9700 Non-pro and 6800 Non-ultra

[Hoboslayer]

Recently, I upgraded from an ATI 9700 non-pro to an eVGA 6800 NU, with the eventual hope of using eVGA.com's trade-up program to get a 6800 GT for just the price difference. However, after comparing game performance with the two cards (/w 6800nu) I am pretty disappointed..


My system specs are in my signature..
Now, i know that in most cases you shouldn't take 3dmark scores very seriously, but here they are anyway:

with 9700:
3dmark2001 3dmarks: 13423
3dmark2003 3dmarks: 4253

with 6800:
3dmark2001 3dmarks: 14468
3dmark2003 3dmarks: 5919

(sorry, but i couldn't get any real benchmarks to show, but just from playing a few game titles between the two cards, i couldn't tell any difference, both of them seemed slow in similar applications.)
The difference in scores in 3dmark really didn't seem to be very much considering the upgrade..

Now, I am not sure as to whether I should go ahead with getting the 6800 GT, or just save up for some better memory or a better processor (I was thinking Crucial Ballistix pc-3200 and a Athlon XP 3200).
again, my system specs are in my signature..
Anyways, thanks for your thoughts....

 

[Corporate Thug]

there isnt supposed to be much difference in 2001 cuz it really isnt shader heavy

but you did get a ~33% increase in 2003 so thats pretty good

i wouldnt worry too much about 3dmark though, you are getting better in game performance and that all that really matters

 

[Hoboslayer]

I guess the actual score difference in 3dmark03 is pretty decent, although.. it seems a bit low from what i've heard of other people getting like 11,000+ with somewhat close to my specs...

What i was saying about real game performance was that I have NOT seen much visible performance increase in most games, such as I ran BF1942 with 1600x1200 8X AA and 16X AF with my 9700 NP, and i got nearly the same performance, if not worse, with my 6800 NU.. the same results occurred with Far Cry, getting roughly the same poor performance, even at low-res.. Although a few games ran considerably faster, like Jedi knight: JA, and Neverwinter nights.....

Anyways, i wanted to know if i was being bottlenecked by my crappy kingston "valueram" and A-XP 2700. :|

 

[Rhoel]

Just so you have something else to reference, here are my 3dmark scores with a 9700pro and a 6800gt(both overclocked)

9700pro(375/690) 5547
6800gt(400/1100) 11049

And here is good article about memory

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/vie...=1&cookie%5Ftest=1

 

[Hoboslayer]

Ah, nice scores, I see your 6800 GT score doubled that of your 9700 score.. which certainly is not the case with my cards Although, the performance difference between the 6800/6800 GT are much more acute than the 9700's...

 

[iversonyin]

the people who are gttin 11000+ have either otehr version of 6800 or they simply oc it (i believe oc'ed CPU, video card can affect score as well)?

i think wha you hav is this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=14-130-202&DEPA=1

9700 was a good card and with a 3d mark score of 4000s, you should able to run game slike doom 3 at med settin. i don't get why you want to spend $200 upgrading

did you run some demo and see on average if u get increase of about 10-15 fps on more on certain games?

its rather strange to see a 3 generations old card can perform on par with the most recent card

 

[Hoboslayer]

Um, I do know what my own card is, and that is the non ultra, non GT version. After all, could I get a 6800 GT for $275? I think not.. All i was puzzled about was the fact that i wasn't getting a more substantial performance increase FPS-wise in most games, and also, I DO plan on upgrading to a GT soon. Thanks for the input though..

 

[Cawchy87]

I think that it wasn't that the 6800 wasn't a good upgrade, because it is an awsome card for the price. It is just that the 9700 non pro was also an excellent card and still is.

 

[iversonyin]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
I think that it wasn't that the 6800 wasn't a good upgrade, because it is an awsome card for the price. It is just that the 9700 non pro was also an excellent card and still is.

thtas what i think too, but from lookin at his benchmark score, there seemt o be some problem as well.

9700 Pro was best card at its generation.

 

[big4x4]

You 3dmark scores look low....specifically your 03. If I am not mistaken, the 6800 should get > 8000. Make sure aa/af is off as well as vsync


Edit- You should maybe want to Overclock your 2700 a little since it is most likely unlocked

 

[SuperStrokey]

the 2700 is bottlenecking the 6800 hard, its not able to get even close to its max performance. Your CPu is outclassed it would seem. Pump up the resolution in games and you should not see much of a drop if any in games as the gpu will start to be stressed more but still not to its max

 

[imported_Rad]

i am getting about 8500 3dmarks in '03 with a BFG 6800OC @ 350/700 on a XP 2600 @ 2.08 (TBred) with 512 of Samsung PC3200 on an Abit NF7S 2.0

 

[beserker15]

my friend's 6800 also gets bout 8000 3dmarks 03 with his barton 2500.

 

[ronnn]

Has been my problem. The old 9700pro keeps playing all games well and is hard to justify spending several hundred dollars on something that will likely be last years news in a few months. But I like to spend so hopefully by this christmas high end prices will drop and make it easier. :beer:

 

[df96817]

Originally posted by: Hoboslayer
Recently, I upgraded from an ATI 9700 non-pro to an eVGA 6800 NU, with the eventual hope of using eVGA.com's trade-up program to get a 6800 GT for just the price difference. However, after comparing game performance with the two cards (/w 6800nu) I am pretty disappointed..


My system specs are in my signature..
Now, i know that in most cases you shouldn't take 3dmark scores very seriously, but here they are anyway:

with 9700:
3dmark2001 3dmarks: 13423
3dmark2003 3dmarks: 4253

with 6800:
3dmark2001 3dmarks: 14468
3dmark2003 3dmarks: 5919

(sorry, but i couldn't get any real benchmarks to show, but just from playing a few game titles between the two cards, i couldn't tell any difference, both of them seemed slow in similar applications.)
The difference in scores in 3dmark really didn't seem to be very much considering the upgrade..

Now, I am not sure as to whether I should go ahead with getting the 6800 GT, or just save up for some better memory or a better processor (I was thinking Crucial Ballistix pc-3200 and a Athlon XP 3200).
again, my system specs are in my signature..
Anyways, thanks for your thoughts....

Did you make sure you used driver cleaner to remove all traces of those ATI drivers before you installed the card? I heard from some people that that can make a big difference.

 

[Hoboslayer]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Originally posted by: SuperStrokey
the 2700 is bottlenecking the 6800 hard, its not able to get even close to its max performance. Your CPu is outclassed it would seem. Pump up the resolution in games and you should not see much of a drop if any in games as the gpu will start to be stressed more but still not to its max

Indeed, i think it is being bottlenecked by my older CPU, it may justify getting an XP 3200, they are pretty cheap and i would hope to see some decent improvements.

df96817, answering your question: Yes, i have formatted my hdd at least 3 times since i got the card, so I believe I am safe there..

When I 'upgrade' to the 6800 GT, I guess I'll see if there is a large performance boost, and if not, I'll definitely spring for the new 3200+ cpu. Might try some overclocking on my 2700+ in the meantime, though i'll need to get a better hsf than my Volcano6

 

[rbV5]

My NV rig isn't that much different than yours and I get near 10000 on 3dm03 (mobile bartons@ 2.3GHz). I have a nearly identical rig with an AIW 9700pro, and there is a fair performance difference between the cards benchmarked. However, actual gaming experience is much closer.

Make sure you install the Nforce drivers for your ASUS MB and up your AGP aperature up to at least 128MB. Check DXdiag to make sure Dirextx features are all enabled.

 

[reallyscrued]

wow, ur vid card 3dmark03 way outta place. shud get round 8K, mine gets 9.8k tweaked out on a mobile athlon xp @ 2.36ghz. dont spring for a cpu yet, get some ddr400 ram or borrow some from a friend and bump up that fsb to 200. i did this with my friends locked 2500+ and bammo! 3200 free, complete stability. if its that low, something somewhere is bottlenecking ur system, if u get a GT, u mite still get low scores.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Dont get a new AXP. Not worth it. All you have to do is OC your RAM. Get your RAM and FSB in sync at = or >400FSB. That will really help.

Also what drivers are you using?

-Kevin