Need Help with my Radeon 4670HD AGP Card & FS2004

[Deltatristar500]

Hi all, first time posting here at Toms Hardware

I upgraded my CPU and Video card on my older motherboard which is on the link below

http://www.asrock.co...al-SATA2&o=BIOS

I upgraded my CPU from a 2ghz dual core to a 3.06ghz dual core. I also upgraded my older Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro AGP card to a HIS Radeon HD4670 AGP card. All my games are running great with the hardware upgrade but my flight sim is the one that is giving me stutters like crazy and the frames rates which I have locked at 30 are jumping from 30 to 15, 30 to 20, 30 to 19 ect. I uninstalled my drivers and installed my older X1950 and its drivers, and the flight sim FS2004 (FS9) runs smooth. I dont understand since this card has a high clock speed and double the memory than the X1950Pro. I have even tried to let FS2004 rebuild its fs9 config file for the new card. Im at a loss here. I really want to use my "newer" card , yes I know its old since its AGP, but that's all I can afford at this time. Like I said, I dont get stutters with my other games, just Fs2004. And my other games are more graphic intensive from what I see.

Wonder if there is an issue with the new card and the cpu combined together? But then again, everything else works great.

Any advise

Here are my specs

Win XP Pro
Intel Dual-Core E6600 Wolfdale 3.06ghz
2gig DDR2 667 (Dual channel)
HIS Radeon HD4670 1GB DDR3 (AGP)
ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Mobo
Maxtor SATA 200gig 8MB Buffer 7200 HD
ANTEC True Blue 480W PS

 

[GiggidyGiggidy]

One more stick of ram -1gb - wouldn't hurt and the PSU is >400watts (reccommended) but if it were up to me I'd be looking more at 600watts as a min for this rig.

One thing - on installation- assuming it was a clean OS install - did you manualy update the entire ms directx end user runtime lib BEFORE you inserted the card in the slot?

Note : It is best to install the os using default vga setup or a less demanding agp or pci card until this point is reached in the installation cycle. If the PC originaly came with a low spec card use this one until you are fully prepared and ready to do the AGP HW upgrade.

 

[johnnychuttz]

The 4670HD, even the AGP version, does not require external power connection. So the power issue is moot. I have the PCI version( also HIS) in my HTPC and it plays most last gen titles on High at 1920x1080 without breaking a sweat, all on a HP OEM( I think its a Liteon) 300w PSU I re-purposed to save a few $.


As for the OP's problem: It sounds like a driver issue or possibly with the frame limiter you have enabled. Have you tried turning it off? I never considered using a limiter with my 4670, and frankly never even needed to.

What Catalyst version are you using? IIRC from when the 4670 was my main card, version 12.3 was the last good performing with the 4670 chipset and there was a 12.3 hot fix released for the AGP cards on Win Xp. 12.4 never worked correctly for me , so on 12.3 she has stayed.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?os=Windows Vista - 32-Bit Edition&rev=12.3

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/AMD/AMD-Catalyst-123-AGP-Hotfix-for-XP.shtml

You may have to experiment with different drivers.

 

[nforce4max]

Personally you should have just upgraded the board and then got a new card. VIA chipsets are extremely slow. If I remember right 2gb is the max for this board. Chances are that the problems are mostly software with that game being driver related or settings.

 

[GiggidyGiggidy]

To the OP a recap:

1. SW - Check you installed the os with default vga or supplied pci/agp card

2. SW - Update the directx lib B4 physicaly installing the new card in the slot

3. SW - Take all MS updates - don't be picky - it isn't worth it with winxp pro and again make sure you do this B4 physicaly installing the new card in the slot

4. SW - JC is right - 12.3 hot fix drivers are the best - WTG

5. HW - Check your psu rails (v and a) this agp card has an additional molex connector - 'cause it needs more juice than the regular 50watts x8 agp slot can supply - no idea 'bout a pci version - didn't even know there was such a thing

6. HW - Check out your board specs for extra ram - like how many slots you got etc - if you can add ram then do

7.HW - Like the man said - VIA chipsets are def Fkdup when it come to throughput. Don't ask me why - they've always been like that - even from the real early days.



HW= HardWare
SW= SoftWare