Just got a pretty sweet monitor for my not-so-sweet dinosaur computer. 22" LCD blahblahblah.

Problem is, when I attempt to run games in the same resolution I ran them in with my old CRT, they are running like ****. The reason why I am running them below the monitors native resolution is 1- most of my older games don't support 16:10 ratio, and 2 - my computer is wayyyyyy to ghetto to handle 1680x1050 on the ones that do.

What I'm wondering is, why are the running like garbage (ie high framerate -- even JK is running choppy) when I am running them at a setting I know worked perfectly on my old CRT? (also note, I set up the black bars option so theres no picture distortion). I've taken a stab at saying my computer is too stone age to try and render what the monitor wants to display, even in 1024x780 but I don't know if this is correct....


any ideas gentlemen?

1024x780 is a really weird resolution. Try 1024x768.

PC specs?

AMD Anthalon 1.7ghz
1 gig DDR ram
ATI Radeon 9800PRO

Aging, I know.

Does *anything* run smoothly? Some kind of very simple 2D game involving motion, for instance?

Do the games that run choppily behave differently in different resolutions (including the monitor's native 1680x1050 res)?

Are the games you're playing attempting to run at, say, 75Hz or 85Hz when the monitor can only provide 60Hz? (LCDs almost invariably run at 60Hz, and so if you run at a different refresh rates some of the frames get "dropped", i.e. motion skips a bit. Dunno if that would quite fit the description "choppy" though)

Yeah, that would be choppy.

I say install the monitor drivers.

Helped me.

Yeah, this is actually interesting because Project 64 runs better then it did previously, and thats IN 1680x1050 res, which I would have sworn would cause my machine to explode but it does not. Also little 2d aps from solitare to popcap games run just fine. It seems to be any game running a 3d engine platform.



Just in that, as the resolutions get higher, the performance gets slower.



I believe most of them are running at 70hz and the native is 60 like you mentioned. Some games I don't think even offer a 60hz option. Currently the games I've tried out are UT2004, KOTOR, JK and HL2. They all run like crap at any resolution =/

Xzero I'll try finding drivers, I'm actually suprised/disappointed HP didn't supply drivers with it.

You should be able to force refresh rates in games with video driver settings. RivaTuner for nVidia et al.

Forced refresh rate, and installed drivers, and still running into the same problems.

Anything interesting running in the background?

Does the 9800 Pro have GPU scaling? If you're using DVI, go into Catalyst Control Center and look under monitor or display properties. See if you can turn on GPU scaling. That'll make the GPU do scaling for non-native resolutions. In addition to looking a lot better, it'll output to the native resolution of the display.

you should upgrade your AMD Anthalon 1.7ghz to a AMD Anathema 2.1mghz that will solve your problem

nay, nothing that wasn't running before I did the monitor switch.



Pretty sure the 9800 pro doesn't support DVI. Just HD (not HDMI), but its an older HD pin setup so the HD cable that came with the monitor doesn't line up. I'm running older Catalyst drivers since the latest ones crash out upon launch (common problem with them so I've read) and ATI's only solution to that was to "run the drivers that worked last". -le sigh- The drivers are why I am very hesitant about buying the 4870, no matter how beast it is....



Jon, I'm actually in the process of building a Intel E8500 based PC right now, so hopefully once that is up and running I can abandon this box alltogether. I do have a pentium 4 3.2 ghz with the proper motherboard though, just need a power supply. I am probably going to pop this in sometime this week. Hopefully that will clear up some of the issues, but this video card is rather old still..

That doesn't make sense. What do you mean by "just HD"? Every video card for the past decade can output in "HD" and usually much higher, through VGA. From the description it sounds like it has DVI but maybe just DVI-D, you just need the proper cable (see: monoprice.com).


If it's any consolation, I've never had a problem with any drivers on Vista 32 or 64 for my past cards: a 9700 Pro, X1650XT and HD4850.

pretty sure the 9800 was an AGP only card. ATI has pretty much dropped support for AGP in their latest drivers, but there is an alternative that modifies the current drivers to better suit AGP cards.

plus, ati tray tools, while more complicated interface-wise, is about as powerful (or more) than CCC.

^ tried the omega drivers, cpu ran like *** with them unfortunately.


I don't know about the HD, all I know is the HD cable that came with the monitor doesn't hook into the said HD port. The pin position is way off.

firstly the 9800 should have at least one DVI port possibly even two and no VGA port at all, or most likely it'll have one DVI (white) and one VGA (blue and smaller). This shouldn't effect framerates really but you will want to plug in the DVI port ideally.

I have no idea what this HD stuff you are talking about is...the 9800 had either DVI or VGA and the A/V in the middle, nothing more nothing less. HD ports didn't start appearing until at least the x800 if not x1* series of cards.

second, what is your monitor, make, model and what connections does it have?

the 9800 was AGP only, they never made a PCI-E model unless some 3rd party added the crossover chip at a later date.

out of curiosity have you tried plugging the CRT back and seeing what it does and how it plays?

If you are switching from using VGA to DVI you will also need to reinstall the graphics drivers as a safe bet, which you've done, but you might want to do a total uninstall and reinstall. I used to use drivercleaner but you have to pay for that from what I can see and I'm on a mac now so no idea what the current way to do it is.

No, you don't, the drivers will detect it automatically.


DriverCleaner hasn't been necessary in many years. In fact, ATI recommends installing new drivers over the top of the old ones. The installer takes care of the rest.