Direct3d performance probs with 9600XT

[Tweekd]

Hi, I just installed a new XP 2400+ (266, TBred core) and Sapphire 9600XT card last night and my system performance actually seems worse than the 1700+ and Geforce 3 Ti200 card I was running before. Games in particular (MOHAA and Sacred so far) stutter vary badly especially when sound effects seem to kick in. I was wondering if this was a known driver issue (running the 4.2 catalyst) or possibly something else. I'm running this on an ECS K75SA motherboard with 1 Gig of PC2100 DDR RAM. I tinkered around with drivers last night because when I first installed the latest drivers from Sapphire's site the machine would reboot itself shortly after entering Windows.

Can the powersupply be an issue here also (running a 300 Watt now)? I'm considering updating the powersupply and installing the latest AGP drivers for the motherboard. Just thought I'd ask the experts before spending more money.

 

[Mem]

Run Driver Cleaner from here and follow the instructions in the readme file ,I always use latest official ATi drivers from here for my Sapphire 9700 card.

Try disabling fastwrites in ATI Control Panel,as to the AGP chipset driver, yes install the latest SiS AGP driver 1.17 driver from here .


As to PSU,yes I would recommend a high quality 350w like Antec,Enermax,Sparkle etc,the ECS boards do like a good PSU and when you stick a 9600XT on top of that then PSU does become an important factor.

 

[Acanthus]

To check if your power supply is an issue, download a motherboard monitor and watch the voltages when you gaming/under load. (If ECS even has a MBM, i hate them with the fire of a thousand suns)

 

[Blastman]

Could be power supply. Might try putting the 1700+ back in (lower power draw) and see what happens.

 

[Tweekd]

So, it looks like my plan of action for now will be to remove the existing driver, run the driver cleaner and reinstall the latest ATI drivers. Any suggestions as to when I should update the AGP driver or will it matter?

I can't say I love ECS, but they were the lowest bidder at the time and it's worked for a while.... I'll see if I can track down some monitoring software. Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[Blastman]

THe motherboard drivers "should" have a hardware monitor to check fan speed voltage etc.

 

[Mem]

suggestions as to when I should update the AGP driver or will it matter?

You can install the AGP driver right away, see if that helps at all,if not then just go with removing old driver then boot into safe mode and run Driver Cleaner.

Here`s a quick Driver Cleaner copy and paste from readme file,

Important Note:
--------------------------------------------
Make sure step 1 is done, because Windows will go online to the Microsoft site and download the driver.

--------------------------------------------
Usage for XP / XP SP1 / XPSP2
--------------------------------------------
ATI:
1. Unplug nic card or modem from net or disconnect
2. Remove ATI driver from add/remove programs then remove the control panel from add/remove programs
3. Reboot into safe mode (F8 during boot up)
4. On reboot into safe mode WinXP SP1/SP2 will auto detect and install drivers. Just let it do its thing. If you can cancel out of the auto install hardware wizard then skip the rest and run Driver Cleaner! If you can NOT cancel out of auto detect wizard then...
5. Navigate to device mgr->display adapter->uninstall and/or remove ATI display adapter but do not reboot
6. Disable any AntiVirus Software (If you don't disable is than it could give trouble)
7. Run Cab Cleaner (not needed, but recommended)
8. Run Driver Cleaner
9. Empty recycle bin and reboot
10. Install the new drivers and control panel

 

[Mem]

I'll see if I can track down some monitoring software. Thanks for the input everyone!

MBM 5.3.6.0 supports your board here .


Download link .

 

[howdyduty]

Video stutter when sounds play is usually a software/driver/conflict issue.