1. RAM

PC2100 is all the speed you need from RAM. If you can't get hold of any PC2100 then PC2700 will be fine, and will operate at PC2100 speed anyway when installed together with the other module. RAM always operates at the speed of the powest specification module installed. Extra RAM will NOT give you better gaming performance - it will only improve the multi-tasking performance of your system. You'll be able to task switch between your game and other running programs more easily, but that's about all!

2. Display card.

Display card is EVERYTHING for gaming, and the 9600SE is NOT really a good gaming card. It's about on a level with a standard Radeon 9200 or a 9200 Pro, that's all.

Sorry for the double post, but I want to be sure the topic starter has noticed this comment.

3. 64-bit

The 64-bit memory interface is NOT the AGP bus! It is the line of communication between the graphics processor and the video memory on the card. The AGP bus is the line of communication between the card itself and the rest of the computer system, and does not effect performance. The memory interface, however, is the reason why, despite having a reasonable graphics processor and reasonable graphics memory, the card itself is realatively low performance.

Modern display cards, depending on the internal architecture of the graphics processor, need either a 128-bit or a 256-bit memory interface for best performance. (The NVidia 6600GT, for example, uses a 128-bit interface but has two separate channels of it)

64-bit memory interface cards are poor performance gaming cards.

Thanks for the clarification =)

thanks for the help guys. And BTW, Im dont plan to up the resolution on BFV. I always run it on 1024 x 768 on medium and it runs great. Ok and i need clarification on one more thing. The 64 bit interface, does it mean it draws from your comps ram? IS that what is used for? If so than the more ram you have the better it will be right? Sorry for all the questions.I just wanna know exactly what i am doing

sorry for double posting but do any of you know what chipset the 9600 se has? I checked my dxdiag and it said i have 9600 series chipset. I know i made a thread about this already but i might not have the se. I think i might have the regular one or the pro but i dont know what chipset the se has. You can check out my other post called " Identifying my g-card' for my dxdiag.

WOOPYYY! I just popped in the catalyst cd for my 9600. I went into display adapter information and it said i have 9600 pro!!! w00t!!!! Whats strange is that it came in an se box but i heard that ther was a problem in the manufacturing line and they actulaly put pros in ses boxes. Apperantly i was lucky enough to have a pro!!! W00tt!! So is this a good card?

No Meow, the memory interface, as I mentioned above, is referring to the line of communication between the card's graphics processor and the on-card video memory. Modern diswplay cards use their own RAM, rather than using system memory. Display cards from the ATi 9xxx series and NVidia FX5xxx series have 128Mb or more of onboard video memory and that's heaps enough for the games they're capable of running. In fact some cards have 256Mb of video memory and actually perform WORSE than the 128Mb versions because the memory itself is comprised of 'slower' less responsive chips.

There's no need for the cards to use system memory for their calculations, and if there were it would slow things down considerably because system memory is MUCH slower than video memory. The card has to prepare the image that's to be displayed on the screen. The faster the card, the more detailed and complex the image can be. The AGP bus is the line of communication between the card slot and the computer system itself. That's where the image is sent to the rest of the game, and where information about what to do about the next image is sent to the card. The game itself is run by the PC system. It deals with information about, for example, which direction you're moving in, what you're holding, what game character's are nearby or further on, what objectives you're trying to meet etc, etc, etc. Game calculations performed by the machine, image calculations performed by the display card. And the AGP bus is the 'highway' of communication between the two.

Only if the image information becomes so complex that it requires more RAM than the card has will image information need to make use of normal system RAM, and you'll find that if that happens then the image would be too much for the card to handle quickly anyway. The onscreen display would become so jerky and slow that the game would be virtually unplayable, because it'd be more like a slideshow than smooth motion.

Extra system memory can help with running games because EVERYTHING the PC is doing can be done more smoothly and quickly, but it doesn't really increase the image processing capability of the display card itself.


With regard to the card identification, the only determining information you have is the reference to the graphics processor. (My apologies, by the way, because the RAM figure I referred to earlier was the speed of the display monitor interface, not the actual graphics memory speed itself) There is no software that can conclusively identify the card. Not benchmark tests, not system utilities, and sometimes even the drivers themselves. All of them can misreport the card, because all cards in the product line use the same graphics processor. On cards like the 9600SE some features of the graphics processor will be either not implemented or implemented in a different way. The only true way to determine the difference is to inspect the cards themselves.

For example, just recently there has been controversy about a product line released by several display card manufacturers and called a "Radeon 9800 Pro". In every respect a 9800 Pro except for one important detail. It was manufactured using a cut-down memory interface and actually only performed at about the level of a 9600 Pro, which is a much less capable card! I've seen other 'cut-down' cards where the only real way to tell the difference was to remove the card's heatsink and visually inspect the markings on the components underneath!


But the other 'hint' we get from the information you've provided is the fact that the system is a 'Name brand' HP system.

The 'reduced performance' product lines are generally developed and produced primarily for the OEM market. They're produced in huge numbers for bulk purchasers that assemble systems, to provide a component that can be cheaply included, and which carries the model number for appeal. Dedicated gamers generally avoid purchasing 'Name Brand' PCs,

As I've said earlier, there's no conclusive way to determine what the card is without physically inspecting it. But the reported speeds by your display drivers is a further clue, and if it is reporting that you have a core (graphics processor) speed of 400MHz and a memory(video memory) speed of 600MHz then it's certainly a 9600 Pro, I'd think. I'm not aware of any 'cut-down' version that uses 600MHz video RAM.

Are those the figures reported?

ok this is what i did. I popped in the CD and went to maintenence. Then i went to adapter information and it showed my pc specs. There was another tab thats said RADEON 9600 PRO AGP. Let me try to upload a pic....il post it later. There was nothing about SE though. Neither in my DXDIAG or adapter info.

ok heres my desktop:
http://www.monkeyfiles.net/iuploader/ddddasda.jpg

Go to www.ati.com and download the most recent Catalyst driver. Install that. (You'll only need to run the file and follow onscreen prompts.

After that bring up Display properties -> Settings -> Advanced and click on the Tab for your display card. Have a look in there and see if there's reported figures for core and memory speeds.

(I'm not an ATi card user myself so I haven't one in front of me to check the procedure. I'll check later for information about accessing those details)

The latest Catalyst drivers on the ATi website will run that card far, far better than the driver on your CD. Drivers included with computer parts are usually out of date before the ink dries on the CD label!