Another "wahh my fps" thread.

I'm going to start this thread off saying that I realize that there has been an overwhelming amount of threads that share my PLEA for help. I know you all are tired of people complaining about "wahh the fps sucks wahh..." but those who are "tech suave" I am in dire need. Please don't dismiss my thread. I have a damn good reason for being P.O.'d and I desperately want to play T:V as best I can.

I don't know what to do anymore... so here it goes, I'll leave it up to the brilliance of my fellow TW peers

I can't get good fps. I'm not great with computers, but I am no comp newbie either. I know how to mess with sh!t, and believe me, I have done just that (for hours on end, I might add.)

My Specs:
Pent. 4 WinXP (NOT CELERON)
2.4 Ghz
768 mb ram
Geforce FX 5700 256 mb ddr ram

I turned off vsync/AA
I have tried tweaking some things within the TribesVengeance.ini or whereever it is that you can tweak video settings.

yet when I play T:V in a server with more than 15 people my frames drop to avaragely 18-23 on medium/low settings (doesn't seem to effect performance)... 800x600(doesn't seem to matter either)

Immidiate response: upgrade newb
Answer: I DID upgrade. I just effing bought this card. It should run T:V perfectly.
I know people are going to say "but you didn't get the highest of the high end cards" but I know from word of mouth that this card can run T:V fine, full server, high settings, 50+ fps.

Everyone says run a spyware/adware program, virus checker, etc. I did that, had no affect. Well, now I'm writing this on a BRAND NEW FRESH INSTALL. That's right, i reformatted yesterday.

Install the latest drivers? Why yes, I did. I downloaded everything from motherboard drivers to video card drivers to sound card drivers.

Make sure extra programs aren't running all the time? Nope, the little programs i have downloaded so far I have disabled them on startup by running msconfig.

I messed around with my BIOS.
I tried overclocking.
Nothing has made any noticeable difference. I'm about to cry.

Why this is so effed up to me? My brother has a comp with essentially the same specs except his gfx card is a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (statistacally a FAR worse card) and can run it 30-40 fps on medium/high settings. And like i have said, I know that this card can not only handle T:V, it can handle it damn well.

My old radeon 9100 ran T:V almost as effing well. Pretty damn close.
When I play a match or scrim (10v10) my fps is VERY rarely higher than 20. period. It fluxuates from 13-20 the whole time.

My MOBO cannot support 8x AGP. I know this makes a difference, but should it really make such a effing huge difference? I have heard varied opinions on how much AGP matters, but this seems to be the ONLY thing left.

My conclusion is that it is probably my MOBO, seeing as how I can't support 8X agp. but any suggestions would be nice. anything at all.

side note: on 3dmark03 i got around 2578.

Try changing the Graphics Aperture size in your BIOS. Change it to 256 since you're running a 256 card. Also, turn up your Virtual Memory... Your RAM also may be causing issues. Try tuning it down to 512MB and run only Bank 1 and Bank 2 (it counts 0,1,2) so use the slots closer to the front of the PC. If that doesnt work, change which RAM goes where, maybe try a different stick. Many don't think so, but RAM effects your FPS quite a bit. Perhaps run something other than 3DMark03. Go to PCpitstop.com and run their full test utility, it will tell you if there is any issues with your PC (totally basic issues, nothing advanced). It's not the greatest utility, but I still find myself using it as a last resort.

I already changed the aparture to 256. ill take a look at the other things on the list. thanks :)