I have an old TNT2 RIVA 32 meg VGA card and when I play Counter Strike...it starts to lag big time!  I threw in another card (same model) and I had the same results...?

WHen I put a newer (high-end) VGA card in, it runs perfect. I know that both cards are not bad and they do work w/o problem.  I just think that it is a setting somewhere.

What version of Direct X should I be using? I downloaded DirectX 9 but dont think that helped.

Can someone please help me out?

...I found the "any" key.

When you state it 'lags' I presume you are not lagging in a network but as a standalone PC.  If so, I'll make the following suggestion/comment/opinion:

More up to date video cards use more onboard RAM of their own and a more robust GPU (graphics processing unit) - just have a look at the clock frequencies of the video chipsets (light years apart).  It's for that reason, the updated cards seem to work better because they take more of the graphics processing load off of your CPU.  That's why two identical cards did the same thing in your experiment.

In the case of your TNT2 card, while not obsolete by any measure, in my opinion the video card can never be 'tweaked out' to match the graphics processing power of the latest nVidia or Radeon graphics chips (via DirectX or any other means). Since the TNT2 Riva card was released, most would agree there have been 'quantum' leaps in video technology.  Indeed, three or four years is a lifetime for these components!

In your situation (knowing your CPU/RAM/motheboard combo would help here), the only advice I can provide for now is to turn off any unnecessary video effects and lower your resolution to the minimum with the view to increasing your frame-rate.

There are some hardcore gamers lurking here who might offer some hardware tweaking advice, but I don't believe there's a whole lot more you can do other than jump about four or five generations ahead because that's about where the TNT Riva chips are (sadly -- behind!)!

here is the whole story guys...thanks

This card came with my old HP Pavillion.  I bought a new Biostar mobo and AMD XP 1800+ CPU.

When the card was on my old set up (AMD 800 CPU & Asus K7M Mobo) it ran CS great.

Now on my new set up (AMD XP 1800+ & Biostar M7NCD Pro) I get a mouse movement lag. My connection and ping are great but when I move my mouse, there is a micro second delay that makes it unplayable.

I tried to also install CD on my backup PC (Sony VAIO) which also has the same video card and had the same problem.  My only solution at the time was to buy a new video card from Best buy and return it beofore 30 days while my PC was being fixed.

Hope this clears some stuff up...

What is open GL?  Do you guys think I should switch my CS settings to Open GL rather than DirectX?

...I found the "any" key.

ahhh,

switched to Open GL setting and it works fine...strange.

Anyways - that was the issue!

...I found the "any" key.