Ati 9600 Pro 128 advice

[Dr. Freeman]

almost 2 months ago i bought a 9600 Pro 128mb.

it runs on:

AMD Athlon +2500 (1.8gig)
Abit NF7 NForce2 motherboard
512mb DDR ram 323200 400mhz
365 Enermax PSU

fastwrites are off
set AGP speed is at 4x right now
AA and AF are both at 2x

every time i play CS or any HL game for that matter.. at times my fps falls to around 10-12.. while other times it may drop to 40-50fps.. (i have fps_max at 100)

now is it normal for a 9600 to drop to 10 fps? especially in HL? whats a normal fps standard for a 9600 Pro setup similar to mine?

i don't have the card overclocked for those that are wondering.. and im not familar with overclocking and would rather avoid it.

im using Cat 3.7 drivers.. i don't want to switch to a newer version seeing as games generally seem to be working fine cept for the fps drop.. but thats not driver related, is it?

really need some advice on this since im new to the newer cards (upgraded first time in the last 5 years so im learning new things about the 9600 and other newer cards)

any and all advice is appreciated :dork:

 

[dawdler]

ATI cards are notorious for HL troubles... But I dont run CS or DoD or anything for HL, so I cant help specificly, all I can do is refer to the rage3d.com forums.
What I can suggest is experimenting with settings. Why run with fastwrites off/4xAGP? Your mobo should handle it on with 8x. Another thing is to disable FSAA all together. Yes, it doesnt look very good, but just try it and see if it improves. On the other hand, what are you thinking with 2xAF!? Crank it up to 16x!!! Its pointless running 2x.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

thanks for the reply dawdler

i noticed something in the dxdiag..

at the display tab

under the "DirectX Features"

2 of the options are enabled..
and the 3rd one being "AGP Texture Acceleration" is "not available"

is that normal? and how do i change it so it is enabled? that might be one of the problems...

as for ur suggestions dawdler, i did change the AA and AF.. im new to these settings.. so bare with me

anyway can u guys check the directx settings for ur card and let me know what those 3 settings are at? thanks.

 

[Shuzer]

All 3 settings are enabled for me. I believe the third is an option in your BIOS.

As for HL/CS getting sucky FPS, welcome to Steam There's a fix for it, it worked for me. I used to get anywhere from 20 to 60FPS in CS 1.6 on say, aztec, now, after the fix, I get a constant 70 (vsync limit and this is with 6xfsaa/16xaf).


Here's the fix: http://steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=30316

It gets mixed results. Like I said, it worked for me and fixed any FPS related issues I was having (I use a Radeon 9700).

Hope this much helps, Freeman. BTW, do you get FPS dips in other games, or just HL/CS?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Originally posted by Shuzer
All 3 settings are enabled for me. I believe the third is an option in your BIOS.

really? um.. damn.. well i have gone into BIOS a few times but its a general rule of mine not to touch things.. can u explain where i would find this option Shuzer? thanks!

Originally posted by Shuzer
I used to get anywhere from 20 to 60FPS in CS 1.6 on say, aztec, now, after the fix, I get a constant 70 (vsync limit and this is with 6xfsaa/16xaf).

vsync? whats urs at? mine is currently at the second bar (theres 4 bars in total)

i checked the url u provided and am gonna try that driver switch.. hopefully it will help

Originally posted by Shuzer
Hope this much helps, Freeman. BTW, do you get FPS dips in other games, or just HL/CS?

currently i don't play very many games... besides CS and COD.. and i don't know all the commands so haven't checked my fps in it..

 

[Shuzer]

Not sure exactly where that setting would be, but I believe somewhere in the "Advanced Settings" menu from the BIOS main menu (I could be wrong all together that that's a BIOS settings, but it seems to ring a bell, just take a look).

70Hz for 1024x768 (what I run most games at)

I used to play CS daily.. but I haven't played it in a couple to a few weeks now Since I just discovered exactly how much fun Deus Ex is, I've been playing that