ATI 64MB not performing as it should

[mikelias]

Hi,

I'm wondering if you guys can help my frustration with my video card. Here's my complaints:
1. On regular application, graphics seems a bit "jagged" on the edges.
2. In playing Medal of Honor Allied Assault (MOHAA), performance is poor despite lowest setting: it lags and backgrounds that are far are "misty"/colored grey.
3. In playing CS, the performance is also relatively poor, even though the lag is not as bad as playing MOHAA.

My spec is currently:
Dell P3 500MHz
700+Mb SDRAM
Win XP Pro
ATI 64MB VIVO (with latest driver installed)
2 Gig free diskspace (out of 9 Gig)

I think the spec is pretty decent for those two relatively old games, so I don't understand why they suffer the problems described....

I'm desperate! Please help, I'd appreciate any theories and suggestions on what to do, even if it means overclocking as last resort.

Thank you!

mike

 

[Nic]

Sorry to spoil the illusion, but your system specs just aren't up to the job. You need a faster PC. MOHAA is jerky even with a 1.3GHZ Athlon and a GeForce2 Ti that I have. It plays fine on my Athlon 3200+ with ATI 9600 Pro.

 

[agissi]

Originally posted by Nic
plays fine on my Athlon 3200+ with ATI 9600 Pro.

rotf, Nic - Take it easy on the newbie!

btw its your CPU man.. 500MHz wont cut the job, however I do appraise you for having a Pentium3 and not a Celeron Problem is with getting a new CPU, it means you need a new motherboard! Which means you need new ram!!

However maybe its time for all that?

 

[Nic]

He also didn't specify his card model, but I suspect it is a Radeon 9000, which is a budget card, though it should be *OK* (not fast) when coupled with a fast CPU.

I hope I didn't come across as rude, as I was just getting straight to the point, and putting things in perspective. I don't see any reason to confuse the guy with side-stepping statements. Besides, you pretty much said the same thing (new PC), but not in a clear way, so he'll probably be just as confused as before :=).

PS: I'll try and be a little more gentle next time.

Overclocking is an option, but I'm not sure it'll be enough to get smooth gameplay. MOHAA is pretty unforgiving on slow hardware.

 

[PreservedSwine]

I'd bet that's an original RADEON 64DDR VIVO, basically a RADEON 7200 by todays nomenclature.

It's a decent card, the VIVO is a very cool feature (love to watch TV while browsing the web, used my vcr as a tuner), but w/ a PIII500, nothing will run very quick...(I used to have a PIII500 AND RADEON64DDR VIVO as well!)

Run your games w/ little detail, 800x600, NO FSAA, but MAX OUT the Anisotropic filtering. It's "free" on the RADEON64DDR VIVO. If you don't want to upgrade, it will continue to play games, but w/out much (any) eye candy, and get used to the occasional stutter and laggy play in heavy firefights.....

I agree, if gaming is your thing, a new mobo, RAM, PSU, and Video card (GPU) are in order.

Good luck

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Originally posted by mikelias
1. On regular application, graphics seems a bit "jagged" on the edges.
2. In playing Medal of Honor Allied Assault (MOHAA), performance is poor despite lowest setting: it lags and backgrounds that are far are "misty"/colored grey.

Would it be possible to see a screenshot of this?

I think the spec is pretty decent for those two relatively old games

I think so too. It's just that different users have different opinions on what's "poor" performance - some might say poor if MOH:AA runs less than 30 fps, others less than 3 fps

I'd appreciate any theories and suggestions on what to do, even if it means overclocking as last resort.

In this case overclocking the CPU could help quite a bit, as it seems to be the bottleneck (with gfx card, possibly). I also know what some other forum members think about suggesting this to newcomers :giddy:

 

[mikelias]

First of all, let me just say huge thanks to all of you who have replied. Even though the solutions will not be a quick (and cheap) fix, I sincerely appreciate your thoughts (and no you're not being rude, Nic...=))

The ATI 64DDR VIVO (AGP) card that I have does not specify what series it is. The best way I can show it to you is via ati's website http://ati.com/products/radeon/radeon64ddr/index.html

What I get from the replies are the following:
1. MOHAA is a resource intensive game, and
2. My P3 500Mhz (and probably my ATI card as well) is not powerful enough to have a smooth game, therefore
3. I need to seriously consider upgrading my computer.

I know that I don't think I'll do overclocking, as I can't afford to do a purchase/ugprade if my chip blows up...=) But what I'll do for now is try playing around with the card's setting.

One more concern though: Does having 700+MB SDRAM bad? Because I read somewhere that having too much memory can slow down processing time. Is that true?

Also, I notice that a lot of 3d gamers tend to use AMD instead Pentium chips. Is that decision have any merit based on AMD's superiority over P, or is it just subjective?

 

[Nic]

Originally posted by mikelias
Does having 700+MB SDRAM bad?

No. It won't make much difference in your case. Better to have more than less.

Originally posted by mikelias
Also, I notice that a lot of 3d gamers tend to use AMD instead Pentium chips. Is that decision have any merit based on AMD's superiority over P, or is it just subjective?

AMD chips are much cheaper for a given performance rating. AMD Athlon 64 bit chips are now the market leaders for performance.

Your current PC is fine for most older games, but try and keep to games from around 2000 or earlier (if its action games your playing).