VOGONS


First post, by lafoxxx

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Hi.
Just got used ASUS AGP-V9280-128

My specs are:
GA-6VTXE
PIII-S 1133@1276 (150 MHz FSB OC)
2x128 PC133 (now 150) DIMM SDRAM

Before installing the card, I, as usual, I cleaned it with some ethyl alcohol and let it dry thoroughly.

When I installed it, the bracket (the part you have to screw to the case) was around 1/8" higher than normal. I decided not to force the card into the slot, and turned the power on.

The system didn't post -- I was greeted with a series of short beeps (like 8 short beeps or something).

Tried GF2 -- POST ok.

Then again tried GF4 -- no beep, no picture. As I hit DEL, there was that horrible noise coming from the PC speaker -- like intro of 'Horror ZOMBIES from the crypt' (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O3Hevv0ET4

Then I again tried reinstalling the card -- posted OK, installed drivers, passed all tests in 3dWinBench2000 (Win98), with much better results than on GF2.

In 3DMark2001SE (WinXP), I got about 7772 3dmarks (on GeForce2 Ti I had ~3500 3dmarks)
NOLF works better, but there still are FPS drops when opening doors and entering some rooms (like on GF2 Ti)

Main concerns:
>These results (both cards) are worse than ones I found online (GeForce2 Ti ~5000, GeForce4 Ti4200 ~10000) -- but my system is not P4 like during these tests -- is this expected?
?When I installed DX9C, Drivers version 81.89, and DOOM3 -- 640x480 framerate was much worse than on my old ZIDA TOMATO/PIII-700/256/GF2 MX system!
>There also were these nasty, rapidly disappearing flashing squares in the shadows --about 1/6" in size.
IMG-20191107-223054-1.jpg
They disappeared when I turned off Shadows.
>On GF2Ti, DOOM3 won't run at all (but it worked on my old PIII-700 with GF2 MX!)

There are FPS drops when entering new rooms.

Tried setting AGP aperture size to 128M in BIOS (it was still 64) -- same results.

Is my GF4 damaged?
Clean AGP contacts?
Wrong drivers? Bad (poorly matched) components? AGP4x/VIA bottleneck?
Should I check something else? How do I check it?
Should I look for TUSL2 and try again?

Reply 1 of 12, by meljor

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try one of the early drivers that support the ti and go from there...

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
asus p3b-f, p3-700, voodoo3 3500TV agp, awe64
asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
asus a7n8x DL, barton cpu, 6800ultra, Voodoo3 pci, audigy1

Reply 2 of 12, by swaaye

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Yeah I have seen stability problems with drivers after 56.64 on a Pentium 3 system. You really should go for 45.23 or older.

Reply 3 of 12, by lafoxxx

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Installed newest Drivers in WinXP (just testing -- for Win98 will use older ones of course) -- will try older drivers later..

Overclocked GPU core to 300 MHz via coolbits

doom3:
Disabled Shadows
Settings: Medium
Bump/Specular: On, everything else -- off

Significantly better performance (playable), 15-20 fps.

Question:

There still are temporary FPS drops when you open doors and enter large rooms.

Why does my FPS drop when I open doors and enter new rooms in games?

Chipset bottlenecking? I have VIA Apollo Pro 133T.
Or you think it's irrelevant and downgrading Drivers really should help?

All I want is smooth, constant framerate in NOLF on High settings, without these drops when I enter rooms. DOOM3 is just for fun.

Reply 4 of 12, by derSammler

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Try without overclocking CPU and RAM... You can't do trouble-shooting when having parts driven beyond their specs.

Reply 5 of 12, by lafoxxx

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40.72 (98)
Significantly better results. NOLF now can run at 1024x768x32 without freezes. Can even go up to 1280x1024 (at 16 bit though).

With OC, though.
Without OC, still better -- smooth gameplay at 1024x768x32.

No FPS drops with or without OC.

42.70 (XP)
DOOM3 still barely playable.

However, 3DMark2001 result is now 6999 (no OC)

(previous result: 7772 with 1133@1276 CPU OC) -- kinda comparable
With CPU OC, it's 8482 -- quite an improvement.

DOOM3 framerate is still worse than on GF2MX/P3-700 with newest drivers and DX9c. Strange.
Wonder how did this guy do it on Ti500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWNqDGDtMD4 -- probably they have Pentium 4 or Athlon XP?

I'm not planning to play DOOM3 on this computer, but this video just makes me envious.

Is this card a good match for a 1133@1276 Tualatin? Would 1400MHz version have been a better chioce?

Thanks a million.

Last edited by lafoxxx on 2019-11-08, 20:56. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 12, by lost77

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lafoxxx wrote:

Why does my FPS drop when I open doors and enter new rooms in games?

Not enough RAM for the settings you use.

lafoxxx wrote:

DOOM3 framerate is still worse whan on GF2MX/P3-700 with newest drivers and DX9c. Strange.

Geforce 2 MX does not have pixel shader support to it uses a simpler render profile. Geforce 4 looks much better.

See a Geforce 2 MX example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh4rbk6kjKo

lafoxxx wrote:

Wonder how did this guy do it on Ti500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWNqDGDtMD4 -- probably they have Pentium 4 or Athlon XP?

He was using a Pentium 4 3.4Ghz.

Look here how a Geforce 4 Ti 4600 can run Doom 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p07Z_dXAv10&f … youtu.be&t=1533

Reply 7 of 12, by lafoxxx

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lost77 wrote:

Not enough RAM for the settings you use.

Will 512MB be enough? Single stick, Hynix

lost77 wrote:

Geforce 2 MX does not have pixel shader support to it uses a simpler render profile. Geforce 4 looks much better.

I must have made a typo -- DOOM3 framerate is still worse than on GF2MX/P3-700.
So if I try with GeForce2 -- should I expect better framerate because of unsupported features? This P3-700 was my main system like 15 years ago.

Reply 8 of 12, by lost77

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lafoxxx wrote:

Will 512MB be enough? Single stick, Hynix

Yes, at least for lower than high settings.

lafoxxx wrote:

So if I try with GeForce2 -- should I expect better framerate because of unsupported features? This P3-700 was my main system like 15 years ago.

I was saying that you can't directly compare the 2 cards. That said a Geforce 2 MX will get you worse performance. Like in the video I linked which was maybe 13 FPS average.

You can also try running your Geforce 4 as a Geforce 2:

Open doomconfig.cfg file in the 'base' directory.

Change this line:

seta r_renderer "best"

to

seta r_renderer "NV10"

Reply 9 of 12, by lafoxxx

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lost77 wrote:
Open doomconfig.cfg file in the 'base' directory. […]
Show full quote

Open doomconfig.cfg file in the 'base' directory.

Change this line:

seta r_renderer "best"

to

seta r_renderer "NV10"

Still pretty bad performance -- but at least comparable to my P3-700/256/GF2MX system.
Even with 512MB RAM.

Probably DOOMIII requires significantly more powerful CPU with hyperthreading. And only then it will work fine even on GeForce2.

I guess I'll consider the original issue resolved. I'm happy with the GeForce Ti4200 -- even GTAIII and Vice City run without any issues -- unlike my P3700-GF2 system.

Thanks again!

Reply 10 of 12, by BigDaddyM

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lost77 wrote:

Probably DOOMIII requires significantly more powerful CPU with hyperthreading. And only then it will work fine even on GeForce2.

Nope. It can barely use two cores. Game require Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader so GF3 is minimum and AthlonXP 1500+

Years ago i get ~10-15 fps on my C750, 512MB Ram and GF2MX-400

Try detonatros 45.23 or even older ones.

Reply 11 of 12, by lafoxxx

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Partially fixed by changing motherboard to TUSL2-C. Significantly more stable framerate (~20 fps), and almost no squares in shadow areas (still decided to turn them off).
There are FPS drops, but not as random as when I was using 6VTXE.
Probably VIA Apollo Pro 133T chipset cannot handle such amount of load.

Last edited by lafoxxx on 2020-05-09, 22:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 12 of 12, by lafoxxx

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Kinda offtopic -- just showing off.
HL2 perfectly playable at stable FPS (dxlevel 7) at 1920x1080x32 without significant slowdowns (only when entering outdoor areas).
d1-canals-110000.jpg d1-town-020000.jpg d1-town-020001.jpg d1-town-020002.jpg d1-town-020003.jpg d1-town-030004.jpg d1-town-030005.jpg d1-town-030006.jpg d1-town-030007.jpg d1-town-030008.jpg d1-town-030009.jpg d1-town-030010.jpg

Though I haven't tried the previous board with HL2 (it's currently sold to a guy who's going to use it with Win98 and Voodoo4), I guess I'd have had much more unstable gameplay in HL2 on it.
Oh yeah, and the sound now works in WinXP.