Poor performance with New GeFo 4

[natb1]

In an effort to improve a game PC, I replaced the VooDoo3 2000 PCI vid card with a new GeForce 4 MX440-SE PCI card. I D/L the latest drivers from nvidia, but still find performance worse than the old card. Quake II Open GL is poor (35 fps..VooDoo was 100 w Glide). U/T in D3D is poor. As is HL in D3D. I know its a PCI card...but it should out perform my old VooDoo...NO? Do I have to re-install all these games? You'd think Quake II would not require this. Do I need to do some tweaking? How can i be sure old drivers are purged?


MOBO
ASUS Socket 7 w/ AMD K6-2 @ 500MHz.
256M of PC133 RAM.


Thanks

[GokuSS2]

Are you using the Voodoo otimized version of quake 2 that came with the voodoo? Have you updated quake 2?

[GokuSS2]

here is the latest patch. ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/qua...6-full-ctf.exe

Make sure to right click and click Save Target as.

[Platypus]

Originally posted by natb1
AMD K6-2 @ 500MHz.

That's probably your problem...3DNow! support.

QII has no internal 3DNow! support, it comes from the OpenGL drivers. 3Dfx did very good 3DNow! support, NVidia & others not so good. I doubt if the current GeForce drivers are much optimised for 3DNow!, ancient technology. Probably similar situation for the other games, especially since the MX440 is still not giving you hardware DX8 support.

So I would think the Voodoo is ideally suited for your CPU and games, the MX440 less so.

[natb1]

Thank You So Far

My problem is not unique to Quake II, and it is patched up as well. I am having problems with all 3D Apps., OGL and D3D. I forgot to mention im at. DX 9.0 and have Win98SE. As for the 3DNow, DXdiag indicates MMX and 3DNOW support, as does my other PC with a GeFo 2, and it runs fine. Im not disputing anything, but it doesnt sound consistant. I may very well take the card back if I cant get it going. I just hate for it to be because I didnt try.

[jwhart]

New to these forums so please be patient...But I've seen several issues with Geoforce4 cards being slow on systems less than 1 Ghz. Don't know if this helps but is just my 2 cents

[natb1]

Originally posted by jwhart
New to these forums so please be patient...But I've seen several issues with Geoforce4 cards being slow on systems less than 1 Ghz. Don't know if this helps but is just my 2 cents

I wouldnt doubt it.

[cookin chef]

Originally posted by natb1
MOBO
ASUS Socket 7 w/ AMD K6-2 @ 500MHz.
256M of PC133 RAM.

That's a pretty slow system to be running newer 3d video cards. It was mentioned that 1 ghz and slower systems might be bottlenecks for todays newer 3d videocards, either for ati or nvidia.
You might want to upgrade to a newer system.

[natb1]

This hasnt gone un-noticed. I also agree its old. But, Im on a quest to find specifically why something isnt working. "My system must be to old"...is what I will say when I give up, something I may do sooner than later.

Please take a peak at my other post !!!!.."Vid Card slows RAM test"...........I think they are related, and probably consistant with your observations.

Thanks for the input....your probably right!

[Platypus]

Originally posted by natb1
my other PC with a GeFo 2, and it runs fine.

What specification is the other system?

[Platypus]

Originally posted by cookin chef
1 ghz and slower systems might be bottlenecks for todays newer 3d videocards

Certainly so, and PCI adds to this. Even a modest performing card like the GF4 MX has its performance approximately halved by being on the PCI bus instead of AGP.

[Radical Dreamer]

I see that you are using an amd cpu, which means that its pretty likely that you are using a VIA chipset (check just to make sure) if youa re the 4-in-1 drivers with windows 98 can make all the difference

[natb1]

Thanks for all your remarks.

I have come to the unsatisfying conclusion "My MOBO is too old, thus compatibility is poor". Not to mention the obvious PCI bus speed.

My Chipset is an SiS w/ integrated AGP video (yet no slots!)...I have its VGA disabled of course.

I put the new GeFo 4 MX440 i my other PC just for learning...Its an Athlon 750..It DID NOT SLOW THE RAM TEST, as reported in my other post. Its performance was better...what you may expect with PCI. Both of these symtoms seem to indicate a "low level" compatibility issue.

My VooDoo card plays QII, HL, UT, AvP, and other games well, until I go online, then they get a bit slower. Plus It wont support D3D rendering at all. I was hoping to gain a little performance while expanding my game titles. $50 wasnt a bad price for a local store.

I think Ill try a GeFo 2 PCI or TNT2 PCI...for D3D acceleration. something for around $25 or so.

Would you guys buy a GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP for $50? I have 3 days left to get one for this price. This would be for my future MOBO purchase (WITH AGP THIS TIME).

[Platypus]

Originally posted by natb1
Would you guys buy a GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP... for my future MOBO purchase

I wouldn't think of an MX as good provision for the future. Despite being called a GF4, it's a hot-rodded GF2, and consequently only has full hardware support for DirectX7. Whilst some aspects of its performance are good, like FSAA, being without pixel & vertex shaders makes it poor value against cards that aren't a lot more expensive.

[Radical Dreamer]

For that price, if you arent worried about having a balls to the wall gaming machine, go for it.