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Problem with my new graphics card - perhaps a driver problem

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Problem with my new graphics card - perhaps a driver problem

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just got a used 9800 pro to play half life 2, cs:s, and farcry, but when i installed the ati catalyst drivers, i still have the same results as my fx5500 for these games. farcry is still playing on 800x600 on low-med settings, and cs:s is still at 1284x768 low-med. i know i can get much better results from my new 9800
i have an athlon xp 2600+ @ 2.2ghz, 512mb ddr @ 266mhz, and 128mb 9800PRO

when i go into control panel>display>settings

i see a 1 and 2 box. box 1, my primary display will only go up to resolution of 1280x1024. my card should go up to 2048x1536, but display one wont.

display 2 on the other hand (which is grayed out) will indeed go up to 2048x1536, and i cant make this my primary monitor.

monitor 1 says plug and play monitor on radeon 9800
monitor 2 says (default monitor) on radeon 9800 (secondary)

so im guessing i need to somehow make it so that monitor 2 is my primary but it wont let me. any guesses as to whats going on here?

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Geez....DDR266?.....dont expect much man, you've got some bottlenecks.

Reply to GeneticWeapon

well i know its 4 year old system, just need a bit more out of it till july.

is it even worth upgrading to 1gb ram?

Reply to chonga

Quote :

well i know its 4 year old system, just need a bit more out of it till july.

is it even worth upgrading to 1gb ram?

Yes, 2gb if you can

Reply to the_stiffmeister

yeah i found out its the ram thats bottlenecking my performance

i borrowed my friends 256 card and found games playable at medium to high quality up from low-medium.... all from just a 256mb boost in ram

i will have to make the jump up to 1gb and im sure my performance will get even better with this card

and does anybody recommend using omega over catalyst drivers?

Reply to chonga

Quote :

borrowed my friends 256 card and found games playable at medium to high quality up from low-medium.... all from just a 256mb boost in ram

What you say here makes no sense. The amount of memory on your video card is irrelevant.

The man said you need more system RAM. Upgrading your 512 megs to 1 gig will make a difference. Do not go for 2 gigs though. That would be a waste.

Also, did you use driver cleaner to remove all traces of your Detonators before installing Catalyst?

Still. GW is right in that your system has some major bottlenecks. You can improve its performance somewhat but you should not expect a hell of a lot.

As always, I would point out that for ATI drivers to work right you need the correct version of Microsoft .NET Framework installed. Go to ATI web site and read driver clean-up/installation instructions.

Reply to Slava

256mb card as in ram card. sorry for the confusion

i didnt swap out gpu's, i'm not even that dumb. 768mb RAM total now

Reply to chonga

Quote :

and does anybody recommend using omega over catalyst drivers?

I've always liked the Omega Drivers, and they don't need .net framework because there is no CCC.
I'm using the 6.3 based version, they work best for my X850XTPE AGP card.

Reply to Datman

i donnttt knowwww

I had a p4 2.5 ghz + 512 mb ram (pc2100) and i ran farcry at max settings with the 9800 pro (1024x768). :? :?

You default monitor should be the 1st one not the 2nd one. I dont even know how u can change it. does the 9800 pro have two connecters in the back? (cant remember) If it does try plugging ur monitor into the other one, but im not sure if that will make any difference.

but yeah more ram would be better.

Reply to blade85

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