Is it my video card or CPU??

[Recordlord]

Lemme tell you my specs first:


Compaq 5340
AMD 500 running at 525 - 5.0 x 105
128 megs
Maxi Gamer Cougar TNT2 M64
integrated sound
MB who knows

My problem:
During Counter-Strike if I get in a fire fight the sound slows down WHEN I AM SHOOTING and the Frame rate never gets above 30. During shoot outs frame rate will drop to 8 or 10 fps. I have tried OpenGL & Dir. 8x. I have hardly anything booting in Msconfig/startup. I start with 90% resources. Am I asking to much from this 2 year old system??

[Recordlord]

Oh yeah I am running in 640x400 16bit color!!!!

[AndreRIO]

it could be that you need to download this file "via 4 in 1 v4.29", it should make your system run faster. --> www.viahardware.com (http://www.viahardware.com) http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by AndreRIO (edited 03-31-2001).]

[Bsdboy]

The 5340 does not have a Via chipset it
has an SIS so don't use the 4 in 1 drivers


Bsdboy

[BBA]

I think the video and the CPU are limiting you here.

You would do better to first upgrade the CPU.

[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 04-01-2001).]

[Bob The Great]

My two cents. It's either driver related (video, sound card drivers?), or some setting isn't correct. go here http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/rivatnt/ for some good bios settings. That might clear your problem up.

you should also get a new/er 3D card. The M64 cards are s...l...o...w...! My grand mother could draw pictures faster then that card! lol I'm sorry. I know what it's like to have a slower 3D card. But you do need a better card!

[Dr_Watson]

i think you just need to tweak CS...

i can hold 60-70 fps with minor spikes down to 30-40 fps in Q3a ... the half-life engine is far less demanding. Perhaps you can hit one of the CS forum boards about locating a tweak guide...

your hardware shouldn't be the problem.

(i'm on a k6-2 500 @ 550, 224m of pc100, GF256 DDR)

[MrEd]

Actually, it is the vid card. I had the same video card once. It's because 1) it's a pci based board, not agp, and 2) you can't enable true opengl on it. When you play cs, your game is using software as the renderer not opengl or d3d. I solved this problem by getting an agp card. Namely the ATI Rage Fury Pro. My fps in CS went up to around 30-50, even during a firefight. When I got this ATI Radeon Last week, my frames went up to around 100 consistantly. (With a few tweaks).

-MrEd
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Dr_Watson]

oh christ... i didn't realize you said M64 ... wow... yeah he's right that video card is complete ****... junk it, thats your problem 100% ...

whew, i see TNT my brain just assumes TNT2-U
...

heh, those 'M' cards are so worthless... pick up a KyroII if you want inexpensive and good upgrade. If you wanna go balls out get a GF2 ultra or GF3...

[Recordlord]

I think that it might be a setting with in my system causing the slow down. Thanks for your reply.

[BBA]

I agree the TNT M series is junk...but very cheap at the time...people did use them sucessfully at lan parties all over...with faster CPU's mind you.

I just don't see any big improvement potential until the AMD 500 is replaced.

[Recordlord]

Thanks for the replies!! I guess 20 months is about the life of a system these days. I believe both the CPU and the Vid card are my downfalls. I thought I should be able to get better performance than what I am currently getting!!

[Recordlord]

Furthermore, I have to use PCI no AGP slot. Its either continuing dying at a far to rapid rate or become the God of Camp!! Kewl my new name GodofCamp!!

[araaraara]

Is it and AMD K6-2 500mhz or an Athlon 500mhz? There's a big difference!

[Mykex]

Your only option is to upgrade the card there is nothing that can be done otherwise to stretch the life of your Compaq. A CPU upgrade is not really an option since your at near top of the line for K6 CPUs. Anouther thing is to not attempt a motherboard upgrade because of Compaq's strict use of propriatary parts. A new motherboard wont fit the case mounts and will not intergrate with your powersupply and Compaq's propriatary switches. Just an FYI in case you may be thinking of an upgrade as an option.

The best possible upgrade path to save any cash by not purchasing an intire new system would be to purchase a barebone system(duron) to save your drives and possibly your ram. Compaq uses good quality PC100 about all I will say nice about it. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by Mykex (edited 04-03-2001).]

[Wilan Wong]

Looks like both the CPU and video card is limiting your performance, I would suggest to upgrade the CPU first, since I get decent frames with my TNT2 M64 with a 700 Athlon, just playable though, also since you won't be able to upgrade that the K6-2 much more, it would be almost useless to upgrade it to a faster speed since you would notice no and very minimal difference, try getting one of those fast video cards to boost the frames up a bit, such as the GF2 MX or the other cheap cards since if you get a very fast graphics card such as the GF2 GTS, it would be practically useless to waste the money since the CPU wouldn't be able to cope with the speed of the video card since the CPU is more of the major bottleneck in this situation.

[Recordlord]

Yes it is AMD K6-2. The system came with a 400 mhz chip - I have tried running at 550 (5.5 x 100) no luck it really doesnt seem to like that 5.5 multiplier.

I'll start looking for that Athlon I have been putting off buying!!!

[Recordlord]

Ok lets try this!!
The Original chip on this machine was a 400 mhz K6-2. I upgraded to a 500 mhz K6-2. I went up to 2.4v trying to get it to run at 5.5 x 100 = 550. Presently running at 2.3v - 5 x 105 = 525 mhz. Do you guys think it will run at 550 w/2.6v.

**I have to use a PCI vid card.** This system doesnt have a AGP slot.

[Dr_Watson]

i've been running my 500 @ 550 with 2.6v

been holding strong for almost a year now...
i'll probably try and jump it to 600 since it should be significantly 'burned in' @ 550 now.

(i will add that i have had a hedgehog coper heat sink on it since i first did the overclock whay back in may or so of 2000, not sure how other heatsinks handle the extra voltage, but the hedgehog only gets 'kinda warm' to the touch at 2.6v)



[This message has been edited by Dr_Watson (edited 04-03-2001).]

[AndreRIO]

sorry about that. maybe you can download sis 4 in 1 or something like that?

[This message has been edited by AndreRIO (edited 04-03-2001).]

[Fat Tony]

I'm pretty sure it's the AMD, i am running an AMD 450 with a voodoo3 3500 16 mb, and 223mb ram and i have the same exact problem. And If you have that much better a card than me and have the same problem then it's the CPU.

[DemonKnight]

I can play counter strike just fine on my k6-2 450@500 with my S3 Virge DX 4meg vid card. No sound cliping or video slow down. (I much prefer death match my self though) I'm also running the game at 640x480 in 24bit True color

[Mr Miyagi]

Try setting the multiplier to 2.0x. AMD K6-2 and K6-III interpret it as 6.0x. At 2.6-2.7v a K6-2 should run at 600MHz. I've ran a K6-2 550 at 672MHz(112*6.0) at 2.6v and a K6-2 333 at 450MHz(75*6.0) at 2.7v. Both are still running well. The 550@672 is backed by a Vodoo3 2000 PCI and it easily contends with the Pentium III in the other room. Good luck.

[Dr_Watson]

if you bump the voltage up to 2.6 you should be able to get 500mhz... i've gotten 400's to run at 500 with no problems but jumping the voltage..

550 is out of the question... no way is the chip going to like that... 100mhz is about the ceiling of a k6-2 over clock..

Also, upgrading the M64 to an MX would be like replacing a lemon with a grapefruit, its still going to be sour...

I think the M64 AND the MX were big mistakes by NVidia..

I get better benchmarks with my k6-2 and GF256 than Athlon 1.4ghz and an MX...

I can't say this enough, if you want an in-expensive and good video card get a KyroII.. the MX is a waste of time and money.

Also, The cpu is *NOT* more of a problem than the M64... yeah, with a GF2 GTS ultra the cpu will be a bottle neck, but that doesn't change the fact that the M64 doesn't support hardware OpenGL.

upgrading the cpu to 1000mhz would probably in all likelyhood make software render faster than d3d... + a videocard upgrade is going to be alot cheaper, and alot faster, and alot more of an improvement than buying a new board, chip, ram, case, and then using an M64...

[Recordlord]

Mr. Miyagi R U SHEETTING me?? I aint never heard of anything like that before. I learn something new every day!!

Never the less she wont run at 550 2.4v I will give 600 a try at 2.6v!! I really think it is this cheap *** MB Compaq puts in their PCs.

[AuraEdge]

Yep, the 2.0x on AMD K6-2 and K6-3 Processors are remapped to 6.0x.

Problem is, your gunna have to cool that puppy good to get it that high.

[Bob The Great]

Here is an idea! I've heard of a GeForce2mx PCI card. It's a bit slower, and it would probably be a better idea to just replace your mobo, CPU, and vid card (with the new mobo you could get AGP cards). But if you need a bit of speed right now. You might look into it! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Mr Miyagi]

The thing is you gotta make very sure that you have a proper coat of thermal compound between the heatsink and CPU. This will make or break your CPUs overclocking ability. The chipset can have an effect on video performance, even in PCI cards.

[Recordlord]

Thanks guys I really appreciate everyones input!! I am not new to OCing, I move rather cautiously while attempting OCs. Shoot I even have tube of thermal paste.

I recently found out that K6 III+s OC really well. Since they are a superior chip (next to the K6-2) I put a bid on one at Ebay. I also took a look at some mew vid cards. Hercules has a MX pci for $99 that is quite inviting.

Thanks again enjoy your Friday!!

[Mr Miyagi]

I was going to make that suggestion also. AMD K6-III/K6-III+ do overclock very well. And if your board supports K6-2, it should run a K6-III no prob. Even if the BIOS dosn't detect it properly. My K6-2 333(the one Im using right now) is on a board that dosen't natively support it(it says it is a K6/400). Anyway, hope it works. And if it does it will have a sizable impact on video performance. Good luck

[Recordlord]

Will this help??
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=1226858992&ed=986585292

[greywolf]

first post, hope it's helpful,
after much looking for info, just upgraded
bro-in-law's compaq 5225 w/k6-2+ 450 last week. he's running it @ 550 2.1v and saw
a decent speed bump; new sandra cpu @
980/600(?). his mobo is a via mvp3 chipset
& has 2.0v jumper selection. there's a good article @ http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q3/000713/index.html
turned out to be a decent upgrade for $35.
we'll try for 600 soon.
ps: chip from tigerdirect, phone ordered thurs, arrived monday, w/$5.00 arx-1026 hsf
total $48.

[sliver-]

Uhh yeah guys. But would it make any difference to performance if he installed a cheapo or good sound card instead of letting his proc handle everything? Just something I heard once.....

[seeker205]

Hmm, Hey maybe that is what is wrong with my system?? Ok I have Black and White, and my computer freezes when ever it goes to a cut scene and it does it almost everytime and it does it on Giants to. I have a 700 Celeron and a voodoo 3 2000 PCI. But one other thing that might be why is I have only a 250 W. power supply could that be the problem maybe? I dont know it only does it on really graphic intensive games like the ones I just named. I just got this computer and I have all the lastest drivers for my motherboard. any ideas?

[Dr_Watson]

Will this help??

yeah, picking up a K6-III+ 450 or 500 will be hella better than a k6-2 ... but its pointless for the money people are asking for them... i've never seen anyone selling a K6-III+ 500 (yes they exist but very rare... they are the fastest socket 7 you could buy) and the k6-III+ 450's are usually for sale for $90-$100 ...

i'll let you in on a secret... you can get a duron 900 for the same price... i gaurantee you'll notice that jump more than a k6-2 to a k6-3...

just on the blisteringly obvious clock rate difference its goning to whomp a k6-III...

people just refuse to sell them for $50 ... i'd pay $50-60 for one... but not $100; its just not ecconomical.

my advice. get a new video card and save your pennies for a 1+ ghz chip + motherboard.

[Recordlord]

Just installed the K6 III+ 450 mhz last week. Tried different speeds:
500 (5 x 100 out of the box)
525 (5 x 105)
550 (5 x 110 & 5.5 x 100)
575 (5.5 x 105)
All speeds were met easily (all ran stable) with default voltage setting of 2.0).
Counter Strike FPS no lower than 20 above 50 quite often. NO lagging sound - overall much smoother performance very playable conditions no more gripes here anymore. Now if I can just make the pistol rounds more than once a day. Thanks everyone for their help and posts!!

Should I go for 600 MHZ??? I have a Talison heat sink and fan!!!!



[This message has been edited by Recordlord (edited 04-19-2001).]

[koer99]

Recordlord one big problem you have is the bios...
You must update the bios, beacause Compaq is limiting the bios for more "reliable" performance.
When you update it your gone see some changes.

Sry about the english...
you get the idea. :-)