An 8800GTX nightmare.

[Pugnate]

Well I installed my eVGA card yesterday and ran 3Dmark 05 for about 10 minutes and quit not waiting for the score. I had a rough idea of the frames I was getting in the graphics segments.

I quit because I was bored and wanted to overclock my new CPU first. So a couple of days later, after I am set with my overclocking I run my 3Dmark05 again, and something became painfully wrong.

The frames were really low, and I was sure they were nearly twice as much last time. I searched the internet and my worse fears were confirmed. The 5000 odd score was definitely below par.

So I ran the first game I could think of, F.E.A.R. According to the F.E.A.R. benchmark, at 1280x1024 with all options on max. and full FSAA and AAF I was getting an average of 35 fps.

This wasn't too bad, and quite acceptable for me considering the detail, but I wanted what I paid for. Confused and a bit afraid I ran the test again, and this time it became far more choppy, earning me only an average of 19 fps.

Now I was scared. Plus I was running the default eVGA drivers that were supposed to be stable.

So I remembered some dude had some similar issues but with the newer drivers. So I downloaded 97.02 after uninstalling what I had and doing a registry clean.

Well suddenly I am getting a score of 16,000 odd, which is a lot better. So what the hell happened?

I hope this issue doesn't return, but hardware issues aren't sorted out by driver updates. I don't think my card is faulty, right?

 

[nippyjun]

Seems like it was just a driver issue. Did you use driver cleaner along the way or just install drivers on top of eachother?

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Well I installed my eVGA card yesterday and ran 3Dmark 05 for about 10 minutes and quit not waiting for the score. I had a rough idea of the frames I was getting in the graphics segments.

I quit because I was bored and wanted to overclock my new CPU first. So a couple of days later, after I am set with my overclocking I run my 3Dmark05 again, and something became painfully wrong.

The frames were really low, and I was sure they were nearly twice as much last time. I searched the internet and my worse fears were confirmed. The 5000 odd score was definitely below par.

So I ran the first game I could think of, F.E.A.R. According to the F.E.A.R. benchmark, at 1280x1024 with all options on max. and full FSAA and AAF I was getting an average of 35 fps.

This wasn't too bad, and quite acceptable for me considering the detail, but I wanted what I paid for. Confused and a bit afraid I ran the test again, and this time it became far more choppy, earning me only an average of 19 fps.

Now I was scared. Plus I was running the default eVGA drivers that were supposed to be stable.

So I remembered some dude had some similar issues but with the newer drivers. So I downloaded 97.02 after uninstalling what I had and doing a registry clean.

Well suddenly I am getting a score of 16,000 odd, which is a lot better. So what the hell happened?

I hope this issue doesn't return, but hardware issues aren't sorted out by driver updates. I don't think my card is faulty, right?

As long as you can see the performance gains in games, don't worry a thing about 3dmock. This has been questioned to death, it's a problem with drivers that affect some ppl..
And yeah it is possible that when you switch between the two buggy and problematic Nvidia driver versions right now, to experience slower performance. IF you experience that try uninstalling the drivers and installing them again or the other version till you get the right performance. The slower performace happened to me when I moved from the EVGA drivers 96.89 if I recall correct to the 97.02. I reverted back to 96.89 everything worked fine , again I installed 97.02 and everything worked fine this time..
You should use a small benchmark as a comparison when you install drivers. I use Aquamark3 which is small and quick to run. This way I know if something is fishy with my driver installation.

 

[Pugnate]

Yea my benchmark is F.E.A.R. Now I am getting 3 times as many frames.

Look I know where you are coming from, when you roll eyes at another 3Dmark complaint, but I think that is slightly elitist. Again I understand, because newbies probably come here all the time complaining about 200 less points in 3D mark. They deserve all the exasperation and more. I honestly don't care if someone gets a few hundred points more than me in 3Dmark. Heck even a 500 more, I mean as long as you are in the right bracket then it is a good indicator that your hardware is OK.

But the 3D mark softwares are all useful, because they are good indicators. And if I am getting 75% less points in 3dMark05 and 3dMark03 than I am supposed to, then something is definitely wrong. The fact that F.E.A.R. was behaving erratically was proof of it. Now it is working beautifully, thank goodness.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Yea my benchmark is F.E.A.R. Now I am getting 3 times as many frames.

Look I know where you are coming from, when you roll eyes at another 3Dmark complaint, but I think that is slightly elitist. Again I understand, because newbies probably come here all the time complaining about 200 less points in 3D mark. They deserve all the exasperation and more. I honestly don't care if someone gets a few hundred points more than me in 3Dmark. Heck even a 500 more, I mean as long as you are in the right bracket then it is a good indicator that your hardware is OK.

But the 3D mark softwares are all useful, because they are good indicators. And if I am getting 75% less points in 3dMark05 and 3dMark03 than I am supposed to, then something is definitely wrong. The fact that F.E.A.R. was behaving erratically was proof of it. Now it is working beautifully, thank goodness.

No no no.. I have nothing with you or the other ppl, neither I was being ironic with you.
I think you can understand me though when I'm saying that this is becoming PITA when every hr a new thread like this jumps out of nwhere asking the same thing. Sometimes our problems can be solved with just a small search
Now if you can't find what you are looking for, and you think that your issue is in need of special attention then you can make a thread. That's all nothing personal with you neither I was trying to be an arse here