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Author Topic: Choosing between two graphics cards....  (Read 2778 times)

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Kurtiskain

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Choosing between two graphics cards....
« on: April 15, 2009, 11:50:18 PM »
Hello CH Members;

First off, the specs

Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.8GHz (stock)
ASUS P5KPL-CM MoBo
2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM
Radeon X700 128MB 400Mhz (gpu) / 350MHz Memory (700Mhz in DDR)
OR
Geforce 6600GT 256MB 500Mhz Gpu / 1000Mhz Memory (2000Mhz in DDR)

Okay so here are my dilemmas:

I am somewhat of a gamer. I have both of these cards in my possession, (with another 256MB 6600GT on the way, even though i do not have an SLi Board)  :P

The two games i want to play the most are: GTA:San Andreas and Bioshock.

Bioshock requires Shader Model 3.0, which the x700 does not have, and the game is so corrupt looking it is unplayable.

The 6600GT has SM3.0, however, when I play my GTA:SA, it is in 1280x1024 16 bit, so that there is a bit of a speed increase, and the colours go all funny. This is fixed when I revert to 32-bit, but the game goes too slow for my liking (40-60 FPS)

The x700 in 16 bit looks fine though, which I think it wierd :S

Overall the 6600GT out performs the x700 by 5-10 FPS

So the trade off is colour/being able to play.

Does anyone know of a fix that would keep the performance in GTA, yet fix the colour in 16-bit for the 6600GT?

quaxo



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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2009, 01:35:56 AM »
You might have already done this, but make sure you have the latest version of DirectX, the latest version of Nvidia's driver, and that any available patches for the game have been applied.

Kurtiskain

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2009, 04:17:28 AM »
You might have already done this, but make sure you have the latest version of DirectX, the latest version of Nvidia's driver, and that any available patches for the game have been applied.

I have the latest drivers. I'm running XP and have Direct X 9.0c, which is the latest, isnt it?

I don't know if they ever made patches for GTA, I'll take a poke around and see


Kurtiskain

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2009, 04:20:13 AM »
There is one patch I can find, yet it does not address any issues like mine.

Any other ideas?

quaxo



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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2009, 04:32:37 AM »
There is one patch I can find, yet it does not address any issues like mine.

Any other ideas?

There are sometimes issues they don't mention in patch notes, either they forget or they just don't think it was important enough to mention. Just so we're not skipping any steps, might be best to go ahead and download and install it anyway, just so we can say 100% that isn't the reason.

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2009, 04:38:07 AM »
Just did some searching around. Some other people reported similar problems. Seemed to be that the desktop color depth needs to match the game. So if you want to run in 16-bit color, make sure your desktop color depth is set the same. See if that helps.

Kurtiskain

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2009, 05:10:11 PM »
I'll try that now :)

Kurtiskain

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2009, 12:36:12 AM »
No dice so far, perhaps it is the nVidia Drivers themselves? because the ATi ones work just fine  ???

quaxo



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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2009, 12:56:59 AM »
One solution I found was to turn Frame Limiter on in the graphics settings of GTA:SA. It limits it to 30FPS, but supposedly corrects graphics issues like this, but it's even slower than the 40-60 you get in 32-bit color. Might just have to live with 40-60 fps.

Kurtiskain

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Re: Choosing between two graphics cards....
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2009, 03:32:35 AM »
I decided I would play through Bioshock, then swap back to the Ati so that I get 80 FPS in my games again :)