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  • optimising my new 6800 - please help

    Hi guys,

    I have just bought a new Winfast GF6800 (128MB). The remaining major components of my system are: PIV 2,8 Prescott and 1 Gig of Ram (2*512 Kingston, Dual) and a weak PSU of 300 Wats.

    My previous card was Radeon 9600PRO and I run it 1024*768*60hz, most settings medium except shadows, lights and textures on low and 95% visibility. The game was not very smooth, esp. in tight fights, but it worked all right.

    When I launched BF2 yesterday I was more than disappointed when testing it (I checked SP only, as I had little time, so MP may be even worse): when I use 1024*768*75hz, all settings on medium, AA *2, 100% visibility range I get 40-60 fps, but when I make sharp turns (e.g. while in a heli) the game starts to chop (but the FPS indicator stays fairly high). The choppiness is more visible that with my old card ((((.

    After about 30 minutes of playing I checked the card temperature and it was abour 52, so I guess not too high.

    I asked a question in the hardware forum about the PSU and talked to friends and most of them claim that the PSU is a bit weak, but it should cause crashes, shutdowns, but not game choppiness. Since I owned an ATI before I intend to run a driver cleaner, as the people in that other forum suggested.

    I have the latest Nvidia drivers. I have not made any 3dmark tests, as I usually play games, not 3Dmark.

    I have to basic questions:
    1. Do you have any tips for me on improving performance.
    2. Given my specs, what sort of settings should I expect in BF2?

    EDIT: I found on the forum something about changing aperature size (?). What size should it be with my 1gig of Ram and where do I change it?

  • #2
    Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

    AGP aperture size can only be changed in BIOS. With 1GB of ram the aperture should be 256MB. I would recommend that you try different drivers. Try the one that comes with BF2. I believe it's 77.30. The last driver isn't nescessarily the best. Now that the 7800GTX is out the new drivers might just contain fixes and optimization towards that card. Why are you running 60 or 75Hz? Do you have an LCD? If you have then you should try 60 and see if it works better with the 6800 also. The choppiness when you move around comes from the fact that the FPS is less than ideal. Nvidia cards might work a bit different from ATI cards when it comes to smoothing out low FPS.

    In the Nvidia control panel you should set the System performance option in the performance and quality section to "quality". It will give you a nice performance boost. Also vertical sync should be set to application preference or always off.

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    • #3
      Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

      thanks. Currently the aperture may be 128MB, as I previously had 512RAM and I am sure it has not been changed when upgrading RAM - so I will start from there.

      Just found out that a friend from work has a very similar setup with this very card, so he's going to check what sort of drivers and OC settings he is running. I'll check the drivers that came with the BF2 disc - that's a good idea

      My display is CRT and tbh I do not know which of the rates I should chose.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

        My specs are close to your system - 3.06 GHz P4 HT, 1GB RDRAM, 6800GT 256MB. The game runs smooth provided my connection is good online of course (except for that initial spawn period when I first enter the server - lasts for 10 seconds or so).

        Terrain - Medium
        Effects - Medium
        Geometry - High
        Texture - Medium (with only 128MB maybe try this on Low)*
        Lighting - Medium
        Dynamic Shadows - Low
        Dynamic Lighting - Low (if I remember correctly)
        AA - 4x (personal perference - 1024x768 32-bit 85 refresh rate)
        Texture Filtering - Medium
        View Distance - 100%

        I run a static 1GB virtual drive, plus have removed the in-game movies.

        Have you tried this - http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_1.html .

        Make sure you have as much RAM free for the game as possible. Good luck mate.

        TS!

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        • #5
          Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

          Ok, the major thing is your ram, I would suggest to look into buying another gig or another 512 stick. This will eliminate the chopps. Also your psu is a little weak but shouldn't hurt to much. Other than that everything seems fine, OH i think you should keep your agp apeture size to 128 due to your card only being 128.

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          • #6
            Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

            -GRimm-, could you explain the aperture thingy? I was told and read on this very forum that aperture should be a 1/4 of available RAM - in my case that would be 256.

            Secondly, as I wrote a friend with almost the same hardware runs the game on much higher settings than myself.

            I am sure RAM would be a performance booster, but I do not want to spend more money ATM - card + PSU will be enough.

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            • #7
              Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

              have same card running amd 64 +3500 1gig .
              yust want to say us the 77.30 drivers cose the latest driver did cose problems for me also other drivers ,77.30 problems away
              btw i have a lcd screen why should it run on 60hz insted of 72 for example ?
              what difference gonne make that ?

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              • #8
                Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                When changing from Ati to Nvidia i believe it is crucial to fully uninstall the previous drivers, then perform a driver clean before you install the new drivers.

                Also i would recommend clearing the BF2 gfx cache, that was created using your ATI card. You will find this under your "My Documents" folder, Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache. Delete the folders with the big ass names.

                The above should give you a relatively clean platform from which to proceed.

                I would definately try the textures on low, as 128mb is quite low for video memory.

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                • #9
                  Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                  I have done driver clearing, increased aperture from 64 to 128 and installed 77.30 drivers (the one that came with BF2). I still experience stuttering, which is quite annoying. I turned on my FPS indicator - if (as I think) the first value is the number of FPS, then my FPS stays around 50-90 (tested while flying heli on Dalian Plant) AND it stays at this level while the game stutters. I admit I am puzzled now - in all previous games I saw a clear correlation between the number of FPS and smoothness of the game - nothing like that here :cry: .

                  Maybe it's really my 300W PSU being unable to somehow service the whole machine...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                    Put the AGP apeture to 256MB, and make sure dynamic lighting and dynamic shadows are off. You should change the refresh rate to 85-100 in both BF2 and windows.

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                    • #11
                      Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                      More RAM
                      Powersupply

                      Not necessarily in that order.

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                      • #12
                        Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                        You need more ram, it's that simple.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                          I reckon bumping up the AGP arpeture would sort it TBH - it sounds lik eits having difficulty loading the textures and whatnot from VRAM as opposed so doubling the available amount [as the AGP-SYSRAM bus is pretty quick generally] should help.

                          I'm running a gig of ram with a 128mb 5700LE@500/500mhz and Athlon 2400 [at 2.25Ghz] with an extrea 128Mb from the AGP arpeture and get no chopping - mind you I have to run at low detail for everything so take that with a huuuge pinch of salt....

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                          • #14
                            Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                            Uhhh, thats proabably doing nuthing considering you're running all low. If you want to run high textures or even medium you'll want 2 gigs of ram or 1.5 the least.

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                            • #15
                              Re: optimising my new 6800 - please help

                              If you have a CRT then the refresh rate should be as high as possible. If your CRT can handle it I recommend 85Hz. You also need to make shure that you are actually getting anything above 60Hz in BF2. The Nvidia driver has a refresh rate override section that can be used to set proper refresh rate in games. Your AGP aperture should be 256MB if you can change it to that.

                              Another way to force refreshrate in games is to go to start button -> run -> write dxdiag, say no to the question of whql certification. When it is finished loading go to the "more help" tab. There you have an override button and when you click on it you can write in the refresh rate you want. If your monitor can handle 85 just write that or otherwise 75.

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