Can anyone provide some insight?

[Guest]

I have an ASUS v7100 pro 64MB MX-400 video card. Some games (Comanche 4, Ghost Recon to name a few) run choppy at certain resolutions. For example:

Comanche4: Runs chopy at pretty much anything higher than 800x600 even with lowered detailing.

Ghost Recon: Currently running at 1024x768 with "Medium" detail, and even still choppy at times.

I was wondering if anyone knows about something that I can do to resolve this, or if it's just that the card isn't powerful enough.

The reason why I don't think it's a "power" issue is because my friend runs the same games with a Asus v7100 mx-200 32MB card (what I think is a less powerful card) with NO choppiness on the above games at the same resolutions and detail that I've tried.

Any insight from anyone would be greatly appreciated!!!

In case you need to know:

I am running a P4 1.9Ghz with 512MB ram, 48X CD rom, maxtor 7200 rpm drive (40GB)

My friend has:

AMD Athlon 1GHz, 256MB ram, other stuff unknown

THanks again for any help!!!

-P

 

[evil_homer]

It might be your drivers. What version are they?


Keyboard not found press F5 to continue

 

[svol]

Yes, should be the drivers, or you have setted your AGP speed to 2x instead of 4x in your BIOS. The MX200 is one of the weakest videocards from the GeForce2 series, but your MX400 should be much better then the MX200.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[Guest]

The drivers I am using are as follows:

ASUS V7100PRO v11.01c

I failed to mention that I am running Win ME in case that matters.

I have also tried the Win ME version of the "Detonator XP" drivers from NVIDIA.com, but there was no difference.

As I am only marginally familiar with all this stuff, if someone can recommend better drivers that I should use, I would greatly appreciate that information!

Thanks again for your help.

-P

PS. Here is some other information (taken from my ASUS Control Panel), in case it is relevant: (Word-For-Word)

BUS Type: AGP 4X (Current Rate: Off) Side Band: Off
VESA VBE Version: 3.00
VGA BIOS Version: 3.11.01.24
AGP Memory: None

Finally, I investigated the possibility of the BIOS being set to 2X AGP, but found that it is properly set to 4X.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by blahblah69 on 01/08/02 12:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[phsstpok]

"AGP 4X (Current Rate: Off)" and "AGP Memory: None".

These seem to be indicating that your AGP is currently not working. Install the chipset drivers for your motherboard. If you don't have them download them from Intel or your mobo manufacturer or computer manufacturer.

<b>We are all beta testers!</b>

 

[Flyboy]

That's exactly what it is! I just saw this happen with my brother's computer! I used CPUID and it showed that his AGP was disabled! I bout' s**t. I installed the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers and tadaa...

Good call.

Catheter and Caffeine IV are in place. Let's PLAY.

 

[Flyboy]

Patiently waiting for an update...did you fix it or what?

Oh go ye brown-eyed toothless wonder.

 

[Guest]

**Sorry for the delay in sending this thank-you to all those who helped me. You know who you are**

I took phsstpok's advice and did a little research. I went up on Intel's website and I found a "Chipset Installation Utility". I ran this and everything seems to be working nicely now. The problem was that (like you guys said), AGP was "off". Basically, because the CPU is much newer than is Win ME, the OS doesn't "know" how to take full advantage of it. Intel corrected this by releasing the above-mentioned utility.

The information in my control panel now reads:

BUS Type: AGP 4X (Current Rate: 4X)
AGP Memory: 25165824 bytes (Total), 19397112 bytes {Free}

Now the last question I have is: What are the "best" drivers to use? Perhaps you, the experts, can tell me which drivers (provider, version, etc.) are the best to be using. I gather the options are:

1) The drivers provided when I bought my system. They are ASUS V7100PRO v11.01c

2) The latest ASUS V7100PRO MX-400 series drivers available on ASUS.com (these are version 12.90)

3) NVIDIA DetonatorXP drivers available from nvidia.com

4) Other drivers that I am not aware of.

**I am currently using #1**

Perhaps someone can let me know which drivers are "optimal" for gaming. If someone mentions "other" drivers, could you please let me know (if possible) where they can be obtained?

Thanks again for everyone's help. You guys really know your stuff ...

-P

 

[Guest]

Flyboy (or anyone else) ...

You mentioned the "latest" VIA 4-in-1 drivers. Should I use that? Are they for the P4? If so, do you think I will screw up anything if I install those also, even though I used Intel's chipset installation utility? Let me know what you think ...

Thanks

-P

 

[garett]

we need to know what your motherboard is now.

 

[Flyboy]

You probably installed the correct chipset drivers if its working ok now. Garett's right, we need to know what motherboard you have in order to tell you which drivers to use. Or you could read the manual that came with your motherboard. If it has the VIA chipsets on it (i.e. An Asus board, A7V or something), then you should use the VIA 4-in-1 drivers.

Sorry about my impatient response. I was excited because I knew that had to be the problem and couldn't wait to hear your results. It's one of the few times I felt I could actually help someone come to a quick resolution!

Good luck!

Oh go ye brown-eyed toothless wonder.

 

[phsstpok]

Rule of thumb - never use the wrong chipset drivers. If you have an Intel chipset use the Intel drivers. If you have a Via chipset use the Via 4-in-1 drivers.

Having said that, since you already used the Intel Chipset utility, and it worked, we now know you have an Intel chipset. You do not need to anything else regarding chipsets except periodically looking for updates.

As for the the best nVidia drivers, I recommend the previous "official drivers". (I think they were 21.81). I've tried the latest official driver, 23.11, and started getting spontaneous reboots (of course my hardware is far different than yours). 23.11 being the exception, I normally recommend the newest official nVidia drivers.

Enjoy your new system!

My system

Athlon 1.0 @ 1.5ghz, 150mhz FSB
EPoX EP-8KTA3PRO, Via KT133A chipset
$4.99 Galaxy GC21 heatsink (same/similar as Thermaltake Volcano 5) add my own Delta fan.
256 MB OCZ PC-150, CAS2 SDRAM
Visiontek Geforce 2 GTS-V
Maxtor D740X 40GB hard drive
cheap but nice case
Enermax EG351P-VE, 330 watt PSU
Misc. ancient hardware
Windows 98SE

<b>We are all beta testers!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 01/14/02 04:07 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Is an "ASUS P4B/Audio i845 ATX" motherboard. The chipset onboard (I knew this, but I had a lapse of stupidity) is the Intel i845 Chipset. Therefore, to answer my own silly question, and using phsstpok's rule of thumb, I am using the correct Intel chipset drivers. Turns out that the Chipset Installation Utility was on the ASUS support CD for my motherboard all along, I just didn't know it. I wonder however why the place I bought the system from didn't install these drivers in the first place. Oh well, no harm done. With a little research (and lots of help by you guys) all problems have been solved. A sincere thank you to everyone for your help. All of you are very knowledgeable!

-P

 

[Guest]

It's a very easy fix. By default the nVidia drivers set FSAA to 2X. All you need to do is go into the Display Properties then Settings and into Advanced Properties and then the tab for your Card and then the Additional Properties button, there you will find the FSAA settings, Choose Manually select the mode and Disable FSAA.
This should do the trick. Also try running at 16 bit color in your games. Comanche 4 by default trys to run at 4X FSAA so now it won't be able to.
With Ghost Recon make sure you turn off show dead bodys and turn down the bullet count to 25, try it with and without texture compression and the two upper middle boxes
in the graphic setting turn them all the way down, the rest can be set at the medium setting and 1024x768 and it should look fine and run smooth.
I can play both of them on my Inspiron with it's GeForce 2 GO and it's 32 MB DDR of video memory and Comanche runs great @ 800x600 and Ghost Recon runs smooth as silk @ 1400x1050 my LCD native resolution and that's all I had to do was disable FSAA to get this performance. Your GF2 MX 400 is more powerful than my laptop video so you should be just fine after disabling FSAA.

Take it with you, be a MobileGamer

 

[Guest]

Thanks mobilegamer ... I will try that out!

-P

PS. Could someone explain what FSAA is or stands for?

 

[Guest]

Here it is.
F= Full, S= Scene, AA= AntiAliasing (FSAA)
What it does is sample each frame at a very high resolution and then resample it to your viewing resolution. This makes straight lines straight and also takes the jaged edges off of objects.
There is also a method of FSAA that uses multiple frame samples to very-lay onto each other to do the same thing.
You can see it work best if you play a Direct X game like say Swat 3 or Rainbow Six and looking at stair case railings or edges of anything.
They is with and without. Some games may look better say at 800x600 with it enabled, then at 1924x768 without.
Using the feature puts a load on your system.

Take it with you, be a MobileGamer