...OK. So, I made a cheesy thread title...well, that explains the problem I have with my graphics card (ATi 2600HD 512MB AGP). So I've had it for about a year and a half, and I know I mentioned this problem before but I had bigger problems to worry about back then and never touched the subject again...until now.
Today, I've finally had it with this bloody thing! Only LFS, some of the newer NFS games, FS2004, and some other games improved with the graphics card I'm using now. And the older games like Sports Car GT, NFS Porsche, GP3, Viper Racing and Rally Masters won't work anymore. I tried installing the newest drivers, nothing. Made some changes in the CCC settings, jack shit happened. I don't know what I can do now, but it looks like the card isn't really compatible with games with DirectX 6, since LFS is DirectX 7 and works better.
Any opinions about why this is happening will be appreciated.

Cheers everyone

Which Windows version are you using?

Windows XP Professional SP2.

Also, what actually happens when you try to open the said games? Do they just not run, or do they run with graphic issues?

Anyway, I seriously doubt that a 2xxx graphics card (especially a AGP one) which dates back to 2006-07 would have issues with older games, itself being probably a DirectX9 only capable card.

As far as I know, DirectX9 is backwards compatible with previous versions. DirectX10 isn't, and has to rely on emulation of DX9 as it was on Windows XP. Since you're on XP, though, that shouldn't be your problem. So what happens with those games?

Quote from boosterfire :

Also, what actually happens when you try to open the said games? Do they just not run, or do they run with graphic issues?

Anyway, I seriously doubt that a 2xxx graphics card (especially a AGP one) which dates back to 2006-07 would have issues with older games, itself being probably a DirectX9 only capable card.

As far as I know, DirectX9 is backwards compatible with previous versions. DirectX10 isn't, and has to rely on emulation of DX9 as it was on Windows XP. Since you're on XP, though, that shouldn't be your problem. So what happens with those games?

GP3 runs even slower, Sports Car GT crashes after intro, the NFS Porsche menu interface is a mess (polys are everywhere, the whole menu is disfigured) and what was supposed to be the Rally Masters main menu is a plain blue screen(no BSOD, just blue), so I can't even get to play the games.

Maybe you need older graphics driver. It's possible that your card is not supported by newest drivers. Try that and let us know.

Hmm, more likely it would be the older games not being supported by the newer drivers... ends up with the same thing, though.

Another thing, try running those games in win 98 compatibility mode.

Quote from boosterfire :

Hmm, more likely it would be the older games not being supported by the newer drivers... ends up with the same thing, though.

Another thing, try running those games in win 98 compatibility mode.

@matijapkc: which drivers would you recommend?

@boosterfire: I tried running Sports Car GT on compatibility mode, and guess what...it works! Tbh I never thought compatibility mode would work, but this time it did...BUT! There is a tiny, tiny problem. The menu doesn't flicker, which is good, but the whole game is running at 1 FPS and even the menu sounds stutter, so it's not a good sign...Gonna take care of some un-needed apps and then I'll have another bash at it.

Quote from Senninha25 :

@matijapkc: which drivers would you recommend?

Last one which worked?
Last version is 9,xx... if I'm right. Try something with 8 as the first number if you can find it.

Also, you can try the Omega drivers, in some cases those are known to work better than the official ATI drivers.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

Also, you can try the Omega drivers, in some cases those are known to work better than the official ATI drivers.

I've never managed to get the ATI drivers to work properly with my X1800XT + X700 combo (always suffer from stability issues). Omega drivers don't seem to crash, so they are the only usable option for me. A shame they aren't updated anymore.

Quote from Bob Smith :

(always suffer from stability issues)

I had some driver crash issues too, but everything was working as with them on, so it looks like I don't even need drivers...

My X1950PRO seems to actually perform far worse in newer games, than my old X800. And in LFS.

I have that card in my laptop. Biggest Issue was that I could not run Open GL 2.0 programs. I solved it by forcing a install of the 2600PRO driver.

I tried the Omega drivers, but they didn't really cut the mustard...games like Viper Racing and Sports Car GT are now running without 3d glitches, but the sound lag is just appaling! Ah, Rally Trophy always gets choppy in the beginning of the gameplay (lasts for some 30 seconds, it's very annoying). Despite that, I like the Omega, but I still want to have a go at some other choices.

Bumping this thread. I'm here to sort of "announce" that I killed my gfx card. It came about me adding 1GB worth of RAM Memory into the motherboard. My computer had 1GB RAM already, and the graphics card had a 512MB memory (am I right?).

So I'm quite baffled by this, because in theory a 512MB graphics card should work better with 2GB RAM, but I feel I'm quite wrong about that theory given the smell of burnt plastic that came from it 5 minutes after turning the PC on.
Oh before I forget, are there any good suggestions for a DDR1 Graphics Card (or a DDR2 Motherboard)?

Cheers

Quote from Senninha25 :

Bumping this thread. I'm here to sort of "announce" that I killed my gfx card. It came about me adding 1GB worth of RAM Memory into the motherboard. My computer had 1GB RAM already, and the graphics card had a 512MB memory (am I right?).

So I'm quite baffled by this, because in theory a 512MB graphics card should work better with 2GB RAM, but I feel I'm quite wrong about that theory given the smell of burnt plastic that came from it 5 minutes after turning the PC on.

Cheers

Oh dear, i take it you have tried removing the new RAM and it still doesnt work (although the smells you mentioned pretty much answer that question anyway)

I have the same card as that, but mines the hd2600 pro, although what difference there is between the hd2600 and the hd2600 pro is anybodys guess.

Now, your RAM question, you say yours is an AGP card (like mine) so im guessing that like me, your PC is an older one, mine is a 8 year old medion thing, old p4 2.53ghz cpu (socket478) IDE drives, 1gb RAM etc, an old skool machine.

On a system of this kind of age (maybe slightly newer than mine, i dunno when they phased out AGP and replaced it with PCIe) the main bottleneck you will face on the performance front with gaming is the CPU, a 512mb GFX card is more than capable of creating nice looking and relitively fast graphics, (i run a 1280x1024 32bit res with aa/af both on 4x, all LOD on half way, i achieve about 35-40fps with upto 7 or 8 cars, after that it gets a bit choppy, but if i turn all aa/af/lod off i can push 60-70fps)

But the only limit on this is how fast the CPU can, well, process it all really, so i would hazard a guess that any graphical slowdowns you were getting (especially on start grid and t1) would be because your CPU was sweating it ass off at 100% load trying to deal with everything, just like mine does, the card could cope, if it had the resources (cpu speed) to do so, i doubt that an extra GB of ram would make much difference in a gameplay situation, maybe general day to day computing yes, but in a game that is so processer hungry, i would doubt that more RAM would increase performance very much, if at all.

Quote from Senninha25 :

Oh before I forget, are there any good suggestions for a DDR1 Graphics Card (or a DDR2 Motherboard)?

Cheers

DDR1 card/DDR2 board, do you mean an AGP card/PCIe board??

Oh wait, mine's pro as well. (I keep forgetting things, lol)

My PC's younger than yours (6 years) but it's a bit knackered now with all the upgrades it suffered in the last 2 years. Won't be long before it's had it I'm afraid. Running on Pentium III and currently using 32MB of the 2048MB it has because of the default video controller, (which btw doesn't support direct3d, so I can't play LFS or any other game!!!:chairs so it's not running to full potential atm.
I needed more memory because the PC wasn't running very well. I was getting time-outs while joining servers lately while the internet signal was very good. The lag moments at T1 are unavoidable for me, if I get 10 cars in the same place as I am, not even the F-key could save me from timing out or crashing into other drivers (it got me plenty of warnings and accusations), so yes that's the CPU's age's fault.

So according to your post, the main problem with my PC's performance is the CPU and not the RAM? Crikey O'Reilly, what have I done...

Which CPU is it?

I'm a bit of an ignorant here...can you tell me some examples so I can reply? I'm really sorry.

On your desktop, right click my computer and select properties, or the longer way to get to it, start>settings>control panel>system and tell us what that bit says, or even better, post a screenshot of it, (making sure to blur out your product OEM info key) as i have below, just like this....

Oh...god I'm stupid :doh:

Here you go.

Yah, thats a baby processor there, i can be 99% sure that this is whats causing your performance drops, CPU just cant work hard enough.

The Duron is one of the worst CPUs ever made, worse than Celeron. It's a budget CPU, so it was never meant to do more than word processing and web browsing. If you put an Athlon in there then it will probably be faster, but there's no point in upgrading such an old computer.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

there's no point in upgrading such an old computer.

I've been thinking of that but I really have no choice because I can't think too radically, you know...about CPU's, which ones do you guys think works well or better for a PC like mine? Or do I really have to stick with it how it is atm?