Radeon 9700 Pro underpowered- or is my PC broken?

[qckbeam]

I am posting this here because the General Hardware board seems to be dead.

I recently bought an ATI Radeon 9700 pro in place of my old GeForce 3 Ti200. I was getting really low framerates in all my games with the Geforce, something like 17-20 fps in UT2003 with settings at medium, a resolution of 1024 x 768, AA and AF turned off. It was so bad that I couldn't play the game Mafia because for some reason whenever I had a night mission the game would slow down to 5 fps. My CPU is a 1.8GHz pentium 4 and I have 512Mb of SDRAM. I thought that it was my card for sure. I installed the Radeon excpecting a miracle and found that there was no increase in framerate whatsoever. I still have terrible performance with UT2003 (and any other game) and Mafia still isn't playable during night missions. What's up with my computer, I have just finished reading a post about a guy who has a Geforce 4 Ti4200 and gets 60-90fps with all details maxed out. I have the latest drivers installed. What gives?

 

[Sirius]

I've found that a lot of times it's the setup on your PC. Your hardware should have no excuse why it can't run those games with decent framerates. Try looking into Tweaktown's guides. Especially the ones on Small Form Factor like Tweaking Windows XP, your BIOS, etc. Over the years I've collected a series of tweaks that have increased the speed of my machine two fold. Your BIOS and OS setup are some the of the key reasons PC's perform less or better than expected.

Here's a link for your convinience.

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide

 

[Guest]

just a guess but your system power supply might be low... might need more watts?

 

[Skullhair]

First, you must make sure you get rid of ALL Nvidia drivers if you’re switching to an ATI card. Even if you used the remove/uninstall you will still have Nvidia stuff in your registry. Go here: www.guru3d.com. They have a program that will search for any type of Nvidia drivers and delete them. I've heard a lot of people who switch from Nvidia to ATI have problems and it's usually caused by Nvidia drivers still on their computers. If anything, try formatting your computer and having a fresh install of Windows and the ATI drivers.


Hope that helps.

 

[Rabid Llama]

Originally posted by Skullhair
First, you must make sure you get rid of ALL Nvidia drivers if you’re switching to an ATI card. Even if you used the remove/uninstall you will still have Nvidia stuff in your registry. Go here: www.guru3d.com. They have a program that will search for any type of Nvidia drivers and delete them. I've heard a lot of people who switch from Nvidia to ATI have problems and it's usually caused by Nvidia drivers still on their computers. If anything, try formatting your computer and having a fresh install of Windows and the ATI drivers.


Hope that helps.

It's called Detonator RIP, and definitely use it. I went from a Geforce2 to a 9700, and the speed increase was underwhelming. Then I reinstalled windows, and the 9700 finally started pulling its weight.

I'd recommend uninstalling the ATI drivers, running detonator RIP, then re-installing the ATI drivers. Put a reboot between each step, and you should be set.

Also, high-end cards are very processor-limited, so a processor upgrade to something 2Ghz+ would help you out (then again, I have a 1.5 Ghz, and mine works fine, so...)

 

[TAZ]

If you know much about computers, try removing the fan and heatsink from the cpu, clean the thermal paste and put a new dab of some compound, I personally use Arctic Silver 3. Your cpu might be clocking lower due to overheating issues, especially if you bought it custom made.. check and make sure it isnt by running some benchmarks on it. Not 3d marks, but Pcmarks.. http://www.futuremark.com/download/?pcmark2002.shtml

 

[SenorDingDong]

You should be able to run UT2003 and Mafia fine. I also have a 64mb Geforce 3 ti200, and can run Mafia at High settings 1024/768 with good fps, night it slows down a bit but not down to 5fps.

Id suggest formatting computer. A good format fixes most problems.

 

[TAZ]

Fomatting is the last resort.. because if it doesn't fix the problem then you have to reinstall everything for nothing... update drivers, update windows, reinstall games and download all patches again.. definately the last resort

 

[xXSMGXx]

Could it be a problem with the drivers ?

It could also be a problem with hardrive, if its old and makes a lot of noise then there is your problem, just like on my old computer.

Abother thing is get latest catalyst from

http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
----

Ya and btw i am getting 90fps with all details maxed on UT03 :bounce:

 

[SenorDingDong]

doesnt take that long, and a format is good every so often. I dont know if he takes care of his computer, or not, so there could be tons of shit running in the background he doesnt even know about.

 

[Rabid Llama]

The key to formatting is to have a partition with JUST windows on it. That way, when you need to reinstall windows, you just format that single partition, and the rest of your data is safe.
Just a word from somebody who's had to back up 60 Gigs of data somehow before

 

[qckbeam]

Well I tried to run Detonator RIP but I kept getting very strange errors, I just made some changes to my registry based of the Tweak Town guides si I am running registry mechanic to see if I have any errors in the registry, 93 errors so far. Thanks for all the responses though and the tips. I'm sure once I get my registry cleaned up and run detonator RIP I should be set. Thanks.

 

[Coestar]

Heh.. I would suggest that you format your comp. I'm saying this with some confidence, as we have some damn similar computers. In fact, back in Feb. I too replaced my GeForce 3 Ti 200 with a shiny new Radeon 9700 Pro. The difference being that I saw huge leaps in performance.

I think that it helps to keep a good habit of checking for the latest drivers every week or so, because the slightest thing being 'off' can effect things you wouldn't even consider. Always check for new mobo drivers, new BIOS (more important than you might think, for overall performance issues), sound card and video card drivers... I'd say those are the most important to check if you're still getting bad performance for seemingly no reason.

 

[EVIL]

Man.. hardware forum is dead. yeah because you dont post there. there are rules here and those are that everything needs to be in the right forumns. and this topic simply is in the wrong forum. it doesnt mather if the general forum gets more post's or views or is busier. ou still need to follow the rules. it would be soo shitty if just everyone posted things in wrong forums. it would be complete chaos. and dammit. where are mods! if I where one then this forum would heve been moved to the hardware forum when i see it

 

[Interl@ce]

ok... well i know this is very not-nice of me... but i too have a little problem which i, in NO way, can seem to fix (btw qckbeam good luck with your system!)

I recently bought an Asus A7N8X motherboard r2.0 (based on Nvidia's Nforce² chipset) along with a 2600+ athlon xp processor and 1024mb kingston ddr memory. Everything works fine except the onboard sound i tried looking all over, reïnstalled my pc 2 times over, tried all kinds of drivers/bios settings/updates, but NOTHING worked. And there seems no-one who could help me. The main problem is crackling in sounds during games and/or even mp3's, absolutely random. The second problem is (only in tomb raider AOD) i get chipmunk sounds along with the cracking sound.

If ANYONE who reads this also has an A7N8X mobo and had the same problem please help a fellow Half-life / ² fan out. (it's the main reason i upgraded my system )

 

[Frost]

Sounds like your computer is totally f'd up man. Heres what to do. Download all small programs that you use often, WinAmp, KaZaA lite, WinMX, Divx, Ad-aware, and whatever else. Get all your other software that you have on CDs together including Windows XP, games, other software. Then pop in the Window XP CD and run the setup by booting from the CD drive. Delete your hard drive partition, make a new one and reformat using NTFS FULL, not the quick one! Continue to install windows, load the Service pack one and then any other Windows updates. Make sure you install DX9 and such as well. Then install the newest video card drivers. Then install everything else you need on your system. Then follow the guide foun at www.tweaktown.com the Reformat to Relax guide, jus be careful in your registry. Your system should run nice and smooth after that. If your are still having problems after you did everything I wrote above then you have a hardware issue, whether it be a slow processor (1.8 is fast, but the celreon isn't) Or an incorrect bios setting, something in your hardware will be wrong at that point and thats a whole nother story Hope you get it working!

 

[Interl@ce]

got any advice for me too?

 

[Frost]

Well I've worked with that exact same motherboard before, Asus is great and that motherboard is nice for the Athlon XPs... I haven't worked too much with on-board sound though. The best thing to do would make sure you have the newest bios and chipset drivers. You can try reformating too unless you've already done that. If you have some extra money I suggest getting a soundcard and disabling on board sound, you might actually get another Frame per second in games back since your motherboard has to process the sound on-board and it does tax it just a bit I have an Audigy 2 card that I'm happy with, think about how often video cards come out vs. how often sound cards come out. If you spend $90 on an Audigy 2 card at least you'll have it for 3 years instead of spending $300 for 6-9 months with a video card.

EDIT: If its fairly new, find a number to call asus, they should help you out, if all else fails it may actually be defective (as far as the sound goes)

 

[Aethaecyn]

ROFL, i have a 800 mhz cpu, 384 mb sdram, geforce 4 mx 440 and I can run ut2003 at max settings with those kinds of fps... hahahah, ur lame
-edit sorry its not your fault, its just funny

 

[deepers]

my guess is that nvidia is f***ing up ur drivers or you are low on wattage. Your comp will probably start overheating, so dont overclock anything. screw tweaktown, you shouldn't have to alter or overclock your pc that much to get just DECENT gameplay. Find out how much wattage your power supply has (350W is fine), if that's not the case then reinstall windows and get rid of nvidia drivers by going to guru3d.com as someone else here posted. good luck.

 

[ValVed RaY]

throw it away and buy an alienware or make a new comp

 

[3DDuL]

Originally posted by xXSMGXx
Could it be a problem with the drivers ?

It could also be a problem with hardrive, if its old and makes a lot of noise then there is your problem, just like on my old computer.

Abother thing is get latest catalyst from

http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
----

Ya and btw i am getting 90fps with all details maxed on UT03 :bounce:

In what kind of situation?
I'm sure you don't get 90fps if you run a botmatch benchmark, cuz if you get 90fps your cpu must be like 4ghz :dozey:

 

[FISKER_Q]

Have any of you considered using diagnostics benchmarks instead of those crappy madonion(or what the hell theyre named) benchies?

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/
Get Sandra Standard MAX3! 9.73 from the downloads section

Run the "Combined Performance Index Wizard"
When its done find a computer that corresponds to your computer on the list.

Afterwards run the Perfomance Tune-Up Wizard.
That should help you a bit, it would describe most of your problems.

I had a problem with a warm cpu and it was very lowperforming, actually was one of those crappy nic's without inbuilt processor to stabilize loads.

Might be the same for you.

 

[Interl@ce]

too bad sandra doesn't solve my sound problem... it may be an onboard one but is has 6.1 support so i like it but i don't get it why it crackles so much and gives too fast sounds in tomb raide AOD (ok my guess the last one's about sampling rates but there's no way to change it)

 

[Guest]

Alot of people have that sound problem with that asus board. I have the same mobo you do, but I've never used the onboard sound.

I use my Hercules Fortissimo III. It's cheap and it provides 6.1. Maybe you should look into one. There only about 40$ I believe on the internet. I got mine at compusa for 50$ though. I've never had any problems with it...

 

[Orcist]

I had a similar problem, Upgrading from a gf4-MX420 to a Radeon 9800. A format fixed this issue fine.

Interlace, this crackling is an extremely common problem for those boards however there are quite a few things to try to fix it. Head over to the forums at nForcersHQ and it will have a huge list of ways to try and fix it - http://www.nforcershq.com/forum (Check out the audio section and the Asus section . I currently have the same board however I appear to have missed them problems. The soundstorm audio is brilliant.

 

[Radeon]

Is that computer an IBM? It sound exactly like it's my computer, just that i got 2.0 Ghz instead. On my gf3 every game was laggy, i couldn't play shit, bought a Sapphire Ati Radeon 9700 and it runs most game a tad better than the gf3, altough need to upgrade my rig to feel the true power of my card, pretty worthless on this one.

 

[derby]

The hardware forum is dead because everyone posts on the 'General Discussion' forum isntead. Everyone posts hardare stuff on 'General Discussion' because the hardware forum is dead. It's a viscous circle that is not helped by everyone following the crowd and posting hardware stuff here. Mods could help by moving these posts as soon as they appear. Have a great day