Changed graphics card --- no noticeable difference

[malgeorge]

Hi,

I have just upgraded from a Geforce4 MX 440 to a Geforce4 TI 4600 and I cannot see any noticeable difference in graphics quality or frame rates.
There have been a lot of comments re - frame rates. Some are getting good fps and others not so good but there are no set bench tests for use with FS2K2 in order to make an accurate comparison with others.
Most simmers have purchased add-on sceneries, sliders are set at various settings depending on cpu power. There is no standard for comparison.
I used to use FSBench (FS2000) to compare my system with others and was able see at a glance where inprovements might be made with regards to hardware and if any improvement was worth the expediture.
We know that FS2K2 is cpu dependant and I work on a ratio factor to estimate improvements in fps.
If you increase your cpu capacity by 10% say 2GHz to 2.2GHz at some considerable cost, as a guide, the fps might increase by 10%.
If you were getting 10 fps you might get an increase of 1 fps.
Can there be something set up for FS2K2
Here is the link to fsbench for FS2000.
http://www.avsim.com/fsbench/

Mal

[TomPen]

Hey i cant help with your problem but what are you going to do with your old video card if you dont mind me asking???

[malgeorge]

Tom

The geforce4 MX 440 board is on a QXL auction which closes Sunday evening.

Mal

[mmm6262]

Good day! What brand was it? I had a similiar incident. I had a Geforce2 MX400 (generic) and upgraded to a PNY Geforce4 Ti4400. Noticed no differnce. I tested with Fs2002, GTA3 and Medal of Honor. So I returned the card. Goodluck!

Gabriel
N93002

[TomPen]

O ok thats cool

[rservice]

I use a Radeon card myself, but you should post your system specs. and also check that you have the latest drivers for your card as there are dozens of possibilities, mainly, motherboard, cpu ,bios,

[malgeorge]

My specs:
Mobo gigabyte ga-8idx bios f9 (latest) 400FSB
P4 2ghz safely o/c 2.2
Geforce4 ti 4600 drivers 30.82 also tried 29.42
Ram 768 Mb sdram pc133
40 gb Hdd
CD-WR 24x10x40
DVD x16 (40x read)
FDD

Using Madonion 3DMark 2001 SE my score increased by 50% with the new card. But no noticeable difference with FS2K2.

Mal

[Simon Evans]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Aug-23-02 AT 04:03AM (EDT)[/font][p]Well, as FS2002 was designed when the GF4 wasn't even dreamed about, I can't see why your surprised at all. FS is already known as a CPU-bound creation, in this version at least.

However, why you see no difference between the two cards is a puzzle. The GF4 MX series doesn't do reflections. Surely you now see those..?
The advantage of the Ti card should be that you can run higher resolutions or greater levels of detail without fps loss. No benchmark will give you a figure for that.
Sounds like you haven't tweaked the card properly to maximise those advantages or, if you are an experienced tweaker, you have already wrenched out all the tweaks available in the GF4 architecture.
For example, just switching between the 29.42 and the 30.82 drivers should have allowed far greater levels of anisotropic filtering without frame loss, and the FSAA at 4xs should have less of a performance `hit`.

What tweak utility are you using..? And what are your settings?






Simon Evans

[malgeorge]

Hello Simon,

I have not applied any tweaks to the graphics card. I have been reading some of your posts and I must admit I don't know a thing about the various tweaks and what they do. In fact I was toying with the idea of asking what settings / tweaks simmers have for FS2K2
I did take a look at the omega drivers and various settings but I am afraid to mess about with bios settings etc. without guidance. I have recently messed up a friends Mobo with the wrong bios flash and it is costing me so far about £100 for a new MoBo and labour.

I do have Geforce Tweak Utility program. I have used it to slightly o/c the card.

I use easytune4 and I am able to o/c the cpu by 10% to 2.2GHz. The max internal clock is 2.4GHz.

I haven't looked for reflection so i'll look for them.

Regards

Mal

[Simon Evans]

Mal,

GeForce Tweak Utility does not support later driver versions at the present time - a new version is due soon. This is probably your major problem.

In the meantime, suggest you use RivaTuner from
www.guru3d.com
A user guide is here:
http://www.boogletech.com/

Concentrate on the LOD mipmapping, FSAA and anisotropic filtering in the early stages. You WILL be able to see a benefit..! NOTE: LOD mipmaping settings in the minus numbers will NOT work until you have applied the patch script.

Another good starting point is the Omega drivers - he has optimised mipmapping and bilinear filter quality so that anisotropic filtering is unnecessary. He also has pre-applied the LOD patch fix.
http://www.omegacorner.com/
He also has a BIOS setting guide which is very useful. You may find these alterations alone improve visual acuity, but more likely they provide a faster card that enables higher settings without frame rate loss.

There are also some tweaks in the FS2002 .cfg file which you may find useful - scan the forum for details.

Simon Evans