Configuring ASRock board for geforce 5500

[Mskitty]

Hi there, new member so bear with me if I'm asking daft question please.
I currently have three machines and I play a older online RPG. Not sure of the best way to describe my problem, so here I go.
I'm on a quest for improved fps.
The 3 machines are:
1. P4 1.7 (not sure of the motherboard) 256mb ddr memory(the kind that needs blanks in the empty slots) Geforce 2 Gfx 64mb
2. Amd 2000xp, GA-7DXE board with 512 ddr pc2700 Geforce 2 gfx 64mb
3. Athalon 3.2, ASRock K7s41 board with 512 mb ddr pc2700

Now I bought a Geforce 5500 fx 256mb agp Graphics card to put in the new machine (the 3.2) and was dissapointed to find that both older machines had a faster fsp for the game I play (around 60 fps) the new 3.2 hit 50 fps max.

I tried swapping graphics cards about and discovered that if I put the Geforce 5500 in the P4 1.7 machine my fps rockets up to 100-150.

The 3.2 is really quite faster at launching applications and windows has never run so fast for me. It's drastically faster than either of the other machines but the fps in my game is letting me down terribly.

My graphics drivers are up all up to date.

I should mention that the game I play is The Lengend of Mir2
not the hottest title out there but I enjoy it. Also I'm aware that my ping to the game server will determine how fast I am ingame. However all of the best pvp guys have a fps of 80 and up. I can say without doubt that I perform better with a higher fps.

I've changed the AGP apeture setting in the bios to 256(to match the gfx card) but I'm not sure what else I can do.

Any help in getting the game to run quicker on the 3.2 would be very appreciated. We'll be cutting down to 2 machines very soon. I'd like to keep the 3.2 just for me and the 2gb for the rest of the family to clog up. I'd prefer not to slow them down by keeping the p4 just so I can game faster.

 

[Coyote]

I see that although you have a Barton 3200+ (which is meant to operate at a FSB of 200mhz) you are running PC2700 ram (which operates at 166mhz).


In otherwords, you are running the cpu and ram at different speeds (out of synch) which is said to be bad for performance on the AMD XP systems.

I'm curious if you set the cpu's FSB down to 166 to be in synch with your ram, would your FPS go up? I'd try it and see. Even a Barton 2500+ (11 x 166, instead of 11 x 200) is faster than the other two you mention.

If running asynch is not the problem (lower FPS), I'd suspect driver probs, either chipset or vid card.

Also, are you sure all in-game settings were the same when testing the card on the three pc's?

Coyote

Mobile XP 2600+ (11X215)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win2K sp4

 

[Mskitty]

Firstly thanks for you post.
You may have guessed I only have a basic understanding of computers.
Now, the literature that came with the pc indicated that the pc2700 ddr memory runs at 333Mhz. After reading your reply I looked in the bios and saw that the cpu fsb speed was set at 200 and the memory was 133. Changed them both to 166 and no difference to the ingame fps. Although windows did seem to boot faster, may have been my imagination though.

It's a very simple game and the only settings, as such, are to toggle sound on and off and change the font of the chat.

Back to this, fsb speed. Is it safe for me to go ahead and experiment with different settings? i.e putting the cpu back to 200 and raising the memory to match. Or putting the cpu to 133 to match the original memory setting.

You sound like you know what you're talking about, so I apologise if these are rookie questions. We all have to learn, right.

Thanks in advance