Need Help Diagnosing A Graphics Problem

[+JSF_Aggie]

My dad's computer is as follows:

 

3.2 P4

1 Gig Ram

Nvidia 7600 GS AGP

 

He recently had some local computer shop reinstall XP for him because it wasn't booting. I sat down today to reinstall his WOE and some other games. Updated to the latest version of DirectX & loaded the 163.75 Forceware drivers. I also grabbed any critical XP updates.

 

My graphical framerates suck. Stock WOE install, sitting on the runway, cockpit view of the F-15, I'm getting about 8 fps for Graphics, and 53 Game.

 

If I go the external view of the aircraft and shoot the gun, I drop down to 4 fps for my graphics.

 

I use to average about 20, if not 30, on his machine.

 

AA, anisotropic filtering, & v-sync are off. I'm running at 1280x1024, but going down to 1024x768 gives no graphical improvement at all.

 

I've checked everything I can think of in the Nvidia control panel and the bios. Does anyone have any suggestions of things I can check? Thanks.

Edited November 24, 2007 by JSF_Aggie

[dexxa]

I have pretty much the exact same system:

 

3.2 P4

1 Gig Ram

Nvidia 7600 GS (PCIE, not AGP).

 

To have that severe of a degredation I'd think they've

"pinched the garden hose" and created a bottleneck as

opposed to just a settings tweak.

 

Have you checked the AGP aperture setting in his bios ? (defines agp bandwith)

This would have the biggest effect far and away, but you might also want to look

at the display properties, in case it's set to a generic monitor/adapter

or a very low screen refresh rate.

 

Hope this helps .. and good luck on dad's machine

[+JSF_Aggie]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Both of those are good, so I'm still looking around.

[dexxa]

hmmmm ... you seem to know your way around a pc,

so I take it you've reinstalled the drivers, games

and reloaded his directx post the problem ?

 

determining if the issue is Thirdwire specific may help

you nail this sucker down (??)

 

good luck ...

[+JSF_Aggie]

IL-2 running as an Open-GL app runs fine.

 

I did try reinstalling DirectX and the Nvidia drivers with no luck.

 

I bit the bullet and re-formated the harddrive. I'm half-way through reinstalling & updating everything, so we'll see.

 

Thanks

[dexxa]

I bit the bullet and re-formated the harddrive. I'm half-way through reinstalling & updating everything, so we'll see.

 

Thanks

 

That was my next thought.

 

If it doesnt do the trick I'd think we're getting into the hardware realm here,

even something as basic as the vid adapter fan going ....

 

 

Good Luck