New video card, shitty performance. :|

[diluted]

I just upgraded from a Radeon 9600xt to a Radeon x850XT, and I don't think I'm seeing the performance I should. In the CS:Source video stress test, I'm getting about 70fps average with 1024x768, 4x AA 8x AF, all other options maxed out. Played HL2DM, saw my framerate routinely dip down to the 30s, and usually hovering around 60 or so. This is barely better than my 9600xt! I've tried several different driver versions (both Catalyst and Omega) and the results are pretty much the same. :hmph:
The rest of my system specs are as follows:
P4 3.0ghz w/ HT
1024mb PC3200 RAM
80gb 7200rpm hard drive
350w PSU (http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/ttgi_350ss_1.html)

I thought it could be my PSU (maybe the card isn't getting enough juice?) but wouldn't I be experiencing system instability if that was the case? Like, games freezing/crashing/computer rebooting? Could not enough power = framerate loss?

 

[WhiteZero]

Turn off AA and put your resolution up a notch.
AA isnt worth it at all for the FPS cut.

 

[Hazar]

update mobo drivers

 

[diluted]

Eh, I have a 17" monitor, never really liked using higher resolutions...
I can turn off AA and AF and I only get about 10-15 FPS increase. I still think I should be seeing higher frames than that..

 

[diluted]

update mobo drivers

Like, the BIOS you mean? My BIOS is updated, but is there something else I need?
My motherboard is a Asus P4P800S, if that matters..

 

[WhiteZero]

Like, the BIOS you mean? My BIOS is updated, but is there something else I need?

Also the cipset drivers.
Just look up your mobo on the manufacturers site and there should be a download section for it.

 

[diluted]

I just updated the chipset drivers and flashed the BIOS to a new beta version, still same performance. Thanks for the suggestions though...
Any other ideas?

 

[gegam]

look at my system specks, that sounds about right

i get 150FPS stress test, all high, 6aa 0af,

full AA and AF in stress test gives me about 80 fps. so stop bitching

16x12 res full everything = 30 fps for me, our systems are good but not that good, stick to low res, and turn AF off, stay with AA.

 

[Ren.182]

so stop bitching

16x12 res full everything = 30 fps for me, our systems are good but not that good, stick to low res, and turn AF off, stay with AA.

He should be bitching really. He can easily get a better performance than that. I have an X850 XT PE and i used to hit 170+ with MAX setting (full AA and AF, and everything on high) and at 1280x1024...

But lately i've had a huge fps hit for some reason...does anyone know why?

And to be honest, i don't think the PSU is strong enough for the card.

 

[gegam]

well i take it back then,

you got 170, full everything on stresstest?

i guess the x850 = 2x the performance of a x800xt?


your on 2gigs and a top of the line cpu, he is on 1 gig and a crappy p4 3.0.

 

[duffers20]

Have you experienced below par performance in any other games then, or have you just tried it out on hl2.

 

[gegam]

im supprised how Ren.182 got 170 stress test 2x what i got, with full AA AF settings etc on a card thats only 20mghz faster than mine.

 

[Ren.182]

Nah, this was in-game. But i got it on every map. I dont see how the stress test would have been any different.
I think i'm going to roll-back my drivers to the last version, the performance hit is pretty bad for me

 

[diluted]

Only other game I've tried so far is FarCry, which seems just as bad. I got a score of 12383 in 3dmark03 but no one's told me if that's normal or not.

Just don't understand it... I assumed with this card I'd be able to jack up the settings to full, i mean it's the best agp card on the market right now.

 

[Ren.182]

You should be able to get MAX settings out of that card. Easily. But i really do think the power supply isn't powerful enough. Also, i think the new drivers are dodgey, i'm gonna try rolling back to the previous version later.

 

[chewyxx]

i think it was the update that messed it up

 

[Asus]

You guys are all talking numbers without talking about the same scene. HL2 FPS goes from really low to really high depending on the map etc. Get some benchmarks and compare.
You will also have to note who has an Athlon 64 when they are giving you frame rates. Those things can add up to 20 FPS over what a P4 can do in HL2.

 

[gegam]

asus to the rescue lol.

 

[diluted]

I have tried different drivers... Catalyst 5.9, 5.8, and 5.1. Also the latest Omega drivers, same results. Just popped in my 9600xt and did the CS:S video stress test on the same settings I did it with the x850xtpe, and lo and behold I get 50fps, which is only 15fps less than the x850xtpe. I didn't spend all that ****ing money for an extra 15fps.
I'd get a refund on this damn thing if I could. I'm going to go back to the store I bought it from and tell them that it's defective and to send it in for repair/exchange. The fact that the bag it was in is tampered with (stickers ripped off the bag, and it wasn't even taped shut) should have made me return it immediately. But I have a feeling that for some reason this card just doesn't like my system and that if I get a new one, it'll give me the same results.
Oh well. It looks like I might just be totally ****ed. I think next time I'll go with nvidia. :|

 

[JNightshade]

That's unbelievable. On my old setup (420w psu, ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo, 1gig DDR400 PC32000 RAM, Athlon XP 2800+ processor, X800 XT PE) I got well over 80 fps with everything completely maxed. It must be your power supply. 350w is very weak for your setup.

 

[Alan Freeman]

Ihave the same setup as you and i only have a x800 pro and i get over 100 + in the stress test with everything set to high. At 1024X768. must be defective.

 

[Asus]

That doesn't sound right. Do you by chance of Vsync on?

 

[NJspeed]

I usually can take a pretty good guess at helping people solve their problem, but this one I have no clue. I want to say power supply like everyone else but you don't demonstrate those symptoms....

Okay I even just went back and reread everything, and you didn't mention what slot your card is plugged into. How about this guess? Your using AGP... and... and... you need to change AGP to 8X in your Bios. Try that. :smoking:

Of course if your using PCI-E, nevermind. (edit: I see your board doesn't support that so I may be right)

 

[IchI]

Chipset drivers are just as important as graphics drivers. Directx shouldn't be even talked about as you get it with everything these days

 

[Sanada]

Could you post a screenshot of your FPS with these settings?

Map: de_dust
Side: CT
Settings: Have everything on max including AF and AF set at 1280x960

Take a screenshot from the CT spawn facing the path to the other bomb site with the USP equiped.

I did this and get 19FPS with:

P4 3.2Ghz w/ HT
1024MB PC2700
Radeon 9700Pro

Screenshot: http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4862/dedust00074bd.jpg

I'm gonna guess and think that'll you'll get about 35-50FPS. It could be that the P4 has become a possible bottleneck.

This artlicle shows this but was done with AMD 64's, X850XT PE and other cards. I don't know how different the X850XT and X850XT PE are but they should be sorta similar.

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2330

They'll obviously perform better that a P4 at a similar speed but you'll need to be looking at 2.2Ghz range.

 

[diluted]

Thanks for your replies guys..
Well I took the card back to the store tonight, and one of the service techs takes it and puts it in a computer and runs 3dmark05 on it, and he says it checks out fine. So he tells me he thinks it could be an issue with the power supply. Well anyway here I am back home with the same card..

But right now I'm thinking the problem lies with my processor. I downloaded 3dmark05 and ran the test, it gave me 5678 3dmarks, which is about in the middle range of others with the same setup as me (according to futuremark.com). However, it gave me me 3343 cpumarks, which is pretty much on the bottom compared to people with my setup.

Sanada, I did what you said (except resolution was one level lower, because my monitor can't go to 1280x960) and I got about 74 fps there (screenshot says 66, framerate drops whenever i take a screenshot). I noticed though when I shot the barrels nearby, my fps would drop down when the barrels were moving, but as soon as they stopped it went back up. Is it possible my CPU is to blame for this?
------------------
While I was writing this post I decided to try another CS:Source stress test. I left the video settings at 6x AA/16x AF 1024x768 resolution. I ran it 3 times and every result was between 95-100fps. WTF? How is that possible? I didn't even do anything and it improved over 30fps. I tried some HL2DM and it seems better, but the FPS still drops a lot when theres physics shit flying around.
Argh, I'm so confused. ;(

http://img348.imageshack.us/img348/9084/dedust00007yj.jpg (de_dust screenshot)

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/2203/processor8bg.jpg (screenshot of CPU tab in CPU-z program)

 

[gweedodogg69]

I doubt it's the PSU. I used to get at least 170+ with EVERYTHING on high (cept v sync which is off) but even in the nVidia tweak settings with the CS profile on high I would still get at least 170+ and 1280x1024. I'm even overclocked to 496Mhz Core and 1.3GHz memory. My 4800+ is OCed to 2.9 GHz...but for some reason I'm only getting like 50+ FPS in that stress test. Must be some crazy Valve code or somethin...anydangway, maybe it's not just you that's gettin butt screwed. My aquamark score is a lil over 93,000 though, which leads me to believe that it is some new update that is messing some of us up.

 

[Ti133700N]

I get 12500 pts in 3dmark03 and 157fps in the stress test with my X850XT PE, 2GB RAM, Athlon 64 X2 3800+, Fortron Blue Storm 500W. Everything works fine so I guess that's about what you should get too.

 

[3ssence]

sorry to go off topic, but ti33700N, you have just posted in this hardware forum saying you have 2 x 256 sticks of ddr ram in your pc, want to upgrade to 1bg etc to run wow better......... that list of specifications is somewhat different.......

 

[diluted]

I get 12500 pts in 3dmark03 and 157fps in the stress test with my X850XT PE, 2GB RAM, Athlon 64 X2 3800+, Fortron Blue Storm 500W. Everything works fine so I guess that's about what you should get too.

yeah, but it seems that my 'cpu marks' are lower than everyone else who has my CPU (p4 3.0ghz). I don't understand that, does it mean something is wrong with my processor?

 

[Ti133700N]

sorry to go off topic, but ti33700N, you have just posted in this hardware forum saying you have 2 x 256 sticks of ddr ram in your pc, want to upgrade to 1bg etc to run wow better......... that list of specifications is somewhat different.......

lol, I wondered if someone would notice. My true comp is the one with 2GB RAM. In the question I posted in the other thread I was talking about my friend's comp, but I didn't bother to say it was my friend's.

 

[holydeadpenguins]

yeah, but it seems that my 'cpu marks' are lower than everyone else who has my CPU (p4 3.0ghz). I don't understand that, does it mean something is wrong with my processor?

Your cpu isn't that great, in fact my cpu is better. Athlon xp 2800 @ 2.37ghz. But i dont think that's the problem your 3dmark03 score looks fine. It's probably the new patch, or your os.

 

[Kyorisu]

Turn AF off, stay with AA.

At higher res you turn AA off as the jaggies are harder to see. AF solves the, lower texture detail at a distance on angled surfaces problem. AF should be on.

 

[Lahire149]

At higher res you turn AA off as the jaggies are harder to see. AF solves the, lower texture detail at a distance on angled surfaces problem. AF should be on.

and AF doesn't have that much of a performance hit, cause i can run it at 8x on my rig, and it's just fine. Not much different than biliner (performance wise)