Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have a Sun GDM-FW9010 (basically a Sony) 24+" widescreen crt. I've noticed that when I play certain games the framerate is atrocious or I get other issues compared to playing them at the same resolution on a smaller monitor like my ancient 14" packard bell I use for diagnostic work. (no other change in the computer)

For example, when playing KMQuake2 @ 1024x768 on the PB I get around 45ish FPS. But on the Sun I'm looking at 3 FPS for the same res. Here's a weirder one, Dungeon Keeper 2 runs fine on the PB but develops sound stuttering and small pauses in the game in general when on the Sun, at all resolutions. But this isn't always so. Quake2evolved (another Q2 sourceport) gives me the exact same frame rate on both monitors.

My system is pretty meager AMD Athlon XP 1800+ 1gb 266 ddr Nvidia 6200. I do have the standard 4:3 res's 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480 stretched to fill the screen (from the monitor, not in the games) because the wasted space is more annoying to me than the stretch. Does that make a difference?
Any help would be appreciated. Most of my favorite games are old as hell and don't support any resolutions but the big 3. I may just have to run dual-head and keep a smaller monitor on the desk for them.

My system is pretty meager AMD Athlon XP 1800+ 1gb 266 ddr Nvidia 6200. I do have the standard 4:3 res's 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480 stretched to fill the screen (from the monitor, not in the games) because the wasted space is more annoying to me than the stretch. Does that make a difference?

No. The CRT is doing all the work. The output image is the same number of pixels.

Regarding your problem, it is hard to say.

Are you using the same video cable?

Are you using the GDM's BNC connectors?

Are you using different outputs on your video card?

Are you using the GDM monitor drivers?

hum the only thing I see that links screens and framerate is vertical sync
you might want to disable it in the gfx driver control panel and give another shot at it ?

Otherwise, unless one of the screens uses USB, there's no way for a screen to influence framerate as it is only on the recieving end.

same video cable.
using the vga connector
same output on the card.
yep have the driver, well the sony one sun never had a driver for that monitor
nope vsync is off.

Do you think it is possible that it happens by chance? In otherwords, how reproducible is this problem?

Hmmm, are you using a 1920x1200 desktop when you game?

Aha that was it. Well not so much the desktop resolution, but the color depth. For some reason on the PB I can run a 32bit desktop and have no problems, but on this one 32bit causes the problems mention in those games. I should have thought of that earlier, I used nothing 3dfx Voodoos for years they're horrible about that.
Thanks man

Aha that was it. Well not so much the desktop resolution, but the color depth. For some reason on the PB I can run a 32bit desktop and have no problems, but on this one 32bit causes the problems mention in those games. I should have thought of that earlier, I used nothing 3dfx Voodoos for years they're horrible about that.

I am guessing the extra pixels on your desktop taxed your system just enough that it caused problems in games. By lowering the color depth you eased some of the strain on your system so the games could work.

Or

Maybe it was a monitor driver issue.

Either way I am glad it is working.

first time in my life as a PC tech that I see this advice being efficient
(support on particular issues with games & gfx often sent the advice to lower desktop res)