I want to upgrade my graphics card from GeForce 6600

[GhostRyder]

"Canned air", and, "electrical contact cleaner" are two entirely different things ."Electrical contact is a chloroflourocarbon FLUID, and the "air" is well, just that, a can full of air, (albeit compressed).

And yes, that's what they meant by "blow"!

I have a 5 HP air compressor in my living room. Which BTW, I blow the dlckens out of just about everything in sight, tires, spray guns, DA sanders, and last but not least, the insides of computers.. But, by all accounts, I am quite eccentric.

Yeah well, it was at least that embarrassing for me. I treid to stuff the PCI-E video card in the PCI slot, and it actually took me a couple of minutes to figure out why the hell the VGA monitor socket was pointing toward the inside the machine.

On a lighter note. Those were the days of Bestec OEM PSUs, (usually no more than 300 watts, (on a good day, if that). And video cards sucked way more volts per FLOP, or whatever you want to call that. "Amps per FLOP", maybe? So, by sacking the add in graphics card socket, manufacturers circumvented an almost certain warranty claim on their crappy PSUs.

0.o, I didnt know it could fit that way lol! Yeah I remember those days, my Dell had the most stripped down PSU I have ever seen, literally no room for expandability without buying splitters/adapters.

 

[captaincranky]

In China you'd be less eccentric than paramedic

I saw that story on the TV news. I wonder if a paramedic or policeman in China fares as well with respect to wages, as an employee of Foxconn. That would serve to explain the "excellence" and "professionalism" with which they acquit their chosen careers.

If I were there, I'd have rushed in and blowed the doll up real good. And a good time would have been had by all. Although the average sex doll would be pretty scuzzy by about sloppy tenths, let alone sloppy eighteenths. And no way to clean her up either, as her douche bag probably floated downstream with her purse.

Is this off topic... ?

 

[Jonat]

Hey Jonat. Your settings screen is set as low as it can go, with the exception of your resolution. If you make this lower, the game will run a LOT smoother.

However, it may also look funny on your screen.

Make sure to choose the correct aspect ratio for your monitor: 1920x1080 = 1280x720 = 16:9, etc.

I think my screen res is 1280 x 1024, so will making it the lowest res on there make lagging better?[CENTER][SIZE=55px][FONT=Trebuchet MS][/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER][SIZE=55px][/size]

 

[captaincranky]

1280 x 1024 is an old and odd aspect ratio It's 5:4

The lower aspect ratio of old monitors, 1024 x 768 is 4:3

So you're pretty much stuck where you are, at least without pulling or stretching the images.

The custom resolution of 960 x 768 would work (4:5 or 1.25:1.00). That's a whole less pixels for the card to process.

I expect it would depend on whether you could convince the video driver control panel to display it for you.

 

[Jonat]

800x600
1024x768
1152x864
1280x720
1280x768
1280x800
1280x960
1280x1024

are the games options, which should I pick - should I just go for the lowest?

I guess 1024 x 768 - how do you do custom res?

 

[GhostRyder]

I would say to try that resolution and see what happens, dropping it by that much should make the game alot smoother. Like captaincranky said above, the less pixels your system has to process, the better the game will run.

 

[captaincranky]

Part of this will depend on how the video card decides to display the lower resolution.

If it puts everything up full screen, you're kinda screwed, because then none of the resolutions comes close to 5:4 aspect ratio.

If it puts the game up with black bars like you would get with a movie of a different aspect than the TV, you're gold.

For example, a "CinemaScope" movie, (2.35:1:00) will display with black bars above and below the picture area when used with a standard 16:9 TV.

None of those available game resolutions are 5:4.

If the video card doesn't scale them with black spacer bars, then you're going to get some distortion in the image..

In any event, (and keep in mind this is a guess), I'm going to say you would need to drop the longest pixel dimension, (1280 on your screen), by 25% to get a satisfactory bump in frame rate.

1280 x 1024 = 1.3 megapixels in the display. 960 x 768 (75% res) = 737,000 pixels in display, which would give you a good bump in speed.

Do you understand the math and concepts I'm using here?

EDIT: If the CPU is what's bottle necking the system, all bets are off on there being an improvement with lower screen resolution.

 

[St1ckM4n]

EDIT: If the CPU is what's bottle necking the system, all bets are off on there being an improvement with lower screen resolution.

It pretty much boils down to this. Choose 800x600, see if the game is playable.

 

[Jonat]

Thanks captaincranky I'll re-read your posts

for 960 x 768 - the option isn't there on the game settings, so how would I change the game res to that or is that not possible with my screen?

'wait for v sync' - disable 'Windows Aero theme' were other options I didn't understand

and I guess lock to 30fps would be safe?

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm willing to bet it is the P4 causing the issue. If so, changing the screen resolution will hardly make a difference.

 

[St1ckM4n]

V-sync - nope, this hurts performance

Windows Aero - disable this. Also download something like this. It shuts down unnecessary stuff on your PC so the game has maximum potential to run.

Lock to 30fps - nope. If the game is lagging then you're not getting 30fps.

 

[Jonat]

I'd agree and probably say it's the P4 - but I'll give the new settings a go:

so don't tick 'wait for vsync'?
I'll try 800x600 then 1024 x 768
and is no limit on fps better to tick then?

p.s is razorzone safe to use - I may give that a go - what sort of things does it usually shut down?http://www.razerzone.com/gamebooster

 

[cliffordcooley]

p.s is razorzone safe to use - I may give that a go

St1ckM4n wouldn't have recommended it if it wasn't safe.

I know my word doesn't mean anything to you, but for what its worth, I trust his recommendation on the site completely.

 

[captaincranky]

Given that they don't still shoot the messenger, and about all you could do to this one is spam his email, I'll share this with you.

You have a better chance of getting light out the back end of a black hole, than you do information out the back end of a P-4.
I say this with reverence, because, a P-4 is the best thing you could possibly hook up to 1meg DSL to download porn with. Plus, it's so cute. When the porn is really good, the CPU fan starts churning away!

(OK, so I'm just kidding about that. The CPU fan starts churning away when you make any attempt to put any type of information through a P-4).

Tragically, they sucked for gaming when they were new, and that suction hasn't let up any in recent years.

If you shut everything down in Win 7, it might almost run as well as XP.

I sorry, I don't know what gets into me.Though I'm really just a harmless old madman.

...[ ]....I know my word doesn't mean anything to you, but for what its worth, I trust his recommendation on the site completely.

Well, it means a lot to me Clifford!

Except for maybe when you start that infernal ranting and raving , then I might, (only might, mind you), tune you out.

 

[Jonat]

St1ckM4n wouldn't have recommended it if it wasn't safe.

I know my word doesn't mean anything to you, but for what its worth, I trust his recommendation on the site completely.

your opinion is respected like any other on here!

 

[St1ckM4n]

Thanks, cliffordcooley

Jonat: Razer is a well-known and established brand in gaming peripherals. They can be trusted.

Set resolution to 800x600, 'wait for vsync' turned OFF, 'no limit to fps' TICKED. If everything runs smoothly, increase the resolution. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Jonat]

Ok I gave the game a go on lowest settings with and without Razer (which is great) and the game seems laggy still - so it must be the P4.

also on a side issue, recently (last few days) the PC itself is fine (more quiet) but when shutting down all seems fine up to 'windows in now shutting down screen', when the PC re=powers and the blue screen appears slaying about an issue with hardware issue and whether its the first time etc -it's appeared three times now (after shutting down three times) - only way to turn PC off then is to hold down power button?

I had installed a 1GB of RAM at the same time - My PC now has 2x1GB 3200 and 2x 512MB 3200 making 3GB in total.

so the issue is either that or the Graphics card

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]......

also on a side issue, recently (last few days) the PC itself is fine (more quiet) but when shutting down all seems fine up to 'windows in now shutting down screen', when the PC re=powers and the blue screen appears slaying about an issue with hardware issue and whether its the first time etc -it's appeared three times now (after shutting down three times) - only way to turn PC off then is to hold down power button?

I had installed a 1GB of RAM at the same time - My PC now has 2x1GB 3200 and 2x 512MB 3200 making 3GB in total.

so the issue is either that or the Graphics card

First, you must be the luckiest person in the world, to have an OEM Bestec PSU that's still in working order. The smaller 250 watt Bestec is sort of notorious for blowing up and taking out boards with it. The 300 watt Bestec that came with my eMachines lasted all of about 7 months.

OK, I gotta ask, do you have the RAM distributed correctly, with a 1GB & 512 MB stick in each channel.?

Note, I've never found XP 32 bit to work all that well with more than 2GB of RAM. But of course, your results may vary.

What does the "device Manager" say about the hardware issue. Is there a yellow mark through the video card?

Which driver # did you install with the card?

This year's model video card is certainly nothing that your ancient motherboard could have been expecting. That means nothing, just an observation.

 

[Jonat]

On the left of the image I attached, the crucial scanner shows my PC Ram Configuration

by each channel, how do you mean - how should they be positioned?

depends how you define 'working well' - haha seems pretty good to me with 3GB

I looked through device manager and the only thing I saw a yellow thing was in the other image I've attached

I downloaded this driver from the nvidia website (I skipped using the CD with the card as other users advised) : http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp-320.18-whql-driver-uk.html

 

[captaincranky]

I'm getting a "you don't have permission to perform this action" error, when I try to look at your pictures.

 

[mailpup]

Try again, captaincranky. It works ok for me in both IE and Firefox.

 

[GhostRyder]

With Memory, you need to have them positioned as such

Dimms work like this, consider these numbers below your slots
1234
On the Slots, each slots like to work with eachother in different ways, for a Dual Channel Config, you want to use the slots as follows (By Dual Channel, I mean 2 Sticks)
1 and 3
2 and 4
So because your using two different sizes, make sure to install them in one of these Ways
1gb on Positions 1 and 3
512mb on Positions 2 and 4
Or Vice Versa.

 

[captaincranky]

Try again, captaincranky. It works ok for me in both IE and Firefox.

Yeah, it's working now.

This browser trolls me from time to time. I guess this was its "temp ban prank".

 

[cliffordcooley]

This browser trolls me from time to time. I guess this was its "temp ban prank".

You temporarily located the "Self Banishment Extension" silently brought to you by Mozilla. There is no way to control this extension, it is completely automated and highly intelligent. lol

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]...
depends how you define 'working well' - haha seems pretty good to me with 3GB

The sweet spot with XP Home 32 bit is really 2GB.

In some instances more than that muddies the water. 32 bit XP only allows a program to use a maximum of 2GB anyway, and you need XP Pro 32 bit to perform the "3GB switch", allowing a program to utilize 3GB RAM.

I had an issue with "Nero 6", where it simply wouldn't run with 3GB in the machine. Oddly, the program would consume RAM until it hit the 2GB barrier, then it would return an "out of memory error", and ruin the DVD it was burning during the process. I took out 1GB and all was well.

If you're having better luck with 3GB, more power to you.

I will say that more RAM isn't the panacea that many people thought it was back in the day, particularly when paired with the lightweight CPUs of the period.

You can only install so much RAM, because RAM isn't always the factor that's governing or limiting performance, it's the throughput capability of the CPU. You run out of clock cycles, before you run out of RAM.

Just as a reality check, the best Core i7-9xx has about 20 times the throughput capability of the better P-4s. Arguably, the Sandy, Ivy , and Haswell high end CPUs have more than that.

My eMachines T-5026 is almost the identical configuration to your PC, 915 Intel chipset and all. I love it dearly, and celebrate it's birthday with a new thread every year. As is turned out, (quite by accident, I swear), I bought it for myself on Valentines Day, 2005.

I wouldn't expect it to be a gaming box, even if they had included the PCI-E socket that those boards were supposed to have.

You temporarily located the "Self Banishment Extension" silently brought to you by Mozilla. There is no way to control this extension, it is completely automated and highly intelligent. lol

Actually this browser (FF20) seems to retain cache information and hold it against me later.

H3llion's 1st attempt to post images in his case mod thread caused the error originally. In that case it was a faulty post, and a legitimate mistake, not my browser. So later, the error crops up in error. (OK, so that's might be a bit redundantly worded)