ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

[TheBsEr]

I use to have ATI 9600 and I ran BF2 on medium setting without any lag whatsoever. But recently, my friend let me borrow his 6600 GT, which should be better than the 9600. However, I tried running on high, but it lags. So I lowered it to medium with 2 settings on high, but still lags. So I set it to medium all the way and it finally stopped lagging...so basically these cards are running with the same performance? I'm downloading 3D benchmark right now to see what my score would be. I had 1942 score for ATI 9600. Here are my specs.

CPU: Intel 2.6 GHz
RAM: 2.5 GB
Video Card: Geforce 6600GT

I'm running the lastest drivers. 6600 Should be alot better than 9600, does anyone know why it can only run at medium without any lag?

[LostSoul]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

You've got a cake load of RAM...2.5GB. Do you need that much

[ConscriptVirus]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

how well r u doing the benching? r u making sure to clear the cache files every time to change video settings/graphics cards and defraggin?

[zombiefried]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

i dont even try and worry about the bench - i run mostly on medium/high, with the dynamics set to low and I have a whopping 1.8 Ghz CPU, 2 gigs of RAM, with my 6600GT and it runs wonderfully.

sure it could run better, but it looks and runs very decent considering my 1.8 Ghz.

doing all the tests and everything shows that I have a very horrible FPS, but oddly that isnt the case - so I wont complain (and im running forceware 91.33 as well - i havent decided to upgrade to the next driver - assuming there is one again)

[UNDIESRULES]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

Is that processor a celeron or p4? If its the former then itll be bottlenecking the card anyway so youll naff all improvement.

[Lord_Quigley]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

A 6600GT is expected to run on medium, thats it's designed setting. Although the 9600GT runs "without lag" a good amount of possible lag is offset by your generous amount of RAM. Bring your FPS counter up in game via the console, i can nay remember teh syntax, but its easily found round the forums.

You will find a difference in the two with FPS, perhaps 10 or 20 frames. Also, how about teh AA, are you running that? I'm sure you might have had it off with the 9600, but the 6600 should handle at least 2X.

Also you don't mention what screen res you display, im guessing 1024x768. Anything less and you will actually see a performance downgrade, as the 6600 is made to run higher, and will give better performance at that res.

The point made in the post before about what P4 is it, a Celery-on or a normal P4 is quite important too, as stated, the Celery-on will performance hit what ever you shove in there.

Finally make sure in the nvidia panel you have the settings switched to application controlled, as manual settings may badly effect the performance.

[TheBsEr]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

Responding to everyones questions,

Lost Cake: I had 512 mb and my computer is starting to run slow, so I got 2gb more so now I have 2.5

ConscriptVirus: I did the test but I canceled it because it was going so slow. On the first test with the soldiers on the ship landing and stuff, i averaged about 3-5 fps...on second one with fireflies in the forest, I averaged about 1-3 fps...and then on a CPU test with the desert scene, I had 0 fps and it took like 10 mins to run 25 frames...so I had to cancel it. I often clear the cache and dfrag about once every one or two month.

zombiefried: Yeah but I was expecting a little better coming from a 6600 GT :P

UNDIESRULES: It's a pentium 4 proccessor with hyperthread technology (whatever that is).

Lord_Quigley: You are right about 9600 lagging, because I use to lag with 512 mb ram on medium, and then I upgraded to 2.5GB and it runs smoothly on medium. I will try 2x for the game and see if it lags again, but last time I tried, it lagged. I'm currently playing the game on 800x600 with 60 refresh rate. However, I will change it to 1024x768 now that you mentioned it, and what refresh rate would be good? Both of the AA things are application controlled.

Oh yes, and I also followed a Top 10 tips to remove lag from BF2s.com last night. In one of them, I went into BIOS to change the AGP adapture from 64 MB to 256MB, not sure if this would make a significant difference?

[dtaker]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

Lord_Quigley: You are right about 9600 lagging, because I use to lag with 512 mb ram on medium, and then I upgraded to 2.5GB and it runs smoothly on medium. I will try 2x for the game and see if it lags again, but last time I tried, it lagged. I'm currently playing the game on 800x600 with 60 refresh rate. However, I will change it to 1024x768 now that you mentioned it, and what refresh rate would be good? Both of the AA things are application controlled.

Refresh rates shouldn't affect your machine's performance. Ideal should be 85 hz if your monitor supports 85hz at the resolution you prefer.

My specs are p4 2.6ghz HT, 1gig DDRAM, and 6600GT AGP 128mb GDDR3. My playing settings are everything set to high except, dynamic light/shadows, textures, and geometry which are set to medium, Distance scale, 100%, AA-off. Resolution, 1440 x 1078@85hz, (no AA and 2x AF in nvidia control panel). My average FPS is 50 for example in single player, Dalian Plant, which I think is the most texture-intensive map in the game. A low of 40 fps and a high of 60+fps.

Previously, texture is set to high, my previous ati x700 256ddr2(which is very similar to 6600GT) could handle it but stutters in the beginning. The 6600GT would also stutter but worse as long as 3 minutes then becomes smooth after that. Later on, I lowered textures to medium and the stuttering problems are gone. Played with the same non-stuttering settings. The 6600 GT is almost 50% faster. If it works for you, the 6600GT is really an excellent card for it's cost. It gave me playable framerates with good eyecandy.

I would also advice to maximize your RAM, like disable antivirus, set windows to best performance and remove your wallpapers. Yes more ram, Like 2gigs, I know I'm short, which is why I'm crazy on doing measures to free up CPU

[hemimotorz]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

I'm willing to say your lag is due to the proc power. Not soo much graphics as rendering the objects. That and BF2 needs optimized.

[TheBsEr]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

whats a proc power? And how do I optimize BF2? When I change a setting, it automatically optimizes when I'm connecting to a server doesnt it?

[Stormy{CAN}]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

When you changed cards, did you make sure that the ATI drivers were completely uninstalled? If not grab this,

http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php

after installing boot into safe mode and run it (only use the ATI option). Also what version of Nvidia drivers are you using with the 6600GT?

One more thing, with the card change and all the settings changes, have you gone into

C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache

and deleted all the folders there (not the cache folder, but everything in it)?

[TheBsEr]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

I will go do the driver cleaning thing. I am using version 91.47. I have just done the cache cleanin now, thanks and brb

[imported_nismojspec]

Re: ATI 9600 vs Geforce 6600GT

the 6600 FTW