How to tweak DirectX settings for better fps?

[twombles62]

Hey all,
I couldn't find a thread about this, but i've been reading that many people with macbooks have got better fps in windows bootcamp, when using Directx 7 or 8, instead of 9. How can I change it to run using Directx 8? And I assume my games are already using Directx9, are they? I'm using Vista.

 

[Chone]

There was a way to force DX8/DX7 for games that supported fallback modes but didn't feature any user-accessible togglers. You can use RivaTuner for this however not all games support DX7/DX8 render paths so if you force DX8 for a game that doesn't support it... well it won't even run.

Most modern games are DX9 only and most that do havce DX8 render paths have options for it.

What games are you interested in?

 

[twombles62]

Sorry, I'd read about it in another thread and assumed you could do it for all games. I know you can definitely do it in CS. I'm looking for use in Dungeon Siege 2, KOTOR (not working for me in vista), UT2004, Baldurs Gate II.

These are all in Bootcamp, Vista. Why I'm saying this is that I'm getting quite low frame rates in DS2 (10-20) when I should at least be getting 25+.

What can I do to improve game performance? I installed the new drivers before I had to reformat, but they seemed worse. I'm not sure If I installed the wrong ones. Does anyone have a link? For the X3100.

 

[Cromulent]

Look on the box or the website. If the game requires a DirectX 9 compliant graphics card then it won't work.

 

[twombles62]

Yep, I installed the GMA drivers for the 965 Express or whatever it is, and the frame rates go from 14-18 down to a steady 8. It's strange, our other very old pc, that was from a dell from the work with integrated graphics, also gets exatly 8, and is unchanging.

I went through device manager and got 'Rollback driver' and it played at 14-16 again, which is still pretty bad, but the same as I originally had.