Video Problem During Gaming

[harryo2b]

Here is the situation. While gaming and only gaming my computer will either freeze/monitor shut down or system reboot, possible causes? Also how do i know what is a good refresh rate for my setup.
System Info:
ATi 9500 Pro
512 Samsung 2700
Asus A7V8X
40 gig hd
Windows XP
Athlon XP 2000+
350 PSU
nothing overclocked

Can anyone give me some insight to what may be going wrong? In my BIOS what is the best set up for video. For graphics aperature do i make that 128 or should i go higher/lower? AGP compatible make it 8X/auto/or lower? Also big question turn on Antialiasing or leave off? Any help would really be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[speeduk]

First off all i'll try and help you out with bios settings. Personally if i've built a system myself and i'm trying it out for the first time, leave everything at default, then later when u r happy with things go for higher settings like 8x agp and for 512mb ram 256 is the norm aperture i think. Refresh rate is relative to your monitors capability, just select "optimal" in the cards controll panel and if you have a good monitor you should get atleast 75hz, if theres no optimal setting or you want to manually change things, refer to the monitors manual for its peak refresh/resolution settings or look on the net! As for crashing when playing games, you said this only occurs when playing games, so its got to be something big like memory problems or card setup/drivers or possibly the power supply. To give you more help i need some more info like what games you'r playing, does it happen in all games and what drivers your using?

 

[harryo2b]

Thanks for the response. The games that I currently play are Dungeon Siege and Raven Shield Demo. When I played Empire Earth I never experienced the problem. With the memory i just bumped up to 512 (2 * 256 sticks) and since have still had same problems.

 

[selfbuilt]

I have a virtually identical system to yours (it's scary - exactly the same hardware, except I'm running Windows ME). My system is perfectly stable in the games I run (mainly UT2003 and Unreal II, but few other demos and benchmarks). Both my mobo and card are early builds (Asus BIOS 8/28/2002, Radeon BIOS 11/29/2002) Here's my relevant BIOS settings for you:

AGP Aperture: 64MB
AGP Capability: Auto
AGP Performance Control: Disabled
AGP Fast Writes: Disabled
Video Memory Cache Mode: UC

Otherwise, all BIOS settings are set to default or auto (e.g. AGP voltage is auto, memory settings all auto, etc). These are pretty much defaults (I know the aperture is low), but I've left it as such since my system scores at the high end of the range for my card in all the benchmarking tests and is stable.

I also run with High Quality AA and AF enabled, and Smartgart confirms I'm at 8X AGP. As for drivers, I have the Hyperion 4-in-1 from early January running (version 4.45 I think) and ATI Catalyst 3.0 drivers.

One thing you might want to try is to test with just the new stick of memory installed in the first socket (just in case there's a problem with your old one). If there's anything else you want me to compare for you, just let me know.

System Specs:
Asus A7V8X
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
512MB PC27000 DDR-RAM (2x256mb)
AMD XP2000+ (Palomino core)
40GB WD HD 7200RPM, ATA100
DVD, buner, etc.
SB Audigy
Antec 330W "True" Power
Antec case with 3 fans
Viewsonic PS-790 19inch
(pretty scary, huh?)

Where does good judgement come from? Experience. Where does experience come from? Bad judgement.