• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

9800XT seriously underperforming

seeyou

Junior Member
I recently bought a Gigabyte 9800XT.

I was previously running a 9700pro. I uninstalled the ATi drivers, shut off the machine, put in the 9800XT and restarted, then reinstalled the Catalyst 4.4's. After running 3Dmark2001SE, I was amazed to see a score of 15506 - pretty much the same score my 9700pro used to post. I then ran AquaMark3 and got this score, a measly 39461. According to the result browser, other users with the same system spec as me are turning in scores of 50,000.

Edit: Here's my 3dmark03 score by comparison. Is this normal? Bad? Good?

I then did a clean re-install of XP Pro, in case this was the problem. I've installed all of my motherboard drivers, reinstalled the Catalyst 4.4's, Dx9.0b, etc etc. I'm getting the EXACT same scores. I've tried the 3.8 Cats and the latest Omega drivers too. (Currently running) I have overdrive enabled in the control panel, and it's reporting a temp. of 69C under normal operation, without any overclocking. (no load whatsoever, in windows) Smartgart tells me it's running at 4x (my m/b only supports this) with Fast Writes off. I've disabled the secondary adapter, TrueForm and Vsync are set to always off. Dxdiag tells me everything's enabled. I can't see any problems, but the card is seriously underperforming.

My system specs are as follows:

P4 3ghz with HT on
Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra 2 motherboard
1gb DDR333 RAM
Gigabyte Radeon 9800XT
450W PSU

If anyone could give me any other suggestions, I'd be most thankful - this is driving me insane! I've also just noticed that my CPU scores are 3,000 points lower than other results with a 3Ghz P4 - could this be the problem? Is there a way of checking if my CPU is underperforming?
 
For both OpenGL and Direct3D

AF/AA set to Application Preference?
Texture Preference and MipMap Detail Level set to High Performance?
 
AF/AA are set to application preference.

Texture pref. and Mipmap detail level are both set to High Quality.

I'll bench it again with those set to high performance, but from past experience I don't think it'll make much difference. Also, my old 9700pro ran at High Quality and posted the same benchmark results - so I don't think that's the problem. Thanks for the suggestion though.
 
Unfortunately, it added only around 200 Aquamarks. Didn't bother re-doing 3dmark with a small improvement like that.

Could an idle temperature of 71C indicate that the card is running too hot, and is actually being underclocked during 3D performance to prevent overheating?
 
Back
Top