New video card and no improvement

[Tenkani]

Here are my system specs before the graphic card upgrade...

CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ ClawHammer Socket 754 CPU running at 2.0 GHz
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS K8V Deluxe
VIDEO: SAPPHIRE Radeon 9800PRO 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X
RAM: CORSAIR XMS 512MB (X2 for 1GB total) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered
PS: FSP Group (Fortron Source) FSP400-60PFN ATX 400W

I just recently replaced my video card with an ASUS N6800/TD/512MB Geforce 6800 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X.

Here's where the frustration comes in. Before the upgrade, in order to play BF2 mutli-player without killer lag I had to peg all my video settings at low. Now, after the upgrade...SAME THING! Even on low, just like before the upgrade I'm generally hovering in the high 30's for FPS even on servers where Internet-induced lag is not an issue. The game RUNS MARGINALLY better on single-player, but we all know what BF2 single player is like (useless).

So how can this be??
Does anyone have experience with this particular card (the Asus)?
It only has a 128 bit interface, but they've packed it with 512 MB of DDR2 video RAM.
On the New Egg Web site people describe a variety of driver-related issues, but the concensus seemed to be that the latest NVidia drivers (which I have) will work.

My only thoughts were that perhaps my mobo and CPU were bottlenecking the video card. In other words, maybe the performance was already maxed out with the old card?

I'm intending to upgrade my system as follows in a few weeks...

Mobo: MSI Neo2 Platinum
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice (socket 939) running at 2.4 GHz
RAM: Total 2GB Corsair XMS PC 3200

But in the meantime, if there's something wrong with my video card I want to RMA it and get a new one. Is there some utility I can use to see whether my card is defective??

Can anyone suggest a better AGP card for $200 or less?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!

[imported_Wreck]

Re: New video card and no improvement

The problem is that card isn't much better than the 9800 pro, and you are wasting money getting 512mb of ram on such a low end card.

[^nUbl4z0r(!)]

Re: New video card and no improvement

Yea DEFINATELY get more RAM

[Tenkani]

Re: New video card and no improvement

*cry*
Ok, so are there any better choices in the $200 range in AGP format?
I might be able to scrape together $250 but I hate to do that for an AGP card I'm going to replace in a couple of years...

[Alm()nd J()y]

Re: New video card and no improvement

Yea a 6800 vanila isn't that great.

[imported_Wreck]

Re: New video card and no improvement

*cry*
Ok, so are there any better choices in the $200 range in AGP format?
I might be able to scrape together $250 but I hate to do that for an AGP card I'm going to replace in a couple of years...

If you plan on keeping it a couple years then I'd suggest a

7800 GS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130274

or X850 pro:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161172

[Tenkani]

Re: New video card and no improvement

Argh...that's a little more than I wanted to spend (for the 7800) but I'm so dissapointed with my 6800...I guess I need to shell out the green for decent gameplay huh?

[LoD]

Re: New video card and no improvement

9800 Pro = 6600GT = 6800 regular

They are all very close to each other in performance, you just wasted your money, you gained shader 3.0 and maybe 10-15% more performance.

Also the extra ram is completely useless.

[Eddy01741]

Re: New video card and no improvement

9800 Pro = 6600GT = 6800 regular

They are all very close to each other in performance, you just wasted your money, you gained shader 3.0 and maybe 10-15% more performance.

Also the extra ram is completely useless.

Well, the 6800 vanilla is a tiny bit better than the 6600GT, which is a tiny bit better than the pro. But all in all, basically equal.

[ramsy66]

Re: New video card and no improvement

Wow... I had EXACTLY the same card before this one, did you get that off ebay? Maybe I sold it to you It was fine for me by the way, I didn't sell a corrupt card to you if it was you.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's this new patch, in fact none of my games have been the same since this new patch :hmm:

[Tenkani]

Re: New video card and no improvement

I bought it from New Egg so don't fret :)

As far as the RAM being useless, what does that mean, twsmit? I keep reading that going from 1GB to 2GB RAM can improve performance in BF2. You're saying that's not so?

I've decided to go PCI Express BTW. I didn't want to return my video card, but it makes more sense to buy a newer PCI-E capable motherboard and shell out for the PCI-E 7800. My wife is going to stab me to death in my sleep, but it will be worth it

[imported_Wreck]

Re: New video card and no improvement

I bought it from New Egg so don't fret :)

As far as the RAM being useless, what does that mean, twsmit? I keep reading that going from 1GB to 2GB RAM can improve performance in BF2. You're saying that's not so?

I've decided to go PCI Express BTW. I didn't want to return my video card, but it makes more sense to buy a newer PCI-E capable motherboard and shell out for the PCI-E 7800. My wife is going to stab me to death in my sleep, but it will be worth it

He means that much ram on the video card is useless. 2Gb of system ram is optimal for BF2.

If thats your upgrad path I'd recommend this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123257

Video cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130028

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283

[Tenkani]

Re: New video card and no improvement

Unfortunately, I've got a socket 939 CPU in the mail right now.
Sorry, should have mentioned that. So I'm going to limit myself to 939 format motherboards. I've had good luck with Asus products in the past, unless I have to call tech support...

[Eddy01741]

Re: New video card and no improvement

He means that much ram on the video card is useless. 2Gb of system ram is optimal for BF2.

If thats your upgrad path I'd recommend this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123257

Video cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130028

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130283

Also this vid card if you want ATi over nvidia: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814195019

It woulda been 30 bucks cheaper 2 weeks ago, but all the cheap ones are outta stock. the X1800XT perfrms on par with the 7900GT.

[LoD]

Re: New video card and no improvement

To describe this non technically.... video card ram holds textures, and other graphical information. Currently few if any games use standalone textures that will use over 256MB of ram, most are in the 128MB -256MB range or even less.
To actually fill the memory you need to crank up the resolution of your game and or higher amounts of AA and AF. (Meaning frames and textures are subjected to more passes through the memory buffer etc...)

So for instance, playing BF2 @ 1024x768 might take up 64MB of ram (making all these numbers up, they are ficticious)

1024x768 w/ 4x AA and 8x AF might be 100MB

1280x1024 might be 100MB, 1280x1024 w/ 4x AA and 8x AF might be 150MB

etc.... so on and so forth....

The point is, once you reach a resolution that actually benefits from over 256MB of ram, you're going to be running such a high resolution that your FPS will drop like a meteor.

The 6800XT is simply not powerful enough to push decent frameses at rates at such a resolution or amount of AA and AF.

A realitstically made up number might be 1920x1200 4x AA and 8x AF to break 256MB (just making that number up) but there is no way on earth a 6800XT will run the game at such a resolution... probably averaging 4-6FPS, and your monitor probably doesnt support such a high resolution.

Point is that on budget cards, to use the extra ram you will have to push the card to unplayable levels... so why bother, its a complete waste of money.