Twisted DIRT Forums

Hey there,
First here are the specs:
AMD Athlon 1.0Ghz
128mb ram
Windows ME
ATI Radeon 9600 SE 128mb

Now I know it`s not the best setup, but I`m getting HORRIBLE FPS in mcm2. For instance, on most SX tracks on 1024x768 with full detail I get about 10 Fps. I think my old Nvidia TNT2 32mb got better fps than that! Something has to be wrong, I should be getting at least 35-45 I`m thinking...any thoughts? Thanks.

i got a 9550 card

and the best sulution i found is putting the detail level down to 7

i dont know why it lags but its only
the newer cards that lag in mcm2

i have tested diffrent Direct-x versions and ati drivers but thats why i can
recommend that you just lower the detail level to 7 in game.. 

Yeah, it seems the better your card anymore the less preformance you get.
I recently got a xl800, 16 pipeline, mid range card. Plays all the new games including Quake 4 at almost 60 fps @ 1600 x 1200 everything on.

But, I play MCM2 and my framerates were all over the place, also when I crashed on the track - when I got back on my bike the frame rates would drop to 1/2 to 1/3 of what they were.

I had new drivers but I went out got the latest now everything is good in MCM2 but not as good as it should be...

I'd say keep trying different driver revisions.

wow I thought my processor was shizzy! hehe well run it on lower graphics quality.

9600 SE is a fairly low performance card.  I believe the SE only has a 16 bit memory path.

Check out this benchmark on Tom's Hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/08/09/matching_doom3_with_the_best_graphics_card/page6.html

At the bottom of the page in the "Table of Contents" are two other links with other cards.  "Medium Quality and High Quality".

With the ATI cards you really have to watch what you buy.  I would stick with Pro or XT versions of the cards.  Check comparisons like on Tom's Hardware before you buy.  An ATI 9000 will outperform the 9600 SE and 9600.

Bruce

Thanks for the input guys! I`m just surprised that it might actually be doing worse then my other crappy card that was 5 years old! Also, I read that my card is comparable to a Radeon X300. My other computer has that card, and it runs mcm2 at full resolution, everything on and 10 AI and 60fps no problem! Then again that computer is a bit faster (p4 2.8ghz, 512mb ram), so that may make the difference.

The X300 is a PCI Express card.  It is also very low end, but  better than the 9600se.

I think that you will find that your cpu comes more into play with the number of AI and the video card is more of a player in the quality of the display and the FPS.  To get the most out of your video card you need AGP 8x on an AGP system and the cpu has to be fast enough to keep pushing the information to the card.  So if your PC isn't fast enough it really doesn't matter what card you get.

For both of your systems you would want a better video card.  I would assume that your slower system wouldn't get much better.  If it isn't AGP 8x I wouldn't bother.

This comparison shows the x300 at the bottom of the PCI-Express cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/12/22/vga_charts_v/page7.html

Bruce