Question: What's up with all of the sucess most people have had with the G400's ICD?

[wenDigo]

Alright, I've got ask this because I've gotta find out if it's strictly a VIA chipset thing or an UT thing. I've been noticing more and more that people have been having better compatibility with the latest G400's ICD and/or TurboGL in this last driver release when it comes to UT. However, I have still yet to see what Unreal runs like with either format. With the ICD, the images themselves look very sharp; standing still. For me, the concept of frameskip takes on a whole new meaning: "all-ways skip". Almost every frame jumps, skips or "hiccups" horibly for me with the ICD. And TurboGL, ha..., the only thing I get is a black screen with the words "Loading" in the middle and constantly skipping music.

Don't get me wrong, I love my G400, every other game I own runs up better than expected. For example, Half Life runs absolutely suberb with the ICD, much better than D3D ever did. And although UT runs with D3D at average and high resolutions with all features turned "on", I still do get graphical anomalies every now and then (eg: flashing/flickering objects). I've taken every precaution, countermeasure and remedy I could think of to get my games working, yet this title still alludes me. I'm going to list my system specs in the hope that however reads this may have some insgiht into this enigma of mine, thanks in advance:

- System Specs-
*256MB PC66 RAM (use to think it was pc100)*AMD K6 450 (un-overclocked)
*Matrox 400 32MB single head (AGP)
*SB Live Value
*QUANTUM_FIREBALL TM2550A 2.4GB harddrive (5400rpm in "DMA" mode <VIA PCI BUS Master IDE Utility>)
*BCD 24X CD-ROM (in "PIO" mode <VIA PCI BUS Master IDE Utility>)
*IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI (in "PIO" mode <VIA PCI BUS Master IDE Utility>)
*MAXTOR 91741U4 20.4 Harddrive (5400rpm in "PIO" mode <VIA PCI BUS Master IDE Utility>) )
*VA503+ MoBo (w/ latest VIA patches-updates)
*Windows 98SE (w/ all current critical updates)
*Smile 19" monitor

-IRQ settings-
01 - Standard 101/102-key or MS Natural KB
02 - Programmable interrupt controller
03 - Communications Port (COM2)
05 - Matrox Milennium G400 - English
05 - IRQ holder for PCI steering
06 - standard Floppy Disk Controller
07 - Printer Port (LPT1)
08 - System CMOS/real time clock
10 - Creative SB Live Value
10 - IRQ holder for PCI steering
11 - VIA Tech PCI to USB Universal Host
Controller
11 - IRQ holder for PCI steering
12 - Belkin PS/2 mouse
13 - Numeric Data Processor
14 - VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller (Ultra DMA)
14 - Primary Bus Master IDE Controller (Dual fifo)
15 - VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller (Ultra DMA)

15 - Secondary Bus Master IDE Controller (Dual fifo)

[Nuno]

It´s UT. The OpenGL port is buggy, slow, and virtually unsupported.

[Kruzin]

Yup.
UT really needs to be played in D3D mode. I doubt you will find too many people who actually use OGL mode for it normally. Usually they just test it with each new version of the drivers, see that it still sucks in OGL mode, and switch back to D3D

But as far as your config goes...I'd try to get your G400 on IRQ9 or higher...and 9 appears to be free...

[wenDigo]

Okay, I'll ask a silly question then.
I tried going into device manager, went into "properties" for the display adapter (G400), and then proceeded to attempt to change the IRQ. I say "attempt" because when I tried to change the setting this is the message I got (even after I cleared the "Use
automatic settings" checkbox):

"This Resource cannot be modified"

So the question is, what am I doing wrong/how do I change this silly setting to a higer IRQ (9)? Any replies greatly appreciated.

[Jorden]

wenDigo ... it's already answered somewhere on the new FAQ Files forum

Direct link

Check through there how to move IRQs. It all depends on the make of your BIOS though!

Jorden.

[wenDigo]

I know it's answered somewhere through the posts, Jorden. I had already spent some time looking right after I posted my last reply to this thread. Although I didn't find the exact answer I was looking fo, I realized all I had to do was go into the BIOS and change the status of IRQ 5 from PnP/PCI to Legasy ISA. The system assigned the card to the next available IRQ which just happened to be 9. The question now is, how much of a difference does this kind of change make to games? Will they run faster,more efficiently, stable? I don't see what the big deal is with having it on a higher IRQ. Could someone explain?

[Alfie]

wenDigo,
Please don't shoot the messenger,but on Fic's website,they say that the fic 503+ doesn't support video card with more than 16 megs memory,in addition they state that putting a video card capable of 4x agp isn't reccommended.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tiding's,but this might be your problem.
It's posted on Fic's faq's

[This message has been edited by Alfie (edited 30 March 2000).]

[Kruzin]

wenDigo-
The advantages of a higher IRQ are twofold....

1) IRQ 9 is a higher priority than IRQ 5 (it goes 1,2,9-15,3-8) therefore other devices on lower IRQs are less likely to ineterfere.

2) Matrox cards have always run on "level (or is it edge?) activation" mode. On many mobos, level activation mode only works on IRQ9 or higher. Running at a lower IRQ will cause slower performance....

[wenDigo]

Hmmm... *scratches head*... I was never aware that FIC had made such a claim (incompatible with Vid cards over 16MB). I'd hate to tear my system apart just to accomodate for one peice of equipment; it just doesn't seem right.

I mean, *exactly* what kind of framerates should I be seeing in a game like UT with the specs that I've got minus my motherboard?I ask because until I got this card, my only basis for comparison was a flinchy 16MB RivaTNT Blaster card. Compared to that, the G400 has out-performed in every field. Should I see more speed (higher frame rates in fire-fights with multiple bots on the screen at one time)?

I dunno, I guess it just seems silly that I'd have to go through all these motions to get 1 game out of 10 to work correctly. It's just wierd. I've played around with countless settings under both "Preferences", and the "console" derivative, and I see very little if no improvement. I've tried increasing the Game Engine cache to 128MB (I'd increase it even more but I figured a jump from 4MB to 128 was good enough) and disabling every bit of EyeCandy I could think of (Volumetric Lighting-off , Show Decals-off, 16-bit color, Character Detail- Low, Map Detail- Low, etc.), but I get very little differnce in speed, and the game STILL violently skips when ther are more than 3 bots in front of the player (me) at one time. In fact, It seems that the more I turn visuals up, performance stabilizes more so than when it's dropped down to "Low" levels, does that make any sense?

I guess I'm running on here....Oh agony