Xfx ATI Radeon 4650 1G AGP

[hankster08]

I just upgraded (I thought!) my NVIDA 7600GS with an xFx ATI Radeon 4650 AGP 1G but saw no improvement on my World of Tanks fps - still running <20 and worse in a fight (LOW Settings). i didnt expect 60+ but I did expect 30-40 fps. Running an older Pentium 4 HyperThred, GA-8PE667 Ultra1.0 w/ 3.06 Northbridge CPU (478); 2048 RAM. Had some trouble getting card installed but it seems to be fully recognized and running on a 8.92 ver Driver - it just seems I should be getting better perf. the Support @ xFx just told me maybe that's all I'll get and to check with game developer WoT. I know just enough about compters to be really dangerous, even flashed the BIOS to see if any help - none. Screen display set at 1440x900 in Windows (XP)

help????

 

[inzone]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

The chart above gives you a look at where cards fall in comparing Nvidia vs AMD. When you upgrade a component you have to remember that it is one of the components and by getting a better video card is good you still have the same cpu and ram. You have an older cpu and 2gb of system ram and you can increase you performance some with more system ram. You can also check if you motherboard will allow a cpu upgrade , but with a socket 478 there might not be very many options. Maybe it is time for a new computer? Maybe you could get a budget amount together and we could upgrade the , motherboard , cpu , ram , hdd and psu. I'll say you could do all that for about $400 to $500 and you could use the same case and video card or even return the video card for a better one. Sounds like a lot but you would have a real nice upgraded computer.

 

[hankster08]

THANKS for the info and the quick reply. This chart seems to show what I thought originally and that is the xFx (ATI?)Radeon 4650 AGP 1G should have been an improvement over my old NVIDIA 7600GS, how much? I guess that is my question. Xfx seems to be telling me not much if anything - I don't really buy that. I did upgrade the CPU to a 3.06 Northbridge and I believe I am maxed out on the ram at a total of 2024 (DDR2?) on my MB GA-8PE667 Ultra 1.0 (F3 BIOS - I don't see a newer ver). Sure, I am trying to squeeze the last solid gasp of speed from this older gaming system I bought from a friend of mine 5(?)yrs ago. I just suspect that I should be getting more out of this newer video card than just 20-30fps under little load but drops to 8-12 under load. But I'm no guru and I don't have any tech info or background - only enough to be really dangerous. I am really only bogged down trying to game World of Tanks and can't really justify even spending only $400-500 for a computer just to do that. This is a home computer and I don't do much on it other that surf, email, budget and TurboTax - all which can still be easily done; everything else I do from work, even replying to you now. I even sprung for a $30 DriverUpdate subscription - but for that I got a tech to crawl thru my computer for 2+ hrs on Christmas to get the right driver (8.92ver) running for the 4650 to be recognized! Had a # of error messages b4 that, seem to be ok now. Anyway it could be running but not running up to proper speed? anyway to ck that? Or does it either work or not work at all?

 

[inzone]

Well it is like I said before in that the Pc you have is old and 5YRS old at that and you may have reached that last gasp of performance that you just described. The 478 architechure was it it's day a powerfull gaming device but with the gaming world having advanced beyond that it is now considered antique. Plus I did just notice that you are on the AGP slot in your motherboard and that just sealed it , I doubt that you will see any improvement with anything you try , sorry.

 

[hankster08]

Well it is like I said before in that the Pc you have is old and 5YRS old at that and you may have reached that last gasp of performance that you just described. The 478 architechure was it it's day a powerfull gaming device but with the gaming world having advanced beyond that it is now considered antique. Plus I did just notice that you are on the AGP slot in your motherboard and that just sealed it , I doubt that you will see any improvement with anything you try , sorry.

ooooowwwwwwwww, didn't want to hear that; actually the system was built for my buddy in 2003 and I bought in 06 because he had already had a new one built that year. guess I could have saved my $70 for the new card; only cost me $20-25 for the 3.06 Ghz chip so I'm not out much, and I wasn't planning on spending much more - I thought this card would be the end of the line for this system. No OTHER card on that LIST to recommend?? I have taken xFx advice and referred to WoT but I don't expect much now. Thanks again.

 

[inzone]

If you replaced the card you had with a higher level card and saw no improvement in performance then you are pretty much at the end of the line. The other thing is that there is a very limited selection of AGP cards since that tech has not been used for years once the Pci-e came out. They stopped making the AGP cards and only whats in stock is whats left.

HIS IceQ H467QS1GHA Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card
$112.99 and a $20 rebate makes it $92.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161337

This is the top AGP card listed at Newegg.com and it is just one model above what you have and the link below shows you the cards that they have to offer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006662&IsNodeId=1&Description=AGP&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=20

 

[hankster08]

Thanks, but it doesn't seem worth it to buy another card for $100 if I haven't seen significant improvement with the card I already bought; I guess it's bottlenecked by the P4 chip or the lack of any more RAM above the 2024 I have maxed. I'll just run with what I got til I can't stand it anymore.

 

[inzone]

Ok and good luck with your computer and I hope you do get a new one , you will be amazed at the difference.

 

[SaintMike]

the card you purchased is a upgrade from your 7600 GS if you goto gpureview.com you can compare both of your cards to measure pixel fill rates texture fill rates and everything about the cards. if the game you are playing is not to dependent on the cpu which may depend on the resolution you are playing at then the newer card will outperform the older card. However if the newer card requires more power to operate at its full potential than you older nvidia card then that is why you will not see an increase in the performance. also because you are using agp option you may not have the ability to over clock the card but that does not mean the card cannot be over clocked. in my experience the agp 4650 will handle a core of 700 and a memory of 500 without artifacts and considering that you card only has a base of 600 core and 400 memory you may want to over clock. and since you have already stated that you have flashed the bios then i am assuming that you already have the tools to overclock the card by

Step 1 is to use gpu z to extract your original rom from card
step 2 is use RBE to alter rom settings to what you like
step 3 is to load new rom and Ati flash software onto floppy
step 4 is to boot from floppy with files on disk
step 5 is to type { atiflash -i }
this will show you all the adapter number for ati products in system locate correct adapter it may be 1 or 0
step 5 is two type > atiflash -p 0 romname.bin <
or TYPE > atiflash -p 1 romname.bin <

EXample
if rom is name newrom47.bin AND ADAPTER IS 1 youtype ( ATIFLASH -P 1 NEWROM47.BIN )
if rom is name newrom47.bin AND ADAPTER IS 0 youtype ( ATIFLASH -P 0 NEWROM47.BIN )

THATS IT DONE ALSO MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS HAVE ORIGINAL ROM ON FLOPPY AS WELL INCASE YOUR FLASH IS BAD YOU CAN ALWAYS
RESTORE DEFAULT CARD ROM

also i put the steps for the floopy as that method is safer than being in windows environment when flashing to a agp device

also when using rbe (radeon bios editor)make sure to use the higher voltage for your card since you are using agp because the lower voltage will not support the 700-500 speed setting and even tho it may be possible to go hire remember you dont want to lock yourself out of your pc or destroy your card , and in some cases void your warranty so do at own risk like most bios flashes and overclocking because there is always a risk to remember

Last is to always make sure you are installing the agp hotfix driver for your card as the normal ati drivers will not find your agp device
the last 11.11.agp hotfix driver worked well and installed with catalyst as well . there is a 11.12 agp hotfix driver but i have not tested it. but the 11.11. agp hotfix driver should work for your card if you wanted to update your driver

 

[hankster08]

Best answer selected by hankster08.

 

[hankster08]

Thanks, StMike
Unfortunately Gigabyte has informed me that my MB only supports 4x AGP and the FPS I am running is probably all I will get out of this card unless try to OC it as you suggest. While your instructions are pretty good, I'm not sure I can follow everything. By OC from 600/400 to 700/500 respectively, I'm not sure that is really a significant boost and worth the risk if I screw it up and have to start from scratch again. Card has the latest driver installed and all indications are that it is properly installed and recognized; I apparently am getting all it can do within my current old system. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey