Drivers, Catalyst, and Performance

[MilkMan12]

First things first. I have a dell dimension 8300. P4 3.2 GHZ, 1gig of ram, and a radeon 9800 xt 256mb.

What are these catalyst beta and catalyst 4.9 drivers and where exactly do i get them? Do I need them?

Also I know the fps im getting in cs:s is bullcrap, and I know its something technical not easy like close programs or bla bla bla. With my system and all settings on high, 2x AA vsync off, 1024 x 768 (or whatever) I get around 50 fps, but thats ok, the thing is, whenever something big happens like a grenade or a lot of people shoot, it drops down to 10-15, and people with lower systems than I are getting higher fps. I know my comp should not go under 30 fps am I right?
If any yall can help me out, and treat me like im computer illeterate cause I dont know much technical shit besides my system specs lol. So thank you ahead of time guys, really appreciate what you guys do here.

 

[Asus]

The 50FPS with AA on sounds about right. Although your system could use some optimizing to run better. What is running in the background? Try 4xAF instead of 2xAA. IMO it makes it look better more than AA and takes less of a performance hit.

Here are the 8.07 Beta drivers, soon to be 4.11 Cats.

 

[blahblahblah]

The 50FPS with AA on sounds about right. Although your system could use some optimizing to run better. What is running in the background? Try 4xAF instead of 2xAA. IMO it makes it look better more than AA and takes less of a performance hit.

Here are the 8.07 Beta drivers, soon to be 4.11 Cats.

*shudder*

AA is way better than AF. AA removes the jaggies from the edges of polygons. AF makes textures in the distance appear less blurry. AF is less of a performance hit than AA.

See what happens to your framerates if you take AA off. That may fix your problem.

Also, follow these instructions to uninstall your old drivers and new drivers.

 

[Asus]

hehe
Preferences. I can live with a few jaggies but whenever I take off AF I shudder like you do with jaggies.
1024x and a little AA is enough for me but I need at least 4X AF.

 

[MilkMan12]

Whats AF, and do I need to uninstall my drivers then reinstall, and also again lol, do I need that beta driver thing or not?

Oh by the way I just noticed this, when I click properties of my graphix card, next to the name it says -Secondary, does that mean anything?

 

[blahblahblah]

Whats AF, and do I need to uninstall my drivers then reinstall, and also again lol, do I need that beta driver thing or not?

Oh by the way I just noticed this, when I click properties of my graphix card, next to the name it says -Secondary, does that mean anything?

Example of AF. Notice how much clearer the textures are with AF.

Updating your graphics card drivers regularly is good because new drivers tend to have better performance than older drivers. New drivers tend to fix problems in games and have new features within the video card driver.

You need to uninstall your old drivers, and then install the new drivers. This is to prevent any conflicts with your old drivers and new drivers. Follow the instructions (on the bottom of the page) on the link I gave you earlier.

The secondary monitor refers to your video cards capability of dual monitor support. Don't worry about it, unless you want a second monitor.

 

[MilkMan12]

So AF is that anistrophic thing, my system could handle which one?