Radeon 9800 and Half-Life problems

[Mike B]

I just bought a new Dell with a Radeon 9800. I had a home-built PC with an
old Nvidia 32MB MX card. I thought for sure the performance would increase
dramatically, but I find that playing my main game, Half-Life (specifically
on-line TFC servers) that something just isn't right, although the FPS has
increased quite a bit. When I strafe the landscape isn't smooth, rather
choppy. I downloaded the latest official drivers and DirectX90.b, but the
gameplay is still off and sluggish. There is no way that an old 32 MX card
is better for HL than the new 128 Radeon, so I am assuming there is some
tweaking issues I am missing. I am currently playing in OpenGL "default
driver" mode. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[trauma]

Most likely you have v-sync turned off, this is whyyou are getting screen
tearing. Go do display properties and into teh OpenGL tab, turn V-sync to
ON.

 

[The_MCP]

I had the same trouble. My HL FPS dropped as low as 30! I am now playing
through Steam rather than a retail version and that seems to work fine.

G

 

[Frank Weston]

The 9800 pro is overkill for Half Life. You should have NO problems and a
solid 100 fps. Here are some things to check:

Go to your display properties, Open GL mode tab and set everything to
default (vsync will default to off). Go to the monitor tab and select an
appropriate refresh rate for your monitor. 85 is OK for CRT, 70 for LCDs.
Make sure the proper monitor drivers are loaded. In BIOS if you have these
choices, make sure that AGP/PCI bus speed is 66.66/33.33 or to auto, make
sure AGP has priority over PCI, set the AGP window to 64. In CS, make sure
you have the correct resolution selected for your monitor and that you're
really playing in Open GL. One other thing....maybe it's your connection.
Are you getting a good, low, steady ping? Do you have the same problem on
all servers? Can you play a LAN game without problems?

Once you've checked all these things, if you still have problems, suspect
the video card or the motherboard/BIOS setup, or a combination of both.

Good Luck!

 

[John]

What about the half-life variables like fps_max and fps_modem? (set from
console)

 

[Ben Pope]

The 9800 pro is overkill for Half Life. You should have NO problems
and a solid 100 fps. Here are some things to check:

Go to your display properties, Open GL mode tab and set everything to
default (vsync will default to off).

Personally I'd switch it vsync on... tearing is annoying.

Go to the monitor tab and
select an appropriate refresh rate for your monitor. 85 is OK for
CRT

85 is bloody good for CRTs! It's the minimum I use. Most seem happy with
75Hz or more. (Well...most seem happy with 60Hz if they're not used to
anything else but personally I can't bear it for more than a few seconds.)

If you want to keep decent refresh rates in games (D3D has a problem with
using 60Hz, which is nasty) use ReForce.

In BIOS if you have these choices, make sure that AGP/PCI bus speed
is 66.66/33.33 or to auto, make sure AGP has priority over PCI, set

I tend to set this to not what I'm using - that way with any display
problems, you can simply whack in the other type of card and leave the old
wone there.

Ben

 

[TMack]

I just bought a new Dell with a Radeon 9800. I had a home-built PC with an
old Nvidia 32MB MX card. I thought for sure the performance would increase
dramatically, but I find that playing my main game, Half-Life (specifically
on-line TFC servers) that something just isn't right, although the FPS has
increased quite a bit. When I strafe the landscape isn't smooth, rather
choppy. I downloaded the latest official drivers and DirectX90.b, but the
gameplay is still off and sluggish. There is no way that an old 32 MX card
is better for HL than the new 128 Radeon, so I am assuming there is some
tweaking issues I am missing. I am currently playing in OpenGL "default
driver" mode. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Are you sure that this isn't simply 'lag' due to poor online connection
speeds? it doesn't matter how good your graphics card is if it isn't
getting the data that it needs. Remember that even if initial connection
speed is good it can deteriorate or fluctuate during gameplay.

Tony

 

[Mike B]

Thanks everyone. I basically turned down all of the options in OpenGL and
enabled V-Sync and everything is much better. Ha, I never would have thought
that a card was *too* powerful for a game...

-M

 

[zaius]

Thanks everyone. I basically turned down all of the options in OpenGL and

enabled V-Sync and everything is much better. Ha, I never would have thought
that a card was *too* powerful for a game...

-M

Mike, I had a HUGE problem with this card. I'm running a Shuttle AV49N Mobo,
and had to set the AGP down to 4X in order for games to play smoothly. I left
the other settings alone. Plus, your 9800 might not be too powerful for the
game, but maybe for your system. You may need to get a better power supply (I'm
running a 500 watt box), and MAKE SURE that you have a single power cable going
to the 9800, meaning DO NOT share a power cable with a HD or CD-ROM drive.

Best of luck.

z


Life is too stupid to always act smart.

 

[Ben Pope]

box), and MAKE SURE that you have a single power cable going to the
9800, meaning DO NOT share a power cable with a HD or CD-ROM drive.

Why? They're all connected together inside the PSU aren't they?

Ben

 

[Don F]

Why? They're all connected together inside the PSU aren't they?
Ben
--

Each power cable has multiple connectors on it. The amount of current a
particular cable has to supply is dependendent on the power requirement for
each component connected to that cable. If the gauge of the wire in the
power cable is insufficient, then there is a possibility for a voltage drop
in the cable itself.
Think of the power distribution in your house.
I personally think that the gauge of the power cables are sufficient to
carry the current requirements for any PC component.
Maybe Zaius has other reasons for his suggestion (noise spikes..?).
Don F

 

[zaius]

Each power cable has multiple connectors on it. The amount of current a
particular cable has to supply is dependendent on the power requirement for
each component connected to that cable. If the gauge of the wire in the
power cable is insufficient, then there is a possibility for a voltage drop
in the cable itself.
Think of the power distribution in your house.
I personally think that the gauge of the power cables are sufficient to
carry the current requirements for any PC component.
Maybe Zaius has other reasons for his suggestion (noise spikes..?).
Don F

Just read it on a froum when Googling my problem. I tried it and it fixed 90%
off the crashes. Setting down to 4X then fixed the rest and improved the speed.

I really should just get an ASUS instead of this Shuttle mobo.

-z


Life is too stupid to always act smart.