NEC 3550 Firmware Update 1.07

[Dr Klovernutz]

Chewy

got all the parts and put them in.

1. Samsung seems smooth, did a few test burns, all seems well

2. CoolerMaster PSU: Seems good, was loud (basically there is a design flaw where the fan clicks against the fan grill when the grill is on bottom. Simple solution: Removed grill, added washers, put grill back, no more clicking (gonna give it a week to make sure it doesn't crap out)

3. eVGA 7600GS, Here is where your input would be great. I really don't see an improvement over the GeForce 5200FX that I had. Actually the 7600GS seems just as good as the GeForce Go 6150 I have in my laptop, I was expecting a bit better. Most of my games I wasn't able to really improve the settings over what I had with the FX5200.

I did some Video Benchmarking with 3 computers:
1. (desktop)Dell 4600 2.4GHz, 1G DDR RAM, eVGA 7600GS
2. (laptop) HP6105 2.0GHz, 1G RAM, GeForce Go 6150
3. (desktop) Dell E310 2.8GHz, 1G RAM, INTEGRATED VIDEO

I used Video Card Stility Test the scores were as follows:
1. 188
2. 184
3. 197

The intergrated video did the BEST????
Am I doing something wrong?

I am using the newest driver from NVIDIA for the eVGA7600GS (Forceware 162.18)

thanks

[Dr Klovernutz]

Just performed another test using AQUAMARK3

RESULTS:
computer 1. :
GFX 1,134
CPU 7,126
Triangles/sec: 3,163,209
Frames/sec: 10.51

computer 2:
GFX 1,146
CPU 7,379
Triangles/sec: 3,203,700
Frames/sec: 10.64

not goingto perform on computer 3

[Chewy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-130-076-04.jpg&Image=14-130-076-09.jpg%2c14-130-076-02.jpg%2c14-130-076-03.jpg%2c14-130-076-04.jpg%2c14-130-076-05.jpg%2c14-130-076-06.jpg%2c14-130-076-07.jpg%2c14-130-076-08.jpg&S7ImageFlag=0&Depa=1&Description=EVGA+GeForce+7600GS+256-A8-N542-T2+Video+Card

check the power connection and make sure it's getting enough juice

run the benchmark not stabilty

[Dr Klovernutz]

I checked the power connection, its in, tight. I was really hoping that was the problem.....


I ran another benchmark with UT2003 (all 3 computers)
resolution for test was 1024 X 768

computer 1.
flyby: 62.894844
botmatch: 38.533272

computer 2.
flyby: 54.140991
botmatch: 34.778973

computer 3.
flyby: 62.679649
botmatch: 25.235008


as for the "Video Card Stibility Test"
I clicked on Benchmark for the results I listed above.

[Dr Klovernutz]

Ok, I am putting the FX5200 back in to run the same tests.

1 think I did notice, during the black Windows XP startup screen with the 7600GS in there is a "Line of distortion" that flashes during every start up

[Chewy]

after reading a little, the stability benchmark needs cpu's, same for other 2

computer 1 has the oldest and is holding back the vid card

wonder how the 5200 would have tested?

my ati 9600 and amd64 got a 700 in the stability
my pci ati 7000 and amd xp 3200 got a 20!

[Dr Klovernutz]

OK I ran 2 tests with the FX5200.

test 1: Video Card Stability Test: 139
test 2: AquaMark3:
GFX: 816
CPU: 7,261
Triangles/sec: 2,324,371
Frames/sec: 7.72

so i guess the 7600GS is an upgrade... but only to the level of my laptop or an integrated video adapter on a newer Dell

I was hoping for more umph......

[Dr Klovernutz]

would upgrading to the 7600GT help?

[Chewy]

would upgrading to the 7600GT help?

no not really, the cpu is holding you back now

[Dr Klovernutz]

well spoke to evga (there idiots, think he was eating doritos as we were talking) he basically told me to run 3Dmark.

I dunno, I am tempted to to upgrade to the GT.

gonna run 3dmark, check out results.

[Dr Klovernutz]

what do u think about these for my system? will i see an improvement at all??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130099

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150233

[Chewy]

newer games, newer benches is where you start to see the performance differences

I wouldn't get any better/expensive agp cards, try finding a motherboard for one

now if you had a friend/relative that could use it in a year or two great

your setup/P4 is going to kill performance

my ati 9600 is slightly below your new card in performance but my score was 3 times yours because of a better cpu, my cpu is running at 2.3GHz

[Dr Klovernutz]

my cpu is 2.6 GHZ (I mis-spoke before)

what about switching to ATI (they are actually cheaper)

this is very dis-heartening......

[Chewy]

ati's usually do a little worse in games, just depends upon the drivers and cards

[Dr Klovernutz]

so what about the 2.6GHz do u think i should be doing better?