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A Tale of Two Graphics Cards
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krick:

--- Quote from: gamecreature on August 30, 2006, 10:02:58 am ---So I tried a different graphics card, an ATI Rage 128. The ATI card had no problem displaying the vertical games at their proper aspect ratio, but the frame rate was terrible. Mame froze repeatedly as it would squeeze out a few frames every few seconds.

So what do I do? All I want is to get my vertical games back the way they're supposed to be. Is there a way to get the Intel graphics to do the job? Is this motherboard just too anal to accept an advanced graphics card? Any help would be appreciated.

--- End quote ---


An ATI Rage 128 is far from an advanced graphics card.  The onboard is probably more advanced.


If your computer has a AGP slot, I found a fairly decent *cheap* video card on eWiz.com:

If you use this link, you get the "Froogle" discount and the card is $35.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=XFX-6200_1&c=fr

XFX nVidia GeForce 6200 128MB DVI/TV-out AGP
Part Number: PV-T44A-RAMG
Chipset: GeForce 6200
Video Memory: 128MB DDR
Memory Interface: 64-bit
Bus: AGP 8X
Connectors: VGA; DVI; TV-out
Thermal: Fanless

Pros:
It has 128MB of actual memory (none of that TurboCache crap).
It's a GeForce 6 series so it's fully DX9 compliant unlike most budget cards.
It's fanless. No noise, and no crappy fan to fail in a year.
Being DX9 compliant, it will work with Vista if it ever comes out.

Cons:
The 6200 is one of the weakest of the Geforce 6 series.
the 64-bit memory interface hurts the performance in really modern games.

Overall though, it's a pretty decent card, and more than capable of handling anything MAME throws at it. I bought three of them for the computers in my house because I *HATE* the piercing noise from crappy video card fans.


gamecreature:

--- Quote from: krick on August 31, 2006, 11:15:11 pm ---
An ATI Rage 128 is far from an advanced graphics card.  The onboard is probably more advanced.


--- End quote ---

I tried it with a new FX5200 with the same results. The video would play briefly and then freeze while I got a high-pitched whine from the speakers. The whine would stop, the video would resume until it was time for another whine. Perhaps the SB Audigy card is the culprit...
krick:

--- Quote from: gamecreature on September 01, 2006, 10:01:21 am ---
--- Quote from: krick on August 31, 2006, 11:15:11 pm ---
An ATI Rage 128 is far from an advanced graphics card.  The onboard is probably more advanced.


--- End quote ---

I tried it with a new FX5200 with the same results. The video would play briefly and then freeze while I got a high-pitched whine from the speakers. The whine would stop, the video would resume until it was time for another whine. Perhaps the SB Audigy card is the culprit...

--- End quote ---


That's almost certainly the problem.  What motherboard do you have?  How many PCI slots?

The soundblaster cards do *NOT* like to share IRQs with anything.  In modern motherboards with all the onboard devices fighting for IRQs, it's very hard to avoid sharing an IRQ.

If your motherboard is a full sized ATX, usually slot #2 or #3 are the best location for a sound blaster.  PCI slot #1 (the one closest to the CPU) almost always (99% of the time) shares with the AGP slot.  Does your motherboard report the IRQ assignments while booting?  If so, we can use that to resolve the conflict.

Make sure that you go into the BIOS and disable any features on your board that you aren't using like onboard sound and RAID.

gamecreature:

--- Quote from: krick on September 01, 2006, 10:22:28 am ---That's almost certainly the problem.  What motherboard do you have?  How many PCI slots?

The soundblaster cards do *NOT* like to share IRQs with anything.  In modern motherboards with all the onboard devices fighting for IRQs, it's very hard to avoid sharing an IRQ.

If your motherboard is a full sized ATX, usually slot #2 or #3 are the best location for a sound blaster.  PCI slot #1 (the one closest to the CPU) almost always (99% of the time) shares with the AGP slot.  Does your motherboard report the IRQ assignments while booting?  If so, we can use that to resolve the conflict.

Make sure that you go into the BIOS and disable any features on your board that you aren't using like onboard sound and RAID.

--- End quote ---

The best that I can tell you right now is that it's a Dell office computer with only four PCI slots and no AGP. Can't say if it's reporting anything during boot. The device manager wasn't reporting anything. There's no onboard sound that I can tell (no built in sound jacks) but I'll see if I can find anything else I feel brave enough to disable. I did have the sound card in the first slot. I'll move it and see what happens.
gamecreature:
The SB card wants to use IRQ 3 and the Video card wants to use IRQ 11. The Intel chip, oddly enough, doesn't use any IRQ. If I could find an newer card like that, I think I'd be set.
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