dx9 and ti4400

[PREST0]

I just bought a pny made ti4400 on ebay for 56$. I am currently running a BBA 9600 non pro (128bit). I bought the card becuase I am in a Call of Duty clan and the 4400 really crushes my 9600 in that game.(+40% according to THG) This is probably a noob question but seeing as though the Ti is dx8.1 and I have dx9.0b installed is this gonna be a problem? Is it possible to revert back a version in DX or is it even necessary?

 

[mito]

No problem at all. The DX9 features will be processed by software and not by the videocard's hardware. Thus, dx9 games such as Doom III and HF2 will be slower than DX9 native cards (radeon 9x00 and geforce 5xx0).



/\/\ito
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asus a7n8x dlx, xp2600/333, 2x512mb pc2700, geforce 4 ti4200 64mb, win xp pro, dx 9.0b, nforce 2.45, det 43.45, samsung 40gb 7200rpm
Note: no SP1 and no OC!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mito on 05/15/04 12:34 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[PREST0]

awesome, thanks.

 

[Willamette_sucks]

Ya, ur 9600 sucks. I'd still rather have it (better AA/AF perf) and OC it tho. But if ur just gonna play CoD, the ti4400 would be better (albeit shittier looking).

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?

 

[PREST0]

I dont know I tried oc'ing it but it refused to. It just reset as soon as I started any 3dapp. But I am not getting rid of the 9600 Ill use it after Im done with CoD. And the 4400 was only 56$us thats pretty cheap considering I got soaked for 170$ at compusa last summer when I got the radeon. And the 4400 outperforms my current card in just about every game benchmark I have seen. I suppose the AF/AA wont be as good, but with a non pro9600 you cant turn that stuff on and expect really playable framerates anyway.

 

[Crashman]

The Ti4400 will always run faster than the 9600 in DX9 games because while the 9600 is processing the DX9 stuff the Ti4400 is ignoring it. I really shouldn't say "always" as you CAN turn off some of the features in some games.

Most DX7 cards will play DX9 games while displaying only the DX7 features...except that most are so weak you have to either drop the resolution very low or turn off 1/2 the features. DX9 is backwards compatable with most older hardware like I described.

As for your 9600 non-pro, I'd download the Powercolor 9600 Pro EZ BIOS <A HREF="http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/bios.php" target="_new">HERE</A> and install it. You might need better cooling for the chip, but it should work. If your RAM is 5ns, you'll probably have to leave it near the "Pro EZ" stock speed, but if it's 4ns, it should overclock to 250MHz (DDR500 speed).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[PREST0]

How do I know what kind of ram it has? Its a bba retail 9600. I believe the chips are made by samsung but as far as 5ns or 4ns who knows. I really would like to overclock it some and see what its capable of. But I had no idea that I could do so with a different bios.

EDIT: okay I just checked the ram it had this number on it K4D261638E-TC40, according to samsung its rated at 250mhz so i guess thats the 4ns variety. I also downloaded the bios but I really dont know what to do with it are there any instructions you could link me too?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by PREST0 on 05/16/04 12:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[PREST0]

Eh forget it. I have never flashed a bios before, I couldnt find one beginner guide to do this and am just not comfortable working with the instructions I did find. The card is garbage anyway I cant imagine going up a few mhz on the ram and core is gonna make it a speed demon. If the ti4400 works well I'll probably just ebay the 9600 and move on to a real card when I need it.

 

[mito]

<i>The Ti4400 will always run faster than the 9600 in DX9 games because while the 9600 is processing the DX9 stuff the Ti4400 is ignoring it.</i>

Ignoring or processing via software? I thought modern cards had dx9 functions in hardware, thus are much faster. Older cards will do dx9 stuff, however, much slower....

Please correct me...


/\/\ito
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asus a7n8x dlx, xp2600/333, 2x512mb pc2700, geforce 4 ti4200 64mb, win xp pro, dx 9.0b, nforce 2.45, det 43.45, samsung 40gb 7200rpm
Note: no SP1 and no OC!

 

[Willamette_sucks]

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=680130#680130" target="_new">Here is my guide, it is suitable for beginners as it explains everything. You will need to do this with a floppy. Just right click on the floppy drive icon and hit format, and create an MSdos startup disk. Then put the BIOS you want to flash to on that disk, as well as the 2 programs that are linked to in that thread. Have fun. BTW like the really long hyperlink?</A>

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Older cards will do dx9 stuff, however, much slower....

No...they wont.



<A HREF="http://rmitz.org/AYB3.swf" target="_new">All your base are belong to us.</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2216718" target="_new"><b>3DMark03</b></A>

 

[PREST0]

Thank you, that was a very easy to follow guide. I flashed the bios to 9600proez powercolor, installed the 3.10 omegas(I like 3.10 and will probably use em until something really changes with newer versions.)With new bios the card was recognized at 405 core and 202 mem, I left the core alone and pushed the memory up to 250. So far so good. Ran 3dmark 2001se(1024*768 no aa/af) and got 10519, under the old bios at stock speeds(325/202) I was only getting 9199. So thats 12.6% boost not bad for free and it took almost no time at all. I backed up my old bios just in case but i saw no artifacts in 3dmark and as long as it continues to perform well Ill probably just keep my ati and resell that 4400 I just bought lol. Oh well if I had only posted here before hand, live and learn.

 

[Crashman]

Nope, you won't see DX9 features at all using DX8 hardware. DX9 looks at what hardware is available and provides the featurs that hardware is capable of using.

2 cards of equal power performance otherwise, 1 being DX8 and the other being DX9, will provide the following: The DX9 card will render DX9 features, providing slower performance with more graphical features; The DX8 card will run DX8 features only, resulting in faster performance with with fewer graphical features. In fact, if you manually turn off the DX9 features for the DX9 card, a comparison between two otherwise equal card will provide the same frame rates.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Willamette_sucks]

No problem, glad I could help. Now send 10 dollars to my address. The programs I hosted were designed by me. Your card will stop working after 20 days if I do not recieve payment. Upon receiving payment I will send you the program to override the shut down date.

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?

 

[PREST0]

LOL it already stopped working. I left it on all day (no gaming) then played some call of duty, worked great for a little over 2 hours then just shut down. I am certain its the core because the ram is indeed 4ns 250mhz samsung and i only have it clocked to 252. The core however was at 405 which ran fine until it got too hot. That passive heatsink is gonna have to go. After the lockup the ram felt just barely warm while the HS was really really hot. I am looking at either an iceberq4 or a artic cooling rev3 both under 20 bucks and hopefully up to the task of the keeping the core at around 400.

 

[Willamette_sucks]

Either of those should do the trick, but if ur getting new cooling you might want to look into something better like the vga silencer.

Me: are you saying I can't provide?
Me: cause I know I can provide.
Me: oh and I can provide money too
Rachel: why do we need money when we can just stay in our room and have sex all day?