Need Help Tweaking.. Video Card for Gaming

[Jaggz]

After christmas I came back with some nice upgrades to my system that have
been badly needed and am seeking help on configuring some settings.

Replaced:
Geforce4 MX 440 64 with PNY Geforce FX 5200 128
512 PC133 Ram with 512 DDR Ram

Now I'm a serious gamer, I play RPGs,FPSs,RTSs, etc etc... (I have a lot of
free time being a college student ) And well, I want to get the best
usage out of my machine while gaming, however, I want to accomplish this
WITHOUT O/Cing. My machine is not setup with enough fans to support that
kind of heat. Anyway, I'm curious to the anti-aliasing, vsync, and all
those settings and what they should be. I want high frames when playing
FPSs but I don't want the graphics to suffer so much as it ruins the game.
IE: Having 40-50 fps while actively playing in America's Army without having
the models all on ultra-low textures and what not. Anyways, any help is
appreciated. TIA.

--
Jaggz

"Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up
and hurry off as if nothing had happened..."
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[George A Hamilton]

After christmas I came back with some nice upgrades to my system that have
been badly needed and am seeking help on configuring some settings.

Replaced:
Geforce4 MX 440 64 with PNY Geforce FX 5200 128
512 PC133 Ram with 512 DDR Ram

Now I'm a serious gamer, I play RPGs,FPSs,RTSs, etc etc... (I have a lot of
free time being a college student ) And well, I want to get the best
usage out of my machine while gaming, however, I want to accomplish this
WITHOUT O/Cing. My machine is not setup with enough fans to support that
kind of heat. Anyway, I'm curious to the anti-aliasing, vsync, and all
those settings and what they should be. I want high frames when playing
FPSs but I don't want the graphics to suffer so much as it ruins the game.
IE: Having 40-50 fps while actively playing in America's Army without having
the models all on ultra-low textures and what not. Anyways, any help is
appreciated. TIA.

One major tweak is to disable anti-aliasing. That is a serious slow down
factor. Keeping your res to 800 x 600 (or 1024 x 768 at the most) will
also help. Bi-linear rather than Tri-linear or anisotropic filtering can
also add a few FPS.
Your best bet is to turn everything way down, and then up them a little
at a time, until something has a major effect on your framerate. A
little trial and error can help you balance a great looking game with a
more than acceptable frame rate.

 

[Ancra]

After christmas I came back with some nice upgrades to my system that have
been badly needed and am seeking help on configuring some settings.

Replaced:
Geforce4 MX 440 64 with PNY Geforce FX 5200 128
512 PC133 Ram with 512 DDR Ram

Now I'm a serious gamer, I play RPGs,FPSs,RTSs, etc etc... (I have a lot of
free time being a college student ) And well, I want to get the best
usage out of my machine while gaming, however, I want to accomplish this
WITHOUT O/Cing. My machine is not setup with enough fans to support that
kind of heat. Anyway, I'm curious to the anti-aliasing, vsync, and all
those settings and what they should be. I want high frames when playing
FPSs but I don't want the graphics to suffer so much as it ruins the game.
IE: Having 40-50 fps while actively playing in America's Army without having
the models all on ultra-low textures and what not. Anyways, any help is
appreciated. TIA.

The FX5200 is primarily sensitive to high resolutions. It's fairly
resiliant towards eyecandy. For maximum framerate, AA and AF
(anisotropic filtering) should be completely off. But dropping
resolution should make more difference. I'm suggesting you experiment
to find out if lower resolution with AA and AF gives you better image
quality and better framerate, than higher resolution and no AA&AF.
Make sure you're using a nVidia driver of the '50' series.


ancra