New card, GTA3, etc.

[Sooty70]

I upgraded my TNT2 Ultra to a GeForce Ti4200 128Mb and the only real difference I noticed was that my PC doesn't choke sometimes. I'm talking about playing Grand Theft Auto 3 by the way. I will have to read up about the card I have because perhaps I just have to enable some features or maybe there's nothing much I can do to get the graphics looking sweeter?

An unrelated question. How many folks here leave their machines on all the time? I used to do that but I decided that it's a waste of money and is more likely to shorten the life of my components. The second statement is unfounded, just an assumption. I used to leave my machine on all the time because I couldn't be arsed waiting the few minutes for my OS (W2K) to boot but now that I haev XP it's up real quick.

 

[DeleriumAE]

If GTA3 still isn't up to speed with your new card, it's probably some other aspect of your system that is slowing it down, such as your CPU, RAM, etc. I have the same card, and I've been able to run all the newest games without any problem. As for leaving your computer on, I usually leave mine running, and I have never experienced a problem in more than 3 years. I think it's just a matter of preference. Hope this helps.

 

[Sooty70]

Thanks. I should have been clearer, the game flies, I have no problems in that respect. I think I need to do something with AA to get the graphics looking smoother. Once I have finished my 12 step program I'll see about getting the anti aliasing working.

 

[halkebul]

I believe that an article from Tom's Hardware a while back stated that if you enable AGP fast write that will increase performance. I scored 100 3DMarks higher when I applied all the tweaks mentioned in <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/01q3/010725/bios_tuning-18.html" target="_new">that article</A>. You could also overclock your graphics card using <A HREF="http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm" target="_new">PowerStrinp</A>.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[Sooty70]

I read about that util, it sounds quite a piece of work. I'll have to look into that some more.

 

[DeleriumAE]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up. I think by default your video card let's the game handle anti-aliasing, etc. but there is a way to set it manually if you want to try that. Go to your display properties, settings, advanced, and click on the GeForce4 Ti4200 tab. Then click on additional properties. You should be able to manually set what anti-aliasing mode the card it running at.

Btw, I'm not sure if this exists for all GeForce4 cards, or if it's brand-specific, but give it a try and see if it's there.

 

[Sooty70]

I recall seeing an entry in the menu for x2 and x4 AA, I will play around with that.

I rememeber from my Quake II days of editing the config file(s) to greatly affect performance and graphics. Generally speaking, does that kind of thing still go on nowadays with 3D games? It's been a while.