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Is Problem Bad Video Card, Drivers ?



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 25th 03, 12:05 PM
jj
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Default Is Problem Bad Video Card, Drivers ?

Have a Dell P4/3GHz, 800 FSB, 1Gig RAM, 875P Chipset, AGP-8X, WinXP Pro
SP1. Have had Nvidia-based cards for years. Last weekend, bought an ATI
Radeon 9800 Pro-128MB. CompUSA had them on sale for $349. Am just
trying it out, and will exchange for FX 5900 if not happy.

Anyway, with Radeon 9800, I could run 3DMark03 with Catalyst 3.4 drivers
(shipping drivers), but it slowed down horribly during the Trolls Lair
scene, to less than 5 FPS. In the last Trolls Lair test for CPU, it
slowed down again to less than 5FPS. It barely got through it.

Is this normal for others? Does everyone else, regardless of graphics
card, experience these kinds of slowdowns during this scene?

Anyway, got score of about 5,000. I then upgraded to latest ATI drivers
(ver 3.7). ATI says they should be as fast, if not faster than 3.4.
Now, I can't even run 3DMark03. It starts, get's past the first Trolls
Lair at same 5FPS or less, then the program shuts down totally during
the first or last Trolls Lair test. I've made sure the drivers were
installed correctly, card settings are normal. I even set the D3D and
OpenGL to "Performance" versus "Quality" in all settings. Still,
3DMark03 won't finish. It just shuts down during that last test, and
goes back to Windows Desktop. Only twice out of 20 times, has it been
able to complete 3DMark03 with 3.7 drivers..just out of luck, I guess.

When I checked the online 3DOrb, I noticed almost all users of ATI card
with high 3DMark03 scores were using the 3.7 drivers (a few with 3.6)
and getting higher scores (in the 6000-7000 range).

Appreciate any info on the slowdowns in the Trolls lair, if others
experience this. Also, am using 3DMark Build 330. I tried the Build
320 without the patch, and I got an error when starting the program. I
had to install the 330 patch, just to get 3DMark03 to run.

Thanks for any advice.
jj.

  #2  
Old September 25th 03, 12:47 PM
MadDAWG
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something is fubar for sure. My 9700 pro running on only a 2100xp AMD CPU
will run thru the troll tests in the 12-15 fps range. That's a step lower in
video card and a lot slower CPU than your setup. I can't tell you what is
wrong for sure, but here are a few suggestions. Make sure you completely
removed all traces of the Nvidia stuff. Update your motherboard drivers.
Did you completely remove the 3.4 drivers? This would require not only
removing the driver, but the control panel as well. Reinstall DX9. Those
are some basic things to check out, but I can't say they will work for sure.
Usually with a major switch such as a video card I'll format the hard drive
and start fresh, but I don't usually have that much on my main hard drive.

MadDAWG


  #3  
Old September 25th 03, 04:53 PM
Dave S.
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Also insure that AA and Af are disabled and your texture preference/Mipmap
level are set to max performance.
Dave
"jj" wrote in message
nk.net...
Have a Dell P4/3GHz, 800 FSB, 1Gig RAM, 875P Chipset, AGP-8X, WinXP Pro
SP1. Have had Nvidia-based cards for years. Last weekend, bought an ATI
Radeon 9800 Pro-128MB. CompUSA had them on sale for $349. Am just
trying it out, and will exchange for FX 5900 if not happy.

Anyway, with Radeon 9800, I could run 3DMark03 with Catalyst 3.4 drivers
(shipping drivers), but it slowed down horribly during the Trolls Lair
scene, to less than 5 FPS. In the last Trolls Lair test for CPU, it
slowed down again to less than 5FPS. It barely got through it.

Is this normal for others? Does everyone else, regardless of graphics
card, experience these kinds of slowdowns during this scene?

Anyway, got score of about 5,000. I then upgraded to latest ATI drivers
(ver 3.7). ATI says they should be as fast, if not faster than 3.4.
Now, I can't even run 3DMark03. It starts, get's past the first Trolls
Lair at same 5FPS or less, then the program shuts down totally during
the first or last Trolls Lair test. I've made sure the drivers were
installed correctly, card settings are normal. I even set the D3D and
OpenGL to "Performance" versus "Quality" in all settings. Still,
3DMark03 won't finish. It just shuts down during that last test, and
goes back to Windows Desktop. Only twice out of 20 times, has it been
able to complete 3DMark03 with 3.7 drivers..just out of luck, I guess.

When I checked the online 3DOrb, I noticed almost all users of ATI card
with high 3DMark03 scores were using the 3.7 drivers (a few with 3.6)
and getting higher scores (in the 6000-7000 range).

Appreciate any info on the slowdowns in the Trolls lair, if others
experience this. Also, am using 3DMark Build 330. I tried the Build
320 without the patch, and I got an error when starting the program. I
had to install the 330 patch, just to get 3DMark03 to run.

Thanks for any advice.
jj.



  #4  
Old September 25th 03, 06:15 PM
Kent_Diego
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Go to http://rage3d.com and read forums for more ideas. Get the NVIDA driver
cleaner to remove all traces of old video card drivers.


  #5  
Old September 26th 03, 01:42 PM
jj
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Default

Thanks to you all for the tips. Just FYI, I ran the 3DMark03 test about
15 times. 5 times it was able to complete the 3DMark03 test with scores
ranging from 5100 to 5400. The rest of the times, it just shut down,
and threw me back to the Windows XP desktop, no error messages, no
nothing. And, when it shut down, it happened at different points in the
test. Sometimes, right after very first test. Sometimes, after the
first Trolls Lair test, sometimes after the first CPU test, and
sometimes after the Nature test.

Changing from "max performance to max quality" makes no difference. In
fact, the times it did complete the test, quality was set to "Balanced".
But it still shut down other times with "balanced."

Am trying to determine what is most likely cause, when a 3D game or
benchmark shuts down, and throws you back to desktop with no error
messages. Is it more likely the card, the drivers, or the PC's
chipset/mobo/memory timings?

ATI Tech seems to think it might be the PC's chipset/memory timings. I
have a single 1 Gig RAM chip on this P4/3GHz Intel 875P-based PC. I also
have "Fast Writes" and "Sidebanding" enabled, along with AGP-8X. Not
sure if these settings have anything to do with this problem.

I have the "Nasty" file remover for Nvidia drivers. Is this any good? I
can see a few NV*.* files in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS and \DLLCACHE
folders. Is "Nasty" a safe program to use?

Today, will re-install the shipping 3.4 drivers, and run more tests.
Will check with Dell for more updated systemboard drivers.

Thanks very much for any additional info/advice you can provide on this
situation.

jj
=====
Kent_Diego wrote:

Go to http://rage3d.com and read forums for more ideas. Get the NVIDA driver
cleaner to remove all traces of old video card drivers.



  #6  
Old September 26th 03, 02:23 PM
Skid
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Default


"jj" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Thanks to you all for the tips. Just FYI, I ran the 3DMark03 test about
15 times. 5 times it was able to complete the 3DMark03 test with scores
ranging from 5100 to 5400. The rest of the times, it just shut down,
and threw me back to the Windows XP desktop, no error messages, no
nothing. And, when it shut down, it happened at different points in the
test. Sometimes, right after very first test. Sometimes, after the
first Trolls Lair test, sometimes after the first CPU test, and
sometimes after the Nature test.

Changing from "max performance to max quality" makes no difference. In
fact, the times it did complete the test, quality was set to "Balanced".
But it still shut down other times with "balanced."

Am trying to determine what is most likely cause, when a 3D game or
benchmark shuts down, and throws you back to desktop with no error
messages. Is it more likely the card, the drivers, or the PC's
chipset/mobo/memory timings?

ATI Tech seems to think it might be the PC's chipset/memory timings. I
have a single 1 Gig RAM chip on this P4/3GHz Intel 875P-based PC. I also
have "Fast Writes" and "Sidebanding" enabled, along with AGP-8X. Not
sure if these settings have anything to do with this problem.


When you drop to the desktop in games and benchmarks after a certain period
of time like that, it is often a sign of overheating. Don't know much about
Dells, though I know they emphasize quiet over good airflow. If there is a
way to monitor case and cpu temps you might check them.

Dell also has a habit of using the minimum psu for the configuration they
sell, so adding extra components can sometimes suck more juice than they can
comfortable provide.

Also you might try to isolate other potential causes of the problem. Relax
ram timings in the bios to make sure it's not a stability issue. Use an
overclocking utility to UNDERclock your Radeon to see if the problem
disappears.

There is a great Radeon forum and troubleshooting tips at www.rage3d.com

P.S., I also have an 875P with fast writes and AGP 8X, and I have no such
problems, even though my system is seriously overclocked with an fsb of 275.


 




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