Help! ATI video card problem!

[freddyL]

I just purchased a ATI radeon 9550 AGP video card 256mb. The problem is when I try to play GTA or Halo, the video is terrible. I mean by that: missing graphics on the screen (i.e. there should be people or cars and nothing is on the screen, dragging of graphics across the screen, freezing of screen.
I have a Pentium III 833mhz. Win 2K as operating system. 392mb ram and 80gig harddrive.
Could the type of memory on the video card conflict with my ram on the computer?
Any suggestions?

 

[zero4zero]

Well, for one thing, you don't have a very fast processor for the card you have. You probably have PC133 SDRAM, with a the bus on your motherboard being 133Mhz and a X 6 multiplier.
Have you checked your BIOS setting since yoiu installed this card. Your AGP aperture should be at least the amount of RAM you have on your video card. So if it is set at lower, change it to match your videocard.
Since you have 392 Meg of RAM, you probably have two memory sticks, a 256M and a 128M; if you have the $$, why don't you change that 128 Meg PC133 stick to a 512 Meg chip.
Also, check to see if you do have PC133, I have seen people with PC100 instead of PC133 and that creates a bottleneck, reduces the bus speed as well as the AGP speed.

 

[alvino]

Either upgrade or put the video settings lower for your games.

 

[freddyL]

My RAM is all the same, I think 133.
I think the AGP goes to 128. My card is 256...does that create a problem?
I read the requirements for my video card and my computer is fine for that card....
Does the fact that my video card's memore is DDR and my computer's is SDRam matter?

 

[zero4zero]

No, the problem is probably because you system bus is slower the your video card bus! And also if you BIOS AGP aperture is only good for 128 Meg, well maybe your video card is too much for your motherboard. When was the last time you did a BIOS update for your motherboard!?