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Would this be killing my FPS?

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[TZ]-VooDoo

Registered
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Location
West Monroe, Louisiana
I just had a thought about something in my system...
When I was doing random updates to my PC, I checked the Microsoft website and seen a DirectX update!

DirectX 9.0c, so I figured eh; why not?

Well ever since then, my FPS have been dropping horribly in games and won't stay stable, and also in my DirectDraw tests or whatever with the spinning DirectX cube; it doesn't spin... It goes into ub3r omG H4X~hyper speed mode and spins so fast it's just a blur really.

So I check my Video Card reccomendations, and it's only meant to support DirectX 8.1... I've tried to re-install the 8.1 DirectX, but it seems to do nothing as the "Version" in dxdiag still says 9.0c...

Can anyone help me figure out how to rip out 9.0c safely and install 8.1?
Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on my situation, and thanks for everyones help so far! :)
 
installing directX 9 on system with a dx8.1 card won't do anything, all it does is allow the video cards that do support dx9 access to the features that it has to offer.

But I beleive there are utilities to do it, like DirectX eradicator, found here http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/14/4/14-4-40.shtml

Have you tried updating your video card drivers ?
 
Right,having DX9 on a pc with a dx7 or dx8 video card will not cause any problems.
It sounds like you just had a bad installation.
 
My system is a pre-compiled piece of err,stuff...

Dell, yEAYuh!

CPU: 2,400 Mhz (Intel Northwood Celeron, 128K L2 Cache) :Bottleneck:

HDD: Forgot name, but it's a Diamond "Max"? 7200RPM 8MB 120GB.

RAM: PC2700 512MB (Micron Tech) 2.5-3-3-7

SND: Newly planted SB Live! 5.1 LS (loving this thing dude...)

VID: ATI Radeon 9200SE PCI 128MB DDR (64B Pipeline)

MNT: 19" CRT 0.25DPI Dell Monitor o_o yEAYuh!

NET: PCI Network card add-on, D-Link 10/100.

PSU: I'm actually astonished, it came with a 350W PSU... I was thinking 200W.

I guess that about sums it up? As far as I know, I have the latest drivers... I just downloaded the latest CAT's from ATI.com about two weeks ago and Removed/Installed those. I know the CPU is jacking me, and I know the card isn't the most "1337" thing ever...

But how come other people with much much ****ier cards can get a constant 80-100 FPS and stable too... I never see 100FPS in CS until I get to the startup screen, just bringing up "options" drops me by over 40 FPS...

Sorry for the late reply.
 
[TZ]-VooDoo said:
But how come other people with much much ****ier cards can get a constant 80-100 FPS and stable too... I never see 100FPS in CS until I get to the startup screen, just bringing up "options" drops me by over 40 FPS...

I dont want to you to think I'm bashing your pc but,with that celeron and 9200se,you have a pretty low end gaming machine.So others getting higher fps shouldnt be a surprise.I said it nicely so dont get mad.:)
 
hehe-that rig isnt called gaming rig^^for sure:)
at least the grafik card should be changed...perhaps processor either...
 
I don't take it offensive at all, haha.
I agree with you, but this is my only option right now as $700-800 is way out of my grasp right now to purchase a decent gaming rig to work with.

I'd update this PC even more, but it's not mine so I'm going to leave it be.
I know PCI doesn't have many choices in the video line, so I'll just stay at what I'm at now and deal with it :-/

I would update the CPU as all Celery sticks are cheap, but I just don't know what this POS board can handle and even if it's worth the money to get the 500+ Mhz of "non-noticable" increment because of the crappy design Celeron was forged after...

And to boot on top of all of that, this board was SUPPOSE to have an AGP 8x slot on it, but I guess either one of two happened>

One: I got the douche version of the board meant for people who play solitare and think the internet is for the "Devil".

Two: I guess they didn't solder one on? And the pins are there to have one, but I'm not soldering together 500+ pins... Nope, nope, nope.

Thanks for the help anyway everyone! I'll try to get a sleeper system built of some kind by AMD, maybe a 2800+ XP. Or one of the Mobile XP's.
 
What you can do is overclock the video card:)
Since the pc is not yours I would advise against overclocking the cpu.The video card is your's though right?
 
Yes, it is mine.

But it's a PCI video card... Overclocking it is just a waste of time am I right?
But if it's possible, and I can squeeze some FPS or stability out of it...

Just let me know the details. :)
 
It is definitely not a waste of time.Download ATI tool or Riva tuner and get started!
Start with the memory.Push it up 5mhz at a time untill you get artifacts.Then take it down 5 or 10 mhz and untill it doesnt artifact anymore.
After you have the max overclock on the memory,start with the core.Same thing,5mhz at a time.But now you will get freezing,crashing or white dots all over the screen.Then back it down untill it's stable.
Hopefully you can squeeze out som more fps.
 
As far as you CPU goes you can install pretty much any 'Northwood' core/socket 478 CPU. Beingits a Dell I wouldnt suggest a Prescott. Chances arethe mo board is not really made to deal with the heat and load of such a proc. I would suggest stuffing a 3.0c in there or maybe 3.2. most can be had for about 200 US. EASY to install. I would try to upgrade that 9200 card if you can.
From what I see its not surprising your scores might suddenly drop. 128k cache on the Celery is your bottle neck. . then would be the 9200 card
 
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