Question for Nvidia users...

[LoD]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

2T performance hit is much closer to 5% than the 20% the OP noted. Its really in the 0-5% range at most, and thats mostly in synthetic benchies. 2GB wont buy you many more FPs if any at all, but if will alleviate 98% of all slow down and system lag in game, and speed up map transitions.

I would opt for the 2GB, to hell with 1T speed and bite the bullet. Get some cheap value ram, corsair, ocz, mushkin, micron, g skill etc... run the memory with a divider and OC the CPU more and dont worry about running 1:1. Running 1:1 is almost insignificant on the A64.

Anyways the ram upgrade is the onlything worthwhile IMO.

[Jofaba]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

How much money are you willing to spend? I just got this combo and with the rest of my rig can play all high, AA on 4X, and 1600x1200. There seems to be a noticable peformance boost between even similar cards from AGP to PCI-E:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130277

BTW impressive overclock on your cpu with air cooling!

[Shamus]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

I suffered the same feeling of not having my rig perform at peak preformance while using 4x512 RAM at 333Mhz, 2T command. The benchmark performance hit was there but I really didn't feel the difference in-game. My 1 gig of DDR 400 running at 2225 T1 gave me higher FPS so I stuck with 1 gig.

Just now, I just put in a 7800 GS (up from an 9700 Pro) and wow - I never knew BF2 looked so good and could run so smooth, especially at high resolution. Absolutely amazing to the point where I had to go and grab my wife to take a look. She really doesn't like the gaming scene but even she was impressed with the image quality.

There is no right or wrong answer because each PC performs differently with various performance components.

BTW CPU is AMD 3500+ OC @ 2.5

[DrunkenPirate]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

Ah.. finally retired that old 9700pro eh Shamus :p

[IndianScout]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

1024x768 default settings

6800 Ultra

Terrain HIGH
Effects HIGH
Geometry HIGH
Texture Medium
Lighting High
Shadows HIGH
Dynamic Light High
AA x2
View 100%

[imported_Jazza]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

1024x768 default settings

6800 Ultra

Terrain HIGH
Effects HIGH
Geometry HIGH
Texture Medium
Lighting High
Shadows HIGH
Dynamic Light High
AA x2
View 100%

6800GS which is a little bit better than a 6800GT

1024x768
Terrain: High
Effects: High
Geometry: High
Texture: Medium
Lighting: Medium
Shadows: Medium
Dynamic Light: Medium
AA: 2X
100% View
Texture filtering: High

I see it drop into the low 30's all the time :cry:

3200 Venice @ 3800+ Speeds (2.4Ghz)
1GB DDR400 Kingston, 2.5-3-2-5 1T
200GB IDE Seagate
256MB Gigabyte 6800GS @ 485/1100

[Talus]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

Ah.. finally retired that old 9700pro eh Shamus :p

Yeah, I can't believe how long he was usin' that thing! :laugh:

[Shamus]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

Yeah, I can't believe how long he was usin' that thing! :laugh:

LOL I definately got my money's worth out of that ol' thing. It is overclocked like mad and still keeps on throwing out those pixels. :)

But I'm still cheap none the less so I'll probably still have this 7800 GS when BF3001 is released next decade. :p

[Talus]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

That's the smartest way to be

[Blackhearted]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

6800GS which is a little bit better than a 6800GT

1024x768
Terrain: High
Effects: High
Geometry: High
Texture: Medium
Lighting: Medium
Shadows: Medium
Dynamic Light: Medium
AA: 2X
100% View
Texture filtering: High

I see it drop into the low 30's all the time :cry:

3200 Venice @ 3800+ Speeds (2.4Ghz)
1GB DDR400 Kingston, 2.5-3-2-5 1T
200GB IDE Seagate
256MB Gigabyte 6800GS @ 485/1100

geez. id have expected more from it.
the only thing different is you have dynamic lights and shadows on med, and terrain on high. 2x AA but you are running at 1024x768. somehow i expected more from that card. high AF too.

dips below 30fps? jesus. i read that the biggest impact is made by dynamic lighting. ive enabled it and really dont notice such a HUGE difference - i mean muzzle flashes still show with it off. have you tried turning it off entirely? youd probably get a significant boost from it.

i think ill stick with my new, smoother BF2 and mediocre vid settings and wait... buying an AGP card now doesnt seem like a good idea.

as for the 1T/2T thing - depending on the benchmark i have lost 5-10% performance. however it is smoother, and the system is overclocked anyway so even accounting for lost performance i am still way ahead of the game. i think ill keep it.
now im having problems with the damned athlonXP system i swapped the DDR RAM out of. i switched it back to SDRAM (ECS K7S5A supports both) and its acting wierd now. those boards were always unpredictable.

[imported_Jazza]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

geez. id have expected more from it.
the only thing different is you have dynamic lights and shadows on med, and terrain on high. 2x AA but you are running at 1024x768. somehow i expected more from that card. high AF too.

dips below 30fps? jesus. i read that the biggest impact is made by dynamic lighting. ive enabled it and really dont notice such a HUGE difference - i mean muzzle flashes still show with it off. have you tried turning it off entirely? youd probably get a significant boost from it.

When I only had BF2 I was running 1280x1024 4xAA Everything high/Textures med.

Then I got SF and had to go down to 1024x768 2xAA few on medium, then with 1.2 im down to the settings I listed above and its still dropping :cry:

Even my friend with a 4000+/1GB RAM/7800GTX has to run it at 1280x1024 4xAA most medium.

[imported_Jazza]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

Bump?

Any ideas Blackhearted?

[Blackhearted]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

Bump?

Any ideas Blackhearted?

yeah - what i said earlier :)
turn off dynamic light completely - its a massive performance hit, and having it on medium is a performance hit that could better be 'spent' elsewhere.

there isnt even a huge difference between low and medium shadows. IMO you are 'spending' too much on some features that are known to be heavy performance hits, and you could drop those and have better graphics and still come out with a higher FPS.

texture filtering eats performance too. im no expert - remember im using a 6600gt - but personally i would try the following with your config:

1280x1024
Terrain: High
Effects: High
Geometry: High
Texture: High
Lighting: Medium
Shadows: Low
Dynamic Light: Off
AA: 2X
100% View
Texture filtering: Medium

by turning off dynamic lighting and bumping shadows down to low you should gain quite a bit of FPS. this can be spent on a higher resolution (1280x1024) and bumping textures to high (you have a 256mb card). since you are now in a higher res and you have high textures, you can probably reduce texture filtering to medium.
if you still have an unacceptable FPS you can try lowering terrain from high to medium for very small noticeable difference.

you should still get better FPS than what you currently have, and your game should look better. try it and see? id be interested to see your response as to how it worked.

[Blackhearted]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

to note: even i can almost run those settings on my 6600gt. textures are at medium because i have only 128 megs of ram, and terrain is at medium and AF at low. but even i get an acceptable framerate at 1280x1024 with 2xAA on my 6600gt. you should get something more than playable on your 6800gs, which is twice the card mine is.

if it STILL dips below 30 then perhaps there is something else wrong with your system holding it back? make sure you have adequate cooling and your card/case isnt overheating, try cleaning all Nvidia drivers from your system and reinstalling them, defrag, etc.

[imported_Wreck]

Re: Question for Nvidia users...

turn off dynamic light completely - its a massive performance hit, and having it on medium is a performance hit that could better be 'spent' elsewhere.

Actually Dynamic lighting performance from high to off is only about 1 fps. Dynamic shadows from high to off is 12 fps which is by far the performance killer.

Dynamic shadows off +6 fps
Lighting low + 6 fps. (also you can see in dark areas)
2x AA -1 fps.

All other settings barely affect fps at all.

With this formula you will be gaining 11 fps over your current settings.

I'd go with:

1280x1024
Terrain: Med
Effects: High
Geometry: High
Texture: High
Lighting: Low
Shadows: Off
Dynamic Light: Med
AA: 2X
100% View
Texture filtering: Med