90FPS and it's so jerky

[Smiff]

When I first got my G400 nearly a year ago there was some kind of nasty incompatability between it and my ISDN card. The effect was rapid and repeated jerking (like a total pause for maybe 100ms about twice every second, only whilst data was being transfered over the ISDN card) and frequent total system lockups, in 3d games. This made online gaming... er, tricky! Luckily new Matrox drivers soon sorted all that out.

So why do I bring this up? Please bear with me I hadn't bothered to use the TurboGL because I thought the general consensus was that the ICD was better in the high resolutions that I use. And since upgrading my CPU it has worked well But today I was building a PC for a friend (with a G400, naturally and when he saw it he was not impressed with the framerates. Hmm, he's got a point methinks, so i tries the TurboGL, and guess what? Half-Life goes from av. 60 to av. 80 FPS. That's just groooovy =]

So of course I've just installed the TGL on my machine and here's where things go wrong YES i get the massive speed increase (hurrah!) BUT also horrible jerking (waaaah!) It looks just like the old G400/ISDN issue I described above, with the same cause/effect (but thankfully, touch wood, minus the total system lockups).

So it seems I've got a choice between slow and smooth on the ICD or fast but jerky on the TGL I'm not totally sure that there *isn't* any jerking on the ICD, but if there is, its nothing by comparison to the severe effect I'm getting with the TGL.

If anyone can help me here, that would be real sweet =]

Smiff


P3 600 @ 822
256MB SDRAM
BE6-2
G400 32MB DualHead @ 200/150
RRG
AVM FritzCard PCI ISDN
Adaptec 2940 SCSI
Plextor SCSI CDROM
Yamaha SCSI CDR
Maxtor EIDE HDD

WinME
DirectX 7.1
Powerdesk 6.10.021
TurboGL v1.30
Half-Life 1.1.0.1
Counter-Strike b6.6

[andrei]

I don't know why but the first thing I think of when dealing with TurboGL and short lockups or matrix like textures is AGP aperture size.
Try it on 64 or 128 if your set on 256.
Try it on 256 (as Matrox recommends) if you're set on lower values.

One other thing that you might do is flash a different video bios version.

[This message has been edited by andrei (edited 08 July 2000).]

[Smiff]

ok thanks andrei, I'll try changing the AGP aperture in a minute. It's on 256 now. I've got the latest BIOS (1.6?) so I'd rather not mess with that again, you know?

Other suggestions will be gratefully recieved

[Smiff]

nope, no difference @ 64MB Thanks anyway

Anyone?

[Liquid Snake]

Well, I still can't get TurboGL to work at all with CS (works great with TFC/HL). Nothing but a BSOD. And the ICD has problems, I get decals popping through walls, corrupted textures and so on.

Check to see if there are any IRQ conflicts between the ISDN card and G400. I doubt that is the problem since the ICD works fine.

------------------
Intel P3-750 Coppermine, Abit BE6-II, Micron PC133 256MB RAM (128MBx2), Quantum Fireball KA Plus 18.2GB, Promise Ultra66, Kenwood 72X TrueX, Plextor Plexwriter 8/4/32, 3Com Courier Analog V.Everything, Diamond MX300, Matrox G400MAX (PD6), DirectX 7.0a, Cambridge Soundworks Microworks system, Sony 19" 400PS, Logitech Cordless Mouseman Wheel, Epson Perfection 1200U PHOTO Scanner, Epson Stylus Color 850 inkjet, Addtronics 7890A w/ 350W Turbo-Cool PS

[Rags]

Liquid Snake,

goto display properties/advanced/options and enable "Use 32bit Z buffering". This will fix the decal probs, as well as other texture problems in TFC.

Rags



------------------
Partnership for an idiot free America

[Smiff]

Hi Rags, could you help me, please please please

Good idea with the IRQ conflicts Snake, here's my system:

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard OK
IRQ 2 Programmable interrupt controller OK
IRQ 5 Creative SB16 Emulation OK
IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller OK
IRQ 7 Creative SB Live! Value OK
IRQ 7 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus OK
IRQ 10 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 10 Adaptec AHA-2940AU PCI SCSI Controller OK
IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 11 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
IRQ 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 12 WheelMouse2 (PS/2) OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK
IRQ 15 AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PCI (Win98) OK
IRQ 15 Intel(R) PRO/100B PCI Adapter (TX) OK
IRQ 15 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK

Hope that came out alright Can't see anything wrong (?)

[Rags]

Smiff, TGL was not intended for PD 6.X. use another PD version, or just use the icd in 6.x.

Rags

[Smiff]

k thanks, back to 5.55 I go Shame though 'cos everything else works great with 6. Any chance of a new TGL release soon? (don't bite me for that please)

[Rags]

Don't need tgl with 6.

[Smiff]

erm, er, I wanted to use the TurboGL 'cos it seems to give me an extra 20-30 FPS. Which is nice

Is there something I'm doing wrong then? Should the ICD be faster? Why don't I need the TGL? Oh I'm all confused now. Thanks in advance for un-confusing me

[Rags]

TGL doesn't give me any better framerates when compared to 6.x

------------------
Partnership for an idiot free America

[Smiff]

Oh maybe it's relevant that I like to play CS at 1152x864 16 bit, maybe higher, but why does HL only do 1280x960? That's not a standard res is it? Strange.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your help

[Smiff]

OK thanks Rags, but that's wierd that TGL is SO much faster for me, don't you think? I mean 20-30 fps is not a subtle difference, ya know!

I must be doing something wrong then (?) Or maybe it's just your system and mine are different somehow, I dunno... hmm...

[Rags]

I don't use benchmarks to judge gameplay. I play the game to judge it. the icd in 6.x is smoother playing and has better visual quality than TGl for me.