Disappointed with my 4850

[apoppin]

no

go here and learn

http://forums.anandtech.com/ca...tid=28&flcache=9240473

it is very easy to do and it will make a big difference [assuming that there is not something else wrong with your system]

my e4300 is o/c'd from 1.8 to 3.25Ghz and is much faster than yours

You can do it too .. easily .. read the threads that apply to your CPU in the Forum i linked for you

 

[Wreckage]

The 4850 could be overheating or causing too much heat inside your computer case. It does run very hot.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
The 4850 could be overheating or causing too much heat inside your computer case. It does run very hot.

no, it doesn't, in fact, at 70% fan it's a cool 38C idle, 52C load. just because the fan doesn't auto increase doesn't mean the cards run hot, just up the fan some and those 4850's run icy.

 

[Dranoss]

Yeah I second Quicksilver, it must be a forced x1 bandwith on the BIOS, download GPU-Z (althou CPU-Z shows it too, on the motherboard tab) and check if youre running at x16.
If you arent, just search for a Force PEG Link option in your BIOS and disable it.

I wouldnt overclock without proper cooling & knowledge... your hardware already has the potential at stock.

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
The 4850 could be overheating or causing too much heat inside your computer case. It does run very hot.

He did the fan fix, so I'm sure that's not an issue at all...

OP I just did a check for myself, here's my rig:

Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2 Ghz @ 2.5Ghz
2Gb Corsair Value Ram
MSI HD4850
Earthwatts EA430
MSI 725A Mobo w/ the Nforce4 Ultra chipset

COD4 all settings on high, all textures on max, etc. 12x Edge Detect AA (Basically 24x AA) and 16X AF forced through control panel. 1680 x 1050 Resolution

I averaged 74.6 FPS per FRAPS benchmark for one minute of gameplay. V-Sync is off obviously. Min was 52, Max was 86

 

[SeductivePig]

I downloaded gpu-z and it says I'm running @16..

If the above guy (modular) has a 3400 processor and he's average 74.6 FPS, then there is something wrong with my computer, or more likely my card.

Tonight I'm reinstalling my windows, and installing all software again. And I'm gonna take apart my computer tomorrow and rewire everythign.

If that doesn't fix my card, I'm gonna make newegg ship me out a new one.

This is ridiculous..

 

[SeductivePig]

I tried that fraps benchmark in COD4

At 1680x1050, with 2x AA, full anisotropic, and high textures, I averaged 32 and 37 FPS.

so I guess I'll go through with the xp reinstall

i'm willing to bet it's a bad card or a cooling issue with my cpu or something

 

[kmmatney]

The E4400 is very easy to overclock. Just set the FSB to 266, and you get an instant overclock to 2.66 Ghz. No need to change voltages, or anything. I pin-modded my E4400, so my motherboard thinks that the cpu requires a 266 Mhz FSB so it "automatically" overclocks it. The pin-mod is not necessary, though.

 

[quadomatic]

Yeah, if you're motherboard lets you change fsb, just set to 266. Hell, try pushing it some more if u want.

 

[MrStryker]

Somehow I don't know if reformatting is going to fix the problem. I've swapped two or three different Nvidia and ATI cards on the same XP install before and I never had problems that you're experiencing. (Uninstall drivers, reboot to safe mode, use Driver Cleaner, then reboot & install drivers, then reboot)

 

[Dkcode]

I would go through with the reinstall with only the necessary drivers and minimal applications. It eliminates the possibility of any nasty processes running in the background.

Also make sure you have SP3 installed.

 

[jALLAD]

@CrazyDesi
you are most likely having cooling problems. a loaded 4850 consumes about 230W and a E4400 is rated at 65W. just these two add up to 300W I dont know what other peripherals you have, but depending on them it might be cutting very close to the recommended limits of the PSU. however that shouldn't present much of a problem unless for some reason the ambient temp in your case is high.

I have faced my share of heating problems, and your symptoms feels very similar. since cleaning your CPU cooler helped, I 'ld suggest you should try looking into how good the airflow is inside your case and whether you are loading your PSU with too many peripherals. my money would be on air flow. but then this could be a million other things...hopefully you can work it out.

 

[SunnyD]

Guys, seriously - you're telling him to overclock yet we've already established that he's got cooling problems at stock speeds? You people are insane!
(Yes, I know he "fixed" them, but it's only going to be a temporary fix at best)

If you don't have anything too important on the machine, I say wipe it and reinstall Windows with the latest drivers for everything on your machine. Start testing from there. If you get the same results, then you may want to consider overclocking the CPU a bit (just to test, not permanent) to see how much of an impact that makes.

Also, just for S&G, try changing the graphics settings for the game down lower and see if that changes things much. If not, then you know something else is wrong other than the video card.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Guys, seriously - you're telling him to overclock yet we've already established that he's got cooling problems at stock speeds? You people are insane!
(Yes, I know he "fixed" them, but it's only going to be a temporary fix at best)

If you don't have anything too important on the machine, I say wipe it and reinstall Windows with the latest drivers for everything on your machine. Start testing from there. If you get the same results, then you may want to consider overclocking the CPU a bit (just to test, not permanent) to see how much of an impact that makes.

Also, just for S&G, try changing the graphics settings for the game down lower and see if that changes things much. If not, then you know something else is wrong other than the video card.

We are telling him to OC *after* he fixes his cooling issues [and possible PS issues]. Yes, the 4850 is a warm GPU that puts a lot of heat into a closed case. Make SURE the case airflow is excellent.

After all, a stock e4400@1.9 Ghz is not going to cut it. Just a mild OC with FSB to 266 will bring a major performance increase without increasing temps by more than a degree or two.

AFTER, he sorts out his issues, THEN he should OC .. in case it was not clear

 

[PingSpike]

I don't understand why everyone keeps hammering on the overclocking. I think Modular, with the single core Athlon 64 pretty much laid the the "cpu bottlenecking" theory to waste.

I personally haven't ever seen terrible performance as a result of left over drivers in my time, but I suppose thats not out of the question. It may be worth doing the reinstall just to rule that out...personally, I think its a poorly mated cooler or some other issue with the video card. I have heard of overheating cards turning in poor performance.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I don't understand why everyone keeps hammering on the overclocking. I think Modular, with the single core Athlon 64 pretty much laid the the "cpu bottlenecking" theory to waste.

I personally haven't ever seen terrible performance as a result of left over drivers in my time, but I suppose thats not out of the question. It may be worth doing the reinstall just to rule that out...personally, I think its a poorly mated cooler or some other issue with the video card. I have heard of overheating cards turning in poor performance.

a stock e4400 is 1.9Ghz

that is why

a stock e4300 even bottlenecks a x1950 somewhat

 

[BFG10K]

This isn't a CPU limitation, it's a system configuration problem.

Instead of him running off to reinstall Windows I can't see why he isn't checking his chipset drivers and vsync settings.

Ah well, each to their own.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
This isn't a CPU limitation, it's a system configuration problem.

Instead of him running off to reinstall Windows I can't see why he isn't checking his chipset drivers and vsync settings.

Ah well, each to their own.

Actually, his PC sounds like a mess

Reinstall sounds good. After making sure HW, case temps and other temps are cool. Then he should double check chipset drivers and vsynch.

Then Overclock

OK, compromise?
- he can do all of our suggestions and he will have a "new" PC =)

 

[SeductivePig]

Alright guys, I reinstalled my entire OS, reformatted the harddrive, and have nothing but fresh drivers and software on here.

I tried the Crysis demo, and I'm averaging 22-23 FPS, and it rarely dips below 20, yet it rarely goes above 25. It was surprisingly very smooth to play, I didn't have any stuttering at all except at checkpoints. The movie parts were around 17fps on average.

I'm gonna try team fortress 2, and if that still gives bad FPS then I'm going to assume its a CPU problem.


Anyways I definitely want to overclock my CPU now.. since you guys say I can get 3ghz very easily.

IF I overclock my cpu from 2ghz to 3ghz, and overclock my 4850 decently, how much fps improvement do you guys think I can get, in something like Crysis?

 

[thilanliyan]

Does CoD 4 perform better now? Or is it still the same? I was getting 60fps (or near it) most of the time with an 8800GT at 1920x1200 and most of the eye candy turned up so you should definitely be getting better than what you were.

 

[SeductivePig]

I don't even have the CD for cod4 anymore.. I just have the cd key.

So I can't even check

 

[bob4432]

fwiw, here is power from the wall -

XP PRO 32BIT, SP3
Intel E2160 @ 3.0GHz
Gigabyte P35-DS3L
ATI HD4850 512MB (set to o/c when using a 3d game to 690/1100 using Catalyst Control Center 8.7 and a modified bios fixing the fan issue of the 4850s)
3GB DDR2-667
WD 1394 Card
1x IDE/SATA Card w/ 1x IDE port and 2x SATA Ports
LSI U160 SCSI Card
1x 74GB FUJITSU MAX - 15K U320 SCSI
1x 250GB Seagate 7.2k SATA HDD - 7200.10
1x DVD-RW
Fans: 1x92mm, 5x80mm (4w/ Blue LEDs), 1x 80mm in the EarthWatt PSU

PSU ? Antec EarthWatt 380
Idle Power Draw: ~115W
Average Power Draw while testing: ~295W while degragging both hdds, running orthos small fft and furmark @ 1280x1024 4AA


testing your rig for 7mins on orthos is not making sure it is stable. usually 12hrs+ before i would call a machine stable. how many fans do you have on the intake and exhaust sides? the 4850 being a single slot card means all that heat (regardless of a fan fix or not - where do you think the heat goes?) is still building up in the case. i wouldn't start o/cing anything until you can start w/ a solid, stable base. - run orthos for multiple hours, then run furmark for multiple hours - stress the machine in its stock format before you start changing settings. o/cing is easy but getting a solid, reliable o/c does take time.

also check to see if you are hitting the pagefile (running out of ram), i run well over 2GB w/ company of heroes @ 1280x1024....so this may be an issue if you have a lot of programs installed running in the background.

 

[SeductivePig]

It's not a power supply issue..

All I have in my case is..
E4400 processor
4850 graphics card
P5B-VM se motherboard
250gb seagate harddrive
one cd/dvd drive
one 120mm case fan
2gb gskill ram
450vx power supply



I'm sort of thinking it might be a dud card at this point.. I'm getting a solid 20-23 FPS during crysis with everything on high @ 1680x1050, and 4x AA. VSync is on.


TF2 is downloading as we speak.. if I notice no changes in that game then there's definitely something wrong.


I also find it hard to believe that it's a heating or cpu bottleneck problem.. someone in this thread had my exact same specs except he had an athlon 3400+ processor, and he was averageing 37 fps in crysis at the same settings.


I seriously think it's a faulty card or something. I have the right drivers, clean install, empty harddrive, proper temperature, proper power supply..

 

[Marty502]

Average of 37 FPS with a single core A64 with everything on high, at 1680x1050 in Crysis?

I doubt it. Not even at 3 Ghz. A64s are terrible in Crysis.

Crysis CPU Tests

Check those averages at 1024x768, medium detail and a 8800GTX with the Athlon 64.

I know this won't help your issue, but at least it's one thing less to think about.

 

[SeductivePig]

In your guys' opinion, what FPS should I be getting at crysis with my specs?

e4400
4850
2gb ram

1680x1050, all high, 4xAA, vsync on