Hey It Worked!

[deck99]

I just want to thank everyone who helps out here on the PC Mechanic. I just completed a new build. It went without a single problem. I did my homework big time but you all answered my questions and helped educate this newbie. Especially Dr. Z.......

I have one question though. I installed the Gainward G3 Powerpack Ti450. I really only play one game online right now (Quake II). I found that when I set the video selection on the game to Open GL the colors aren't that good and were kind of dark. When I choose the first (default) video selection it works ok but it is no different than when I was usin a K-6 300mh, 4meg trident video card. I know that the video card has a lot of settings but where do I start to find out if I have everything tweaked right and how do I test to make sure my card is living up to its potential?

Thanks,

deck99

[DrZaius]

Hi deck99,

Congrats on the new system, glad you got everything working right away.

For the video tweaking, first make sure you're using the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers if you have a VIA chipset. Second, also make sure you're using the latest nVidia Dentonator drivers for the video card. You can then adjust the various settings and brightness in the autoexec file, just use this creator.

http://www.tweak3d.net/autoexec/quake2/english/

Also, what resolution and color settings are you running the game at?

To test your overall system, download and run 3D Mark and it will give you a score on your overall system and video performance that you can compare to see if it's running at full potential.

http://www.3dmark.com/

Hope that helps.

[deck99]

Dr. Z,
First, thanks for replying and helping me out. It's worth a lot.

My card came with a video driver, I am assuming this is the Detonator drivers for the video card. As a matter of fact I went to NVidia and downloaded the latest copy for XP. Just because I was getting poor results. I never did load a 4-in-1 driver. What exactly is this? This is in addition to the NVidia detonator card driver? Would this 4-in-1 driver have been on my CD that came with the card?

My mobo is a Soyo Dragon +, AMD1800+, 512mg memory, Windows XP Home.

deck99

[DrZaius]

Hi deck,

Since you're using WinXP there's no need for the new VIA drivers, Windows installs them automatically. I would install the new Detonator drivers that you downloaded from nVidia's site though, the drivers on the video card CDs are usually out of date. That system should easily be able to handle Quake II at 1024x768 with most options turned on.

[deck99]

Dr,
When I load the new video drivers it asks the question "are you sure you want to load drivers because of them not being approved by microsoft, etc" Is this a big deal?

Where do I set the 1024X768? In my windows settings, in my game, and I think my video card software tweaking software has some type of resolution adjustment with different hertz. I am such a newbie with video cards.

deck99

[DrZaius]

Deck,

Yes, go ahead and install the drivers. That is just some MS certification junk they add in when you don't use their drivers.

As for the resolution, you set it in the game options. Look under Video Options and you should be able to change the video type (Software, OpenGL, and Direct3D*... try both OGL and D3D to see which is faster), the resolution, and the color depth (16 or 32-bit). As for the Hz, you set that in the Windows Display settings (right click on the desktop and choose Properties, go to Settings) and you should set it based on the table at the bottom of this page. Most people like it around 60 to 90Hz.

http://www.gainward.com/us/products/...!!%20Ti450.htm

* Not sure if Q2 supports D3D, havn't played it in a while.

Hope that helps.

[deck99]

Dr. Z,
I downloaded and ran the 3Dmark test software. That was really cool. What is a good score? I think it said my overall score was 7048. Where do I find out how things went?

deck99

[DrZaius]

Hi Deck,

That sounds like a good score. I havn't run the benchmark in a while so I don't know what's an exact range for your system, but I'm sure other members with a similar system can reply. They also have a database where you can compare scores and see other systems.

http://service.madonion.com/servlet/...=1&cCriteria=1

Hope that helps.