GTR and new video card

How well will GTR run with a 128mb 256 bit Radeon 9800 pro? I also have an AMD 2100 xp and 1.25 gig of ram, and a ti4600.

"John Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:kWKFe.14637$[email hidden]: > How well will GTR run with a 128mb 256 bit Radeon 9800 pro? I also > have an AMD 2100 xp and 1.25 gig of ram, and a ti4600. > > > It will run, but I think you won't see any 'huge' increases. GTR puts a load on your system. Heck, I have an ATI 800 with 256mb of vid mem with a low-end AMD 64bit cpu and it's still pretty herky-jerky.(only 512mb of system ram is my biggest weakness right now) dh

I think GTR is more power hungry when it comes to RAM and CPU than video. The 9800 pro will be fine (Heck, I run GTR ok with an ATI 9600). Your memory is fine. The AMD XP2100 will probably be your "weak link", but if you keep the # of oponents at a reasonable level, I think GTR will run with decent FPS in that setup.

I started out with a P4 3.0 w/ 512 Mb Ram, Nvidia GeForce 5950 ultra w/ 256 Mb Ram. Two weeks ago I added 2GB of additional Ram and the game has changed dramatically. I am running full fields at top resolutions, with all the bells and whistles minus the steering wheel, and there is only herky jerkiness during some replays. The racing is at 23 fps to close to 50 fps and sometimes even higher. For me TONS-o-RAM was the cure and it only cost me $209.99 to get the game where I wanted it to be. "John Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:kWKFe.14637$[email hidden]... > How well will GTR run with a 128mb 256 bit Radeon 9800 pro? I also have an > AMD 2100 xp and 1.25 gig of ram, and a ti4600. >

Thanks, I figured it wouldn't be much of a gain, but I need to upgrade the video card on the kids computer anyway. (My way of justifying an upgrade to my box)

Isn't that how we all do it? ;-)

Dave - what Catalyst version are you running? I just got an X800XL to upgrade my 9700 pro, and there is something about ISI sims and this card/driver combo. It is noticably slower, despite the 3dconfig bench being nearly twice as fast. I thought I was OK w5.6s on my 9700, but thinking about it I may have been running an earlier version last time I ran GTR/F1C - LFS S2, GTA:SA, and FarCry have been monopolizing my time ;). I'm trying to find out how far I have to roll back. I've already tried FastWritesOn, AGP apeture at 256mb. Something is definitely not right, even the car spinner in the F1C menu is visibly slower. All other games are running great. Kendt

"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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> Dave - what Catalyst version are you running? > I just got an X800XL to upgrade my 9700 pro, and there is something > about ISI sims and this card/driver combo. It is noticably slower, > despite the 3dconfig bench being nearly twice as fast. > I thought I was OK w5.6s on my 9700, but thinking about it I may have > been running an earlier version last time I ran GTR/F1C - LFS S2, > GTA:SA, and FarCry have been monopolizing my time ;). > I'm trying to find out how far I have to roll back. I've already tried > FastWritesOn, AGP apeture at 256mb. Something is definitely not right, > even the car spinner in the F1C menu is visibly slower. All other > games are running great. > > Kendt > >

5.7's. Somebody posted here about the big gains blah blah blah and I jumped at them. With overclocking I can get my 800pro to show a triangle rate of over 100 million tri's in the F1c config. I would imagine the GTR figure to be pretty close. But on track, I'm pretty sure because of my limited memory,(512mb w/XP Pro) the sim pauses everywhere. Anytime a new image pops up..hiccup...and some, usually early in a session, can last for several seconds. I just try and freeze the postion of my hands and feet and wait. When I try a 24hr track, I have to let the AI drive the first lap after any time change. The fps drops to single digits. Again, pretty good fast DDR 3200/400 memory running on a FSB of 200mhz but only 512mb. So I can't really RELIABLY compare framerates between drivers. F1c seems fine. I can get over 100fps in practice conditions or where traffic is minimal(away from the pits) but probably an average would be closer to 70ish. Two things I 'should' do, but probably can't afford to do for some time, is get a couple of 1mb DDR Ram sticks. and do the Pro to XL hack for my vid card. Again...removing heatsinks has never been wise when "I'm" the responsible for getting them properly placed back on again. dave henrie

I don't think its your memory - I had 512mb for a while and never had really bad problems. I saw a post on RSC that looked like the exact same problem - it was in some Nordic language though ;). Based on the technical terms, numbers, and smileys I think I decoded it to mean the user was seeing what I'm seeing, but hasn't resolved it. The big gains I think were just more hype, and almost non-existent if you had a 256mb X800 card. I really want to keep this card, but seeing as rFactor and GTLegends were one of the reasons I wanted it, if it doesn't play nice with ISI sims it is going back. I'm going to roll back to Omega 5.4s or 5.1s tonight and I'll report back. Kendt

Also - what are your res/AA/AF settings for F1c? I'd like to make sure I can at least get close to what you're seeing. I have 1gb RAM, [email hidden] - not apples-apples comparison, but I should be in the same ballpark as your system. Thanks! Kendt

It's been my experience with GTR that I have to shut down a lot of processes to make it run smooth. I recently upgraded from a 9700 Pro to 800XL, and even though the frame went up, I still have to use EnditAll to shut things down before launching the game. If I do that, it's pretty much stutter free. I use 5.7 drivers. "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Dave - what Catalyst version are you running? > I just got an X800XL to upgrade my 9700 pro, and there is something > about ISI sims and this card/driver combo. It is noticably slower, > despite the 3dconfig bench being nearly twice as fast. > I thought I was OK w5.6s on my 9700, but thinking about it I may have > been running an earlier version last time I ran GTR/F1C - LFS S2, > GTA:SA, and FarCry have been monopolizing my time ;). > I'm trying to find out how far I have to roll back. I've already tried > FastWritesOn, AGP apeture at 256mb. Something is definitely not right, > even the car spinner in the F1C menu is visibly slower. All other > games are running great. > > Kendt >

"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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> I don't think its your memory - I had 512mb for a while and never had > really bad problems. > I saw a post on RSC that looked like the exact same problem - it was in > some Nordic language though ;). Based on the technical terms, numbers, > and smileys I think I decoded it to mean the user was seeing what I'm > seeing, but hasn't resolved it. > The big gains I think were just more hype, and almost non-existent if > you had a 256mb X800 card. > I really want to keep this card, but seeing as rFactor and GTLegends > were one of the reasons I wanted it, if it doesn't play nice with ISI > sims it is going back. > I'm going to roll back to Omega 5.4s or 5.1s tonight and I'll report > back. > > Kendt >

I think you will find that rFactor is much easier on the video subsystem than GTR. I don't know why, but I don't see rFactor as anywhere near as demanding as GTR. dh

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> 5.7's. Somebody posted here about the big gains blah blah blah and I > jumped at them. With overclocking I can get my 800pro to show a triangle > rate of over 100 million tri's in the F1c config. I would imagine the GTR > figure to be pretty close. But on track, I'm pretty sure because of my > limited memory,(512mb w/XP Pro) the sim pauses everywhere. Anytime a new > image pops up..hiccup...and some, usually early in a session, can last for > several seconds. I just try and freeze the postion of my hands and feet > and wait. When I try a 24hr track, I have to let the AI drive the first > lap after any time change. The fps drops to single digits. Again, pretty > good fast DDR 3200/400 memory running on a FSB of 200mhz but only 512mb.

You may have tried these already, but turn "Look Ahead" to 0% and put GTR's "Special Effects" setting to low. Both are known to cause intermittent pausing and massive drops in framerate on many systems. Look Ahead affects performance when turning, and Special Effects cause framerates to drop dramatically over time. Alan