9500 Pro Set-up

[jvstrat]

I just built a new pc. AMD Athlon XP 2200, Abit KD-7, 512mb ddr ram, and ATI Radeon 9500 Pro. When running Nascar 2003 I only get between 15 and 20 fps when running with a pack of cars. I know it should be much higher. I know I still need to download the Catalyst 3.2 driver. I also need to download via's agp driver per the ATI manual. Could you guys tell me if there is any settings for both the card and the abit that I should check. Under the AGP in the bios a lot of the functions are disabled so I don't know if those need to be enabled. Also there is one setting that says 64m, should it be changed to 128m since my card is 128mb? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[selfbuilt]

By all means, please install the Via AGP driver! Without it, none of the BIOS settings will even matter since you are not running in AGP mode! Once you get the AGP driver installed (and the newest Catalyst drivers and Control Panel), then you can play around a little with the BIOS settings and see what happens. First off, though, your performance should more than double what you are seeing now without AGP drivers installed.

The most important thing is to make sure that at least 4X AGP is enabled in the BIOS. The rest doesn't matter so much. As for the aperture size, 64MB is the default, but you can safely change it to 128MB which is generally recommended. Note that this doesn't refer to your card but to your system memory, and with 512MB of ram you'll have no problems at a 128MB setting (any higher isn't likely to help, though).

I'd recommend you leave the other settings to default (e.g. leave fast writes off, etc.). You can certainly play with them if you like, but they aren't likely to help much and may make the system unstable. Just confirm you are running in at least 4X AGP mode (check the SmartGart that comes with the ATI control panel - which you should also install, BTW). Don't sweat the rest.

Enjoy the card!

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

 

[jvstrat]

I've been to the viaarena site that the ATI manual states has the drivers. Which driver do I need to download for the agp?

 

[phial]

Via 4in1




blah.. siggys suck

 

[RCPilot]

VIA 4in1 drivers have been replaced with <A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2" target="_new">VIA Hyperion 4 in 1 drivers.</A>

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!

 

[igo_hams]

How do i know if the driver is already installed or hassen't been installed yet???

Don't bother upgraden your PC, Microsoft wil alwayse be able to slow it down.

 

[jvstrat]

I installed the 4 in 1 driver. Under system in device manager I see the AGP, the properties of my video card still say pci. What should I do?

 

[selfbuilt]

The bus type should be listed as AGP for the primary adapter and PCI for the secondary adapter only (I know it's a little strange, but that's how these cards interpret the secondary port). However, regardless of what it says, check with the SmartGart in the ATI control panel to see that you running at least 4X AGP. Then check with your games to see what your framerates are - they should have gone up, which is what matters.

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

 

[RCPilot]

You should be able to see in Device Manager if it's installed.
Also if you haven't had the Hyperion drivers, you'd want to upgrade the 4 in 1's you've got to get to the latest drivers for VIA. I think I'm following this right.

If it ain't broke, take it apart & see why not!