What should I be expecting?

[2wiSteD]

I just bought a card and some RAM from a friend. The card is a BFG 7800GS 256MB, and the RAM is two matched 512 sticks, DDR400.

Prepare to flame.

This is a Dell. I think the AGP is at 4x and doesn't go to 8x. The RAM is debatable. I've read that it will run at 400MHz on this board, and then I've read that it's bottlenecked to 133 anyway.

So what kind of settings should I be expected to run at? Right now it's mostly medium with DLight and DShadows on Low. ~35 FPS on a 52 player server, urban maps. I have a strange problem at the beginning of maps with pausing. It'll run for 2 seconds, pause for 1, and repeat. Any quick fixes? I've set the Video config file to 1 for that resolution bit. I'm running at 1024x768 no AA/forced AF.

On another note, could anyone suggest me a motherboard that has BOTH AGP and PCIe with 4 DDR slots? I really don't want to trash all of this RAM (3 3200 sticks) and this card I just got, but I need to get away from this Dell.

[mlkmnz]

Re: What should I be expecting?

Your pausing issue is probably caused by not enough ram. I had the same issue and it evaporated when I put another GB in.

The 7800 is a good card, with the right RAM (and provided your CPU isn't really lame), you should be able to run it all high, or at least half medium, half high at 1280 x 1024.

And avoid motherboards with AGP and PCIe at all costs, they're just not worth the hassle. If you want to move to PCIe, you're going to have to leav behind most of your compenents. It'd be like souping up the engine of your car while leaving the breakes, suspension, etc original.

[ConscriptVirus]

Re: What should I be expecting?

hmm...yeah its prob ur ram..tho 1 gig should be enuff for medium/low settings

did u try a disk defrag and is there any way u can make ur ram dual channel?

and agp speed isnt really that important performance wise...theres maybe like...3-5% faster performance with 8x

[mlkmnz]

Re: What should I be expecting?

and agp speed isnt really that important performance wise...theres maybe like...3-5% faster performance with 8x

Or maybe even none. I'm not sure if any AGP cards were even able to use 100% of the bandwidth of AGP 2x, let alone 8x. Maybe check though that you're BIOS' agp settings are as they should be.

[2wiSteD]

Re: What should I be expecting?

Or maybe even none. I'm not sure if any AGP cards were even able to use 100% of the bandwidth of AGP 2x, let alone 8x. Maybe check though that you're BIOS' agp settings are as they should be.

Did not know that. Very interesting. How much does PCI use of it's 16x? I've got my AGP apeture at 256. Unless it resets with a new card. *checks*

[mlkmnz]

Re: What should I be expecting?

PCI-E uses 16x, PCI I don't know. All the speed means is how much data you can pass through the interface, you still need to have a very quick graphics card to use that.

AGP apeture is another story again. Its been a while since I messed with that sort of thing, but have it set to the same MB level as whats on your card.

[Silent_Bob_]

Re: What should I be expecting?

the Performance difference of x4 to x8 AGP is like 5%. AGP aperature Size is the amount of System RAM you share to "increase" your GPU RAM. So basically the more GPU RAM you have, the less aperature Size you need, but from my experience 256 MB aparature Size is Okay.

There is only ONE Mainboard with both AGP and PCIE:
ASRock 939Dual-VSTA ULi M1695/M1567

[mlkmnz]

Re: What should I be expecting?

There doesn't seem to be an exact rule-of-thumb with AGP aperture size, so its best to fool with it till you find something that works with your setup. But in this case, it'd be 128MB or 256MB.

[2wiSteD]

Re: What should I be expecting?

So that leads me back to my main question. If I have everything set up properly, is 18-35FPS what I should be seeing with a 7800GS?

[mlkmnz]

Re: What should I be expecting?

No. It should be much better.

[Munk_Madness]

Re: What should I be expecting?

i think its a problem with patch 1.4

[2wiSteD]

Re: What should I be expecting?

No. It should be much better.

I was hoping someone would say that. I get 50-80 FPS in the Source engine with everything maxed out at 1024x768.