Video Card and frame rates

[Saber Cherry]

Well... multiple cards probably don't work too well in this age of AGP. It's best to have one good AGP card that does everything... also, multiple video drivers can conflict. All the ATI All-In-Wonder cards do this kind of stuff (dual monitors, TV in and out) but they are kind of expensive. I know some Nvidia-based cards have TV and multi-monitor support, but I don't know which ones.

Why avoid MX? They are inferior. MX cards are crippled Versions of Nvidia's main cards, and they have an inferior chip and (usually) cheaper components. I generally prefer a high-end previous gen card with good components than a low-end current gen card with crippled chips (like half the pixel pipes) and cheap, inferior components (lower reliability, worse image and signal fidelity).

ATI and Nvidia both make high-end and low-end cards, and sometimes even the high-end ones use crappy components and break or don't work right, but I always avoid the low-end ones. Middle ones are OK, like the GF4TI-4200 which is the bottom of the true GF4 line, but much better than the top of the low-end GF4MX line (the 440).

Nowdays, both companies hide this stuff, and don't stick obvious letters like "mx" or "ve" (value edition) in their products. So Radeon 9800 and 9700 are good, and 9600/9500 are mid-range but use a crippled chip (probly with a half-width memory datapath), while the 9000, 9100, and 9200 I don't know much about but probably use a badly crippled chip and crappy components on the card to lower the price to the minimum.

I wish I could tell you exactly what to buy, but I haven't tracked the market much lately, what with no good demanding 3D games coming out. All I can say for sure is that retail stores rip you off=) A 2-year-old $129 GeForce MX 440 at Best Buy will cost $50 on the internet.

-Cherry

[NTJedi]

Daryll

A quick fix worked for me as I had the frame rates also moving as what you were seeing.

Go into display properties and set your color settings into 16-bit (true color). This worked for me and got the frames moving great !

[Darryl]

NTJedi: Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work for me. 16bit and it still goes about 1.192fps.

Saber Cherry: Went out and got a Radeon 9200 - same results. It says it supports OpenGL and even has a spot for it in the "Display" properties but Dominions battles run at the same slow rate. So I take it Dominions battles only run with a high end Video card? Or should the Radeon 9200 be able to show battles faster?

P.S. - I've been determining my frame rates using "benchmark" in the demo. If this is inaccurate please let me know, although with how slow everything moves (I can 'see' each frame independent of the others) 1.2 fps seems about right.

[Psitticine]

I have a worn old Voodoo 2 card in my older machine. The framerates are just fine (15+ fps with fairly good quality settings) on that, so I don't think you need anything high-end. I don't know what the problem is!

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Darryl:
Saber Cherry: Went out and got a Radeon 9200 - same results. It says it supports OpenGL and even has a spot for it in the "Display" properties but Dominions battles run at the same slow rate. So I take it Dominions battles only run with a high end Video card? Or should the Radeon 9200 be able to show battles faster?

No, that should be fine, those are more modern than my video card. The only thing is this: Did you update the drivers? First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9), then uninstall the existing drivers, reboot (it will probably install default VGA drivers), and then install the new drivers.

Want a full description of what I'd do in your shoes? Ok! This is what you should do for unexplained problems in any game, in general. It will probably help in every game and every application, ESPECIALLY if you haven't done any of them in a long time!

1) Run scandisk (in XP, c: drive > properties > tools > check for errors)

2) Defragment (same location)

3) Go to www.windowsupdate.com, and fully update your computer. This may take multiple attempts... I suggest doing XP Service PAck 1 and any Internet Explorer service packs, alone, before anything else. But after those are done, MAKE SURE you have the latest Direct X Version (9.0a? 9.1? I forget) and all the critical updates. You can skip things that sound stupid, like "gives your computer .NET platform development blah blah." or "Lets you make Windows Media 9 movies." Reboot.

4) Install new motherboard drivers. I assume you have a Via-based motherboard? If so, go to www.viaarena.com and download the latest 4-in-1 drivers (probably 4.50), and install them. Reboot twice (rebooting once finishes installation, the second time makes sure it boots normally).

5) Install new video drivers: First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9), then uninstall the existing drivers, reboot (it will probably install default VGA drivers), and then install the new drivers. Reboot twice (rebooting once finishes installation, the second time makes sure it boots normally).

6) Install new sound card drivers. If you use onboard sound, Windows Update may provide this for you... otherwise, try the manufacturer. For SoundbLasters, go to www.creative.com. Reboot twice (rebooting once finishes installation, the second time makes sure it boots normally).

7) Run scandisk again.

8) Try playing the game.

I give this a 90% chance of eliminating the problem, but it will be a lot easier to solve if you try all this and there is still a problem, so please repost, if so! This is all stuff I would suggest even if you DIDN'T have any trouble, as it is good maintenance, and should be done quarterly, or bi-yearly at a minimum.

-Cherry

[Darryl]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
No, that should be fine, those are more modern than my video card. The only thing is this: Did you update the drivers? First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9), then uninstall the existing drivers, reboot (it will probably install default VGA drivers), and then install the new drivers.

I'll try that.

1) Run scandisk (in XP, c: drive > properties > tools > check for errors)

Do this a couple times a week. No problems as of earlier tonight.

2) Defragment (same location)

My drives are pretty carved up (drive letters go up to "L") for optimization of the hard drive. The most fragmented any drive is is 1.7%.

3) Go to www.windowsupdate.com, and fully update your computer.

Always been pretty wary of this one since things have spontaneously stopped working after this in the past. Plus I'm using Win 98 due to a pro soundcard that STILL has crappy drivers for XP.

4) Install new motherboard drivers. I assume you have a Via-based motherboard?

WAAAY to lazy right now to go and turn the computer on it's side, although I'm not sure this is the issue. TV works fine (got a separate TV Tuner card) and other 3d games (like NBA live) work just fine.

5) Install new video drivers: First, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers (probably Catalyst 3.9)

I'll try this.

6) Install new sound card drivers. If you use onboard sound

I despise onboard sound. Got 2 sound cards, a SoundbLaster Live and a Delta-44 (for pro audio recording). Both work just fine. I also run Dominions with sound turned off, so this couldn't be slowing the game down if sound is off in the demo preferences.

7) Run scandisk again.

Granted, haven't run scandisk in a few hours...

8) Try playing the game.

Haven't tried the new video drivers, but one thing worked...sort of. Pressing "w" in the replay gives the "wireframe" and takes out the background, but the battle speeds up. I'll try the drivers and let you know.

Darryl

[Saber Cherry]

The motherboard drivers are very important! I would say... that's the second most important step, after video card drivers.

To check, just go to device manager: right-click on My Computer, and under one of those tabs, it lists all the hardware in your computer. It's different in 98, and I forget the exact wording of the tab.

In the list of hardware devices, expand "System Devices" and there should be things like "VIA AGP to CPU bridge", on a VIA chipset. For an AMD chipset, it might say "AMD Irongate 751 AGP bridge" or something. And, if you have a VIA chipset, I strongly suggest you update the drivers - even if it doesn't help the game, it prevents things like HDD data corruption... quite important! But these drivers are integrally linked to AGP and PCI bus efficiency, as well.

-Cherry