Geforce FX5200/Counter Strike problems

[99cobra1]

I recently purchased a new PC that included the Geforce FX5200 graphics card. I had been playing Counter Strike on my older PC with a TNT32mb graphics card (sorry dont remember the exact model) and the game played fine. After I got my new PC I installed Counter Strike and started playing online. The first thing I noticed is the graphics were alot better, but anytime the maps I play get somewhat crowded I got alot of lag and my ping goes up. I never had that problem with my old pc unless there were alot of dialup users in there and their pings were real high. Now all it takes is one high ping or just alot of people in a smaller map and it gets annoying to play. Nothing has changed about my internet connection it is the same cable modem and surfing the net everything seems fine. A friend of mine is running the exact same card in a different PC and he has no problems. So my question is are there some settings in Windows or for the graphics card that I can change to maybe help this? I recently tried to download the latest drivers from Nvidia and I downloaded a Nview desktop manager that came with them...it has some changes you can make to the performance and quality and Custom open GL settings, Custom Direct3d settings. I have not messed with any of it because I am not sure what does what. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.

here are my current PC specs

Sony Vaio RX34g
Processor 2.8g Pentium 4
Hard drive 120gb
Memory 512mb
Geforce FX5200 128mb wTVout

Old PC specs
Processor 1.6g pentium 4
Hard drive 80g
memory 256mb
TNT 32mb

[Renzatic Gear]

What have you got running in the background while you play the game? If you got something like a Dell or Gateway does it have any autoupdating features running in the taskbar you haven't turned off?

Do you have antialiasing or anisotropic filtering turned on? The FX5200 isn't really powerful enough to handle those features, specially not in online games, but it'll run CS just fine with em turned off.

As far as OpenGL settings go, keep "Disable support for advance CPU instruction sets" unchecked..it wouldn't be wise to turn that on cuz it doesn't really fix any problems or solve any performance issues, quite the opposite in fact.

For Buffer Flipping Mode just keep it set to auto select..sometimes block transfer will give you a slight framerate increase, but it's really not worth bothering with.

Vsync is up to you...turning it off will give you a goodly framerate boost, but you might notice a slight tearing in the screen. barely notice it myself so I keep it off, but it does bother some people who have their monitor refresh rates set pretty low.

[99cobra1]

<div class=\"smallfont\">What have you got running in the background while you play the game? If you got something like a Dell or Gateway does it have any autoupdating features running in the taskbar you haven't turned off?

Do you have antialiasing or anisotropic filtering turned on? The FX5200 isn't really powerful enough to handle those features, specially not in online games, but it'll run CS just fine with em turned off.

As far as OpenGL settings go, keep "Disable support for advance CPU instruction sets" unchecked..it wouldn't be wise to turn that on cuz it doesn't really fix any problems or solve any performance issues, quite the opposite in fact.

For Buffer Flipping Mode just keep it set to auto select..sometimes block transfer will give you a slight framerate increase, but it's really not worth bothering with.

Vsync is up to you...turning it off will give you a goodly framerate boost, but you might notice a slight tearing in the screen. barely notice it myself so I keep it off, but it does bother some people who have their monitor refresh rates set pretty low.</div>

Antialiasing and anisotropic were both check application controlled, should I uncheck them and turn it off? for Open GL all it has is Empty and Restore Driver Defaults.....I do not see a Buffer Flipping Mode anywhere and I do not see a Vsync either. The only thing I really have running is my Antivirus software. I asked on another forum and they said to check my frame rates which I did inside the game and I guess they are kinda low. What I dont get is how the game played fine with a lower grade graphics card and a slower PC with less memory and hard drive. Thanks for the reply and if you have any other tips let me know.

[Renzatic Gear]

I do have some more tips but I don't have the time to tell em all...I have to leave in like 3 minutes but I'll be back around 9ish and then I'll see if I can help you out some more.

[Renzatic Gear]

Antialiasing and anisotropic were both check application controlled, should I uncheck them and turn it off? for Open GL all it has is Empty and Restore Driver Defaults.....I do not see a Buffer Flipping Mode anywhere and I do not see a Vsync either. The only thing I really have running is my Antivirus software. I asked on another forum and they said to check my frame rates which I did inside the game and I guess they are kinda low. What I dont get is how the game played fine with a lower grade graphics card and a slower PC with less memory and hard drive. Thanks for the reply and if you have any other tips let me know.

Okay, turn off antialiasing and aniso filtering..that'll give you a goodly framerate boost right there. Also, kill the virus scanner when you wanna play games...you really don't have to worry about getting a virus 24 hours a day and programs like McAfee and Norton like to consume alot of spare resources, I've barely used one in about 4 years of comping and I've only caught 1 virus in all that time.

Since you just got your comp I'm gonna assume that you're using WinXP...that means that you have alot of services turned on that you'll never, ever need. By default XP assumes that you're gonna be using your computer to host a company network and FTP client and that also consumes system resources..killing them off might free up some memory and CPU cycles and thus give you some extra speed.

But that still doesn't change the fact that you're running CS slow on a machine that's more than capable of handling it...what I've told you so far is just pretty basic tweak suggestions, I won't be able to help you out more til I get some more info from you. Like what drivers are you using? How are you getting to your OpenGL settings, are you rightclicking on the desktop, going to properties and hitting the Geforce FX tab? Do other games run slowly or is it just CS?

You said you looked at your framerate inside CS..what was it? On a P4 2.8 with 512 megs of ram and an FX5200 you should be running the game at least 70-80 FPS on average.

[99cobra1]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Okay, turn off antialiasing and aniso filtering..that'll give you a goodly framerate boost right there. Also, kill the virus scanner when you wanna play games...you really don't have to worry about getting a virus 24 hours a day and programs like McAfee and Norton like to consume alot of spare resources, I've barely used one in about 4 years of comping and I've only caught 1 virus in all that time.

Since you just got your comp I'm gonna assume that you're using WinXP...that means that you have alot of services turned on that you'll never, ever need. By default XP assumes that you're gonna be using your computer to host a company network and FTP client and that also consumes system resources..killing them off might free up some memory and CPU cycles and thus give you some extra speed.

But that still doesn't change the fact that you're running CS slow on a machine that's more than capable of handling it...what I've told you so far is just pretty basic tweak suggestions, I won't be able to help you out more til I get some more info from you. Like what drivers are you using? How are you getting to your OpenGL settings, are you rightclicking on the desktop, going to properties and hitting the Geforce FX tab? Do other games run slowly or is it just CS?

You said you looked at your framerate inside CS..what was it? On a P4 2.8 with 512 megs of ram and an FX5200 you should be running the game at least 70-80 FPS on average.</div>z

I tried to look at my framerates but I couldn't figure it out. some guy on the Counter Strike.net forum told me to check a couple of things....cmdrate updaterate and rate....they were all below where they should of been. I went to Nvidia to download the latest drivers....not sure which one it is. THis is really the only game I play online. I have Halo and Battlefield 1942 I guess I could try one of them and see how they work, but I have never even played them so I wouldn't really have anything to compare to. when I rightclick on my desktop and hit properties I do not have a Geforce FX tab.....should I? when I downloaded the newest drivers from Nvidia it an Icon near my clock.

[Renzatic Gear]

Whoops...left out a few steps.

Okay, rightclick and select properties on the popup menu, then go to the settings tab and hit advanced. I haven't ever really used a Geforce FX so I dunno exactly what your display screen will look like after that...but on my Geforce 3 I'll see a Geforce 3 tab that gives me my Direct X, OpenGL, and AA and anisotropic filtering menus. You'll probably see something similar, but you may have to dig around in different places due to the fact that you're using a different card.

[99cobra1]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Whoops...left out a few steps.

Okay, rightclick and select properties on the popup menu, then go to the settings tab and hit advanced. I haven't ever really used a Geforce FX so I dunno exactly what your display screen will look like after that...but on my Geforce 3 I'll see a Geforce 3 tab that gives me my Direct X, OpenGL, and AA and anisotropic filtering menus. You'll probably see something similar, but you may have to dig around in different places due to the fact that you're using a different card.</div>


Ok I found it......here we go


Processor Geforce FX5200
BIOS 4.34.20.16
TV Encoder Type-Integrated{MV}
Direct X 9.0 or better
Driver version 6.14.10.5303

Performance and Quality settings

Image settings High performance (was originally set to quality but I changed it and didn't notice a difference)

Antialiasing off
Anisotropic off


Direct 3d Settings

Mitmap detail level
Best Image Quality
High Image Quality
Blend
Best Performance
High Performance
It is on Best Image Quality right now

Maximum system memory for PCI mode textures

63mb


Enable fog table emulation is checked


Open GL settings

disable support for enhanced CPU instruction sets is not checked
Enable conforment OpenGL texture clamp behavior is not checked

buffer flipping-auto select
Vertical Sync-On by default


I changed the antialiasing and the Anisotropic along with the Image settings and did not notice a difference. I did this thru the Nvidia Icon near the clock yesterday.....I have not changed anything else so whatever you recommend I will try.........Thanks alot

[Renzatic Gear]

well that narrows down the list a little bit...turning V-sync off won't make you go from choppy to smooth so I wouldn't worry about that, and you're using the 53.03 drivers so that's not really an issue...

I'm gonna assume for a sec that it isn't your graphics settings...when you play the game singleplayer does it still run choppy? Do other SP games run pretty slow?

It'd also help me out if I knew what your FPS was...if you can't read what CS is telling you then you could try FRAPS (http://www.fraps.com/downloads.htm) to see what it is...the version I used (haven't used it in awhile, unfortunately) displays your framerate in bold yellow numbers at the top right of the screen. That'd help me out a bit...cuz if you're getting 60+ FPS but it still seems choppy to you then it might be your internet connection.

[99cobra1]

<div class=\"smallfont\">well that narrows down the list a little bit...turning V-sync off won't make you go from choppy to smooth so I wouldn't worry about that, and you're using the 53.03 drivers so that's not really an issue...

I'm gonna assume for a sec that it isn't your graphics settings...when you play the game singleplayer does it still run choppy? Do other SP games run pretty slow?

It'd also help me out if I knew what your FPS was...if you can't read what CS is telling you then you could try FRAPS (http://www.fraps.com/downloads.htm) to see what it is...the version I used (haven't used it in awhile, unfortunately) displays your framerate in bold yellow numbers at the top right of the screen. That'd help me out a bit...cuz if you're getting 60+ FPS but it still seems choppy to you then it might be your internet connection.</div>
The game doesn't have a singleplayer mode......I will try and figure out what my FPS is and I wil post it back here if I find it

[Exey]

Guys, I am also haveing the same problems, except I recently reformatted my computer and my fps for cs and other games are far below normal. I also have the problem of bad pings in crowded servers and choppy gameplay when only one day ago, all was perfectly fine. If you get cs running up to par again, would you please list your settings. Thanks.

[David]

I recently purchased a new PC that included the Geforce FX5200 graphics card. I had been playing Counter Strike on my older PC with a TNT32mb graphics card (sorry dont remember the exact model) and the game played fine. After I got my new PC I installed Counter Strike and started playing online. The first thing I noticed is the graphics were alot better, but anytime the maps I play get somewhat crowded I got alot of lag and my ping goes up. I never had that problem with my old pc unless there were alot of dialup users in there and their pings were real high. Now all it takes is one high ping or just alot of people in a smaller map and it gets annoying to play. Nothing has changed about my internet connection it is the same cable modem and surfing the net everything seems fine. A friend of mine is running the exact same card in a different PC and he has no problems. So my question is are there some settings in Windows or for the graphics card that I can change to maybe help this? I recently tried to download the latest drivers from Nvidia and I downloaded a Nview desktop manager that came with them...it has some changes you can make to the performance and quality and Custom open GL settings, Custom Direct3d settings. I have not messed with any of it because I am not sure what does what. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.

here are my current PC specs

Sony Vaio RX34g
Processor 2.8g Pentium 4
Hard drive 120gb
Memory 512mb
Geforce FX5200 128mb wTVout

Old PC specs
Processor 1.6g pentium 4
Hard drive 80g
memory 256mb
TNT 32mb
your Geforce fx 5200 is doing significant improvements in graphics....although you stepped up to more memory as well as vid memory your doing a lot more work...also...the hard drive is larger...I noticed the 120...gb..you must have had to partition it....you might have been better off with an 80 gb...might affect library speed...also I didnt see the difference in your bus speeds..thats a major determinant of overall speed of the unit...another thing might be the speed of the new memory vs the old..check the specs on that new machine...one of the reasons I always build my own is then I know all the speed compatabilities. Plus its hard to get good gaming specs without spending a fortune on a factory model.