7800GT A bit slow

SubKamran

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Alright; that's not entirely true. It's slow on max settings (I usually run 1680x1050 0xAA 16xAF).

Here's the deal.

First day I got it; Installed ForceWare 81.98. Slow as hell; 3500 on 3dMark05 no changes.

Switched to eVGA drivers... much better, about 5900. Still not up to par though; testing on 1280x1024 4xAA/8xAF I got about 4900 (should be around 7200). So I reverted to eVGA 77.77 drivers; much much better, now I'm at the normal level I should be...

But... if I go to the latest drivers, COD2 and AOE3 run better (relatively speaking... maxed settings average about 40-45fps). And if I stay as I am, everything else runs better. This is the next best card there is, I even OC'd it to 487Mhz Core... that's fast.

So, how come on 1680x1050 for those games on maxed settings with no AA am I still getting nearly unplayable frame rates? True, both slow way down when there's lots of action and otherwise do well (avg 30-35)... but I'm trying to figure out if my performance is normal.

Can any of you attest to your performance in either of those games? I'm running AMD64 2.1Ghz (3100+).
 
Because in AOE3 every pixel is a light source :laugh:
And CoD 2 is indeed a very demanding game. For CoD 2, have you made sure you deselected the "Optimize For SLI" option?
 
giant384 said:
i would lower the resoulution a bit

It wouldn't be so bad except I'm using an LCD monitor with native 1680x1050. I even switched AOE3 to 1024x768, lowered shaders and water, and still it ran a bit slow. What sucks is that if there's not a lot of buildings/units on screen, it's very smooth. Even if I had 4 galleons on the screen in water it was slow. :(

And beerdude, yes. I switched Dynamic Lights to Medium and smoke to world, still isn't very good.
 
If it makes you feel any better, when I run CoD2 at 1280x1024 with 2xAA and everything else maxed, I still see dips into the 20-30 area. Although most of the time I do average about 40-60ish. So for your resolution I think you are seeing normal frames?
 
Dumb Dude said:
If it makes you feel any better, when I run CoD2 at 1280x1024 with 2xAA and everything else maxed, I still see dips into the 20-30 area. Although most of the time I do average about 40-60ish. So for your resolution I think you are seeing normal frames?

You are using latest drivers?

I just tested it on 1280x1024, no AA, default AF, max settings... and on the cliff mission (Americans), where you have to climb the rope, it ran at 11-13FPS in the boat. Horrible. I'm using eVGA 77.77 drivers.
 
Yah, here's my benchmarks:

System Config:

AMD64 2.1Ghz, 3300+ (OC'd 3200)
GPU: Stock Settings
OCZ PC3200 DDR EL 2-3-2-5 Memory, 350Mhz (CPU/12)
eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB

eVGA 77.77 Drivers

Call of Duty 2 (Normandy Coast)

1280x1024, 0xAA, Anisotropic, Max Settings 13.02fps
1024x768, 0xAA, Anisotropic, Max Settings 13.33fps

Chronicles of Riddick (trdemo4)

1680x1050, 0xAA, 16xAF, Max Settings, PS2.0 57.19fps

Video Stress Test

1680x1050, 0xAA, 16xAF, Max Settings 104.46fps
1680x1050, 2xAA, 8xAF, Max Settings 104.74fps
1280x1024, 0xAA, Bilinear, Max Settings 138.51fps
1280x1024, 4xAA, 8xAF, Max Settings 118.34fps

3dMark05

1280x1024, 2xAA, 16xAF, Max Settings 4378 Marks
1024x768, 0xAA, Optimal, Max Settings 7033 Marks
1024x768, CPU, 2.1Ghz 4023 Marks

As for AOE3, it's playable if I set Shader Level to Low and Shadows to Low. Setting either of those one notch higher cuts off 30-50fps on the title screen. Talk about horribly optimized.
 
what power supply do you have?

Run 3dMark 05 in default settings. I have the same video card and get almost 8,000 marks.

My CPU is only slightly better, Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2ghz)

I ran AOE 3, on high, at 1280x1024, with everything maxed. It ran fine...
 
Sure your CPU isn't bottle necking your graphics card somewhat?

The CPU probably can't get the data to the graphics card fast enough.

3200's are nice, but in order for something like a 7800 GT or a GTX to run at full speed.... they need a processor that can get them the information fast enough to continually process it at those super fast speeds.
 
A 3200+ should be able to more than handle a 7800GTX. Obviously not 2 of them though. I have a 3500+(Veince) and it's more than powerfull to handle a 7800GTX.

It could be your CPU though. You overclocked it...that could actually be causing everthing. Stupid things like this can happen when you overclock.
Another thing could also be did you uninstall your drivers properly. This means you installed them in safe mode, used driver cleaner, and etc..
 
TheGrimSweeper said:
what power supply do you have?

Run 3dMark 05 in default settings. I have the same video card and get almost 8,000 marks.

My CPU is only slightly better, Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2ghz)

I ran AOE 3, on high, at 1280x1024, with everything maxed. It ran fine...

I just bought a new Antec TruePower 2 power supply SLI-ready, 550W.

It shows my results at default; 7033 marks.

What driver version are you using and is it eVGA or nVidia?

As for Safe Mode installing... perhaps I should try that, though I don't think it will make a difference. But who knows. And one more thing... I can't run stock settings completely, because this motherboard has a problem running 4 slot memory; it's a bitch about it. So I have to lower my RAM to below 180Mhz (instead of 200) for it to be stable. It took me FOREVER to figure that one out.
 
Alright here's an update:

De-clocking result: Lower, 6989 marks

Using DC and installing latest nVidia drivers, increase in performance, now I'm at 7081 marks.

This is all confusing me. First day I got this card, I installed the newest drivers and I got poor performance results. Now I re-install and I get better performance.

Also, one more thing:

I was playing AOE3 to test it out (maxed settings, 1280x1024) and I was getting clean average 30fps all-around, even battles. Then, suddenly, it just was halved. I was getting about 19fps where I usually got 30. Then I exited and ran 3dMark05 and sure enough, Proxycon was giving me 20 when it used to give me 40.

What's up with that? This happened once with my previous drivers and a restart fixed it.
 
thats weird. sounds like your card isnt switching to 3d mode from 2d mode or something. On the 7800 series, Nvidia, made it so the card will run it 2 modes, to save on power and heat. When your just in Windows, say on the internet or word, the card runs in 2d mode, which is half the clock speed that the card would normally run in. The drivers then detect if a 3d game was opened, and the card is clocked back up to its regular core speed.

Anyway, just use the latest Nvidia Forceware drivers, thats what im using. And do Full clean of the old ones.
 
TheGrimSweeper said:
thats weird. sounds like your card isnt switching to 3d mode from 2d mode or something. On the 7800 series, Nvidia, made it so the card will run it 2 modes, to save on power and heat. When your just in Windows, say on the internet or word, the card runs in 2d mode, which is half the clock speed that the card would normally run in. The drivers then detect if a 3d game was opened, and the card is clocked back up to its regular core speed.

Anyway, just use the latest Nvidia Forceware drivers, thats what im using. And do Full clean of the old ones.

I did... and I just tried again; playing COD2 at good performance, went between 20-50fps 1024x768. Then suddenly it just halved again.

Argh, ATI may be a bit slower, but at least their fricken drivers work properly.
 
Do you have VSYNC turned on in the graphics card settings?
 
your probably not gonna want to do this, but I would just format. A good format fixes everything/
 
i have that card and i run COD2 at max settings at 1280x1024 with no problems at all. Granted i do have a x2 4400, but dont go by 3d mark scores. I used 3d mark on my setup and only got like 5 or 6 thousand. Also try ending all your processes before you play a game, that cna help sometimes.
 
This new driver is messed up... it keeps declocking my card and I have to keep restarting :( I am going to try something...
 
SubKamran said:
This new driver is messed up... it keeps declocking my card and I have to keep restarting :( I am going to try something...

I installed the latest eVGA drivers, and I looped 3dMark05 5 times, and sure enough a little ways through it was declocked.

Do you think it has something to do with poor temperature sensing? It's idle at around 55C, but the threshold is 115C so it shouldn't declock.

I also installed the latest eVGA BIOS update... no help either.

This is driving me insane.
 
Try running a driver cleaner and then reinstall.

You might have too much old crap if you haven't been using a driver cleaner every time you switch drivers.
 
SubKamran said:
I installed the latest eVGA drivers, and I looped 3dMark05 5 times, and sure enough a little ways through it was declocked.

Do you think it has something to do with poor temperature sensing? It's idle at around 55C, but the threshold is 115C so it shouldn't declock.

I also installed the latest eVGA BIOS update... no help either.

This is driving me insane.

Have you checked to see what the card gets up to in heat while running 3dmark? It could be that it is getting hot and gets rid of the oc settings so it doesn't overheat itself.
 
Glirk Dient said:
Have you checked to see what the card gets up to in heat while running 3dmark? It could be that it is getting hot and gets rid of the oc settings so it doesn't overheat itself.

thats exactly what im thinking. Im not sure about all cards, but i know evga cards have a failsafe for overclocking your card. They do something to it so when it starts to overheat it will undo the overclock so you card doesnt get messed up. Id recomend you go to the evga web site and seek help form someone there. Their customer service is top of the line, and there warrantis are amazing as well.
 
jellydoughnut217 said:
thats exactly what im thinking. Im not sure about all cards, but i know evga cards have a failsafe for overclocking your card. They do something to it so when it starts to overheat it will undo the overclock so you card doesnt get messed up. Id recomend you go to the evga web site and seek help form someone there. Their customer service is top of the line, and there warrantis are amazing as well.

I sent them an email.

Problem: I'm not OC'ing the card. RivaTuner shows that my card gets up to 70C; it also shows the clock speed constant.

And you'd think that it would clock it back up if it DID actually de-clock the card when the temperature was better. It's a bit cramped in the case, but I have a fan right on the window that blows air in... also, I've monitored it and it still ran fine even at 69C... a little bit after it got slow. I just ran a 3-repeat loop on 3dMark05 and it ran fine through it; and I thought it was fine (I uninstalled some software) but then I was playing COD2 and after awhile it did it again.
 
Okay, I think I fixed it. What I did was remove my side window, which made my gfx card idle from 54C to 38C. A world of difference. We loaded up COD2 and it was FASTER, and so far for the past half hour its been running at an average of 45fps. Goes between 30 and 60fps (1024x768) with 77.77 drivers.

So we'll see if it stays up there. Yay. :bounce:
 
Alright I figured it out...

As long as my card is at a decent load temp, 54-57, it seems to be fine. If it goes any higher, it gets slower.

I'm not sure it's supposed to be that horribly sensitive... so I am going to RMA it to eVGA.
 
nVidia cards shouldn't be that temperature sensitive, my 6600GT doesn't slow down at all at 105C.
 
What motherboard do you have?? Also, check your chipset drivers, and your BIOS version.
 
dream431ca said:
What motherboard do you have?? Also, check your chipset drivers, and your BIOS version.

Abit Kn8 SLI, updated the BIOS and chipset drivers.

Oh, and wouldn't 105C fry anything? CPUs can't get above 80C without giving problems... that's 221 F. That's fricken hot. Now, 105F is 40C, which is more like it.
 
Graphics cards can take a little bit more heat. But i never let mine get anywhere near that mark.
 
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