Want to help a video card n00b? :)

[legacy-M0rtus]

I have a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 128MB and would love to know if I can squeeze any higher quality settings/FPS out of it in UT2004. Does anyone have any pointers? Currently not been tampered with at all and running Catalyst 4.7 drivers.

I'm a video card n00b so please try not to get too technical with me :noob:

If it helps, my other specs:

AMD AthlonXP 2400+
768MB RAM
Western Digital 40GB HD, not sure of speeds offhand as I'm posting from work.
Same with mobo, I don't remember and would need to check from home.


If I need to post anything more specific, someone let me know. Thanks! :)

[legacy-L4M0r!]

First you need to make up your mind. Gaining FPS is inversely proportional to better IQ.

[legacy-M0rtus]

Surely beefing up the card will be able to do either/or by definition of the fact that it's running faster or tweaked somehow, wouldn't it?

If not and for the sake of argument, let's say I'd prefer being able to run higher settings and maintain my current framerate as a priority over my current quality settings and higher framerate. But to be honest, I don't really mind either way. I'm just curious to see how the card can be pushed to give either result in the end.

[legacy-L4M0r!]

If you are talking about overclocking, I think you are at the wrong forum. If you are, I suggest you start reading on the subject. I hear google is rather good at finding subjects for people;)

[legacy-shielded]

Originally posted by L4M0r!
First you need to make up your mind. Gaining FPS is inversely proportional to better IQ.

inversely? :bulb: So he can get lower FPS you are saying... sigh...

[hackdroot]

"The XT range of video cards have a built in facility for overclockers - dubbed 'OVERDRIVE' it uses an on-die thermal diode to sense what temperature the card is and adjust the clock speed to give improved performance. Whilst not all vendors include the onboard circuitry to control this system, it appears as though Sapphire are one of those who are. The overdrive tab appears within the video control panel."

"Alternatively, Sapphire bundle their own utility for this, called "Redline". It comes on a separate CD and is entirely optional but it essentially provides the same facility. Users who use Sapphire's own utility should note that it may void your warranty as it can go beyond the "safe" speeds as written by ATi."

You can alternately use ATITool to overclock it (at your own risk).

ATITool Download (http://www.webtechgeek.com/files/atitool.zip)

ATITool FAQ (http://atitool.ocfaq.com/)

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=591&dPage=10

[legacy-Incubus188]

Just a small observation here but if you are a video card noob as you say I am not sure that you should mess with the overclocking. A possible solution to your fps is to look at the system tweak guides located all over these forums and play around with your OS before doing hardware changes. But thats just my opinion, take it as you will:rolleyes: