Slowdown problems w/ Geforce2 & K6-2

[JangoFett]

Help!!! Major Problems W/ Geforce2

I have a PNY Verto GeForce2 MX400 PCI operating on IRQ 9, (I know it works, because it is installed with ease on my friends' computer) and accelerates video and 3D graphics substantially. Although my computer recognizes the GeForce2 upon installation, the acceleration provided is severely and abnormally limited. The GeForce2 allows resolutions on my computer at up to 1280 x 1024 at 32bpp and a refresh rate of 85 hz.

When I attempt to play high-quality Quicktime movies (i.e. any of the Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones trailers) the result is virtually just a slideshow. The sound is constant, but the video just can't keep up, and not all frames are displayed. As far as games, Global Ops is very choppy and literally unplayable, even causing the sound to stutter. And then the utmost frustration comes with Counter Strike, where I have yet to surpass 30 fps in OpenGL mode, which drops to 15 fps when any action erupts. Not even the Windows Media Player visualizations are of acceptable quality or framerate.

My specs are as follows:
IBM Aptiva Model: 2170, Machine Type: E Series 190, Serial Number: AM7PYT7,
Super Socket 7
AMD K6-2 500 mHZ w/ 3D Now,
Chipset: SiS 5595,
145-Watt power supply,
onboard sound, & vid
256 Megs SDRAM (1 DIMM),
12 Gig hard drive,
40x CD-ROM,
4x2x24x CD-RW,
LinkSys ethernet card,
17" Compaq V75 monitor.
running Windows XP Home

I have tried many, many things in an attempt to troubleshoot this dire problem. I have tried different resolutions and color quality on the desktop and in games, I have tried different monitors and all refresh rates within their respective ranges, I have tried running games in Direct 3D and OpenGL, I have downloaded the latest Detonator drivers from the nvidia website, I have downloaded Direct X 8.1, I have downloaded the latest chipset and bios updates from SiS and IBM, I have experimented with all of the available Quicktime video settings, I have experimented with my BIOS settings (although virtually all of the "recommended" BIOS settings for GeForce2 are not available in my BIOS),

I have experimented will all the basic settings for the GeForce2 provided by the Detonator drivers (esp. Vertical Sync), I have experimented with Counter Strike and Half-Life config files, command line parameters, and console commands.

And even have tried all 3 of my PCI slots for the card. I would appreciate it if anyone could point me to a solution that would end my low-framerate-gaming misery.
Thanks, Jango Fett

(*edited by mod)

 

[SNGX1275]

Was there an onboard video card before? I might be wrong here cause other problems might happen other than just that video problem but: I think the problem lies in your 145W power supply - I wouldnt' even be suprised if you would have said sometimes the thing doesn't boot up. Your LAN card isnt' taking much power but your HD and CPU are using a good chunk not to mention your 2 cd drives. Then addign that video card on, probably you are right at or over your 145watt limit.

 

[JangoFett]

ONBOARD VIDEO

The SiS chipset came with a SiS 530 onboard video chip, but the BIOS automatically disables onboard video when a new card is installed, which is what happened when I installed the GeForce2. The onboard video also steals 4 megs from my 256 megs total RAM (since BIOS doesn't let you set RAM share level above 8 or below 4). The SiS 530 is disabled in Windows XP as well. If the issue is the power supply, what wattage do you think I should upgrade to?

 

[uncleel]

Re: Help!!! Major Problems W/ Geforce2

Originally posted by JangoFett
virtually all of the "recommended" BIOS settings for GeForce2 are not available in my BIOS/
IBM Aptiva/ K6-2 500/
145-Watt power supply

Simply put, your machine is woefully dated, & the cpu power is @ the minimum of where modern games will run.

Depends on what games you're playing. The Unreal engine is CPU dependent, whereas the Quake engine is vid-card dependent.

As preforementioned by SNGX1275; woefully underpowered! That GeF2 can pull up to 50w underload, not to mention the rest of your componets.
PCP&C: to determine PSU requirements

> Power Supply Concerns
http://www.3dspotlight.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=377


If your super socket 7 motherboard allows either AT-or-ATX power connections, (similar to Soyo's SS7 boards) then you can upgrade quite reasonably, but I would expect much from this rig.

 

[uncleel]

originally quoted by uncleel
IRQ conflict?
control panel> system> device mgr> computer>
did you check for "!" any conflicts?
What irq's your using (they're listed)

IRQs problems with sound cards (SB Live, Aureal cards)
Windows has to reconfigure the IRQs when new componets are added (IE: NIC cards)
IRQs gets reassigned & the sound card ends up sharing IRQs with other devices.
Erratic sound card detection and also instability is the result.
These problems I usually fixed by manually reserving IRQ5 for the sound card.


Rather than radomly switching cards around in pci slots,
& depending on your bios:
Go into BIOS,see if there's a pnp/pci configuration.
on the Rh side should be four "pirq" settings.

Manually assigning the IRQs is possible in the "PnP/PCI configuration" BIOS submenu.
PIRQ_0 is for AGP and PCI-1
PIRQ_1 is for PCI-2 and PCI-3
PIRQ_2 is for PCI-5
PIRQ_3 is for PCI-4, PCI-6 and USB controllers.

The AGP slot and PCI-1 share an IRQ
PCI-2 and PCI-3 share an IRQ
PCI-4, PCI-6, and USB controllers share an IRQ
PCI-5 has its own IRQ

 

[JangoFett]

IRQs are fine, CPU not an issue, More power shows no improvement



First of all uncleel, I noted in my original post that the GeForce2 is on IRQ 9. And yes, I have verified time and time again that there were no IRQ conflicts in windows, and I have even tried changing the settings in BIOS. Second of all uncleel, I don't think CPU speed has anything to do with it. You said that Unreal Tournament was a very CPU-dependent game, and that Quake III was not. In the past, I have run both UT and QIIIA at very good performance using a s3 Savage4 (32 MB) PCI and a Voodoo5 5500 (64 MB) PCI. The issues of my concern are high-res Quicktime movies, Counter-Strike, and Global Ops. I have successfully installed this GeForce2 on my friend's computer who also had a 500 mHZ CPU and Windows XP. Quicktime movies and Counter Strike had absolutely no problem running, and showed flawless performance, with CS running at 60 fps. And for those of you who have suggested upgrading my power supply, I went out today and purchased 250-watt CompUSA brand power supply. I installed it successfully, booted up, and absolutely no difference in performance has been noticed. I even tried removing my CD-ROM and CD-RW drives to free up power while using the new 250-watt power supply. But it turns out, CS still runs at 15 fps, Quicktime only plays "slideshows", and I am about to toss my computer out the window. Anyone else have suggestions?

 

[vegasgmc]

Have you tried decreasing the aperature size in the BIOS and maybe disabling DMA? I had a K6II 450 that could barely handle a Rage Fury card. Maybe its time for an upgrade. Those OEM boards arent exactly geared for high performance.

 

[JAV]

I've got a GF2 MX400 64mb PCI running on a 500mhz Celeron on a i810e board w/'on-board' graphics & audio. I had sound problems (affecting frame rate) w/DOS based games & solved it on one game (NASCAR) by running it in a window instead of full screen.

I also had problems w/'Star Trek Bridge Commander' & a few of my kids programs too. It appeared to be sound/video conflict based. I was getting a little upset too. I disabled the 'on-board' video chip when I put in the card & it did run "4x4 Evo2" w/o problems, but the other games (including 'Unreal Gold') staggered. This was w/the 23.11 nVidia driver.

I finally got the 28.32 driver to install properly (had problems w/it too on 1st install) & I 'downgraded' my audio to the original install for Win98SE (SoundMax 1881). The 'SoundMaxIII' (2002) *was* the problem. It was evidently 'jamming' up the 'on-board' audio & was conflicting w/the bus/controller for the video card.

I have Intel & you have AMD, but you might want to try turning the 'sound' down to mono & the 11,000mhz setting & see if it makes a difference.

Just my opinon here: WinXP is a powerful program that requires up-to-date components to function to it's abilities. I personally wouldn't use it w/o at least a 1ghz CPU & front bus speed of 133mhz. Going to Win98SE *might* solve all your problems.

What does your friend run & what are the differences between your system & his?

HTH,

PS: Turn VSync off.

 

[JangoFett]

In reply to vegasgmc and JAV

First of all vegasgmc, my GeForce2 is PCI, so aperature size is not a concern. Yes, I have tried disabling and re-enabling DMA, and no difference has been noticed. Concerning upgrades, I do plan on getting a new very high-end computer this summer. I do however, want to get this Craptiva working so I can have a good LAN capable of gaming. My 500 mHZ processor should not haveany trouble, since my card worked fine on my friend's 500 mHZ celeron. Second of all JAV, I don't play any DOS games. Yes, i have VSync set to "Always off" in the nvidia control panel, but it doesn't affect performance, since I run my monitor at 85 hz. I have tested the GeForce2's performance on Win98 SE, and no difference was noticed. Also, this card has worked sucessfully on my friend's computer, which is 500 mhz and runs Win XP. His specs are as follows: 500 mHZ Celeron, 320 megs SDRAM, 17 gig HD, CD-ROM, CD-RW, and Win XP. I can find out the specs in more detail if needed. Finally JAV, I do use my onboard sound chip. I disabled it in BIOS, and to my surprise, all Quicktime movies now display perfectly!!!!!!! :grinthumb Thanx a bunch for the suggestion JAV. My CounterStrike gameplay, however, has only jumped to an average of 20 or 30 fps . I plan to test other games, of course, to test their performance. When I installed this GeForce2 on my friend's comp, he got 60 fps on counter strike, so that is what I am aiming for. Anyone have any suggestions on how to crank my FPS up in CS, without sacrificing too much visual quality?

 

[Didou]

Allthough your K6-2 is running @500 mhz, it is much slower then a Celeron running at the same speed. The celeron had a much better Floating Point Unit & 128K L2 OnDie cache.

 

[JAV]

Jango Fett,

Except for the Win XP (I have Win98SE) your friends specs are exactly the same as mine. I know CPUCOOL will work for him to get the CPU clocked to ~548mhz. I'm not sure if it is K6 compatible for you tho'. I got it at www.voodoofiles.com . Might be worth a try.

As Didou said: even tho' it's running at 500mhz, a K6 IS slower than a Celeron @500mhz. Maybe a search of AMD's site will be fruitful for a software upgrade that will improve performance.

I'm glad that disabling the onboard audio showed some improvement. Hopefully some dl's from AMD & the CPUCOOL will give you a little more. :grinthumb

HTH,

 

[JangoFett]

No Luck with CPU

Thanx for the suggestions JAV, but AMD has not downloads that would be of use to me. I downloaded CPUCOOL, but I'm not exactly sure how to get it to overclock my CPU. Voodoofiles.com said it was compatible with AMDs, by the way. If CPUCOOL doesn't work out, does anyone know of another way to overclock my AMD K6-2 500 mHZ processor? If not, perhaps a processor upgrade would be wise. However, I don't know the voltage my motherboard supports. Could anyone tell me what processors my motherboard (SiS 5595) is capable of handling?

 

[Rick]

This has probably been suggested, but the newest drivers (or newer drivers) from nVidia will likely fix the problem. If not, try some different versions until you find the right one. This is likely affecting the performance

Your system specs well exceeed the requirements to play a simple Quicktime movie.

Another suggestion is to type DXDIAG in Start/Run and press enter. This will startup the DirectX diagnostic program.
Click on the "Display" tab and then disable DirectDraw hardware acceleration. See if this affects your performance any. If it does not, toggle it back to enabled (Recommended). If it does help to turn it off, or turning it on doesn't make any difference, then drivers are most definitely at fault.

 

[Arris]

The other DXdiag trick that has been used in the past to solve fps problems is to turn the Sound acceleration down one notch on the scale if it is at full. Try a search for "counter strike problems" on the forum...

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

Have you tried some older detonator drivers?

AFAIK for GF2s - 22.50 or earlier are best (16.xx are optimal I think)
GF3 - 23.xx onwards
GF4 - 27.xx onwards

I don't think you will have much luck overclocking a K6-2 by much anyway, and even if you do, it won't make a great deal of difference.

As for upgrading, you will need a new board and cpu.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Re: No Luck with CPU

Originally posted by JangoFett
does anyone know of another way to overclock my AMD K6-2 500 mHZ processor?

Super Socket 7 motherboards usually have jumpers or dip-switches for FSB, multiplier & voltage adjustment. Check the manual, or if you don't have one, information might be printed on the motherboard itself.

 

[Rick]

Yeah, K6-2's aren't locked, so you should be able to overclock it fairly easily, providing your processor is a fair overclocker.

Don't expect much though.. You are nearing the core's limits already at 500Mhz.

If you do consider upgrading, there's also a lame CPU "upgrade" thing you can get from Evergreen.. It's a whole new CPU built from newer Celeron technology that works in your existing Super Socket 7 board. This is not recommended, but just keeping your options open.

Of course, for the price, you could easily get a new Duron/motherboard combo that would outpace your current processor and the upgrade put together.

 

[Didou]

You can also try 3DNow.net. They sometimes have files that optimise certain applications for 3DNow. I know they have some for HalfLife, maybe it can have an impact on CS too.