ok, So I've been contemplating upgrading my GPU and maybe CPU as well...

My existing setup is the following:
ASUS SK8V socket 940 Mobo
AMD Opteron 140 CPU
1GIG Corsair XMS registered
Geforce FX5600 256

SO, I primarily play Star Wars Galaxies, which tends to be equally dependant on CPU, RAM, AND GPU. But I just got Star Wars Battlefront too.

I brought home a BFG 6800 OC card and plorrped it in, thinking i'd see a huge improvemtn in my frame rate...well, i don't.

So I'm ordering an Opteron 148 from Newegg, gonna plop that in and see if there's any big improvement. I'm just SHOCKED that upgrading from FX5600 to the 6800OC didnt yield any noticable improvement!

It should be a good difference.

For my instane, I went from a 9700 Pro to a 6800GT.

Though the difference was huge, including double points in 3dmark03, my favorite game in particular Rome:Total War showed little difference at all because the game is so cpu dependant. Yes, the graphics looked better, but performance wasnt much different.

One thing you said was you "plopped" it in. No video card will work good if you just plop it in.

Let me give you an example... WHen I got my 9700 pro back in the day I plopped it in, never uninstalling the previous drivers. It doesnt matter if in your case youre coming from another Nvidia card, you MUST uninstall ALL drivers. You must then do the safe mode procedure to uninstall using driver cleaner.

Download the latest nvidia drivers and then install them...

The 6800 is lacking in speed and pipelines compared to its bigger brothers, but you should notice a good increase because there are other technologies there much better than the FX5600.

Good luck.

heya pdxgamer;

you should see a 50FPS difference, and if you dont something is seriously wrong, you need to use the Nvidia cleaner tool or something to get rid of some garbage.

XeenRecoil and Onoeasaz,

I'm not a gamer or an expert on games by any stretch, so I have to ask would his 1.4ghz CPU have ANY impact on his ability to get higher frame rates?

I'm not doubting that he needs to look into most recent drivers, and do the scrub of old ones, but I suspect that CPU could be part of the equation. That is a relatively slow CPU he's currently using.

<i>Cigarettes - No cholesterol, high in fiber, low in fat, how could they not be good for you?</i>

Yes a 1.4ghz cpu would cause overall performance lag but there should still be a good jump in game because they are graphical rather that applications which don't matter.

Do a fresh install, its your best hope.

Hmmm,
Well, SWG is capped at 30FPS, but im still getting 8-15 FPS in the wilderness...

I did uninstall previous drivers, restarted, inserted new card, loaded new card drivers, then restarted again, but did not use the utility you all mentioned. I did not benchmark my old card either...

But I will return home, reinstall my OLD card, benchmark it, reinstall the NEW card using the driver utility mentioned, and will benchmark that as well....hope something changes...

oops! this is in the wrong forum isnt it?! lol...

2lateNow

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Personnally, I would like to see what your cpu scores in aquamark, and 3d 03. A 1.4 opteron is no slouch, and spending $500 for a chip that is only 50% faster, may not be needed.

ok, did it two days ago, and 3D mark gave me a 7500.
Then last night i did the driver cleaner, reinstalled new drivers downloaded fromNvidia, and got an 8500

Is this a good score for an Opteron 140 with 1GIG Corsair XMS Registered RAM, and my BFG 6800 OC?

If that's stock, no overclocks, I'd say, that's a great f'ing score for a 1.4 gig chip. What is your cpu score?

ok, I "plopped" in the Opteron 148 I got yesterday and got a 3D Mark score of 9400. I guess I can see some improvement in Star Wars Galaxies, but definitely not a good as I was hoping for. I still can't turn on shadows in the game and keep the frame rate smoothe...

Maybe a clean install of the OS would help.....?