Getting horrible frame rate and bubbles!

jsl · 06-27-2002, 12:17 PM

I tried the demo version on my system at work (a 4 year old system now running Windows 2000). It worked great! I was excited to try it on my new home system (I just finished building it). It's an Asus A7V333 Athlon XP 2000+, Radion 8500-128meg, 1 gig of ram running Windows XP. I'm running the latest Catalyst drivers in the Radion. Needless to say I was really looking forward to seeing how well the fish demo would run on this system.

I fired it up and the fish only do maybe 3-4 frames per second (very jerky). Also, the bubbles have smeared themselves along their travel path. So you don't see a bunch of bubbles but rather a handful that look like they are traveling up splotchy straws. I tried various screen resolutions (no change). I read somewhere that lowering the color setting from 32 bits to 16 bits might help. No change. This wouldn't really be an option anyway since I do a lot of visual work and require a high color setting on my desktop. I searched around in this forum but didn't really see a solution. I haven't had any problems with other applications or a couple games on this system.

Does anyone have any idea what to do? I'm really disapointed. I was looking forward to running it on the Radion's second monitor while working! :^) I'm holding off buying it until I get this resolved. Thanks in advance for your help.

Tiny Turtle · 06-27-2002, 01:05 PM

Hi, JSL, and welcome to the forum!

I'm kinda unsure about ATi cards and their drivers, butthese have worked out alright with the 8500. If you feel up to it and it's OK with your other 3D needs, give 'em a try. Incidently, do you know which was the latest driver version before they launched the "Catalyst" name?

/Tiny

jsl · 06-27-2002, 03:06 PM

Thanks for the welcome Tiny!

The link you provided is pretty old drivers. They are 6015. The drivers that I used first were 6025 (on the CD with the card). I upgraded to 6071 after that. 6071. I then upgraded to 6091 (the Catalyst drivers). I guess even today, there is a 61xx updated Catalyst driver available but it is beta. It's hard to image that the newer stuff isn't handling this program ok. I want to stay current with ATI drivers because they have improved a lot (and still have a ways to go!). I'm hoping that it's just some setting that I can change because I'm sure running pretty new stuff!

Tiny Turtle · 06-27-2002, 03:46 PM

I hear ya. The link was from the Help page where Morgan has put links up for drivers that haven't been confirmed to mess up the SS. If you look at the recommended nVidia driver on the same page, you'll notice that it's a 12.41 which might not give the highest frame rates in QIII but will work with our special inclination...

If you have the time it would be interesting to see if the old one would improve the SS. Even though you wouldn't want to use it, it would be an indication on what was the problem.

Anyways, there are a few Radeoneans on this board and hopefully the can come up with some ideas when they drop in.

/TT

jsl · 06-27-2002, 09:23 PM

I don't know what to say but I just came home and re-started my system. Aquarium demo is working perfect! Perfect sound, color and motion. And the bubbles are working now too!

For the life of me I don't know what happened. I didn't do anything and I had tried it many times before. Wow... this forum is great.. just asking here fixes problems! :^) Well, now I need to make it official and buy it.

If I see the problem again I'll post post it. Thanks.

Tiny Turtle · 06-28-2002, 01:29 AM

Yay!

jsl · 07-01-2002, 03:08 PM

A bit more info...

This might be a known problem but I'm able to duplicate the problem now. The problem I was seeing is only if the system is running after being resumed from suspend (I'm using S3 - suspend-to-ram mode). It doesn't matter how long ago you resumed. Every other application I ran seemed ok (except for the aquarium problem). If the system is up from a re-boot, everything works fine. I wonder if this is a DirectX bug or a ATI Radion driver bug? Anyone else able to run the aquarium ok after a resume?

jsl · 07-01-2002, 03:10 PM

In re-reading the above...

I didn't mean to imply that I was trying to suspend/resume with the aquarium running. Each time was a new invocation of the aquarium program.

06-27-2002, 12:17 PM	#1
jsl Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 5	Getting horrible frame rate and bubbles! I tried the demo version on my system at work (a 4 year old system now running Windows 2000). It worked great! I was excited to try it on my new home system (I just finished building it). It's an Asus A7V333 Athlon XP 2000+, Radion 8500-128meg, 1 gig of ram running Windows XP. I'm running the latest Catalyst drivers in the Radion. Needless to say I was really looking forward to seeing how well the fish demo would run on this system. I fired it up and the fish only do maybe 3-4 frames per second (very jerky). Also, the bubbles have smeared themselves along their travel path. So you don't see a bunch of bubbles but rather a handful that look like they are traveling up splotchy straws. I tried various screen resolutions (no change). I read somewhere that lowering the color setting from 32 bits to 16 bits might help. No change. This wouldn't really be an option anyway since I do a lot of visual work and require a high color setting on my desktop. I searched around in this forum but didn't really see a solution. I haven't had any problems with other applications or a couple games on this system. Does anyone have any idea what to do? I'm really disapointed. I was looking forward to running it on the Radion's second monitor while working! :^) I'm holding off buying it until I get this resolved. Thanks in advance for your help.

06-28-2002, 01:29 AM	#6
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Yay! Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think. "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.

06-27-2002, 01:05 PM	#2
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Hi, JSL, and welcome to the forum! I'm kinda unsure about ATi cards and their drivers, butthese have worked out alright with the 8500. If you feel up to it and it's OK with your other 3D needs, give 'em a try. Incidently, do you know which was the latest driver version before they launched the "Catalyst" name? /Tiny

06-27-2002, 03:06 PM	#3
jsl Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 5	Thanks for the welcome Tiny! The link you provided is pretty old drivers. They are 6015. The drivers that I used first were 6025 (on the CD with the card). I upgraded to 6071 after that. 6071. I then upgraded to 6091 (the Catalyst drivers). I guess even today, there is a 61xx updated Catalyst driver available but it is beta. It's hard to image that the newer stuff isn't handling this program ok. I want to stay current with ATI drivers because they have improved a lot (and still have a ways to go!). I'm hoping that it's just some setting that I can change because I'm sure running pretty new stuff!

06-27-2002, 03:46 PM	#4
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	I hear ya. The link was from the Help page where Morgan has put links up for drivers that haven't been confirmed to mess up the SS. If you look at the recommended nVidia driver on the same page, you'll notice that it's a 12.41 which might not give the highest frame rates in QIII but will work with our special inclination... If you have the time it would be interesting to see if the old one would improve the SS. Even though you wouldn't want to use it, it would be an indication on what was the problem. Anyways, there are a few Radeoneans on this board and hopefully the can come up with some ideas when they drop in. /TT

06-27-2002, 09:23 PM	#5
jsl Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 5	I don't know what to say but I just came home and re-started my system. Aquarium demo is working perfect! Perfect sound, color and motion. And the bubbles are working now too! For the life of me I don't know what happened. I didn't do anything and I had tried it many times before. Wow... this forum is great.. just asking here fixes problems! :^) Well, now I need to make it official and buy it. If I see the problem again I'll post post it. Thanks.

07-01-2002, 03:08 PM	#7
jsl Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 5	A bit more info... This might be a known problem but I'm able to duplicate the problem now. The problem I was seeing is only if the system is running after being resumed from suspend (I'm using S3 - suspend-to-ram mode). It doesn't matter how long ago you resumed. Every other application I ran seemed ok (except for the aquarium problem). If the system is up from a re-boot, everything works fine. I wonder if this is a DirectX bug or a ATI Radion driver bug? Anyone else able to run the aquarium ok after a resume?

07-01-2002, 03:10 PM	#8
jsl Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 5	In re-reading the above... I didn't mean to imply that I was trying to suspend/resume with the aquarium running. Each time was a new invocation of the aquarium program.