Radeon 9800 pro

[Vertabreaker]

Using 2 x nVidia 7950 GT KOs after using ATI for years. I'll never go back to ATI.

[Midnightjade]

Quite a few cards from around that time had problems with heat - some of the NVidia cards had similar issues. They ran really hot and after a while they just burned out.

I recently upgraded to an NVidia GF 7900, nice card, very smooth. Feels like it's running FFXI without even trying.

[draxyl]

I have this card, only problem I have with it is that it can't seem to handle WMV / AVI / MPEG files alongside FFXI. I can watch youtube, I can't watch anything in winamp/mediaplayer or either FF or the Movie will crash.

I have the latest drivers and everything too, dunno why they collide but they just do.

I'd reccomend the card if you're only wanting to play FF

I am glad to hear i am not the only on with this problem. I have yet to be able to find a fix. I will have try one of the custom drivers from the site Draxyl posted and see if that works.

Please make sure to set a system restore point before you try them out, forgot to add that part in the post

[Viena]

I'm a Radeon 9800 Pro user, run ffxi at 1280x1024 and videos on media player simultaneously without problem. I run ATI's drivers.

[Misterjingles]

I went through four 9800 Pros, so I will forever believe that the card is flawed in some design aspect. Been using an X850 for about a year now (X1950XT going in new PC), and no problems.

ATI fo lyfe tho.

I have that card, the stock fan sucks balls though, made my computer sound like a damn boeing jet when it started up and overheated when I had my graphics all maxed out. But after buying THIS it made it run SO much better, less overheating and quieter too.

[Eddie]

When I first built this PC, it seems like my game's running slower now.

I have no idea why, I run a clean PC and never have anything except what I need/use on the HD.

FFXI just seems to run abit slower than it did before.

[Sigi]

When's the last time you did a defrag/cleanup? Also, when's the last time you ran a spyware trap like spybot/adaware/etc? System slowdown usually comes from file fragmentation or from spyware adding processes to your background.
In other words, what do you mean by a "clean" system?
Even in normal use, Windows will add a lot of shit to your temp directories that can creep on your hard drive capacity/add to file fragmentation. Spyware would give a more insidious form of slowdown.. but is relatively easy to fix.

Top recommendation: Run scandisk/chkdsk and then defrag. Run Spybot/Ad-Aware/Windefender, whatever spyware utility you have. Check your temp files such as C:\Documents and Settings\(Insert Name Here)\Local Settings\Temp, C:\Documents and Settings\(Insert Name Here)\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 and delete the excess bs. Check the size of your system restore folder and recycle bin. Some of the default settings are rather... retarded.

Other than that, it could be that SE is making POL run even more stupidly before.

[levish]

if you have tried the latest drivers from ATI's website try uninstalling the drivers, rebooting and re-installing them

[Eddie]

I defragged last Saturday. Run ad-aware and system mechanic pro weekly. Check ATI's site for drivers every month, and, am up to date as I post this.

I have no clue what's up.

[Sigi]

Did you empty your recycle/resize it? Did you check to see system restore wasn't consuming most of your hard drive? Did you empty your temp files and temporary internet files?

Check out what processes are running in the background... I find that keeping Windows essential items and an antivirus program/firewall should only take a footprint of ~200megs. If you have more... research what services you can disable/ what items in your startup you can prune out

[Eddie]

Did you empty your recycle/resize it?

-Bins Always Empty

Did you check to see system restore wasn't consuming most of your hard drive?

-Err...never did or heard of that one TBH.

Did you empty your temp files and temporary internet files?

-Frequently

Check out what processes are running in the background... I find that keeping Windows essential items and an antivirus program/firewall should only take a footprint of ~200megs. If you have more... research what services you can disable/ what items in your startup you can prune out

- I'm picky what I have on my startup. When it was running fine is the same thing that I have startup now.

Sometime's formatting fixes all problems with slowdown. Not sure why I am having slowdown, Like I said a run a tight ship so to speak, all my ducks in a row as far as my PC goes.

Oh woe is me.

Thanks for the tips though, what's with that system restore jawnz?

[Sigi]

if you go into system properties (you know, the right click on my computer shit, yadda yadda insert dell bs script here), click on the system restore tab. It defaults to 12% of your harddrive. (fook dat!)

As far as startup and the services... I use a bit of research to check what processes are necessary... and what are useless as tits on a boar. (that's under admin tools, services). I also pare down through Msconfig to check out what's running at startup. (Pac's portal was a good site for a catalogue of programs that are needed/what's crap.)

Recycle bin can reserve up to 10% of your hard drive as well... even if it's empty.

Run defrag after that and see if that helps your performance any

[loial]

I have 3 Radeon 9800 Pros and I haven't seen this "can't watch other video with FFXI running" problem myself. I'm running whatever the latest drivers are as for Dec '06. I also don't install all that extra catalyst crap. I just download the minimum stuff required (driver only, not all the utilities that come with it). Maybe that is the difference?

[Doc]

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro I bought when it came out like 5 years ago or w/e, no problems at all w/ anything. Using latest drivers too.

[Lbelle]

Heya, little late on this topic but thought I'd give you my 2 cents. I bought my 9800 pro about 5 years ago when they were the best thing out pretty much, and it pretty much sucks now. The fan has like, stopped working, and so my computer overheats because of it.

I'd suggest getting a new card if yours is pretty old. That's what I have to do.

[Lordwafik]

Thanks to Gulkeeva, the problem with FFXI + WMV files crashing it has been narrowed down.

Apparently there was a release of fraps that came out with a bugged codec, which caused crashes when you tried to multitask with programs that fraps can run.

Simply closing fraps didn't fix it, uninstalling fraps fixed it for me, I hardly record videos anymore so I don't miss it, but I guess downloading a newer version should fix it.

So once again, if you have the error of FFXI not working with WMV/AVI etc playing at the same time, uninstall fraps.


edit: I think I spoke too soon, after 20mins not only did ffxi hang, winamp then hung, then my whole PC completely hung.

edit 2:Now my PC is hanging with or without WMV's playing due to FFXI. Ughghghghg 1 week to go till new one ><

[Eddie]

My WMP has a black bar at the bottom, almost like a widescreen presentation on a full screen tv would do, but just on the bottom.

Maybe i'll get the latest fraps like you said, I don't even know which version I have.

[bebeci]

Thanks to Gulkeeva, the problem with FFXI + WMV files crashing it has been narrowed down.

Apparently there was a release of fraps that came out with a bugged codec, which caused crashes when you tried to multitask with programs that fraps can run.

Simply closing fraps didn't fix it, uninstalling fraps fixed it for me, I hardly record videos anymore so I don't miss it, but I guess downloading a newer version should fix it.

So once again, if you have the error of FFXI not working with WMV/AVI etc playing at the same time, uninstall fraps.


edit: I think I spoke too soon, after 20mins not only did ffxi hang, winamp then hung, then my whole PC completely hung.

edit 2:Now my PC is hanging with or without WMV's playing due to FFXI. Ughghghghg 1 week to go till new one ><

Sorry you couldn't get yours working. But I just uninstalled my fraps, and I can watch anything with WMP. Thanks LW and Gulkeeva.

(I'll post what happens when I install the new version of fraps)

[Lordwafik]

Thanks to Gulkeeva, the problem with FFXI + WMV files crashing it has been narrowed down.

Apparently there was a release of fraps that came out with a bugged codec, which caused crashes when you tried to multitask with programs that fraps can run.

Simply closing fraps didn't fix it, uninstalling fraps fixed it for me, I hardly record videos anymore so I don't miss it, but I guess downloading a newer version should fix it.

So once again, if you have the error of FFXI not working with WMV/AVI etc playing at the same time, uninstall fraps.


edit: I think I spoke too soon, after 20mins not only did ffxi hang, winamp then hung, then my whole PC completely hung.

edit 2:Now my PC is hanging with or without WMV's playing due to FFXI. Ughghghghg 1 week to go till new one ><

Sorry you couldn't get yours working. But I just uninstalled my fraps, and I can watch anything with WMP. Thanks LW and Gulkeeva.

(I'll post what happens when I install the new version of fraps)

Oh mine works fine now, forgot to post it in this topic lol.

[Delekii]

I have an old old version of fraps installed and I can still do anything you would expect to be able to do with that card. My PC runs seriously hot and sometimes hangs from overheating, most likely because my 9800pro is the shittiest, cheapest one you can get, but other than that I have no issues whatsoever - I watch video all the time, sometimes on the second of two displays running off the same card, running FFXI for days on end.