I'm not the most experienced GPU person but....why are you trying to enable AGP features for a PCI graphics card?

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-10, 17:35:

I'm trying to get my computer running games smoothly and I've deduced that it's because I can't enable AGP Texture Acceleration. […]
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I'm trying to get my computer running games smoothly and I've deduced that it's because I can't enable AGP Texture Acceleration. I've installed the AGP drivers which the computer recognised and said is running normally. Here's a few specs.

- Tried on DirectX 9 and 8.1
- Geforce FX5500 PCI graphics card
- Pentium 4 1.5ghz
- SiS 961 chipset

Should I do a wipe and reinstall with the AGP drivers being the first thing I do? I also haven't updated the BIOS because I'm not sure how to so if you think that'll work please tell me how to

AGP texturing (AGP texture acceleration in marketing speak) requires an AGP card and motherboard (and not all AGP cards actually supported it) and basically means loading textures from system memory rather than GPU memory . This was meant to save on GPU memory and was slower than loading textures from GPU memory anyway . AGP texturing was more marketing than anything as being able to fit all textures in GPU memory gives better performance .

darry wrote on 2021-03-10, 18:24:

AGP texturing (AGP texture acceleration in marketing speak) requires an AGP card and motherboard (and not all AGP cards actually supported it) and basically means loading textures from system memory rather than GPU memory . This was meant to save on GPU memory and was slower than loading textures from GPU memory anyway . AGP texturing was more marketing than anything as being able to fit all textures in GPU memory gives better performance .

I see, I thought it would solve my issue because for some reason my computer has been running games slow but disabling DirectDraw acceleration and Direct3D acceleration solves the problem for games that can still run without them. So for games that won't launch with them disabled do you know why it's going slow?

draetheus wrote on 2021-03-10, 17:43:

I'm not the most experienced GPU person but....why are you trying to enable AGP features for a PCI graphics card?

I read somewhere and saw in a video that the AGP features will speed up the computer during gaming because I'm getting an inexplicable lag.

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:06:

I see, I thought it would solve my issue because for some reason my computer has been running games slow but disabling DirectDraw acceleration and Direct3D acceleration solves the problem for games that can still run without them. So for games that won't launch with them disabled do you know why it's going slow?

I would try the oldest driver that officially supports your card/OS combo an move my way up from there . The newest drivers that support a given card may not be optimal for it as GPU manufacturers mostly concentrate on optimizing drivers for products that are still on the market . No longer sold but still supported products may suffer from this .

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:07:

I read somewhere and saw in a video that the AGP features will speed up the computer during gaming because I'm getting an inexplicable lag.

What games are you trying to play? Do you have proper airflow in your case? What kind of a Hard Drive/SSD are you using?

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:15:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:06:

I see, I thought it would solve my issue because for some reason my computer has been running games slow but disabling DirectDraw acceleration and Direct3D acceleration solves the problem for games that can still run without them. So for games that won't launch with them disabled do you know why it's going slow?

I would try the oldest driver that officially supports your card/OS combo an move my way up from there . The newest drivers that support a given card may not be optimal for it as GPU manufacturers mostly concentrate on optimizing drivers for products that are still on the market . No longer sold but still supported products may suffer from this .

Tried that and didn't make a difference 😒

BetaC wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:16:

What games are you trying to play? Do you have proper airflow in your case? What kind of a Hard Drive/SSD are you using?

My CPU temperature sits pretty low so I assume I have good airflow. I'm using a couple drives that say are DMA enabled but they are 20+ years old. I want to run games like Blair Witch (old one) and Battlefield 1942 but even DOOM95 lags unless I turn off Direct3D or Texture acceleration. I have plenty high enough specs for all these and the patches for high memory.

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:28:

BetaC wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:16:

What games are you trying to play? Do you have proper airflow in your case? What kind of a Hard Drive/SSD are you using?

My CPU temperature sits pretty low so I assume I have good airflow. I'm using a couple drives that say are DMA enabled but they are 20+ years old. I want to run games like Blair Witch (old one) and Battlefield 1942 but even DOOM95 lags unless I turn off Direct3D or Texture acceleration. I have plenty high enough specs for all these and the patches for high memory.

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ?

I ask this because some "new" cards based off of old GPUs have started appearing on the market . Some of these are effectively compromised/substandard as they have very low GPU core and memory clocks compared to actual vintage cards . See some examples for AGP cards, but this is just likely with PCI ones
--> AliExpress AGP cards

With graphics drivers installed, try setting resolution to 640x480 and color to 256 colors (8-bit) or 65536 (16-bit), whichever is the lowest a given game allows and see if that helps . If it does, you may have one of those compromised cards . Without drivers installed, Windows runs at 640x480 in 16 colors (4-bit) which requires comparatively little bandwidth .

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:09:

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ? […]
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Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:28:

BetaC wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:16:

What games are you trying to play? Do you have proper airflow in your case? What kind of a Hard Drive/SSD are you using?

My CPU temperature sits pretty low so I assume I have good airflow. I'm using a couple drives that say are DMA enabled but they are 20+ years old. I want to run games like Blair Witch (old one) and Battlefield 1942 but even DOOM95 lags unless I turn off Direct3D or Texture acceleration. I have plenty high enough specs for all these and the patches for high memory.

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ?

I ask this because some "new" cards based off of old GPUs have started appearing on the market . Some of these are effectively compromised/substandard as they have very low GPU core and memory clocks compared to actual vintage cards . See some examples for AGP cards, but this is just likely with PCI ones
--> AliExpress AGP cards

With graphics drivers installed, try setting resolution to 640x480 and color to 256 colors (8-bit) or 65536 (16-bit), whichever is the lowest a given game allows and see if that helps . If it does, you may have one of those compromised cards . Without drivers installed, Windows runs at 640x480 in 16 colors (4-bit) which requires comparatively little bandwidth .

Wow that may explain it, I did get it on Aliexpress I just assumed they made so many back in the day that they've been in storage all this time. I don't have an AGP or PCI-e slot so it seemed perfect for me. Can you suggest some cards I should try and hunt down?

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:39:

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:09:

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ? […]
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Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 04:28:

My CPU temperature sits pretty low so I assume I have good airflow. I'm using a couple drives that say are DMA enabled but they are 20+ years old. I want to run games like Blair Witch (old one) and Battlefield 1942 but even DOOM95 lags unless I turn off Direct3D or Texture acceleration. I have plenty high enough specs for all these and the patches for high memory.

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ?

I ask this because some "new" cards based off of old GPUs have started appearing on the market . Some of these are effectively compromised/substandard as they have very low GPU core and memory clocks compared to actual vintage cards . See some examples for AGP cards, but this is just likely with PCI ones
--> AliExpress AGP cards

With graphics drivers installed, try setting resolution to 640x480 and color to 256 colors (8-bit) or 65536 (16-bit), whichever is the lowest a given game allows and see if that helps . If it does, you may have one of those compromised cards . Without drivers installed, Windows runs at 640x480 in 16 colors (4-bit) which requires comparatively little bandwidth .

Wow that may explain it, I did get it on Aliexpress I just assumed they made so many back in the day that they've been in storage all this time. I don't have an AGP or PCI-e slot so it seemed perfect for me. Can you suggest some cards I should try and hunt down?

Something like a PCI version of the GeForce MX4000 might be an option or even an FX5200 or Fx5500 that is an older model from back in the day (one where manufacturer and model can be validated before purchase). That being said, your issue may lie elsewhere, but it is hard to determine with only one video card to test with .

Another option would be an AGP capable motherboard . Not having AGP for a year 2000ish system system is not ideal from a gaming point of view .

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:53:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:39:

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 05:09:

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ? […]
Show full quote

Is your PCI FX5500 a "recent" model off of Ebay/Ali Express/Wish, etc ?

I ask this because some "new" cards based off of old GPUs have started appearing on the market . Some of these are effectively compromised/substandard as they have very low GPU core and memory clocks compared to actual vintage cards . See some examples for AGP cards, but this is just likely with PCI ones
--> AliExpress AGP cards

With graphics drivers installed, try setting resolution to 640x480 and color to 256 colors (8-bit) or 65536 (16-bit), whichever is the lowest a given game allows and see if that helps . If it does, you may have one of those compromised cards . Without drivers installed, Windows runs at 640x480 in 16 colors (4-bit) which requires comparatively little bandwidth .

Wow that may explain it, I did get it on Aliexpress I just assumed they made so many back in the day that they've been in storage all this time. I don't have an AGP or PCI-e slot so it seemed perfect for me. Can you suggest some cards I should try and hunt down?

Something like a PCI version of the GeForce MX4000 might be an option or even an FX5200 or Fx5500 that is an older model from back in the day (one where manufacturer and model can be validated before purchase). That being said, your issue may lie elsewhere, but it is hard to determine with only one video card to test with .

Another option would be an AGP capable motherboard . Not having AGP for a year 2000ish system system is not ideal from a gaming point of view .

I have an ATI RageXL 8mb card but I got that on Aliexpress too. I think I should look at a new motherboard but that's a whole new side of things I haven't touched yet. I'm not sure for example if any motherboard will fit into my case and whether or not my other parts will be compatible with it 😖

Are they fairly universal when it comes to the power supply, disc drives, floppy drives, hard drives etc?

Edit: I can buy a full comp I just found cheap. Has "Intel Pentium 4 2ghz, asus p4b-m, 300W". I should be able to get most my parts working on that.

Did you fill up your video card? AFAIR, AGP texturing won't start until your video card RAM is already filled. If textures loaded fits into your texture memory, your video card won't use textures on system memory (which is a good thing, as having textures travelling via AGP will surely kill performance).

AGP texturing was a buzz that allowed you to play games that needed more video memory than you really had, but at the expense of performance. But if you had a video card without enough memory, you probably had a video card without enough performance to spare on such things.

Zup wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:34:

Did you fill up your video card? AFAIR, AGP texturing won't start until your video card RAM is already filled. If textures loaded fits into your texture memory, your video card won't use textures on system memory (which is a good thing, as having textures travelling via AGP will surely kill performance).

AGP texturing was a buzz that allowed you to play games that needed more video memory than you really had, but at the expense of performance. But if you had a video card without enough memory, you probably had a video card without enough performance to spare on such things.

Right thanks for clearing that up. I guess it must be the crappy GPU on my Aliexpress card causing my atrocious performance.

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:39:

Zup wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:34:

Did you fill up your video card? AFAIR, AGP texturing won't start until your video card RAM is already filled. If textures loaded fits into your texture memory, your video card won't use textures on system memory (which is a good thing, as having textures travelling via AGP will surely kill performance).

AGP texturing was a buzz that allowed you to play games that needed more video memory than you really had, but at the expense of performance. But if you had a video card without enough memory, you probably had a video card without enough performance to spare on such things.

Right thanks for clearing that up. I guess it must be the crappy GPU on my Aliexpress card causing my atrocious performance.

If that is, as I suspect, a 256MB FX5500, I doubt that the amount of video RAM would be a bottleneck (its clock speed is another question) .

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:52:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:39:

Zup wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:34:

Did you fill up your video card? AFAIR, AGP texturing won't start until your video card RAM is already filled. If textures loaded fits into your texture memory, your video card won't use textures on system memory (which is a good thing, as having textures travelling via AGP will surely kill performance).

AGP texturing was a buzz that allowed you to play games that needed more video memory than you really had, but at the expense of performance. But if you had a video card without enough memory, you probably had a video card without enough performance to spare on such things.

Right thanks for clearing that up. I guess it must be the crappy GPU on my Aliexpress card causing my atrocious performance.

If that is, as I suspect, a 256MB FX5500, I doubt that the amount of video RAM would be a bottleneck (its clock speed is another question) .

Can you explain that I haven't heard that term yet "bottleneck"? Also I should be able to get my hands on this

https://videocardz.net/manli-geforce-fx5500-256mb-ddr

That will be plenty enough for most 98 games right?

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:54:

Can you explain that I haven't heard that term yet "bottleneck"? Also I should be able to get my hands on this […]
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darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:52:

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 06:39:

Right thanks for clearing that up. I guess it must be the crappy GPU on my Aliexpress card causing my atrocious performance.

If that is, as I suspect, a 256MB FX5500, I doubt that the amount of video RAM would be a bottleneck (its clock speed is another question) .

Can you explain that I haven't heard that term yet "bottleneck"? Also I should be able to get my hands on this

https://videocardz.net/manli-geforce-fx5500-256mb-ddr

That will be plenty enough for most 98 games right?

"Bottleneck" essentially means limiting factor .

The card you linked to is AGP and, if I understand correctly you have no AGP slots on your motherboard. Did I misunderstand ?

Additionally, there is contradictory information about actually clock speeds of that model .
See https://www.gpuzoo.com/Compare/Manli_M-GF5500 … eForce_FX_5500/

Saying that an Fx 5500 is plenty for Windows 98, even if we assume the Windows 9x era ended as early as 2001 with the advent of Windows XP, is a bit optimistic, IMHO . It should work for most things, but will be significantly slower than a Geforce 3 (which was AGP only, AFAIK). See HUGE 1997*-2003 video card performance benchmark thread (Q3, Unreal, DK2, 3DM2k, 3DM2001)

Assuming the clocks and bus width of an FX 5500 are at least as good as the reference ones , see https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-fx-5500.c926 , as stated before, it should work fine .

The main problem is finding a PCI FX 5500 that has decent specs that can reliably checked before purchase .

darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 07:22:

The card you linked to is AGP and, if I understand correctly you have no AGP slots on your motherboard. Did I misunderstand ?

Nope you are correct I forgot to elaborate I am going to buy a board which has AGP so I'm looking at AGP cards now and this one is $10 so I thought it would be a steal. But if you think I can do better I'll look into those.

Nvidia geforce 2 mx400 64mb tv/av s-video agp $20
s3 savage2000 32mb agp $50
ati radeon 9200se 128mb agp $60
asus ati radeon 9250 128mb agp $70
msi ti4200 vtdx8 128mb agp $80
gigabyte fx5500 gvn55128ds agp $80

A guy near me is selling those, any of these worth those prices you think? (Note this is AUD which is typically higher than USD)

Tyrant wrote on 2021-03-11, 07:32:

Nope you are correct I forgot to elaborate I am going to buy a board which has AGP so I'm looking at AGP cards now and this one […]
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darry wrote on 2021-03-11, 07:22:

The card you linked to is AGP and, if I understand correctly you have no AGP slots on your motherboard. Did I misunderstand ?

Nope you are correct I forgot to elaborate I am going to buy a board which has AGP so I'm looking at AGP cards now and this one is $10 so I thought it would be a steal. But if you think I can do better I'll look into those.

Nvidia geforce 2 mx400 64mb tv/av s-video agp $20
s3 savage2000 32mb agp $50
ati radeon 9200se 128mb agp $60
asus ati radeon 9250 128mb agp $70
msi ti4200 vtdx8 128mb agp $80
gigabyte fx5500 gvn55128ds agp $80

A guy near me is selling those, any of these worth those prices you think? (Note this is AUD which is typically higher than USD)

The Ti4200 is probably the best all-rounder and has a margin that should let you play at higher resolutions if desired . As for prices, you should shop around . Ebay and such should give you ballpark numbers . Buying locally makes returns easier, saves on shipping (and related risks) and allows you to see before you buy . These factors may potentially justify paying more, depending on your preferences .