Radeon 9800 tweaking advice needed

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Graphics Newbie - Please Help graphics Experts !!

I bought a Dell Dimesnsion 8300 w/ P4 2.6 ghz and 512 ram. This system has a ATI Radeon 9800 card with it. Iknow after fact, I should bought 9800PRO.

Here's the deal, I've been playing MOHAA and now Call of Duty. This game is great and is all I'll ever play now. I'd like to start playing around with graphics and changing some of the different features on ATI cards.

Here's my questions :

1) Are there sites that explain OR BETTER YET show what all the graphics features are ? Anistropic filtering etc...Maybe this one but I need to look better ??

2) I know the fastest frame rate is the best right ?? or not ?? I've been monitoring COD frame rate ?? What's considered good ?? The fastest ?? I'm running high 60's down to mid-30's. It all looks good to my eye :)) What can i expect with my setup ??

3) Anyody have a site that list console commands for COD?? When I extend the frame rate maximum on the console ? Will that hurt my software or hardware ??

Finally, bottom line is I'm looking for more tech info on graphics cards and games. I admit I haven't looked through forum here and that may do it.

Please help and I thank you in advance..

COD rocks .... Kev
 
Re: Graphics Newbie - Please Help graphics Experts !!

Originally posted by Curado Kev
2) I know the fastest frame rate is the best right ?? or not ?? I've been monitoring COD frame rate ?? What's considered good ?? The fastest ?? I'm running high 60's down to mid-30's. It all looks good to my eye :)) What can i expect with my setup ??

For some, the fastest frame rate is all that matters, whereas for others quality counts more...

From the fps (frames per second) you get, it would seem you like quality... And as long as you don't get tired by playing, feel it's flickering, then by all means keep your settings...
But if you feel you get a slight headache, or get tired, try decreasing your settings (FSAA and AF) a wee bit and see if that doesn't help...
Or just maybe see if you can't set your refresh rate for the games resolution a bit higher (75+ is good imo)

Originally posted by Curado Kev
3) Anyody have a site that list console commands for COD?? When I extend the frame rate maximum on the console ? Will that hurt my software or hardware ??

Extending the max frame rate in the console won't hurt either your hardware or software...

The hardware will try to achieve the max fps, but if it can't, it won't... It doesn't hurt itself by trying.

Note: If you extend the frame rate over your refresh rate, you won't achieve those speeds unless you disabled vsync... This can either be done in-game (dunno about COD), or through the ATI control panel (desktop->properties->settings->advanced-> d3d&ogl settings)..

Originally posted by Curado Kev
Finally, bottom line is I'm looking for more tech info on graphics cards and games. I admit I haven't looked through forum here and that may do it.

You'll find plenty of info about the cards here, and you could allways check out a couple of reviews around the net (aside from this site, Beyond3D is a good site for a technical review you can count on.)
If you want an even more in-depth technical discussion about the features of the card, I suggest browsing through the forums of Beyond3D, as they are dedicated to 3d hardware... But beware, the discussions often get highly technical and hard to understand unless you know the lingo...


Hope this helps :)
 
WOW !! Thnaks for quick replys...

All right , thanks for information...One more thing ...

I imagine there are different type of benchmark programs for testing my ATI Card.

Does ATI have one ?? Or is there one available for ATI cards to check my system under different card settings ??

I'm sure this is newbie stuff ...

Thanks again Kev
 
Re: WOW !! Thnaks for quick replys...

Originally posted by Curado Kev
All right , thanks for information...One more thing ...
[/qutoe]

No problem :)

Originally posted by Curado Kev
I imagine there are different type of benchmark programs for testing my ATI Card.

Yes, there are plenty out there... And most of them has a free/trial version you can use...

Futuremark has 3dmark 2001SE and 3dmark03 which are quite good benchmark, as long as you remember they are synthetic and not a pure game benchmark...

Aquamark3 is the newest benchmark available (afaik)... It's a synthetic/real life benchmark, meaning that it is based upon a real engine, but still isn't a playable game...

These are some of the most popular free benchmarks... There are plenty of others on the market, but you can find those by searching for "3d benchmark" and "download" on google...

Originally posted by Curado Kev
Does ATI have one ?? Or is there one available for ATI cards to check my system under different card settings ??

I don't quite follow you here...
ATi has not, nor will they (most likely) release a 3d benchmark, as no-one would belive the results...
They have released quite a few demos for their cards, which you can find here...

And to test the different settings, write down the settings you are using now, run the/several benchmark/s and write down the result. Now change the settings and try again...
This is a big hassle, so I would advice against it, and instead just use the highest settings you feel give you enough speed when you play a game...

.02$
 
Thanks alot...

Mr. G.,

Thanks for the replies...

I actually ran The Aqua benchmark a month ago and got around 27,000 a couple of times but the demo doesn't won't let me turn up some of the settings.

Anyways, after playing around with Call of Duty lastnight watching the frame rate and changing options. I basically concluded what you said " If the game looks good and plays well, who cares about benchmark?"

With my ATI 9800 turned up AGP=8x, AA=6x,AF=10x (numbers may be switched,can't remember) and everything on COD to the extreme except my models are high not extreme. With my resolution at max for 17' LCD at 1280x1024, the game plays great at around 60-70 FPS. To be honest with you , it looks so good. I probably could cut back on half of the options and it would still look good. But I'm not a graphics expert, I just know it looks good to me.

I conluded with 3dmark and associated forums, that scores are great to brag about, but I'm not into overclocking and cooling. So why bother ?? I'm just a recreational gamer and don't feel like burning up my Dell Dimension 8300 after only having it 3 months.

I put money towards fishing gear, last thing I need to do is burn up my computer. But everybody has their passions and priorites, some computers and in my case playing Call of Duty. :))

Thanks Again, Kev
 
I downloaded the new nvidia drivers from the site for my fx 5200, to put it simply, they were crap. After installing them (they were definately the relevent drivers) my games, which worked faultlessly beforehand started jumping like hell and the screen flickered ect. So i just installed an older driver, which is a bit poo, but does the job, do any of you lot know why this happened? I might of read somthing on it that said the new driver used program patterns or somthing to make it perfom better, could this of altered my gaming quality?
 
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