More RAM or upgrade graph. card?

thebard · 05-01-2001, 11:36 AM

Hope this right place to post this. Aquarium looks great,haven't tried 99J, going to shortly.Get 60fps,wondering how I'll go when all this 3D&DirectX comes in,willing to spend a bit to improvethings. RAM or better card? I've read through the topics to find out but I'm no techie. My card's no high-flier,Diamond Viper 770 for Win98,
chosen as it works in my BeOS partition, but some others are supported too, Voodoo I think. Couple of people said more RAM's the way to go, who's right? I have 128MB RAM, 800MHZ Pent3, DirectX8.

Jav400 · 05-01-2001, 11:51 AM

thebard,

Don't know what resolution you are running the aquarium at, but 60fps is fine. A P3 800Mhz CPU is more than enough to handle the aquarium, along with the amount of RAM you have installed.

Jim's aquarium is rendered in 3D and most of the load is on your video card right now, if you want to run at higher resolutions, and get faster fps, a new video card would be your best investment. There are many out there to chose from and the prices are always dropping. I would wait until the new Geforce3 card is released and at that point the older cards will take another drop in price.

thebard · 05-01-2001, 12:13 PM

Thanks a lot - now I know which way to go. Felt hopeful
I'd get the answer here.

05-01-2001, 02:57 PM

I have the same card but a 550MHz PIII. I get about 100 fps at 800 x 600. Make sure your drivers are the most current. That's what helped me - although 70 fps is more than enough.

iatros

feldon34 · 05-01-2001, 04:54 PM

nVidia 6.54 drivers are probably best for windows 98.

www.gamers-ammo.com/nVidialist.html

feldon34 · 05-01-2001, 04:54 PM

nVidia 6.54 drivers are probably best for windows 98.

www.gamers-ammo.com/nVidialist.html

In the case of nVidia cards like the TnT Riva, TnT Riva 2, etc. "latest" almost NEVER means best.

EddieWan · 05-08-2001, 07:35 AM

I have a 1.333 Athlon T-Bird with a Geforce 2 GTS 64ddr video card, and 256mb cas2 sdram. I get 100 fps, no matter what I use. After some trouble shooting I figured out that my fps are tied to my monitor refresh rate. This doesn't bother me as 100fps is really a lot more frames than needed. Actually, 60 frames is more than really needed. I have ran the aquarium on other cards, including a tnt2, and a voodoo3dfx 3000. The difference is not in the frame rates, though different cards give different rates. The difference is in the video card, and how well it renders the scene. The Geforce looks by far the best that I have seen, picture quality wise of the 3 I have used. I hope to upgrade to a geforce3 in a month or two, as this card really sounds awesome. My advice, if you like the videocard you have now, and you are happy with it, stay with it. If you want to upgrade, get ram now while it's so very cheap, though you won't see any frame rate increase, it'll set you up for the future as rumor has it windows xp will require 128megs ram minimum. If your not happy with the quality of your videocard, I would suggest you wait for about 2 weeks to a month, as the geforce 3 is starting to hit the market, and the geforce 2 prices will start dropping. You can't go wrong with a geforce as it is the best card on the market at this time. By the way, I use detonator drivers 12.00 if anyone is wondering.

thebard · 06-01-2001, 03:46 PM

Thanks guys! I've played safe I think by upping RAM to 256MB & will wait a little longer before changing video/graphics card. Followed yr drivers link, & now that I've read other Q & A here on drivers, I think I need a bit more experience for this.
And I see that I should change from 800x600 resolution!
About to try 99K,the comments on it are mouth-watering, & I've never had any problems with previous ones

05-01-2001, 11:36 AM	#1
thebard Copperband Butterfly Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 32	More RAM or upgrade graph. card? Hope this right place to post this. Aquarium looks great,haven't tried 99J, going to shortly.Get 60fps,wondering how I'll go when all this 3D&DirectX comes in,willing to spend a bit to improvethings. RAM or better card? I've read through the topics to find out but I'm no techie. My card's no high-flier,Diamond Viper 770 for Win98, chosen as it works in my BeOS partition, but some others are supported too, Voodoo I think. Couple of people said more RAM's the way to go, who's right? I have 128MB RAM, 800MHZ Pent3, DirectX8.

05-01-2001, 11:51 AM	#2
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	Re: More RAM or upgrade graph. card? thebard, Don't know what resolution you are running the aquarium at, but 60fps is fine. A P3 800Mhz CPU is more than enough to handle the aquarium, along with the amount of RAM you have installed. Jim's aquarium is rendered in 3D and most of the load is on your video card right now, if you want to run at higher resolutions, and get faster fps, a new video card would be your best investment. There are many out there to chose from and the prices are always dropping. I would wait until the new Geforce3 card is released and at that point the older cards will take another drop in price. Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

05-01-2001, 12:13 PM	#3
thebard Copperband Butterfly Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 32	Re RAM/graphics Thanks a lot - now I know which way to go. Felt hopeful I'd get the answer here.

05-01-2001, 02:57 PM	#4
Guest Posts: n/a	Viper 770 I have the same card but a 550MHz PIII. I get about 100 fps at 800 x 600. Make sure your drivers are the most current. That's what helped me - although 70 fps is more than enough. iatros

05-01-2001, 04:54 PM	#5
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Re: Viper 770 nVidia 6.54 drivers are probably best for windows 98. www.gamers-ammo.com/nVidialist.html "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

05-08-2001, 07:35 AM	#7
EddieWan JediMaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Tallahasse, Florida Posts: 183	VideoCard or Ram, Frame Rates I have a 1.333 Athlon T-Bird with a Geforce 2 GTS 64ddr video card, and 256mb cas2 sdram. I get 100 fps, no matter what I use. After some trouble shooting I figured out that my fps are tied to my monitor refresh rate. This doesn't bother me as 100fps is really a lot more frames than needed. Actually, 60 frames is more than really needed. I have ran the aquarium on other cards, including a tnt2, and a voodoo3dfx 3000. The difference is not in the frame rates, though different cards give different rates. The difference is in the video card, and how well it renders the scene. The Geforce looks by far the best that I have seen, picture quality wise of the 3 I have used. I hope to upgrade to a geforce3 in a month or two, as this card really sounds awesome. My advice, if you like the videocard you have now, and you are happy with it, stay with it. If you want to upgrade, get ram now while it's so very cheap, though you won't see any frame rate increase, it'll set you up for the future as rumor has it windows xp will require 128megs ram minimum. If your not happy with the quality of your videocard, I would suggest you wait for about 2 weeks to a month, as the geforce 3 is starting to hit the market, and the geforce 2 prices will start dropping. You can't go wrong with a geforce as it is the best card on the market at this time. By the way, I use detonator drivers 12.00 if anyone is wondering. If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!

06-01-2001, 03:46 PM	#8
thebard Copperband Butterfly Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 32	Re: More RAM or upgrade graph. card? Thanks guys! I've played safe I think by upping RAM to 256MB & will wait a little longer before changing video/graphics card. Followed yr drivers link, & now that I've read other Q & A here on drivers, I think I need a bit more experience for this. And I see that I should change from 800x600 resolution! About to try 99K,the comments on it are mouth-watering, & I've never had any problems with previous ones