Major Tech Day

[filkertom]

Reinstalled WinXP on the main machine. Still can't get the frame rate past 45 on Q3A. Used to be double that. Really getting pissed.

Sigh. Enough of this crap for one day. I'm gonna go visit Anne and see Fantastic Four.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I'd bet it's a video driver issue. Are you using the disk they shipped with the PC, or are you downloading them from the site?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm using the drivers that worked best, up until last Friday. ATI Catalyst 4.7 (current is 5.7, they fuck up my machine like you wouldn't believe), and RageTweak3D 3.9c. It's very frustrating.

[thingunderthest.livejournal.com]

Try updating DirectX. Some of the newer video drivers use advanced feathers from the latest DirectX and get poorer performance with older version (Like what shipped with XP) as they have to emulate.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

The most common error with Catalyst is people installing new versions without uninstalling the old one. It really louses things up. Uninstall the Catalyst driver and reboot into 16 color vga (ugh). Then run the new catalyst installer and reboot again.

I don't know about the latest drivers - mine are a year out of date.

[romlc475.livejournal.com]

After being treated like a 2nd-class citizen by some of our student interns this week, I'm biting my tounge and not quoting an old commercial ("get a Mac!"), but it sounds like a driver issue to me as well. If you've reinstalled XP, did you run all the software updates as well? You might also want to check with your video card manufacturer's site to see if there's a conflict with a hotfix patch or another update that might hamper the video drivers. We spent two full days trying to fix a problem that kept our XP users from connecting to some of the old Apple file servers until we found the problem was a security patch that MS put out over that weekend.
And try to enjoy FF...I was really hoping for more, but it wasn't money wasted for a matinee. Chicklis ruled the movie, and the Johnny Storm actor was the perfect casting.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'd already done every one of the driver things you've all suggested. I have one oddball thing left to try. It's not as bad as all that -- I mean, we're talking game frame rate here; everything else is working just fine, especially the sound, and that's what really matters. It also lets me get some of the crap off my system. ;)