New Video Card

[Relentless]

I got a new video card yesterday installed it went fine but I have some questions. I am running Team Fortress 2 on low settings 800x600 and I get good FPS, but it constantly goes up and down it never slows down and sits at a certain framerate even when I just stand there it will constantly peek up then drop down low into the 10-20's. I have a Geforce 8500GT and I know couple more people that have way worse of video cards and they are running Medium-high settings with great FPS. I was wondering if there is anything to do to get better FPS keep it at a certain level at least or anything? Some people said it could be TF2 because they have been having problems with framerate? I'm new so i don't really know about the problems and patches that have fixed stuff. I run Day Of Defeat Source and CSS at high settings with 100+fps but in that game it still drops down low for no reason.

Any help I would really appreciate it!


Also this is my idle temp seem normal?



System specs

Pentium 4 2.66GHZ
1 gig RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT
Windows Xp

[zanzabar]

u need a better cpu and grafix card that card that u have isnt for gaming ans since tf2 uses way more resources than css and the old source engine will get slowdowns, a new cpu would help too or atleast and oc

[Relentless]

Meh I mean it is still playable it isn't even that bad hardly notice it was just wondering if there was anyway to fix it.

[Ethelred]

Meh I mean it is still playable it isn't even that bad hardly notice it was just wondering if there was anyway to fix it.

Any possibility for returning it? If you're a budget and need dx10 go for the 8600gt. Otherwise if you don't need dx10 you would probably find better performance with any decent 7-series...atleast better than the 8500 (on a budget). That card just really isn't meant to play games.

[Relentless]

Well it is already installed and I don't think newegg will take it back already used . It's fine until I get a new build I guess.

[Ugly n Grey]

I think you can return it, I would ask for advice from the gentlemen here on what you should buy given X dollars budget. What was that card worth?

[Monkeywoman]

if u oc the shaders u can get UP TO 30 percent on an 8500gt. so if u oc the core and mem ur looking at aroung 30-45 percent!! http://en.hardspell.com/doc/showcont...52&pageid=2060

[Relentless]

Returning I think would cost me at least $15 restocking fee. And I would OC but I don't really know how and don't want to risk ruining anything.

[Ethelred]

Returning I think would cost me at least $15 restocking fee. And I would OC but I don't really know how and don't want to risk ruining anything.

Really it doesn't matter too much on whether or not it has been installed, send them a email and ask them if they'll take it back. The chance of you ruining it is pretty slim if you watch the temps, don't over do it and take some time on reading up on oc'ing.

[Relentless]

Well then I would have to find a new replacement for $75 no more. Would it be better to try and return it or OC it?

[Monkeywoman]

aww an OC virgin! lose it tonight with Xtremesystems!!! its not hard, take it easy and dont get excited, we are here to help. honestly though, check your drivers; i.e not beta. check ur idle temps; i.e under 40 is good and ur set! a good program is rivia tuner, what u want to focus on is the shaders. take the core to 600, shaders to 1500 and mem to 1500. boot up game and 5 min in check ur temps, under 60 would be good.

if all goes well, ur an ocer!!

[Relentless]

So if I check the temp and it's running really hot what do I do? Just exit the OC program and let it sit? Just give the info I will need I guess i'll give this a go. I just did about 1-2 hours of gaming and it's at 47C

Just to make certain thats my card I can OC it right lol?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127295

[Monkeywoman]

47 is good for stock clock after burn. if it gets really hot dont panic cuz u wont let it get hot. in rivia tuner u can chose what speed u want the fan to spin at. chose 100%. would u please tell me whats ur vga vendor? i.e ASUS? id like to get an idea of the type of cooler u have

[Relentless]

would u please tell me whats ur vga vendor? i.e ASUS? id like to get an idea of the type of cooler u have

See I don't know what that means lol I don't think OCing is good for me if I don't understand terms...

[Ugly n Grey]

aww an OC virgin! lose it tonight with Xtremesystems!!!

Sigged

And yeah it's worth trying of they're talking about that much of a boost. If you have low air flow in your case, keep the side panel off while you try this experiment in OCing....

See I don't know what that means lol I don't think OCing is good for me if I don't understand terms...

brand of card, though you did link to the egg up above..

[Ethelred]

See I don't know what that means lol I don't think OCing is good for me if I don't understand terms...

What he's asking is who made the card i.e. ASUS, MSI, XFX...etc) so that he can understand what heatsink/fan combo are cooling the card.

[xMrBunglex]

that Pentium 4 will be a dog in games no matter what video card you have, so don't get your hopes up too much. a year ago i had a Pentium 4 @ 3.0 and a Radeon 1900XTX and was lucky if i could hold a steady 60 fps in Counter-Strike Source in a crowded server. then i got a Core 2, and with the same video card i was getting 160+ fps on the same servers in the same maps.

[Relentless]

Sigged

And yeah it's worth trying of they're talking about that much of a boost. If you have low air flow in your case, keep the side panel off while you try this experiment in OCing....

Yeah well I don't really have a nice case it doesn't have either side panel so it is constantly opened.

[Relentless]

What he's asking is who made the card i.e. ASUS, MSI, XFX...etc) so that he can understand what heatsink/fan combo are cooling the card.

MSI

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127295
Thats the card.

[Ugly n Grey]

What about getting that 2.66 pentium up? they'd usually do 3 without a volt change, might add a couple frames there as well

[Relentless]

What about getting that 2.66 pentium up? they'd usually do 3 without a volt change, might add a couple frames there as well

What do you think I could get it up to? Also like is there a guide on how to use Riva because I am clueless.

[Monkeywoman]

See I don't know what that means lol I don't think OCing is good for me if I don't understand terms...

ok, look at the box of your graphic card. look at the biggest font on it. thats going to be. i'm going to guess u have a pre-overclocked card becaus in ur first pic i see ur core is already at 600Mhz. so what u will have to do is oc only the shaders and the ram. u set the ram at 750Mhz, that will bring it to 1500. and the shader clock to 1500. you increase the clocks by 25Mhz to prevent a spike in temps. heres a link to the program http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

and heres an indepth guid to overclocking with rivia tuner http://www.guru3d.com/article/article/449/1/

[Relentless]

Is that where I adjust it?

[Monkeywoman]

your core is fine. u can start taking up the shader to 1500, and same with the mem. id say to be safe in max out ur fan speed. once u reach ur goal clocks, u can try different fan speeds to reduce noise.

p.s. 25mhz at a time (if u have a steady hand :P)

[Relentless]

your core is fine. u can start taking up the shader to 1500, and same with the mem. id say to be safe in max out ur fan speed. once u reach ur goal clocks, u can try different fan speeds to reduce noise.

p.s. 25mhz at a time (if u have a steady hand :P)

When I close out the program does it go back to default stock settings?