Some input from the gamers wanted.

[Bovon]

I have never been into games much...a few old DOS types, and a couple later games like golf and an early Windows game, Warbirds.

Very good graphics was not a priority, so I have just used a Matrox Millennium G200 with 8 mb (later 16 mb) SGRAM.

I am now setting up a larger hard drive, and installed a better Matrox card...a G400 with 32 mb of SGRAM.

I know the Matrox cards are not good gamer type cards due to the 2D/3D support which is not so good for games.

I have loaded Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and played the first game a little. The graphics look better than when I used the G200, but still the texture could be better I think. (I don't really know because I have never seen a good gaming machine running a game.) But this is acceptable for the present.

Here is what the info for the card says:

Matrox Millennium G400 - BIOS version 1.3b20
32 mb SGRAM
Open GL ICD: 2.52.049
Direct Draw/Direct 3D driver 4.12.01.2120
Max RAMDAC speed - 300 mhz
(I had to load Directx ver 8a for the game...I am now having some instability problems...can Directx be uninstalled?)

Can anything above be changed, added or whatever. I see posts that speak of open GL...but I don't know what that is. I have seen references to Direct Draw ect...same thing, I don't know what it it or what part it plays in running a game.

What is RAMDEC and what does that do?. How important is it?

Any input would be good, and if there are any websites in cyberspace that gets into such as this, point me in that direction too...thanks.

ACRONYMS are a pain...some of us use acronyms freely..not even thinking about the next guy who will be completely lost when reading a post full of acronyms. Like for instance, some one made a reply in the 'Return to Castle Wolfenstein' thread about FPS and old games...what is FPS?...

In the beginning of the game (RTCW) there is this guy that knocks on the CMFICs door and is told to come in...the walk is jerky (a little) and when he speaks, there is no lip-sync. Should there be lip-sync?..or is this the nature of games and animated human characters talking.

Thanks for the thoughts

[gibsinep]

Hi, Bovon

1st FPS= First person shooter( genre of RTCW=return to castle wolfenstein)

What resoltion and what detail are you running the game at.
To find this check the game options.


Lip-sync happens somtimes and somtimes not for me also. ( more of a game problem in my opinion than a Graphics card thing.)

[Bovon]

Ahhhh sooo, and thanks gibsinep...yours was the post in RTCW that had the FPS I was referring to.

The game (I think) is asking for 32 bit color, which I was set at 16 bit high color when I played it.

I generally run my machine at 800 X 600 due to my not so good eyes anymore. Higher resolutions...and I can't read the print onscreen. (If that is what you are asking.) I don't think that is what you are asking, if I have to check the game options...so, when I get back to that hard drive and game, I will note it.

Thanks for the lip-sync thoughts...that was my opinion, because I couldn't figure out how a faster machine, or the best gamers video card could 'create' lip-sync

I found the following...and, I now see where there are acronyms and then...there are 'other' acronyms in the computer world:

I found these answers at http://webopedia.internet.com/

Comments still welcome because I still don't quite understand the practical application of the technology that well...

FPS

Stands for frames per second, a measure of how much information is used to store and display motion video. The term applies equally to film video and digital video. Each frame is a still image; displaying frames in quick succession creates the illusion of motion. The more frames per second (fps), the smoother the motion appears. Television in the U.S., for example, is based on the NTSC format, which displays 30 interlaced frames per second (60 fields per second). In general, the minimum fps needed to avoid jerky motion is about 30. Some computer video formats, such as AVI, provide only 15 frames per second.

RAMDAC

Short for Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter, a single chip on video adapter cards. The RAMDAC's role is to convert digitally encoded images into analog signals that can be displayed by a monitor. A RAMDAC actually consists of four different components - SRAM to store the color map and three digital-to-analog converters (DACs), one for each of the monitor's red, green, and blue electron guns.

[gibsinep]

lol well yes FPS does mean Frames per second. However you must look at how it is used because of course they are always used in the same sentance.

Example-- I get terrible FPS in the new FPS

Equals= I get terrible Frames per second in the new First person shooters.

lol it can mean both

Also the Ramdac from what I can see is correct

Now on to the resolution. You may( and probably are) running the game at a different resolution than your desktop. So you will have to check the game options about what resolution you are at.

The lower the resolution the faster the game will run but the worse the game will work. If you lower the resolution( of the game) it will move faster and you will get better FPS( Frames per Second)
;)

Good luck.

[Bovon]

Great answers so far...this is exactly what I wanted...

I'll check the game options sometime tonight and post what I find there.

Anybody care to comment on the following video card??...good, fair..bad or whatever...comments welcome. (Looks like it may be made by Albatron?..)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2058304149

[gibsinep]

Tell me the settings when you get a chance :)

[Bovon]

Ok sure will gibsinep... but it will be probably tomorrow afternoon now. I won't have time now tonight, and have an appointment at 10 in the morning. Soon as I get a chance, I will do that.

Tell me..can you define 'First Person Shooter'?...I don't seem to be able to get a handle on the terminalology.

[gibsinep]

No rush lol

Ok First person shooter.


You know of like first person perspective. In every First person shooter( like RTCW) you see like you are the person. So your line of sight is what it would be if you were really standing there.

So the charcter is like you, you are the first person

lol I know bad explanation but does that help at all

[Bovon]

Originally posted by gibsinep
No rush lol

Ok First person shooter.


You know of like first person perspective. In every First person shooter( like RTCW) you see like you are the person. So your line of sight is what it would be if you were really standing there.

So the charcter is like you, you are the first person

lol I know bad explanation but does that help at all

Yep...gotcha. I understand now exactly...thanks!

[Giblet Plus!]

Originally posted by Bovon
Great answers so far...this is exactly what I wanted...

I'll check the game options sometime tonight and post what I find there.

Anybody care to comment on the following video card??...good, fair..bad or whatever...comments welcome. (Looks like it may be made by Albatron?..)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2058304149

A TNT 2 (what you were asking about) isn't any faster than a Matrox g400 (what you have).
I'd reccommend spending $80 on an Ati Radeon 9000 64mb card. It's about three generations ahead of your card, and should help, unless your cpu is really slow. It usually comes with tv-out and 2nd monitor out, which could justify the purchase to a wife.
Don't worry about the Ramdec. Its speed is not important for games, and any half-ways good card has a good Ramdec.

Direct Draw is a part of Direct X. Don't go back to Direct X 8.1. 8.1a shouldn't cause problems. Find new drivers for your Matrox if you're having instabilities.

OpenGl is a method used by some games, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3, and Half Life, to draw the 3d images on the screen. A competing method is Direct 3D, which is a part of Microsoft's Direct X.

[Giblet Plus!]

I see you bought the Tnt - 2. It might be marginally faster than your Matrox with the newest Nvidia drivers. Give it a try.

[Bovon]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the input. Its gonna be a struggle for me to learn the ins and outs of gaming, and I won't get heavily into it I'm sure. Just something to do on a "rainy" afternoon... LOL.

One reason to try the NIVIDA card is, I am having crashes here... its especially bad tonight...each time I go to the NIVIDA website, I lock up and the video is scrambled something awfull. I just uninstalled the 4 in 1 VIA drivers..but could not get back into Windows...so, I got here in safe mode and reinstalled the AGP drivers only...we'll see how it goes. I don't have onhand any video cards other than a couple old PCI setup cards with maybe 1 or 2 mb of dram onboard...I use these for setting up a machine then go to the Matrox. I have been using a G200 for several years, and just recently bought a G450 and a G400. I had one H***ova time getting either to run on this FIC VIA board. I tried 3 different VIA 4 in 1 driver sets...when someone pointed me to FICs site and the 4 in 1s they recommend for this board. That finally allowed me to install the 400 or 450, but the machine has been flaky as all get out ever sence...so, if it continues to flake out, I will have to try a different card...simple as that.

I was just asking if there was anything bad wrong with that card at eBay...like maybe it just won't cut it at all. If anybody knows anything decent or bad about the card...tell me what you think...I may have to spring for a better card, we'll see.

Thanks wallijonn, I'll see if I can locate a copy somewhere...are they still on the shelves at some stores?.. online?...

I know the Matrox card is a good one...and I prefer the make...but, if its gonna crash the machine with the VIA drivers it requires...I may have to reassess the situation.

I won't uninstall the directx (or edit the file) until last. I will wring this machine out for several days and see if by uninstalling the 4 in 1s, and then reinstalling just the AGP drivers will help with the crashing. I have already reduced the hardware acceleration..and I would think that would be bad for a game. If I can narrow down the source of these crashes, maybe the techs over at the Matrox forum can help...

And thanks to you too Giblet Plus!... I understand about the cards...I am not gonna spend $80 bucks on a card until I can justify it...(now, if the dang Matrox just won't run...THAT goes a long way towards "justification" LOL) I have downloaded the 8.755 mb driver package a couple of weeks ago..its the 30.82_win9x driver download from NIVIDA site

I'll get busy and build up the machine I have stored away...I bought all of the parts to build a new system, then lost interest. It should run the AMD XP 1800/266 (Iwill KK266) I have a 1 gig 266 AMD cpu, but may s-can that one in favor of a later model..(or buy another m-board and upgrade my daughters machine.)

Thanks again fot the thoughts and input...it will take me a few days to digest all of this, and I will probably be asking for some definations as well...

[Bovon]

Well, I had to revert back to my G200 this morning...crash after crash last night. Blue screens, scrambled video and lockups at certain web pages (NIVIDA's driver pages among others) Explorer crashed as did Outlook express. I have had 2 lockups and 1 Outlook Express crash after replacing the card...I may have to uninstall the 4 in 1's.

I was finally able to download the NIVIDA driver package, 30.82 for win9x...anybody know if these are the correct drivers for the RIVA NIVIDA TNT2 64 PRO?...

If I decide to load Win2K on the new drive as well as Win98, I suppose I will need to go back for different drivers.

[BipolarBill]

I was finally able to download the NIVIDA driver package, 30.82 for win9x...anybody know if these are the correct drivers for the RIVA NIVIDA TNT2 64 PRO?... All nVidia driver packages work with all TNT cards and up. That is, of course, excepting the latest cards. The 30.82 drivers should work for any nVidia card.

If I decide to load Win2K on the new drive as well as Win98, I suppose I will need to go back for different drivers. Yes, Bovon - you'll need the Win2K/XP drivers.

Between you and me, the TNT2 does game, just not very well. It's a very basic 3D card.

[Optimus Prime]

bovon, did you uninstall your matrox drivers before you installed your Nvidia drivers?

Im not calling you a dumb guy, because ive done it before! :O, i had to format my pc. :(.

Well, anyway that might be the reason for your BSOD's

[Baddog]

Hey Bovon...Check this out http://www.activision.com/games/wolfenstein/

Baddog :t

[Bovon]

Originally posted by Optimus Prime
bovon, did you uninstall your matrox drivers before you installed your Nvidia drivers? LOL...not this time (yet!!... I have not loaded the NIVIDA drivers mainly because I don't have the card inhand yet.) I do have a NVIDIA TNT2 PRO 16MB that I may try before the other one comes in. I am guilty of doing the same thing tho...but, I learned early on that the Matrox drivers must be uninstalled before anything else can happen.

I am working with the Matrox forum techs...but I have read several pages of their type of help...and its pretty criptic...try this, try that...nothing solid to go with. I read over the weekend where some guy back in August had some problems with a Matrox card, and over the next week or so, he tried many things...one at a time..nothing worked, and he finally gave up and said he was gonna sell the card.

I realize these tech guys are not wizards and can't fix them all...and I have read a few success stories, but the failures are the majority. There is a problem with their drivers as applied to some motherboards. I believe Matrox must know this, and IMO should tell those people that have the conflicting boards that it will never work properly.

This morning I related what all I went thru over the weekend with poor success. He said "run the hardware accelleration to 0 and try that". I think we are all clutching at straws now. I think I have pretty well discovered I can't use the VIA 4 in 1 drivers...I have tried 3 different ones and the machine crashes,,,either by flaky drivers or the board will not run the 4 in 1's...either way, I can't prove either...the card will not work without the chipset drivers, so when it crashes...is the problem the 4 in 1's or the Matrox drivers.?.. I am now using a G200 which I bought new in '98...this card will work just fine on the drivers extracted from the CD that came with the card. If I attempt to load the newest G200 drivers from Matrox...the machine crashes just like it does with the G400...sure sounds like drivers to me.

[Giblet Plus!]

This might sound wierd, but how powerful is your power supply? My old k6/2 550 came with a 90 watt power supply, and it had all kinds of random freeze-ups and lock-ups when I slapped my voodoo 5 pci in it. The problems were instantly fixed when I switched to a 300 watt power supply. Modern graphics cards, especially ones like the Tnt, take a LOT of power. Check that out! :)

[xenomorph69]

Here is some code that explains roughly on how OpenGL Works
-----------------------------------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>

static int year = 0, day = 0;

void init(void) //This sets the colors of the window
{
glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glShadeModel(GL_FLAT);
}

void display(void)
{
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glColor3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0);
glPushMatrix();
glutWireSphere(1.0, 20, 16); //Here is the Sun :D
glRotatef((GLfloat) year, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
glTranslatef(2.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glRotatef((GLfloat) day, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
glutWireSphere(0.2, 10, 8); //This is the Drawing of the Smaller Planet :D
glPopMatrix();
glutSwapBuffers();
}
//The Reshape or moving the animation is here
void reshape(int w, int h)
{
glViewport(0, 0, (GLsizei) w, (GLsizei) h);
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
gluPerspective(60.0, (GLfloat) w/(GLfloat) h, 1.0, 20.0);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();
gluLookAt(0.0, 0.0, 5.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
}
Input from a keyboard
void keyboard(unsigned char key, int x, int y)
{
switch (key) {
case 'd':
day = (day + 10) % 360;
glutPostRedisplay();
break;
case 'D' :
day = (day - 10) % 360;
glutPostRedisplay();
break;
case 'y':
year = (year + 5) % 360;
glutPostRedisplay();
break;
case 'Y':
year = (year - 5) % 360;
glutPostRedisplay();
break;
default:
break;
}
}
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{//this is the Loop of the main window to refres it like to give you the Frames per second
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGB);
glutInitWindowSize(500, 500);
glutInitWindowPosition(100, 100);
glutCreateWindow(argv[0]);
init();
glutDisplayFunc(display);
glutReshapeFunc(reshape);
glutKeyboardFunc(keyboard);
glutMainLoop();
return 0;
}

Hope this explains everything

[Bovon]

Hi guys, and thanks for the input...some of it went right over my head, but some of it helped...so, little by little is good too.

wallijonn. You obviously have a good base in computer setup and gaming in general. I'll try to respond to your questions and comments.

The OS on this machine's HDD is Win98, upgraded over top of Win95 several years ago. I am in the process of setting up a new 30 gig drive to relieve this one, so I switch drives and work on the 30 gig then come back to this 12 gig to do e-mail and surf.. I do have (did have actually) the 30 gig setup to connect to the net, but I crashed that OS so bad last night, that I will have to wipe the C: partition now and start over. That OS is/was Win98SE, and I'm leaving the D: partition open for the possibility of a dual boot system using Win2K.

Whatever I did to the 30 gig that seemed to work, I did to this one..now this 12 gb drive is flaky. I took the Maxtor out last night, (actually about 3 AM this morning) after the 30 gb drive crashed bad, and uninstalled the Maxtor drivers and installed a NIVIDA TNT2 Pro with 16 mb ram onboard. I can see right away that this card can't touch the G400 in graphics..but what the heck, if I can't run the system..it really dosn't matter how dam great the graphics are. But, this system has settled back down sence uninstalling the Matrox drivers. I told the tech guy at the Matrox forum that I believe their drivers are my problem..this is not to say their drivers are no good..I'm just saying my FIC VA 503+ mainboard and Matrox's driver don't work together. A good example is my G200 I bought in '98 when I put this system together...that card runs fine when used with the drivers that came with it...but, even the G200 will crash the machine if I load the most recent drivers...now...I may not be the smartest tech on the block...but if one driver set works fine and the newest crashes the machine..the dam problem is drivers...right?..

I had shutdown problems with Win98SE on the 30 gb drive from the beginning. I read everything M$ had on the subject..I D/L the shutdown patch and installed it. Nothing helped...that OS never did shutdown properly. It went to the shutdown spash screen and hung...locked. Not even a ctrl-alt-del would reset the machine. I could turn the machine off, and turn it back on and it booted without errors..this led me to believe that the "ok to turn the computer off now" was there, but not quite shown.

There is nothing in my Autoexec.bat file..so, I suppose the driver install didn't add anything. I only got into the game once, and then just enough to see if it would run...it did, so I got out and went back to work trying to workout the problems with the OS and the Matrox drivers...and possibly the VIA drivers...but, I am leaning heavily toward the Matrox drivers vs this 503+ mainboard.

The max AGP aperture size is 64 in this board/bios (yes, I flashed this bios to recognize the K6-2+ 533 processor) It also only has AGP-2X mode support.

Yes, the 503+ was designed for the K6-2 MMX series AMD cpu.

Giblet Plus!, The power supply is ok I think. Its 250 watts I believe, I may get a 300 for it anyway. I want to get this machine setup and running good, then it will become my backup and I will build another using an Iwill mainboard...still VIA chipsets tho...nearly a clone of the early Abit boards.

xenomorph69, interesting code..but I don't do code...(other than some html) But thanks anyway..

[Giblet Plus!]

xenomorph69: What are you trying to prove? Even a semi-nerdy fellow like me can't make sense of that code, and I'm sure bovon has no clue, either. :confused:

[TaXi]

hay wallijonn how did you get that avatar if you're only a junior member? I couldn't find it on the avatar list.


TaXi:t :t

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by TaXi
hay wallijonn how did you get that avatar if you're only a junior member? Oh man...you had to ask, didn't ya? :(

[TaXi]

???
sorry if I messed something up I didn't mean to...:( I meant no harm....

[BipolarBill]

Wallijonn is far from a junior member. His post count bugged out on him. Be nice to him.

[TaXi]

ok...
sorry:(
I wasn't trying to be mean....:(
just curious

[BipolarBill]

I'm sure. Just so you know.... ;)

[TaXi]

Gotcha.

TaXi:t :t

[TaXi]

I assure you I meant no offense;)

TaXi:t :t

[Bovon]

I have read most, if not all of these reviews...and the 503+ is not the best, or easiest board to work with or setup, but I have found it to be pretty dam stable sence I set it up in '98. It is not a 'builders dream', by any stretch of the imagination...but I have learned a lot by making this dam thing do what others said it won't do.


Originally posted by wallijonn
http://www.fic.com.tw/techsupport/faq/faqsmbindex.htm

http://www.fic.com.tw/techsupport/faq/faqs01VA-503+.htm:

Except for the 'onboard sound' (which the 503+ doesn't have) I tend to agree with the following:

Reviewed By:JDGC Date: 9/22/2000
A quirky board at best. With a Rage128 AGB video card, 20GB Diamond max UDMA/66 Drive, 128MB PC100, and Onboard sound was unable to load Win2K. Tech support was useless, and so settled for WinME. Unable to use more than 1 PCI slot with the AGP video card in (really frustrating) and once again tech support was useless. Supposedly the board cannot supply the correct current to power the AGP and high current PCI devices (MODEMS and NICS). Not recommended.

I have had Win2K and Win98Se running in a dual boot drive without any problems on this board.


1)FIC products with VIA chipsets before 694X are not compliant to the AGP 2.0 spec., so users are better staying with 8MB or 16MB AGP devices.

This could very well be the problem, but I will continue trying to force it to work...simply because I don't know any better. This G400 and 450 will work on the board, after much fiddling and tweaking. I tend to think I am not the best nor most knowledgeable to make it do what it isn't supposed to do. I have the G450 in as I write, and other than a couple of "IE caused a general protection faults"...but, something totally crashed a different setup I had going on a new hard drive. Many lockups and blue screens...plus the general protection faults (and stack dumps)I am going to reformat that drive and load ME for a try.

http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/mboards/reviewhtml/FIC_503A.html

http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/mboards/reviewhtml/FIC_VA_503+.html

This board was preinstalled in a system I purchased from a reseller. It offers many clock/bus combinations including 112mhz, 124mhz bus settings (though they don't guarantee these two settings. Manual was very helpful, explaining every jumper. Would be nice to have soft jumpers like the abit motherboard. Downside to this board was the problems I had trying to get a Viper770 agp card to work. It like to lock up in Windows. I think there is some kind of conflict with the onboard USB controller. I gave it my best shot and finally gave up and threw the 8 meg back in. Overall a great board for the average user.

Sence this time period, it appears that USB does actually enter the picture, the following from Matrox concerning the install of their cards:

* Enable USB; AGP Aperture = 256 +; enable Assign IRQ to VGA

* disable these four items in the BIOS
1) Video BIOS Shadow
2) CPU Rd + CPU Wt Pipeline
3) DRAM Read pipeline
4) CPU to PCI Write Buffer

* install the VIA 4-in-1 drivers in normal, NOT turbo mode

http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/mboards/reviewhtml/FIC_VA-503+_Rev_1.2a.html

This guy says he had to reboot into Windows in safe mode to access the CD rom drive...???...uhhhh...I have never been able to access the CD drive (or anything else that required drivers in safe mode.)

http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/mboards/reviewhtml/FIC_503+.html

Yeah, I tend to agree with this one.

[Giblet Plus!]

If I were you, bovon, I'd start saving for a new computer. :)

I tend to do a major upgrade every 1 year, but that gets expensive. :(

[Bovon]

Yep...you are just about right!!!