Porsche Unleashed 2 choppy-Do I Need A New Video Card?

[Morpheusman]

Hot Pursuit 2 choppy-Do I Need A New Video Card?

Downloaded the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 Demo. So far, the game looks like a lot of fun, but even after a bit of tweaking it plays a little choppy at 1024 x 780. I love racing games, and image quality is very important to me, so playing at a lower resolution with less detail is not an attractive option for me. Is it time to retire the old Radeon LE, or could something else holding my system back? If it is time for a new video card, what would you choose for this type of game/setup, with a preferred price range around $80 - $150US? ATI 8500, 9000 Pro, GF4 4200, or do I need to spend a little more for a GF4 4400 ($194 at Newegg) or the soon to be released ATI 9500?

Computer specs below:

CPU: Intel 1.6A Northwood (Runs fine at 2.4Gz)
MB: Asus P4S533
Video: 32MB Radeon LE (Modified to Retail specs)
Mem: 256MB PC-2700
OS: WinXP Pro and Redhat 8.0

So far, I’ve tried the following items with corresponding results:
- Overclocked CPU to 2.4Gz – No change at all. Still choppy.
- Overclocked Video Card from 143 to 183, and tweaked numerous setting using RadeonTweaker – Performance noticeably improved, but still barely playable.

As stated previously, Image quality is very important to me, but I also want games like this, and future racing games, to be playable.

Thanks in advance for any and all opinions.

 

[RedDeathDrinker]

I would reccomend (from your list) a Ti4200....

It will give you a massive performance boost over your LE.......

 

[DanFraser]

I think that should be running fine, it could be drivers or something, try others, especially before splashing out money! It could also be the game itself, some are poor in the graphics area.

But for the choice of the card, try and go for the latest range, a GF4 would do nicely, for quite a while, the Radeon 8500 could be a good choice too, but Im not too sure to be honest. It is totally up to you, I just hope that the little information I gave helps!

 

[Morpheusman]

I would reccomend (from your list) a Ti4200....

It will give you a massive performance boost over your LE.......

I've been leaning towards the Ti4200, but the image quality on the last Nvidia card is used (an MX 400) wasn't very good, which is why I had switched back to ATI. Has the image quality on the GF4 line improved that much over the GF2 core?

 

[o770]

no, it shouldnt run choppy.
what os are you running?
make sure you have the latest DirectX version installed, check your direct3d settings and make sure you have FSAA, VSync disabled, also the level of anisotropy.

whats your 3dmark score?

 

[cullam3n]

I believe that the R8500 has a slightly better image quality than the GF4, but I could be wrong. I haven't seen any complaints about the image quality of the Ti4200 other than the Gainward cards that would turn pink due to the sucky cooling.

As a side note, there's a porsche unleased 2 demo? I thought it was only high stakes 2. Hook me up bro! I need to add it to my collection of the Need for Speed!

-PC

 

[Morpheusman]

no, it shouldnt run choppy.
what os are you running?
make sure you have the latest DirectX version installed, check your direct3d settings and make sure you have FSAA, VSync disabled, also the level of anisotropy.

whats your 3dmark score?

I'm running WinXP Pro. Before overclocking the video card, my 3DMark 2001 score was just over 3000, regardless of whether I ran the CPU at 1.6 or 2.4 (that's what leads me to suspect that the video card is the bottleneck.

I haven't benchmarked since overclocked the Radeo LE this last time, so I don't know for sure what it is now, but at one time I had it cranked up to around 5000 3DMarks, but that wasn't at default settings, so it doesn't really count.

I'll check the FSAA and VSync settings when I get home. Thanks.

 

[Morpheusman]

As a side note, there's a porsche unleased 2 demo? I thought it was only high stakes 2. Hook me up bro! I need to add it to my collection of the Need for Speed!

-PC

Oops, I think maybe it is high stakes (not porsche unleashed). There are so many versions of Need for Speed it's getting hard for me to keep them straight.

Sorry for the mix-up. My bad.

 

[Morpheusman]

I think that should be running fine, it could be drivers or something, try others, especially before splashing out money! It could also be the game itself, some are poor in the graphics area.

Thanks Dan. I'll try again.

 

[o770]

i noticed one strange thing about nfs porsche unleashed: no matter how fast i have my d3d performance, the game wont run faster than about 70fps.

two things, if thats a 3dmark2K1 score then you definitely shouldnt get the game choppy; and if the game actually is high stakes, it shouldnt run choppy at all.

 

[o770]

btw, running the cpu at 1.6 and 2.4GHz should definitely influence video performance even if the video card is not fast.

 

[tbirdkiri]

Id spend the 190 on a Albatron ti4200 turbo 128mb ( o wait.. i did) at newegg
then overclock it. i havent seen one overclocked slower then a ti4600... good luck

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

I think his system should be more than adeqate. My K6-400 with a TNT2 M64 (really crappy one - 135/130) and 192mb Ram could run it! My Athlon XP1800 with a GF2Ti runs it fine on Max res.

 

[OC Noob]

It doesn't sound like you need it, but if you decide to upgrade anyway, a 8500le would be great. If you want something with a bit more kick for a few more bucks the Ti4200 has good image quality (not as good as the 8500 from what I've heard, but very good).

If you want something that will last longer and really fly then the 9500 should be out soon and is suposed to run $200.

 

[baqai]

go for ti4200, i would personally recomend MSI 128mb card but i have heard many people recomending Albateron (spelling?) card

by the way where can i download Porchea Unleashed 2 demo from?

 

[RedDeathDrinker]

I've been leaning towards the Ti4200, but the image quality on the last Nvidia card is used (an MX 400) wasn't very good, which is why I had switched back to ATI. Has the image quality on the GF4 line improved that much over the GF2 core?

The MX400's were good cards (and are still good budget cards!), but hey are fairly useless at playing modern games at high resolutions(with decent fps).

Like yourself, I had an MX400, then went to Radeon (a 64Meg DDR). I've now gone back to nVidia (an MX440), and I'm happy (for just now)

 

[Lt. Max]

i ran fine at 1024 res wit a voodoo 2... on my bros p2 .. so unless radeon le is relly ghetto then i doubt that would b a huge problem. wit mx 400 and my computer(in specs , i upgraded vid card) i played fine at 1280x1024x16. change ur bit rate to 16 for a lot better performance

 

[Jawsome]

It's Hot Pursuit 2

 

[zachj]

I played it with a TNT2 32 MB card on this rig and it worked just fine. Not nearly as good as the 8500 I've got purring in there now, but still plenty playable. Make sure you turn off the things you don't need in the task bar. Could be unloaded programs. Is the card unstable or just slow? If it's REALLY hot, that may be your problem. Just to let you know, the 8500 is an EXCELLENT card. Unless you really need brand new cards, I'd get one over a GF4, just because it's the top o' the line from ATI's previous generation (128 DDR anyway) and it can be had relatively cheaply. While the GF4 came out after the 8500, they offer comparable performance in your price range. Not only that, but ATI plays much better DVD and any differences between NVIDIA and ATI, good or bad, will probably not be noticable performance-wise. If an ATI played it at 70 FPS and the NVIDIA at 65 or 75, you wouldn't notice.

Z

 

[skid]

Wait for the Radeon 9500. You'll get the speed you need plus ATI's great image quality at the right price man.