Slow graphics processing?

[AcidX]

So anyway, after a very long wait, I finally went out and bought my
'new' (128mb AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT - running in a 4X AGP slot) graphics
card, and a new 450W Antec power supply that'd be able to support it.
So anyway, I've noticed that when playing games that I played before,
it is sometimes slower/laggier than it used to be with my onboard 32MB
graphics. The best example would be Red Alert 2, which lags much easier
than it used to, which just doesn't make sense to me.
I've even tried setting the visual details to 'low' (I used to have it
on high, and it ran fine) which used to be rocket fast, but now I still
get a tonne of lag.
I'm doing half of what I used to and it's just going slooowww. It might
not even by my graphics card, but if it is I can think of a few reasons
why this could happen (to main one being that it's not 'onboard') but
does anyone know of similar issues and/or how to fix them? Is it
something wrong in my BIOS?
And I know that all my drivers are up to date, so I doubt it's that...
Although, the other day when playing Far Cry, my nVidia driver crashed
and I got a bluescreen. Something I've never actually seen on this comp
until then.

Basically I've just ran out of ideas and don't know what to try.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm running:
2.53Ghz Intel Processor
1GB RAM
128MB XFX gfx card
SiS chipset with AC'97 onboard audio
A 450W Antec PSU

 

[V Green]

Check/update if necessary your DirectX layer?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Have you tried routine maintenance?

You should use Disk CleanUp regularly to Empty your Recycle Bin and
Remove Temporary Internet Files. Whenever you remove redundant files you
should always run Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, All Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.

Please check Event Viewer for Warning / Error Reports in the System
and Application logs for the last boot and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

Part of the Description of the error will include a link, which you should
double click for further information. You can copy using copy and paste.
Often the link will, however, say there is no further information.
http://go.microsoft.com/fw.link/events.asp
(Please note the hyperlink above is for illustration purposes only)

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click
on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This
will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report complete with links
into the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JP]

So anyway, after a very long wait, I finally went out and bought my
'new' (128mb AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT - running in a 4X AGP slot) graphics
card, and a new 450W Antec power supply that'd be able to support it.
So anyway, I've noticed that when playing games that I played before,
it is sometimes slower/laggier than it used to be with my onboard 32MB
graphics. The best example would be Red Alert 2, which lags much easier
than it used to, which just doesn't make sense to me.
I've even tried setting the visual details to 'low' (I used to have it
on high, and it ran fine) which used to be rocket fast, but now I still
get a tonne of lag.
I'm doing half of what I used to and it's just going slooowww. It might
not even by my graphics card, but if it is I can think of a few reasons
why this could happen (to main one being that it's not 'onboard') but
does anyone know of similar issues and/or how to fix them? Is it
something wrong in my BIOS?
And I know that all my drivers are up to date, so I doubt it's that...
Although, the other day when playing Far Cry, my nVidia driver crashed
and I got a bluescreen. Something I've never actually seen on this comp
until then.

Basically I've just ran out of ideas and don't know what to try.

Have you got the extra power plugged into the graphics card? I think it
warns you if you've forgotten, but that could make it run slow.
I would suggest trying 3d mark to see how it compares to similar systems. It
could just be that old games don't use the graphics card features and end up
being slower... (maybe?)

-JP

 

[AcidX]

mmm... It could be that.
Probably a similar reason to why we have to emulate running 16-bit apps
in a 32-bit environment.

I would run 3D Mark, I just can't be bothered to download it.
If I get time, I'll do it at school tomorrow

 

[-nos1eep]

It is further alleged that on or about 19 Mar 2006 07:00:50 -0800, in
alt.computer, the queezy keyboard of "AcidX" <[email protected]>
spewed the following:

|So anyway, after a very long wait, I finally went out and bought my
|'new' (128mb AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT - running in a 4X AGP slot) graphics
|card, and a new 450W Antec power supply that'd be able to support it.
|So anyway, I've noticed that when playing games that I played before,
|it is sometimes slower/laggier than it used to be with my onboard 32MB
|graphics. The best example would be Red Alert 2, which lags much easier
|than it used to, which just doesn't make sense to me.
|I've even tried setting the visual details to 'low' (I used to have it
|on high, and it ran fine) which used to be rocket fast, but now I still
|get a tonne of lag.
|I'm doing half of what I used to and it's just going slooowww. It might
|not even by my graphics card, but if it is I can think of a few reasons
|why this could happen (to main one being that it's not 'onboard') but
|does anyone know of similar issues and/or how to fix them? Is it
|something wrong in my BIOS?
|And I know that all my drivers are up to date, so I doubt it's that...
|Although, the other day when playing Far Cry, my nVidia driver crashed
|and I got a bluescreen. Something I've never actually seen on this comp
|until then.
|
|Basically I've just ran out of ideas and don't know what to try.
|
|Also, for anyone interested, I'm running:
|2.53Ghz Intel Processor
|1GB RAM
|128MB XFX gfx card
|SiS chipset with AC'97 onboard audio
|A 450W Antec PSU

What version of nVidia drivers are you running?
What version of DirectX?

 

[AcidX]

nVidia driver 81.98 (or it might be .94 - whatever the most recent on
on their site is for the Geforce series)
and DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

And also, in response to JP, I have got the PSU plugged into the card.
I forgot to mention that
I don't think they work properly if it's not anyway...

 

[V Green]

Back off the driver - use a version two or so back.

Latest & greatest video drivers are rarely the most stable
and/or trouble free.

 

[Paul]

So anyway, after a very long wait, I finally went out and bought my
'new' (128mb AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT - running in a 4X AGP slot) graphics
card, and a new 450W Antec power supply that'd be able to support it.
So anyway, I've noticed that when playing games that I played before,
it is sometimes slower/laggier than it used to be with my onboard 32MB
graphics. The best example would be Red Alert 2, which lags much easier
than it used to, which just doesn't make sense to me.
I've even tried setting the visual details to 'low' (I used to have it
on high, and it ran fine) which used to be rocket fast, but now I still
get a tonne of lag.
I'm doing half of what I used to and it's just going slooowww. It might
not even by my graphics card, but if it is I can think of a few reasons
why this could happen (to main one being that it's not 'onboard') but
does anyone know of similar issues and/or how to fix them? Is it
something wrong in my BIOS?
And I know that all my drivers are up to date, so I doubt it's that...
Although, the other day when playing Far Cry, my nVidia driver crashed
and I got a bluescreen. Something I've never actually seen on this comp
until then.

Basically I've just ran out of ideas and don't know what to try.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm running:
2.53Ghz Intel Processor
1GB RAM
128MB XFX gfx card
SiS chipset with AC'97 onboard audio
A 450W Antec PSU

Things I do when I get a new video card:

1) Install chipset drivers (includes AGP miniport driver).
Install video drivers (like the Nvidia ones you used)
Install some version of DirectX
2) Get a copy of Powerstrip from entechtaiwan.com .
Once installed, go to the toolbar, and the popup menu
for Powerstrip has an Options entry.

Powerstrip will tell you a few things. Like the AGP transfer
speed. Whether Fastwrite is enabled or not.

The biggie is the texture transfer method (upper right of
the panel). The options are:

DMA (direct memory access)
DIME (direct in memory execution)
None

Make sure you have DMA or DIME enabled. If it is not, it
means the drivers didn't get installed right, or there is
a bug in them.

If you make a habit of not removing the old video card drivers,
before removing the old video card, the OS can get in
quite a mess. I had that happen to me, and I could not enable
DMA/DIME, no matter how many driver versions I tried. Always
remove the old driver before uninstalling the old video card.
Depending on the mess you get into, you may need a "driver
cleaner" to try to remove the old drivers (but in my case, I
had evidence that the cleaner didn't get everything).

That is still true, if you pull one Nvidia video card,
and install another Nvidia card. You still have to
remove the driver, and install a new one.

You can play with the AGP aperture after you are done,
and it is possible a particular value gives you the best
performance. But that would be nothing compared to the
lagging you'd get with "None" for a texture transfer
method.

Paul

 

[AcidX]

2) Get a copy of Powerstrip from entechtaiwan.com .
Once installed, go to the toolbar, and the popup menu
for Powerstrip has an Options entry.

Powerstrip will tell you a few things. Like the AGP transfer
speed. Whether Fastwrite is enabled or not.

Heya.
I got powerstrip, and here's the diagnostic report:

Diagnostic report - generated on 20/03/2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerStrip build - 540
Windows build - v.5.1.2600.2.Service Pack 2
DirectX build - v.5.03.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
OpenGL renderer - (n/a)

System board
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type - SiS
AGP aperture - 256 MB
Transfer mechanism - DMA
Non-local memory - 141.0 MB
AGP revision - 3.05
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - Enabled
Fast write protocol - (n/a)
AGP texturing - Enabled

Graphics card #1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Identity - Pineview Display controller
Memory clock - 1000.00 MHz
Engine clock - 500.00 MHz
IRQ - 16, not shared
AGP revision - 3.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - Enabled
Display driver - nv4_disp.dll, v.6.14.10.8421
DirectX driver - nv4_disp.dll, v.6.14.10.8421
Attached monitor - HIGA770 (Plug and Play Monitor)
Monitor caps (1) - 1672x944, 59kHz, 85Hz

Device enumeration
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foxconn CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (06511039h)
SiS PCI-to-PCI bridge (00031039h)
SiS PCI-to-ISA bridge (00081039h)
Foxconn IDE controller (55131039h)
Foxconn Audio device (70121039h) - using IRQ18
Foxconn Universal serial bus (USB) (70011039h) - using IRQ20
Foxconn Universal serial bus (USB) (70011039h) - using IRQ21
SiS Universal serial bus (USB) (70021039h) - using IRQ23
Foxconn Ethernet controller (09001039h) - using IRQ19
Pineview Display controller (00F110DEh) - using IRQ16

Not sure how much of it is useful to you, but one of the first things I
noticed was that Fast write isn't on. I'm guessing it should be?
If so do I just enable it there, or in BIOS/elsewhere?

Next time I reboot I'll try settng the AGP Aperture down to 128mb. I
still have the problem at both 32MB and 256MB ;(

 

[Paul]

Heya.
I got powerstrip, and here's the diagnostic report:

Transfer mechanism - DMA

<<snip>>

It was just a shot in the dark. I doubt Fastwrite would make
a difference one way or another.

There is an article on performance scaling here, but they don't
have an entry for Red Alert 2. If you know which graphics
"engine" it uses, you may be able to use one of the other
games they list, to see how changing the video card or
the processor, affect the performance.

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/athlon_64_geforce_7800_gtx_scaling/page14.asp

I downloaded the BF2 demo (~500MB) and tried it on two machines
here, with lowly FX5200 video cards in them. And I was surprised
that it was still playable, although not that good visually.

Be aware, that one thing that changes when you upgrade hardware,
is the hardware support for DirectX is different. If your new
video card has DirectX 9 hardware support, a video game could see
that, and use a more expensive render path. The visual quality
could improve, at the expense of frame rate. I'm not an expert
on the subject. It seems some games don't give you much in the
way of control, or tell you what they are doing, so it is
hard to judge what the result might be. (Changing the detail
setting, should be a trigger for the game to try a more
economical render path, if the user requests it, but who
knows how this works...)

For me, getting "DMA/DIME" running was the biggest performance
boost when tweaking a new AGP card.

Paul

 

[kony]

So anyway, after a very long wait, I finally went out and bought my
'new' (128mb AGP 8X GeForce 6600GT - running in a 4X AGP slot) graphics
card, and a new 450W Antec power supply that'd be able to support it.
So anyway, I've noticed that when playing games that I played before,
it is sometimes slower/laggier than it used to be with my onboard 32MB
graphics. The best example would be Red Alert 2, which lags much easier
than it used to, which just doesn't make sense to me.

Describe these "lags" in great detail.

If the card overheats, it will definitely "lag" a certain
way. You should run a standard benchmark, such as the one
you could'be be bothered to run before, instead of wasting
other's time trying to guess what your performance is like.
Without knowing what performance you actually get, the rest
is pointless. For all we know the specific game could
simply have a bug.

I've even tried setting the visual details to 'low' (I used to have it
on high, and it ran fine) which used to be rocket fast, but now I still
get a tonne of lag.
I'm doing half of what I used to and it's just going slooowww. It might
not even by my graphics card, but if it is I can think of a few reasons
why this could happen (to main one being that it's not 'onboard') but
does anyone know of similar issues and/or how to fix them? Is it
something wrong in my BIOS?

If in doubt, clear CMOS, use the default bios values. Shut
down things running in the background and get a baseline for
other performance variable such as memory and CPU. Even a
crude synthetic bench such as Sisoft Sandra would suffice
and shows expected ranges of similar parts for comparison
purposes. Perhaps in installing the card you have
dislodged, or have a poor, drive cable or connector and now
this lag is continual data resends upon access. I doubt it,
but just leaving no stone unturned...

And I know that all my drivers are up to date, so I doubt it's that...

Try reinstalling DirectX9C, test it again, then try an older
video card driver. Always try an older driver when the
newest "might" be a problem, a new driver's bugs only get
worked out _after_ people have problems... and you might be
in such a group of people.

Although, the other day when playing Far Cry, my nVidia driver crashed
and I got a bluescreen. Something I've never actually seen on this comp
until then.

Details, details... what was the stop code on the
bluescreen?

Have you rechecked your CPU temps? Keep in mind that when
your onboard video was such a large bottleneck, the entire
rest of the system was taking it easy, you would now be
expected to have far more memory throughput, CPU
utilization, power use and heat generation.

Basically I've just ran out of ideas and don't know what to try.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm running:
2.53Ghz Intel Processor
1GB RAM
128MB XFX gfx card
SiS chipset with AC'97 onboard audio
A 450W Antec PSU

Disable sound and retry the game. Shut down any software
hardware-monitor type utilities if running in windows, and
temporarily disable BIOS monitoring/shutdown/etc type
features as well (but be sure to re-enable them if not the
cause).

Other misc. things can also cause problems but aren't so
obvious. For example if while installing the card, having
system pulled out some the network cable became loose for
whatever reason (bad jack, misfitting card slot bracket on
case or whatever else...), that could cause lags, BUT it
would typically occur outside of games as well as in. As
mentioned above, you need to get some figures in common uses
to compare, like trying multiple versions of 3DMark.

 

[Guest]

Just a thought here but It sounds like your 8x Card is not compatable with
your 4x AGP slot.