Question for SunKing or anyone else w/ HTPC and GeForce 2 - Page 2

Tiny Turtle · 06-03-2003, 10:01 AM

nCliff,
I don't think you could be un-tactful (equiv) if your life depended on it.

Evidently there are loads of special versions of these cards. Creative even made a DDR(!) GF2MX which sold for more, but wasn't any faster at all as the mem speed isn't the bottleneck.

Deborah,
What CPU is in that HTPC of yours? Also, what OS and DirectX versions are you using? The SS normally isn't particulary CPU dependent, but I don't know what to ask for to find a solution to this and am thus guessing quite wildly.

/Tiny Guesser

SunKing · 06-05-2003, 05:36 AM

Deborah, have you fixed it yet? Sorry it took so long for me to reply - I didn't want to post until I had a chance to 'benchmark'.

Bottom line, you should be getting WAAAAY better frames than 19 (yuck). I'm running the 1.1 widescreen version - and get between 75 and 80fps at 920x500 - and between 55 - 60fps at 1280x720. GF2mx400, PII@500Mhz, 256MB RAM.

Have you viewed the aquarium in windowed mode? (press F while it is running). Also, maybe there's something strange with your powerstrip configuration. Unhook your TV and plug into a regular monitor, then disable powerstrip and see if that helps. This will also allow you to test the aquarium in many different resolutions not supported by your TV.

Have you tried any other screen savers? There are a lot of other good screensavers. In fact, there's an entire area of this forum dedicated to other screensavers. Try SimAquarium or AquaReal - and of course the goldfish aquarium. All of these have free demo's available. ...good luck - and let us know if you get it figured out - might help someone else too.

Edgar · 06-05-2003, 09:33 AM

Deborah, please give a a little more info about your system. What is CPU speed? How much memory on board? What operating system? And is it a laptop or a desktop.

Deborah · 06-05-2003, 05:30 PM

Hi all,

Sorry for the late reply, here goes...

I have a AMD 1.2 Mhz 266FSB, 512 DDR Ram- GTS ultra 2 - windows me aand it's a desktop.

I'm running the 1.1 widescreen version .

The funny thing is ,it still looks great with only 19FPS: ) Thats with using 960X540 timings and also 920X 500

Now when I switch over to windows mode I get 61.xx FPS. I never use the window mode.

Friday night I will connect to monitor with and without powerstrip and see what I get. I will post results.

In the meantime, any suggestions with the info I provided?

Thanks so very, very much : )

Forever grateful....

Deborah

.

__________________

Edgar · 06-05-2003, 06:19 PM

Deborah, I think the problem is caused by the display refresh rate. It is limiting the framerate. The wide version does not have the option to turn off VSync through the program yet. Let us know what happens when you connect to an actual monitor.

SunKing · 06-06-2003, 06:15 AM

Hmmmmm, I don't think it's the display refresh rate - because if that were the case she'd be getting 60 frames per second - as that's the default refresh rate for TV's. ...of course, I could be wrong.

bslenter · 06-06-2003, 11:29 AM

I have an HTPC (Geforce2 Pro, Athlon 1700) connected to an HDTV Monitor. MA2 runs at the maximum possible framerate (60) at 480p resolution (and it looks awesome!!). All televisions (regular and HDTV) run at either 30 fps interlaced or 60 fps non-interlaced. Your television would not drive the frame rate any lower than that. So if you're getting 19, it has nothing to do with the TV. Check your drivers, settings, etc.

Deborah · 06-10-2003, 06:45 PM

Hi all,

Ok, I disabled Power Strip and it was still 19.xx.

I connected the PC back to monitor with and without powerstrip and still 19.xx

The last time (last week)I updated my Detonator driver from 21.03 to the new one 44.03 and it whacked up my PC so I went back to old driver.

Well, now I downloaded "Detonator Destroyer" and deleted all files before trying to load the new drivers again.

Loaded the new drivers again ( 44.03) and it worked, no problems. So now I started up SS and now I'm getting 62.xx to 63.xx.

Now to see if power strip will work with the new drivers. I miss my PC on the HDTV.

Well, thanks for all the help and suggestions

PS: Will I notice a big difference if I buy a new Graphic Card , Radeon 9700 pro ?

Thanks again for all the help : >

Deborah

feldon34 · 06-10-2003, 10:15 PM

A GeForce 2 GTS Ultra is already overkill for the Aquarium. I can't see a new card helping much.

Tiny Turtle · 06-11-2003, 01:54 AM

Yay! – Congrats on the fps improvement.

I second that opinion from Nemo27. Don't let anyone fool you into anything else. (Well, ATi's TV-out is usually a little better than nVidia's, but nothing much IMHO) (Flames welcome)

/T²

Jav400 · 06-11-2003, 05:14 AM

Well, with the ATI card you mentioned I can see alot of argments with drivers in your future. But seriously, I use a GF2 Ultra and everything runs fine for me. Unless you just want the latest greatest, I don't see a real need to change anything.

feldon34 · 06-11-2003, 07:29 AM

Windows 95/98/ME is the tough part here.

I would try the popular 41.09 drivers. They may not come with an installer, so you'd have to go to "Update Driver" on your video card and tell it where these files were unzipped.

Deborah · 07-06-2003, 11:05 AM

Hi all,

Well I recently installed "PowerStrip" again ( Missed surfing on 65" hdtv ) and all is well.

Still getting 62.xx to 63.xx. FPS.

So I guess it was the drivers all along .

Thanks again to all : >

Deboah

Tornado Tom · 07-06-2003, 03:34 PM

I'm getting as many as we are suppose to be getting!

Tornado Tom · 07-07-2003, 09:28 PM

19 fps to 21 fps

with my GeForce II 400mmx Card,
but I'm only running it on my AMD K6II 500 computer.

The | Tycoon · 07-22-2003, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by Tornado Tom
19 fps to 21 fps

with my GeForce II 400mmx Card,
but I'm only running it on my AMD K6II 500 computer.

I'm only running a PIII 500 (slot 1) and I get around 100fps in MA, @ 800x600 - 100Hz refresh. My GFX is a Radeon 7500 64Meg DDR.

Best!

Tornado Tom · 07-29-2003, 11:43 PM

62 FPS in Marine Aquarium 2

06-03-2003, 10:01 AM	#21
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	nCliff, I don't think you could be un-tactful (equiv) if your life depended on it. Evidently there are loads of special versions of these cards. Creative even made a DDR(!) GF2MX which sold for more, but wasn't any faster at all as the mem speed isn't the bottleneck. Deborah, What CPU is in that HTPC of yours? Also, what OS and DirectX versions are you using? The SS normally isn't particulary CPU dependent, but I don't know what to ask for to find a solution to this and am thus guessing quite wildly. /Tiny Guesser 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.

06-05-2003, 05:36 AM	#22
SunKing Registered Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 238	Deborah, have you fixed it yet? Sorry it took so long for me to reply - I didn't want to post until I had a chance to 'benchmark'. Bottom line, you should be getting WAAAAY better frames than 19 (yuck). I'm running the 1.1 widescreen version - and get between 75 and 80fps at 920x500 - and between 55 - 60fps at 1280x720. GF2mx400, PII@500Mhz, 256MB RAM. Have you viewed the aquarium in windowed mode? (press F while it is running). Also, maybe there's something strange with your powerstrip configuration. Unhook your TV and plug into a regular monitor, then disable powerstrip and see if that helps. This will also allow you to test the aquarium in many different resolutions not supported by your TV. Have you tried any other screen savers? There are a lot of other good screensavers. In fact, there's an entire area of this forum dedicated to other screensavers. Try SimAquarium or AquaReal - and of course the goldfish aquarium. All of these have free demo's available. ...good luck - and let us know if you get it figured out - might help someone else too. My humble Homepage

06-05-2003, 09:33 AM	#23
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	Deborah, please give a a little more info about your system. What is CPU speed? How much memory on board? What operating system? And is it a laptop or a desktop. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

06-05-2003, 06:19 PM	#25
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	Deborah, I think the problem is caused by the display refresh rate. It is limiting the framerate. The wide version does not have the option to turn off VSync through the program yet. Let us know what happens when you connect to an actual monitor. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

06-06-2003, 06:15 AM	#26
SunKing Registered Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 238	Hmmmmm, I don't think it's the display refresh rate - because if that were the case she'd be getting 60 frames per second - as that's the default refresh rate for TV's. ...of course, I could be wrong. My humble Homepage

06-05-2003, 05:30 PM	#24
Deborah Registered Join Date: May 2003 Location: NYC Posts: 23	Hi all, Sorry for the late reply, here goes... I have a AMD 1.2 Mhz 266FSB, 512 DDR Ram- GTS ultra 2 - windows me aand it's a desktop. I'm running the 1.1 widescreen version . The funny thing is ,it still looks great with only 19FPS: ) Thats with using 960X540 timings and also 920X 500 Now when I switch over to windows mode I get 61.xx FPS. I never use the window mode. Friday night I will connect to monitor with and without powerstrip and see what I get. I will post results. In the meantime, any suggestions with the info I provided? Thanks so very, very much : ) Forever grateful.... Deborah . __________________

06-06-2003, 11:29 AM	#27
bslenter Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: San Francisco Posts: 18	I have an HTPC (Geforce2 Pro, Athlon 1700) connected to an HDTV Monitor. MA2 runs at the maximum possible framerate (60) at 480p resolution (and it looks awesome!!). All televisions (regular and HDTV) run at either 30 fps interlaced or 60 fps non-interlaced. Your television would not drive the frame rate any lower than that. So if you're getting 19, it has nothing to do with the TV. Check your drivers, settings, etc.

06-10-2003, 06:45 PM	#28
Deborah Registered Join Date: May 2003 Location: NYC Posts: 23	Hi all, Ok, I disabled Power Strip and it was still 19.xx. I connected the PC back to monitor with and without powerstrip and still 19.xx The last time (last week)I updated my Detonator driver from 21.03 to the new one 44.03 and it whacked up my PC so I went back to old driver. Well, now I downloaded "Detonator Destroyer" and deleted all files before trying to load the new drivers again. Loaded the new drivers again ( 44.03) and it worked, no problems. So now I started up SS and now I'm getting 62.xx to 63.xx. Now to see if power strip will work with the new drivers. I miss my PC on the HDTV. Well, thanks for all the help and suggestions PS: Will I notice a big difference if I buy a new Graphic Card , Radeon 9700 pro ? Thanks again for all the help : > Deborah

06-10-2003, 10:15 PM	#29
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,947	A GeForce 2 GTS Ultra is already overkill for the Aquarium. I can't see a new card helping much. "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

06-11-2003, 01:54 AM	#30
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Yay! – Congrats on the fps improvement. I second that opinion from Nemo27. Don't let anyone fool you into anything else. (Well, ATi's TV-out is usually a little better than nVidia's, but nothing much IMHO) (Flames welcome) /T² 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.

06-11-2003, 05:14 AM	#31
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	Well, with the ATI card you mentioned I can see alot of argments with drivers in your future. But seriously, I use a GF2 Ultra and everything runs fine for me. Unless you just want the latest greatest, I don't see a real need to change anything. Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection Last edited by Jav400; 06-11-2003 at 10:05 AM.

06-11-2003, 07:29 AM	#32
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,947	Windows 95/98/ME is the tough part here. I would try the popular 41.09 drivers. They may not come with an installer, so you'd have to go to "Update Driver" on your video card and tell it where these files were unzipped. "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

07-06-2003, 11:05 AM	#33
Deborah Registered Join Date: May 2003 Location: NYC Posts: 23	Hi all, Well I recently installed "PowerStrip" again ( Missed surfing on 65" hdtv ) and all is well. Still getting 62.xx to 63.xx. FPS. So I guess it was the drivers all along . Thanks again to all : > Deboah

07-06-2003, 03:34 PM	#34
Tornado Tom Tommy Turtle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Edmonton, AB, CA Posts: 78	I'm getting as many as we are suppose to be getting! 14 Little Fish Needs A New Larger Aquarium!

07-07-2003, 09:28 PM	#35
Tornado Tom Tommy Turtle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Edmonton, AB, CA Posts: 78	19 fps to 21 fps with my GeForce II 400mmx Card, but I'm only running it on my AMD K6II 500 computer. 14 Little Fish Needs A New Larger Aquarium!

07-22-2003, 03:19 PM	#36
The \| Tycoon Registered Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: UK Posts: 19	Originally posted by Tornado Tom 19 fps to 21 fps with my GeForce II 400mmx Card, but I'm only running it on my AMD K6II 500 computer. I'm only running a PIII 500 (slot 1) and I get around 100fps in MA, @ 800x600 - 100Hz refresh. My GFX is a Radeon 7500 64Meg DDR. Best! ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°¤ The \| Tycoon Ô¿Ô ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°¤

07-29-2003, 11:43 PM	#37
Tornado Tom Tommy Turtle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Edmonton, AB, CA Posts: 78	62 FPS in Marine Aquarium 2 14 Little Fish Needs A New Larger Aquarium!