Papa6 Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 My question, I'm running a simple Gfx5200 128mb of ram. But when I play snow missions, I get snow flakes so big, it lags my PC. how can I alleviate these snow flakes to play GR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannik Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 Papa6, the huge snowflakes are a bug in certain revisions of nVidia's drivers. A driver update should fix it, as it was just a few releases that had this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa6 Posted January 4, 2006 Author Share Posted January 4, 2006 Nope...I'm using the 81.85 nvidia drivers and the same stuff about large snowflakes. I remember back a few years that someone posted an issue with GR and their drivers. But the latest drivers (81.85)does the same thing to my FX5200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 there's something about those snowflakes in this thread: http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29499 so you should try to roll back your driver version. were there any (other) issues that were solved with the "81" version since you updated to that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrowmanUK Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Well nvidias drivers are up to 81.98 now mate so you might want to give them a blast http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_2k_81.98_uk.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa6 Posted January 5, 2006 Author Share Posted January 5, 2006 I'm using 81.98 with my FX5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 I have same card as Papa6; baseball-size snowflakes were gone w/previous update; then this latest version (81.98), damn things returned? I do so hate them, and can't see any improvements w/these latest drivers anyway? Am I missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 With each driver come "release notes". Like these: http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/81.98/8...lease_Notes.pdf These notes - often over 100 pages - state which issues have been resolved for each serie of graphic cards. They also state new known issues. With the release of new graphic cards, the first drivers often optimize the hardware. Along the way, following driver versions solve software issues. Thinking that the 81.98 version for the FX5200 card gives you better performance, is wrong. I've got a second pc with a GeForce4 card that actually runs on Win XP's own Nvidia driver from January 2001 while my first pc's Radeon card runs on 3 year old ATI drivers. So if your system works fine, there's no need to update the graphic drivers. If there are issues, check the release notes of new drivers to see if your problem is mentioned and resolved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 @GreyHaired, link & driver release info helpful! I had no idea driver updates didn't auto improve performance. I will roll back to prev. set - thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa6 Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 my concern is deepsix'ing my windows install. but I don't see any reason to roll back to an old driver when GRAW comes out soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 @Papa6, do you (or anyone else) know whether such (sad) graphics cards as we have -GForce FX5200, 128mg- will be in trouble with GR:AW? (If there ever really is a GR:AW!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 @Papa6, do you (or anyone else) know whether such (sad) graphics cards as we have -GForce FX5200, 128mg- will be in trouble with GR:AW? (If there ever really is a GR:AW!) ← Games are not developed for the hardware that comes to the market tomorrow. Games are aimed at the huge market of consumers who do not update their hardware every second month because something "newer and better" is released. Therefore games are backwards compatible and although no info re pc requirements for GRAW have been released, I'm pretty sure your card will run it fine. Probably even the previous generation, GeForce 4 will run it too. Hardware requirements can be classified as: minimum - midrange - optimal. The lower the hardware, the more you'd have to compromise on graphics settings, in game (shadows etc) as well as screen resolution. Edit: Focus is more on sufficient RAM so min 1GB, better 2GB is what you should go for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 @GreyHaired, relieved to hear GR:AW should run ok, thanks, though our current rig is apparently sadly weak re RAM - 512 MB. Again, the .pdf d/l from your above link is really VERY helpful; I'd recommend it to anyone interested, for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 @GreyHaired, relieved to hear GR:AW should run ok, thanks, though our current rig is apparently sadly weak re RAM - 512 MB.  Again, the .pdf d/l from your above link is really VERY helpful; I'd recommend it to anyone interested, for sure. ← You're welcome. RAM at your side of the Atlantic are about half the price in Europe but of course it can still be a lot of money. Take it as it comes once the game is released, just bear in mind that if you experience stuttering, your first thought should go to RAM and not a 300 bucks graphic card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa6 Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 probably wouldn't hurt to go back one forum to the pinned feature of tweaking windows for better performance in GR. Windows is a dog when it comes to running optimized for games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 That's a great guide and the checks should be done regularly as especially that "startup" tends to have "refills". For you with the fx5200 cards I found an article about easy optimizing/tweaking, using the Nvidia driver features (rather than using "RivaTuner"): http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/59/6/ On the following page http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/59/7/ you'll see a link to a util (hidden features) you have to download. But this article was written based on the 44.xx drivers so your Nvidia features may look differently today. Anyway hope you can use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 @GreyHaired, tks! ... very thoughtful of you: more helpful links/dl's. I'm tempted to try the overclocking stuff, but there are quite a few warnings about potential "system instability"? Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 It's got an "auto detect" feature. When you get to that part, make a note of the present memory settings, use the auto detect feature and if the system gets unstable (meaning either artifacts or in worst case a spontaneous reboot) you can manually lower the settings bit by bit. Therefore it's important to make a note of the default settings. Always at own risk of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Ah, great, but this fool, who previously thought updating drivers auto. helped games play better, really wants to know if overclocking will help (e.g., GR runs nice now 1024x768 but laggy on some user-made maps if set any higher, and FPS vary a lot, 25-75)? Maybe we're best off to leave all alone and buy another 512k RAM which (apparently) can be fitted into a slot? on the Dell board? by the rig owner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 RAM: you mean 512MB not 512k You can adjust a lot of settings in the game as it is. Set shadows to "off" or "low" and other settings to "low" or "medium". Reduce the number of bullet holes to 5. Make sure "replay" is set to "off". Believe there's also something with blood that can be turned off or on (choose "off" then) Make sure that the resolution in the video options of the game are set at 16 bit not 32, so "1024 x 768 x 16". Finally right click your desktop, click properties-settings-advanced-monitor. Check the box: "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" then choose e.g. 85Hz if that one shows. Depending on your brand of monitor you may need the monitor's own drivers and not the plug-and-play one from Microsoft. Yes there are great mods around but some of them demand a lot from the graphic cards. Overclocking is "tuning" meaning you try to make the card perform better than its stock settings. If it works, it'll improve the fps. Did you manage to solve the problem with the snowflakes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 RAM: you mean 512MB not 512k ← See what I mean about "this fool"? Your help is really appreciated. My GR is running sweet in x16 colours w/all settings high but shadows turned off. We have character smoothing and mipmap both on - seems to be okay? Despite my reading, I've still no idea what antialiasing and anisotropic settings are best - did read WK77's report on this, too? Are set already at 75Hz - highest possible too. Okay, going to proceed w/overclocking. If I'm not back here in the next 2 days, you'll know I've wrecked our rig! And no, snowflakes disguised as baseballs are not gone, but, having read the specs on the new drivers via your link for .pdf, there are some improvements that we want, so the Ghosts will have to bear up under the weight of said monster snowflakes. Tks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Antialising and anisotropic filtering is what we call "eyecandy". It's heavy on the vid card so with all due respect I'd say as low as possible for your card. Try to set some of the "high" settings to medium and see if it really makes that big of a visual difference compared with the gain in fps - fluency of the game. Your top fps of 75 fits well with the resolution of 75Hz so it's not so much a question of boosting this over 75 but more of puishing those low values of 25 up to 40 or 50. As to the drivers: you could try to roll back to a one year old version of the Omega drivers from http://www.omegadrivers.net that'll link you to http://www.driverheaven.net for the download. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janie42 Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Antialising and anisotropic filtering is what we call "eyecandy". It's heavy on the vid card so with all due respect I'd say as low as possible for your card.← Ha, if any respect at all is due! Did the rollback from the links you gave... um, the baseball snowflakes are now gone and to my amateur's eye, I can't see any decrease in performance using these over the most recent nvidia drivers I had - and the FPS is a titch better? Still haven't a clue what to set the antialising and anisotropic at, so I chose "application controlled" and image to "quality." Works/runs/looks nice. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHaired Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 glad you got it work eventually Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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