3D option only has 2 option for some reason. My AGP apperature size is at 64 MB. I have tried diabling Direct3D acceleration and rebooting and enabling it several times with out luck.

I am quite hopeless here... Please post more suggestions because they could help eliminate the source of the problem. Thank you

Wasper,

What driver are you using (29.20-29.41-29.42?) & how much vid memory does dxdiag.exe say you have? How much does the Ti500 actually have? How many monitors are shown in 'display'? Is the correct monitor being used for the card?

Download 'Riva Tuner' www.guru3d.com & it will allow you to set the FSAA & anisiotropic (sp?) setting. DO NOT adj the "Mipmap LOD bias" setting. Leave it at 0!

You have USB on that comp? Windows has a driver for USB 2.0 & it ups the thru-put by 40x over USB1.1. Go to 'Windows Update' for that & *after* this problem is fixed. Don't want to 'compound' things.

HTH,

I am using the latest nvidia reference driver for video cards which is 28.32 . DxDiag says that the Ti500 has 64MB. Only one , and it is the correct monitor. I have reformatted my computer about 3 - 5 times , shouldn't that have re adjusted all the settings to the correct selection?
USB? What does that have to do anything that implies with my problem?

LNC Papa are you saying that 10 - 15 fps is good? It's almost unplayable! LNC Papa what kind of computer do you have? Is it faster than mine?

Please post more suggestions , I appreciate you guys helping me out.

Papa has an AthlonXP 2100+ on an MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU ( KT333 ) with PC2700 Ram & GF4 4400 -> Papa Machines Specs

Those are damn good specs so when I heard he had bad framerates with Morrowind, I din't expect much from my TI200. Maybe I should start using Liquid nitrogen on it.

In DS, I get an average 40 / 45 FPS with no FSAA & no anisotropic filtering when there's no combat on screen. When there are spells & fires, etc, things can go down to a crawl very easily. I'm using a TI200 OCed at normal GF3 speeds ( 200 / 460 ).

I haven't really taken the time to see how much I get with Morrowind because it's not really the type of game where high FPS is a must ( it does need some optimising though :dead: ). Here's a good thread on how to squeeze the most performance out of it -> The How-To Speed up MW Thread Add your knowledge