Upgraded video card = downgraded performance?

[christopherprevails]

Hey everyone. I was running a Nvidia Geforce 5200FX and then a Radeon 9200 (both 128MB, AGP cards). In the game Day of Defeat you can type a command that displays your FPS, real time, during the game. I had the maximum set at 100 and would basically get 100 throughout the entire game.

My friend offered to sell me his MSI Nvidia 6600GT for $40. I couldn't pass up the deal, seeing as they were selling for up to $150 elsewhere. I installed it and ran the game to a disappointing 40-50ish FPS. My friend who sold it to me and I concluded that my power supply wasn't enough (350 watts) so I just installed a 500 watt PSU. Now when I ran the game it maxed out at 60 FPS. What gives?! I don't know what else could be wrong -- I have a gig of RAM which is way more than you need for Day of Defeat (it's an old game).

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DaveSimmons]

FPS by itself means nothing, since before you were seeing the DirectX _7_ version of the visuals and now you are seeing the directx _9_ version.

Go to the Video tab at the top of this page and read old articles on Half-Life 2 to see the differences in visual quality using different "code paths" in the renderer.

Besides that you might also have issues from having a mix of ATI and nVidia drivers installed on your PC. The folks in the Video forum here could recommend the right "driver cleaner" application to use.

 

[christopherprevails]

Thanks for the help. I did uninstall the ATI drivers before installing the nVidia one.

 

[myocardia]

This is freeware, and it works very well: DriverCleaner Pro. I've been using it for a long time, and it's never failed me.

edit: Uninstalling the old drivers isn't enough. Use that software, and it will clean out all of your old video drivers, including the older nVidia driver.

 

[Howard]

Running on Windows XP? Nvidia has the annoying 60fps lock.

 

[Talcite]

Howard, what 60fps lock are you refering to?