Counter-Strike and Radeon 9800 Pro

uNI

Hi, I used an GFORCE 4 4600Ultra till now and just changed to an Hercules Prophet RADEON 9800 Pro, but in the game Counter-Strike i use openGL 1024x768 the frames just are not SMOOTH (netgraph shows me stable 100fps), despite
there is something i cant describe, when i move fast with the mouse it doesnt refresh the frames smooth is the best way i can describe it (catalyst 3.4 drivers). And if i look from the great field on de_aztec down to the water and then I have only 50-70fps, then the picture is lagging and it is not possible to aim on the other models. Can someone help me?

shuki

welcome to DriverHeaven!

now some people would just jump right in bashing ATI but I'll not do that just yet

1. Did you do a fresh OS install for your new GPU?
2. what OS are you using?
3. is d3d fine? if yes, why use OGL as d3d is much prettier... of course your pref
4. have you tried turning on/off AA? AF? vertical sync?
5. could also try omega drives latest

uNI

Ok ...

I`am running Windows XP
I run this game in OpenGL 1024x768
I dont make a complete NEWINSTALLATION after removing my NVIDIA Card

Now i´m thinking to buy a geforce 5 card!

shuki

it is always absolutely best to give such a critical piece of hardware (GPU) its own OS install! this will not guarantee anything other than there are no pre-existing driver traces giving you interference. After all, you've just spent all of that money on a brand new GPU why not get the most out of it with a clean OS install?? Otherwise, you will have remnants of old Nvidia stuff in there and will never know if its really OK or if that is the source of conflict....

even if going from Nvidia to Nvidia, I would highly recommend giving your new card a brand new OS install!

Kgentatszu]

shuki, are you all that serious 'bout the reformating windows thing?? is it that bad?? what 'bout if i used drivercleaner?? (personally, i dont think its that bad doing without a clean OS unstall.......maybe cause i didnt, thats all!) Do you really RECOMMEND us doing a fresh install?? any examples??

by the way uNI, i wouldnt do that if i were you......cause radeon 9800pro really rocks, believe me~ (heck, it can outperform a geforce fx 5900ultra, dont believe me? check out the "5900vs9800" topic in the current nvidia graphics card thread..........oh~ didnt you know that nvidia is cheating on their drivers??
well, the decision in the end is all up to 'ya........

tek

shuki, I'm experiencing the same thing... I did a fresh install just for this card (Omega HACKED Drivers) w/ a ATI 9500 PRO 128MB (349/301). First of all you gotta turn off TRUFORM, vertical sync in both D3D and OPENGL in the CP. I also get 99FPS Stable.. but when I get to certain places in the map I jump down to like 50FPS, and sometimes even after 20 min of CS.. my FPS just jumps down to 50FPS and stays there.. and randomly goes back to 99FPS at times.. I dont understand this.

-And wouldn't turning off AA and AS make the smoothing worse? I mean on my geforce4 mx440 64MB (no AA or AS) I saw graphics smoother in CS than I see w/ this ATI 9500 PRO (4xAA/ 16xAS).

Kgentatszu]

have you tried older catalyst?? (maybe not, but its worth a try)

shuki

these sudden frame drops that you see are consistent in both Nvidia and ATI cards. It is coding within the game that drivers can't fix. Now those are fps rate jumps I'm talking about. never heard nothing about it dropping and staying dropped

as far as AA and AF suppose you'd just have to try it with AA and AF set to app pref and with them cranked and see how it affects the game. I personally hate counter strike so I've never once played it on my r9700 Figure its faaaaaaar too outdated to run on my r9700 pro. I mean after all, wouldn't want to damage my radeon's pride she's deserving of only the latest and greatest not yesterdays washed up hits

/me quickly jumps into flame suit (seriously, thats just my opinion on CS/HL no need for all you CS/HL lovers to jump in and defend yourselves and thereby highjack this poor guys thread)

and maxwell, yeah I feel that strongly about clean OS installs. I recommend clean OS installs at least twice a year (yeah I know some of you are 3+ years running ) Thing is you just forget how nice it is to have everything cleaned up. Windows, registry, everything is so much snappier. Now if you add critical new hardware (ie GPU) it is possible sometimes to get by w/out reinstalling OS but I ask why? I mean you really should have everything backed up already in case of hdd failure and if its backed up there is really not much to a new OS install... anyhow, just my $.02 and really do NOT want this thread going in this direction. it is the gaming forum and this is a thread about CS and radeon GPU so lets do keep it on just that topic. Any other off topic questions should be started in a thread of their own.

Kgentatszu]

thankz .........by the way guys, have you tried other games?? UT03?? any problem??

Nuke209

why people getting these new cards and still playing counterstrike??? that game is candy for the card, get something worth using your card for

tek

Counter-Strike is a classic, no matter how old it is.. it's always gonna be a game worth playing.. no matter what card you have... if you disagree, I dont care.. just your opinion, but to me that game will always be a great worth-playing game.

shuki

alright I probably started this CS is great/ CS is outdated and suXors so I'm ending it too. No more of it here. Feel free to start a debate thread of its own if anyone so desires but lets leave it out of this thread.

Vampyromaniac

uNI . . . like tek said, make sure TRUFORM is off first of all.

Then, if you did not do a clean driver install, I suggest you do that. Shuki, can ya paste your little guide for that?

shuki

Using Driver Cleaner:
1. Download and install Driver Cleaner (link on front DH page on left)
2. Remove all ATI/Nvidia stuff from add/remove programs but don't reboot
3. unplug nic
4. reboot and cancel out of windows auto detect
5. run driver cleaner program selecting ATI or Nvidia whichever applies
6. reboot and cancel out again and go into device mgr and verify two yellow exclaimation points (if none try cleaner in safe mode)
7. install latest official catalyst drivers and control panel
8. reboot
9. plug back in nic

the long way around if Driver Cleaner don't cut it:
1. unplug nic card or modem from net (physically unplug)
2. create system restore point
3. remove ATI driver from add/remove programs then remove CP from add/remove programs
4. reboot into safe mode (F8)
5. if you've never deleted the ATI inf files from windows (ie search ati*.* and delete) or if you're connected to the net, you'll not be able to cancel out of windows automatically finding new device and installing drivers for it. You must first get to the place thay you can cancel out of windows installing drivers for you... so:
6. Open windows explorer and delete c:\ATI and c:\program files\ATI
7. start->run->search c:\windows (including hidden and sub folders) for ati*.* and delete all
8. empty recycle bin
9. open regedit (great, must have program! google search for it) and delete any ATI (usually 4 together but look through and get them all) sends them to backup. Then go to backup and select and delete again.
10. close regedit
11. device mgr->display adapter->uninstall and reboot
12. you should now be back into windows and if you're unplugged from the net and have searched and fully deleted (emptied recycle bin) ATI*.* files, you should now be able to cancel out of windows automatically installing your video card drivers. Just cancel out. If you can not, repeat steps 4-11
13. install driver of choice

muirplayer57

maybe your seeing the screen rip or tear, probably becuase of the refreshrate. Try using vsync, or download reforce ( it forces refreshrates. ) Usually happens because the top of the screen get the frams before the rest of the screen and you see that happening.

tek

No.. dont turn on VSYNC.. it'll do the same crap as TRUFORM.. mess up your FPS.
And there is a refresh override in ATi drivers.. just go to 'Monitor' tab and click the monitor and set the first one 'Same as desktop' and the one below it to '200'.

gibbon565

My best advice to you is dont use a driver after the Cat 3.1's, as after these CS starts to get problems. with teh 3.4's my fps jumps all over the place, though with the 3.1's it stays a constant 100 I hope that helped, personally I would go for the 3.1's as anything before these you can have smoothvision in 16 bit if that bothers you.

Vampyromaniac

have you tried TRUFORM at ati_subdiv 1 with those drivers? I'm curious how your fps would be on something like iceworld3 . . . . . . maybe with say, 4xAA+16xAF or so?

bocybo

The problem is most likely that truform is enabled, and this really drags down FPS. I had the same problem with C-Strike, but fixed it completely when i disabled truform. To disable truform, go to the console and type in:

ati_npatch 0

If you use 1 instead of 0, it will enable truform. I hope this fixes your problem.

Renegade[CSR]

The reason you guys are having issues is because, simply, the half life engine is extremely cpu limited. You need at least a 2.0ghz+ CPU (In terms of AMD) to run at a solid 99 fps.

To note, I used to run a 1700+@2000+ but I noticed the exact same framerate issues you guys are mentioning. I am currently running a 2400+@2.2 ghz on a Radeon 9700 Pro (376/350) with 99 fps solid, no framerate drops.

Electronic Punk

Would be nice to sort this issues out? Alot of people still play this game.
Not a game issue if older drivers were ok with it ? :s

Kgentatszu]

you mean that happens to ATI users with AMD only?? what 'bout intel users??

Vampyromaniac

I dunno, man . . . I've only got an xp1800 @ stock speed, and I get solid 99, even with the previously-dreaded smoke grenade
(running OpenGL at 1280x960x32, control panel set to Balanced, Win98 Catalyst 3.4 driver)
. . . though I haven't played a lot since installing my new card . . . .

Kgentatszu]

then what are you waiting for?? get cracking....hehehe~LOL

Kente

I'm not sure if this is exactly correct. I've searched MANY forums (including the steam forums) about this fps issue with ATI cards since the release of 1.6 and have come to the conlcusion that your processor speed shouldn't be the problem. It's the fact that they changed something up in the code of 1.6, and apparently the ATI cards don't handle it very well.

I'm having the same problems as everyone else for the most part using my 9500 pro, yet in 1.5 I always got a SOLID 99 fps (and can can still get 99 fps using ANY CAT drivers). Since 1.6 was released, I started noticing my frames dipping, especially with 7 or more models on the screen or on a map like aztec. Like someone mentioned already, I've found that the CAT 3.1's are the way to go for CS. They work much better than the latest ati driver releases for some reason.

BiGBrOwNPimpsta

a little off topic....

for cs 1.6 users to uncap ur fps use these commands

developer 1
mmx 1
fps_max # (any number you want i put it usually 4000 usually only reaches 300 maybe)

and turn npatch (true form off)

ati_npatch 0