6800 GT not reaching full potential?

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A

aznxk3vi17

Member
Jun 13, 2003
123
0
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Okay, I have a PNY Geforce 6800 GT at 410/1.12. Respectable clock speeds, I'm sure. I have the old Intel 845 chipset, with the Pentium 4 2.4B (at 2.55), with a gig of 2100 ram (if my memory serves me correctly).

My problem is, for example, in Doom 3, I'm getting pretty average performance. I mean, my CPU is probably a big bottleneck, but I don't think it could be THAT huge. I'm running Doom 3 at 1280x1024, high quality, no AA. Running the timedemo, I get 39.9 or so fps. A lot of you may be saying "You should be happy to get that performance." However, I paid a lot of money for this card, and I see systems running at 1600 x 1200 high quality with almost constant 60 fps. During gameplay, I am often dropping below 30, and it's not uncommon to drop into the teens. That, in my opinion is UNACCEPTABLE, especially for the card I have.

What I want to know is... is my system REALLY that much of a bottleneck? And if it ISN'T, what could be causing my sub-par performance?
 
A

Actaeon

Diamond Member
Dec 28, 2000
8,657
20
76
Your system is the bottleneck, by far.

But, like you said, I do agree you're getting unacceptable framerates, espically for a 6800GT.

Are you using the latest drivers? Are you sure AA isn't turned on? What temp is your 6800GT running at? I remember reading that the GPU will slow down if it gets too hot.
 
A

aznxk3vi17

Member
Jun 13, 2003
123
0
0
I'm sure AA is off, I set the AA in the control panel to "Application controlled," and well... maybe it IS the GPU's temperature.

When I run rthdribl, after leaving it on for about an hour, my temperatures were close to reaching 90. While I think this is in the safe range, I'm sure it's not optimal. Unfortunately, my case cooling sucks arse, and I'm using the stock cooling. My funds are quite low, so I can't really invest in a new case, or even some fans for it. I don't know what else to do. I could run with the side off, but that would result in a quite noisy room, and my room is small enough, I don't need any more ambient noise.

But whenever I exit Doom after playing for a few hours, I go straight to the temperature, and I see it is cooling off from a temperature of around 76. That seems like an acceptable load temperature (assuming we add about 5-7 degrees for the cooling time).
 
J

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
7,430
0
71
Your system is the bottleneck - your RAM is slow and doesn't have much bandwidth (you're running PC2100 or maybe 2700 single channel on that i845D chipset), and your FSB isn't that fast either, since you're on a B series processor (533 stock vs 800 stock on the C's).

Current benchmarks are all run on P4C chips or Athlon64's, both of which have much more memory bandwidth and higher FSB speed.
 
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bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Ehhh.. While your CPU maybe be a slight bottleneck, i feel the ram might be more off one...

However, if you take a look at Anand's benchmarks, anything over 1280x1024 and you don't see a huge jump in performance in D3, once at the res. it seems like it's all GPU..

Are you seeing any artifacts? Anything, back that card down and see what happens.

I agree though...

Latest drivers?

61.77?
 
B

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Originally posted by: aznxk3vi17
*sniff sniff* I see...

Well, I guess I'll be saving up now... =..(
Click to expand...

NOt quite yet..

I can run 1600x1200 @ Ultra Settings 2x AA and pull higher frames than that.. Something else might be to blame..

I never dip into the teens thats for sure.
 
B

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Just ran timedemo demo 1

1600X1200
Ultra Quality
2X AA

second test was 37.2 FPS..
 
F

filmore crashcart

Senior member
Dec 18, 1999
684
0
0
An easy check would be to back down that overclock some..... I had my card throttle back when pushed too far. It will most certainly affect performance.
 
K

Kobra

Member
Aug 7, 2004
112
0
0
I bet your running 4xAGP, right? Theres 50% of your speed being sapped away right there...

I just broke 72FPS on the Time Demo with my BFG6800GT-OC... Thats at 1600x1200 2xAA+8xAF High Quality... ASTOUNDING level of performance if you ask me!

Your ram is a major issue, as is your chipset, and i'm betting you are 4xAGP, and if thats the case, its pointless even having a 6800 if you aren't running 8xAGP.. It DOES make a big difference..
 
B

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Originally posted by: Kobra
I bet your running 4xAGP, right? Theres 50% of your speed being sapped away right there...

I just broke 72FPS on the Time Demo with my BFG6800GT-OC... Thats at 1600x1200 2xAA+8xAF High Quality... ASTOUNDING level of performance if you ask me!

Your ram is a major issue, as is your chipset, and i'm betting you are 4xAGP, and if thats the case, its pointless even having a 6800 if you aren't running 8xAGP.. It DOES make a big difference..
Click to expand...

Whoooooooooooa,

NO NO NO, 8x AGP does not result in 50% performance increase.. Sometimes there is no increase at all, other times a slight..

Not even close to 50%...Not even remotely close..




BTW, just ran 1600x1200 High 2xx AA = 44.5 fps
 
A

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
2
76
ostif.org
Originally posted by: bjc112
Originally posted by: Kobra
I bet your running 4xAGP, right? Theres 50% of your speed being sapped away right there...

I just broke 72FPS on the Time Demo with my BFG6800GT-OC... Thats at 1600x1200 2xAA+8xAF High Quality... ASTOUNDING level of performance if you ask me!

Your ram is a major issue, as is your chipset, and i'm betting you are 4xAGP, and if thats the case, its pointless even having a 6800 if you aren't running 8xAGP.. It DOES make a big difference..
Click to expand...

Whoooooooooooa,

NO NO NO, 8x AGP does not result in 50% performance increase.. Sometimes there is no increase at all, other times a slight..

Not even close to 50%...Not even remotely close..




BTW, just ran 1600x1200 High 2xx AA = 44.5 fps
Click to expand...

I have never seen 8x agp result in more than 1.5%
 
C

cw42

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
4,227
0
76
Originally posted by: Kobra
I bet your running 4xAGP, right? Theres 50% of your speed being sapped away right there...

I just broke 72FPS on the Time Demo with my BFG6800GT-OC... Thats at 1600x1200 2xAA+8xAF High Quality... ASTOUNDING level of performance if you ask me!

Your ram is a major issue, as is your chipset, and i'm betting you are 4xAGP, and if thats the case, its pointless even having a 6800 if you aren't running 8xAGP.. It DOES make a big difference..
Click to expand...

wow, you're just full of it :)
 
A

aznxk3vi17

Member
Jun 13, 2003
123
0
0
Well, it seems my worst fears were true. Alas, I spent all my money on this video card =..( Damn it.. better start saving for that 3500...
 
A

aznxk3vi17

Member
Jun 13, 2003
123
0
0
Okay, I clocked down to 401/1.12, and my timedemo became 46.6. Still not GT performance. I guess I can attribute the rest of it to my CPU and ram, huh? Darn.
 
D

Dman877

Platinum Member
Jan 15, 2004
2,707
0
0
That's like taking a V6 engine and putting it in an 18-wheeler, then complaining about how slow it is...
 
K

Kobra

Member
Aug 7, 2004
112
0
0
Ok, well maybe not 50%, but it sure was majorly noticable when I switched to a 8XAGP motherboard from a 4XAGP.. My benchmarks certainly improved.

But then, that coulda been because the boards were different, and one had much newer chipsets. Still, i'm convinced 4xAGP is a real bottleneck, and until I see proof to the contrary, i'll go on believing that.

Edit: Appears 4x vs 8x improvments vary, depending on game/setup, some highly significant, others only a tiny bit..... So guess the setup I had at the time, and the games, were one of the ones that improved. :cool:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/img/2003/02/msi_gf4/ut_fly.jpg
 
Nebor

Nebor

Lifer
Jun 24, 2003
29,582
12
76
It's as simple as changing one of the optimizations. At least two other threads concerned the exact same problem you're having with the exact same card. I think it's the AA optimization. Turn it on.
 
F

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,555
1
0
From what I've heard, OCing any component with Doom 3 can have undesirable reslults. Scale back your card, double-check your settings, and go from there. BTW, yes, your puny P4 is holding you back :p But running your 6800GT at stock speeds will tell you for sure if it is all your system's fault or the OCing itself.
 
B

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
Originally posted by: Kobra
Ok, well maybe not 50%, but it sure was majorly noticable when I switched to a 8XAGP motherboard from a 4XAGP.. My benchmarks certainly improved.

But then, that coulda been because the boards were different, and one had much newer chipsets. Still, i'm convinced 4xAGP is a real bottleneck, and until I see proof to the contrary, i'll go on believing that.

Edit: Appears 4x vs 8x improvments vary, depending on game/setup, some highly significant, others only a tiny bit..... So guess the setup I had at the time, and the games, were one of the ones that improved. :cool:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/img/2003/02/msi_gf4/ut_fly.jpg
Click to expand...

Well it's time to stop :p

Almost NO performance difference.
 
E

eastvillager

Senior member
Mar 27, 2003
519
0
0
if you're running dual display, make sure the settings for doom3 in the nvidia control panel are for single display under hardware accel.
 
Jeff7181

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
11
81
If you want to see if your CPU is a bottleneck, turn on the task manager and let it run while you play the game. I did that and noticed on average it was at about 75%... so my 9800 Pro is definately the limiting factor. Not my ~2.5 GHz Barton.
 
K

kki000

Senior member
Jun 6, 2001
597
0
0
not to harp on the obvious, but is your vsync off?
I too got uber depressed after throwing in my gt and running timedemo. Everyone seemed to be beating my numbers with a friggin 9800pro. I then ran the bench again with vsync off, and my numbers were in line with everyone else. Not alot of ppl post if they're running vsync on or off, seems most are posting with off. I get pretty bad tearing on my monitor if i dont enable it, so it stays on.

K
 
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