very low 3D performance for hardware

I've been noticing that my system gets poor 3D performance compared to
the systems of others and havent been able to lick the problem just yet.

I have am AMD 2800XP, KT400 mobo, 1gig corsair ram, maxtor 7800rpm
120gig drive, ati radeon 9800 pro, winxpsp2, etc. Everything is in
tip-top shape with latest drivers and stable as a windows system can
get. I ran a popular benchmark and after comparing my score of 27,000 to
others I'm getting radeon 9600 performance out of an 9800 card. Even
when overclocked I still do not get anywhere near the scores most
9800pro owners get; they usually around 40,000 while I'm stuck at
27,000. In real world gaming my computer lags behind others when it
comes to graphic settings compared to someone with a simiiar system.

In the BIOS I have AGP as the primary video interface, 256 meg arpeture,
and everything looks good to me in there. Perhaps I should knock it
down to 128 as the card only has 128 megs of video ram?

Is there something else that could be causing this poor score? The RAM I
have is pretty cheap and the one 512 module is only rated at 100mhz but
works fine at 133. The mobo is stable but I do know of one issue with
AGP. At 8xAGP the 3D video apps crash almost instatly. I have no
problems at 4x. I have the latest VIA drivers for the AGP interface. I
also have the latest ATI drivers. My understanding is that no card could
ever make use the 8x interface so using 4x shouldnt affect performance.

This is a homebuilt system using an MSI kt400 board which has a lot of
performance options. I'm guessing either im missing something obvious
or the agp chipset on this might be messed up, although it is not giving
me any errors unless I run it at 8x. Anything else I might be missing?
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Mike245

"Mike245" wrote in message
...
I've been noticing that my system gets poor 3D performance compared to
the systems of others and havent been able to lick the problem just yet.

I have am AMD 2800XP, KT400 mobo, 1gig corsair ram, maxtor 7800rpm
120gig drive, ati radeon 9800 pro, winxpsp2, etc. Everything is in
tip-top shape with latest drivers and stable as a windows system can
get. I ran a popular benchmark and after comparing my score of 27,000 to
others I'm getting radeon 9600 performance out of an 9800 card. Even
when overclocked I still do not get anywhere near the scores most
9800pro owners get; they usually around 40,000 while I'm stuck at
27,000. In real world gaming my computer lags behind others when it
comes to graphic settings compared to someone with a simiiar system.

In the BIOS I have AGP as the primary video interface, 256 meg arpeture,
and everything looks good to me in there. Perhaps I should knock it
down to 128 as the card only has 128 megs of video ram?


256 is too high, I believe the aperture should be set to no more than the
installed ram amount


Is there something else that could be causing this poor score? The RAM I
have is pretty cheap and the one 512 module is only rated at 100mhz but
works fine at 133. The mobo is stable but I do know of one issue with
AGP. At 8xAGP the 3D video apps crash almost instatly. I have no
problems at 4x. I have the latest VIA drivers for the AGP interface. I
also have the latest ATI drivers. My understanding is that no card could
ever make use the 8x interface so using 4x shouldnt affect performance.

This is a homebuilt system using an MSI kt400 board which has a lot of
performance options.

I'll bet that no one else that your comparing your system to, is using a MSI
board.

I'm guessing either im missing something obvious
or the agp chipset on this might be messed up, although it is not giving
me any errors unless I run it at 8x.

Are the other rigs NOT using 8x also?

Anything else I might be missing?
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Mike245

"JAD" wrote in message
...

"Mike245" wrote in message
...
I've been noticing that my system gets poor 3D performance compared to
the systems of others and havent been able to lick the problem just yet.

I have am AMD 2800XP, KT400 mobo, 1gig corsair ram, maxtor 7800rpm
120gig drive, ati radeon 9800 pro, winxpsp2, etc. Everything is in
tip-top shape with latest drivers and stable as a windows system can
get. I ran a popular benchmark and after comparing my score of 27,000 to
others I'm getting radeon 9600 performance out of an 9800 card. Even
when overclocked I still do not get anywhere near the scores most
9800pro owners get; they usually around 40,000 while I'm stuck at
27,000. In real world gaming my computer lags behind others when it
comes to graphic settings compared to someone with a simiiar system.

In the BIOS I have AGP as the primary video interface, 256 meg arpeture,
and everything looks good to me in there. Perhaps I should knock it
down to 128 as the card only has 128 megs of video ram?


256 is too high, I believe the aperture should be set to no more than the
installed ram amount


Is there something else that could be causing this poor score? The RAM I
have is pretty cheap and the one 512 module is only rated at 100mhz but
works fine at 133. The mobo is stable but I do know of one issue with
AGP. At 8xAGP the 3D video apps crash almost instatly. I have no
problems at 4x. I have the latest VIA drivers for the AGP interface. I
also have the latest ATI drivers. My understanding is that no card could
ever make use the 8x interface so using 4x shouldnt affect performance.

This is a homebuilt system using an MSI kt400 board which has a lot of
performance options.

I'll bet that no one else that your comparing your system to, is using a
MSI
board.

I'm guessing either im missing something obvious
or the agp chipset on this might be messed up, although it is not giving
me any errors unless I run it at 8x.

Are the other rigs NOT using 8x also?

Anything else I might be missing?
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Mike245

Does BIOS ID the CPU correctly? For that CPU, FSB should be 166 with
DDR333 for max performance. What PSU? Make and rating? The problem at 8x AGP
may well be because your memory is overclocked.
Mike.

You have to turn Fast Writes off. That is what is causing the lag.
Go in to SmartGart, and set AGP to 4x and FastWrites OFF, and
do it twice. The system will autodetect and turn FW back ON. The
2nd time it will hold. Also set ram to 100. It won't have much effect
and you need to time ram closely. Try it anyway, and run your bench
mark on both settings to check it.

johns

Do you have v-sync enabled? Are you using Anti aliasing? Those high numbers
you see are run without eye cansy turned on.

"Mike245" wrote in message
...
I've been noticing that my system gets poor 3D performance compared to
the systems of others and havent been able to lick the problem just yet.

I have am AMD 2800XP, KT400 mobo, 1gig corsair ram, maxtor 7800rpm
120gig drive, ati radeon 9800 pro, winxpsp2, etc. Everything is in
tip-top shape with latest drivers and stable as a windows system can
get. I ran a popular benchmark and after comparing my score of 27,000 to
others I'm getting radeon 9600 performance out of an 9800 card. Even
when overclocked I still do not get anywhere near the scores most
9800pro owners get; they usually around 40,000 while I'm stuck at
27,000. In real world gaming my computer lags behind others when it
comes to graphic settings compared to someone with a simiiar system.

In the BIOS I have AGP as the primary video interface, 256 meg arpeture,
and everything looks good to me in there. Perhaps I should knock it
down to 128 as the card only has 128 megs of video ram?

Is there something else that could be causing this poor score? The RAM I
have is pretty cheap and the one 512 module is only rated at 100mhz but
works fine at 133. The mobo is stable but I do know of one issue with
AGP. At 8xAGP the 3D video apps crash almost instatly. I have no
problems at 4x. I have the latest VIA drivers for the AGP interface. I
also have the latest ATI drivers. My understanding is that no card could
ever make use the 8x interface so using 4x shouldnt affect performance.

This is a homebuilt system using an MSI kt400 board which has a lot of
performance options. I'm guessing either im missing something obvious
or the agp chipset on this might be messed up, although it is not giving
me any errors unless I run it at 8x. Anything else I might be missing?
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Mike245