| Improved graphics: cfg settings, new card? Help?! | |
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Ruuk Haviser - Retired  |
I've got a Dell P3 Dimension 4100, 512(?) RAM, with a (don't laugh) NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 graphics card. I'm thinking about getting a new card, cause... well, mine sucks. But, is there some config settings that I should be tweaking to improve my graphics with the card I already have? I saw something in the cfg file about texture, etc., but don't want to mess with anything until I got some advice.
If I *do* decide to get a new card, anyone have any thoughts? I'm not going to get top, top of the line (10 out of 10)...I'm looking for something more like a 7. Been out for a little while, and the price has dropped some. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! -rh _______________ Back from the dead... |
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Ruuk Haviser - Retired 
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Was talking to Obi-Wan, and realized I forgot to post that I do indeed have an agp slot. Kinda overlooked that key part of the info! I gotta look into all the specs on my machine and see where I go from here. I'll be doing this for the next week or two, so check back and you'll find out what I decided to do... 
-rh _______________ Back from the dead... |
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Dachsie - Ex-Student 
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I get about 40-45 fps on a GeForce 2 mmx with a 1 ghz machine, but my other computer is a diffrent story... it has a tnt2 m64 card with the bare minimum for processors- an amd K6-2 350mhz! this setup however has a whopping 3-4 fps! _______________ "I find your lack of faith disturbing!" -Vader -=[Dachsie LordOThePings]=- |
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TiTo (inactive) - Student 
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I get about 35 fps and i got a:
Geforce 3 Ti200 256MB DDR RAM 1200 Mhz Graphics are turned to medium with 800x600 resolution and 32MB texture and color-depth. _______________ Not back yet... I'll come one day, I hope... The madman formerly (and still) known as Tito! Coming to take back my title as "Most insane 'person' in the JA" It's the bizzi, wizza, jizzi, Wizzil, Bizon, wizzay, Wizzat, fizzil ¶°TiTo°¶ - All work and no play makes Tito burn the bacon!  - Officially cured from spamming!!!
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SilkMonkey - Distributor of Cold Ones 
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Graves:
My other comp has a g4 mx pci card in it. It gets at most 12 fps (if i stare at a wall) on low detail, low res, everything off. How fast is ur processor? _______________ |-HK-47 -SilkMonkey: You are receiving a warning for being_too_sexy. If you do not stop, action will be taken against you.|| (11:13:43) � Virtue dances for Silk ||Smiling owner of Smilykrazy's 6000th comment =) ||Odan Wei's Proud Big Brother|| Janus is my official TaruTaru Cuddly Animal Type Person. ||(@Virtue) Or you could just be a man and set fire to your genitals.....you won't fall asleep for days after that.......trust me.||Thomas Skywalker er for sexy for sitt eget beste!!!!| Not changing sig until the JA loosens up. (Started: Aug 31, 2005) |
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graves - Student 
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Actually Obi-Wan, you can get a geforce4 for pci. I have a geforce4MX 64mb (without an agp slot) and i usually get 20-35fps with mesh detail on medium and textures on high. _______________ "You want eternal rest? I've got it right here!" -Solid Snake- The Matrix: Unplugged This comment was edited by graves on Mar 02 2003 03:06pm. |
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Trebizond - Ex-Student 
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Opened a can of worms here, haven't you? Ahh, the age old problem of graphics cards. I'm going to tell you to get an Ati Radeon, but the next person's going to tell you to get a GeForce. You could just wind everyone up and either get a Matrox Parhelia, or move back to a 1989 Hercules CGA Beast. Make sure you cool down that 1mb 10mhz mutha, tho! (May well need liquid nitrogen cooling)
Take it easy Treb As we're comparing scores, I manage about 55-60 fps with a Radeon 9000 Pro, 1.7 P4 and 640mb RAM. _______________ "He asked us 'Be you angels?' and we said 'Nay! We are but Men!'" This comment was edited by Trebizond on Mar 02 2003 07:15pm. |
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Obi-Wan - Ex-Student 
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You definately want to look into the geforce series. Jk2 runs very smooth on anything from a geforce 2 ($50-70). One thing you need to look at is your motherboard. What can it handle? Im assuming that it does have an agp slot (a slot just for video cards). Depending on what version of agp you can probably run a gforce 4 (dunno price, some come cheap) and even if you just have pci (standard slots: soundcards, ethernet etc) you can still find a gforce 2 that will work in a pci slot. imo go for the best you can afford, right now starwars galaxies will still run on a geforce 2 but everquest 2 and doom 3 will need at least a 3.
March is a good time to look into upgrades. With the gforce mx out (confirm?) gforce 4 prices drop. |
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Ruuk Haviser - Retired 
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Thanks for the input, guys. Now that I've done some thinking...I'm realizing that I *do not* have the max detail on. Slows the machine down, choppy frame refresh. I'll have to check out some of the tweaks you've suggested, as well as download the latest drivers. I'll see what happens. If any of this doesn't work, I'll try a new card.
Thanks again. -rh _______________ Back from the dead... |
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Ulic Belouve - Student 
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I do videocard tweaking a bit, though I just got the Radeon 9700 Pro, and that doesn't need to be tweaked (though I did it anyways).
For GeForce, get the latest drivers. If you have a Via chipset on your motherboard, go get the Hyperion drivers, that is probably the most forgotten about things, is the graphics processor ON THE MOTHERBOARD. Some people have nForce, some have an Intel chipset. GET THE DRIVERS FOR THESE!!! They aren't the card drivers, not the mobo drivers, but the chip on the mobo. If you are into overclocking, I would suggest getting PowerStrip, a free program. You can change the closk speeds there, but don't go too much, just increase it bit by bit, and stick to something stable. I know there are registry and bios tweaks that do a ton of good, but I will steer clear of telling someone to modify their registry or bios. You can look them up on your own, I wont help because I don't want to be held responsible for something being blown. _______________ Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. |
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Buzz - Student 
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Make sure that if you are updating your drivers and you play more than one game that they will all work with the new driver. I also play Warcraft 3 and there is only one driver that currently works for warcraft 3 for my video card. I can't really upgrade so you might want to be certain upgrading is a good idea. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Charon - Ex-Student 
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Iv'e got a TNT 2 in my machine, I still get a decent framerate, 45-ish, even while having the mesh and texture detail maxed out in JK2. Go into the settings/video options, (It may be under More Video, too.) And try adjusting the detail levels in either direction. Turning off dynamic lights is a good thing, at least for the Academy map, that sunspot in the Matrix is too bright allready, and basically glowing the colour of your saber while you're trying to duel makes it harder to see what you're up to. Wall marks don't seem to make alot of difference in framerate to me.
Even on a TNT 2, making sure your video drivers are updated is one of the fastest and best things you can do for improved display. Pop over to nvidia.com and ensure you've got the newest drivers possible. _______________ spirit's searing pain battlefield of broken glass fallen speak to me --Charon |
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SilkMonkey - Distributor of Cold Ones
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You could also get a Radeon 9000 or 9500 Pro(the 9000 is about $100 bucks and the 9500 Pro is around $200) _______________ |-HK-47 -SilkMonkey: You are receiving a warning for being_too_sexy. If you do not stop, action will be taken against you.|| (11:13:43) � Virtue dances for Silk ||Smiling owner of Smilykrazy's 6000th comment =) ||Odan Wei's Proud Big Brother|| Janus is my official TaruTaru Cuddly Animal Type Person. ||(@Virtue) Or you could just be a man and set fire to your genitals.....you won't fall asleep for days after that.......trust me.||Thomas Skywalker er for sexy for sitt eget beste!!!!| Not changing sig until the JA loosens up. (Started: Aug 31, 2005) |
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Buzz - Student 
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Just don't Get the MX series of GeForce. That's what I have and well my framerate sucks. Someone pointed out in another forum thread a while ago that it was probably because I had the MX card even though it is 64 mb. I hope to upgrade to a better card eventually. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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Jake Kainite - Student 
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Oy oy, don't knock the TNT2, I started playing JKII on one of those . Yeah I'm with the other guy, some sort of geforce. You gotta consider that it might be worth looking higher rather than lower as it'll save you upgrading again in a few months/year.
As for the configuration, I found what helped with mine was if you go into the setup ingame, turn off shadows, dynamic lights, saber trails, all the little things which make the game look 'nice', you'll hardly notcie em when they're gone. _______________ Apprenctice of Jedi Master Ascari (deceased) Descended from a line of great Jedi Will argue any point of view from any side
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[JAS]GrymOne - Student ![[JAS]GrymOne](/image_thumbnail.php?f_type=users&f_width=58&f_height=70&f_image=grymone.jpg)
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Hmm Seem's the Video Card link need's to be copy'd and pasted into another window..
OH! As Far as Messing with your CFG File's... Some of the graf settings are for Newer card's So Remember to copy your CFG file 1st before tweeking it! Grym |
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[JAS]GrymOne - Student ![[JAS]GrymOne](/image_thumbnail.php?f_type=users&f_width=58&f_height=70&f_image=grymone.jpg&f_odd=1)
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Hey RuuK!
Advice is cheap so here's my 2 Cred's... Any GForce 4 with atleast 64 megs of ram will fit your need's...Hell...If pinching penny's a GForce 3 with 64 Megs will work (Run an Asus GForce 4 In Main Machine and a GForce 3 in my other) Video Card link- http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?langs=09&m=V9180%20VS Of Course Not every Mobo can do 8x AgP So..My Mobo Link.. http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4s8x/overview.htm Slap a Gig of pc 2700 Ram a 2.4 Ghz P4...2 Umda Mode 6 Hard Drive's..(Maxtor) And away ya go! Grym |
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