9800 Pro too slow or not?

[LocutusX]

Since there seems to be a scare going on, where some 9800P's are being hacked by the manufacturer to be slower than it should be (128-bit), I wanted to check if the performance of my 9800P is "normal" or not.

System specs (its old, I know):
-----------------------------------
Epox 8KHA+ (KT266A)
512MB Samsung DDR PC2100 @ default
AthlonXP 1600+ @ default
ATI Rad 9800 Pro 128MB @ default (retail ATI box)

WinXP SP1
DirectX 9.0b
latest VIA Hyperion (4-in-1), I believe
ATI official Catalyst 4.5

BIOS: AGP 4x, FW on


3DMark2001 SE @ default settings: 11400
3DMark03 @ defaults : 5200

I'm downloading 3DMark03 right now, I'll post the result of that when I get it.


3 questions, as an aside:

(1) how does one check if the core is R350 or R360 without removing the heatsink (there are some reports of R360's being used in R9800Pro's)

(2) playing the old (OpenGL) Bioware RPG, Neverwinter Nights, gives me pretty poor performance; barely an improvement over my GeForce1 - why is that?

(3) In GTA-VC I seem to get texture loading problems: many textures only fully load after I am standing in front of them (a building, for example) for more than 3 seconds - any solutions?


EDIT: Added 3DMark03 score.

 

[CJP]

I was scoring 10600 in 3dMark2001 with my Pentium 4 1.8ghz and a Radeon 9800np so I think your score is inline.

 

[CaiNaM]

no, 9800p should be a great card for your rig.

i have an x800 in my main rig, but still have a 9700p & 9800p in my other 2 gaming rigs (p4 2ghz & xp3200+) and they work great.

 

[Bucksnort]

3d mark sounds right, the cards should be clearly marked in the advertising if it has 128 or 256 bit memory. No hacking, not sure what u mean. If the card was below 190 bucks it probably was 128 bit.

 

[powerMarkymark]

Yeah, check your box for specs but 3DMark2001 SE @ default settings: 11400 sounds about right for that rig.

Mark

 

[otispunkmeyer]

3d mark 01 score is more system orientated......i have a better cpu and ram set up than u but a worse graphics card........(relatively) a 9500pro (128bit) i score just under 12000

in 3d mark 03....if i clock to 9700pro speeds i am about 900 to 1000 marks off the 9700pros level..becuase of the poo 128bit memory bus........u should score around 5000+ with a 9800pro as 3d mark 03 is much more weighted to graphics card performance rather than whole system

 

[LocutusX]

Yup, I guess I was just being paranoid. I posted the 3DMark03 score above, and it looks ok.

It sounds like my 2.5-year-old CPU might start to be the limiting factor - time to start building an A64 rig, I guess!


I'm still annoyed at the poor NWN performance... damn, I guess it's just BioWare's fault.

 

[PrayForDeath]

That GTA-VC problem is due to bad programming, it has nothing to do with your video card, I see it everywhere.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: LocutusX
Yup, I guess I was just being paranoid. I posted the 3DMark03 score above, and it looks ok.

It sounds like my 2.5-year-old CPU might start to be the limiting factor - time to start building an A64 rig, I guess!


I'm still annoyed at the poor NWN performance... damn, I guess it's just BioWare's fault.

well ATI have never been as strong as nvidia at opengl...if u have switched from NV to ATI u mights wanna run driver cleaner or sumthing to banish the NV stuff from ur HDD for good!!! if not then i dunno maybe jus your rig......

ah u might wanna try turning Fast writes off............there is no performance loss and stability is much improved!!!

 

[LocutusX]

well, i managed to solve the GTA-VC problem, or at least greatly reduce its severity. how? re-installed it.. my guess is that on initial run, some sort of auto-setup happens and it sets certain strings into the registry or a cfg file based on current hardware. so after you change h/w you'd need to either re-run the autosetup or uninstall and reinstall...

GTA VC looks great and runs great now, even with 4x AA, 4x AF and at 10x7x32bit. now it seems to load all textures when they are at a farther distance from the character, rather than when the character is standing right in front of the object. result means it looks great, but there's a LOT more hard drive activity than before.

as well, got Far Cry. been playing it at 10x7x32bit with all settings on "auto detect" - first 15-20 min. of game is really smooth and playable, we'll see if things get any worse later on.

what can i say but a R9800P is a worthy investment for any system, even one as antiquated as mine!

 

[NYHoustonman]

As far as Vice City, I believe I had the same problem, when driving really fast. Frame limiter helped it, without a reinstall.