GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB DDR obscenely slow...

[bbdix]

Basic Setup...

Abit SH6 Mobo
PIII 800 slot 1
196 MB RAM
Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 GTS 32 MB DDR (detonator 6.34, tried others)
DirectX 8 (tried it to improve speed)
Soundblaster Live Value
AGP aperture 64MB
AGP enabled 4X
30 GB Hard Drive

I've tried as many things as I can think of and calling Elsa is difficult because I can't take time off work to wait hours to get a call back. I used to have a Tyan 400 s1854 Mobo but I think the Via chipset didn't go well with the GeForce because it would lock up. A nice hard lock where all you can do is hit the power off. However, if I could complete a run through the default benchmark on 3D Mark 2000 I could get scores in the 5200 range. Now with the new Abit Mobo it doesn't lock up but the 3d video is choppy and the best score I could get was about 2200 which is way too low for an 800 processor. NHL2001 isn't even playable because the video is so choppy. I'll gladly provide any additional info that might lead to a helpful response so I can get my system running smoothly and up to something close to the speed it should be capable of producing. I've tried so many things I'll apologize ahead of time for not putting it all down here now. Any attempt at helping me will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tonec]

Let me guess no via 4n1s installed.
viatech.com

 

[bbdix]

Well... The Abit Mobo uses an Intel 815 chipset so I've used the latest chipset drivers from Intel but didn't think it wise to use the via 4n1.

 

[bbdixwork]

Can't anyone lend a hand here? My upgrading process has lasted months and I still can't get everything ironed out. I'm pretty desparate. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated even though I cannot possibly guarantee that I haven't tried it before.

 

[Mem]

Try tweaking the Bios like disable fastwrites(not all boards have this in Bios) & disable all video shadowing, install the latest monitor drivers as well.I believe that board has onboard graphics chip so check in bios it`s disabled,make sure the old graphic drivers are removed,& what OS are you using?

 

[bbdixwork]

First, thank you for answering. I'm running windows 98se. I hadn't thought much about drivers for the monitor so I'm encouraged to find something I haven't tried yet. I'm using a Dell monitor that I got three years ago when I bought my last system. I was intrigued at the concept of building my own system but so far it has been a nightmare because I can't get all the bugs out. Fastwrites aren't in my BIOS and I don't remember seeing anything on shadowing either but I'll double check tonight. The BIOS doesn't show the video settings described in the MOBO manual which is what is supposed to happen when the MOBO automatically disables the onboard video in favor of a video card in the AGP slot so I assume the onboard video has been properly disabled.

 

[Mem]

Try running in 2x AGP rather then 4x AGP mode(go in Bios to change this)also try keeping PCI slot 1 empty next to AGP slot for your AGP card,the video shadowing should be under ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES & look like this,video bios shadow "disabled",cxxxx-cbff shadow "disabled",dxxxx-d3fff shadow "disabled" etc.


IMPORTANT-also check you have FSAA is disabled in the Nvidia display panel under D3D,this will kill your Frame rate if enabled.

 

[bbdixwork]

Tried the AGP2x and it didn't fix it. Have always kept the PC1 slot open. I'll be checking the advanced BIOS stuff but the tech guy at my office has gone through all of that too and I don't remember it being there. We are both stumped but we will be attacking again with a fresh install, reinstalling the old MOBO to see if we can run a new Mark 3D benchmark for comparison (and to make sure the video card is still in working condition), trying bare bones to make it work, and whatever else we can think of. While I just want a working computer for games, he really wants to know why this is happening.

 

[HalfHuman]

Did you try installing intel's drivers for the motherboard? I have heard of issues that were resolved by this.

 

[AtaStrumf]

Well I can't help you But perhaps you'll feel a little better if I told you i am having exactly the same problem also on ABIT Mobo (SA6R), Pentium 633 celeron II, 192 MB RAM, IBM Deskstar 75 GXP 45 GB (one of the best), SB Live 1024, Win 98 OS, and GeForce2MX. My Score on 3Dmark 200 is cca. 2500 on 1024x768x16 which is preety pathetic. You might wonna try repartitioning your harddrive, so that your partion for the OS is no larger than 6.4 GB which will reduce cluster size to 4KB from possible 8KB up to cca 16GB or even 16KB for bigger partitions. I did that and my score went up 500 points. I repartitioned from 42GB to 15GB. Worth a try, although that is still not enough! Also make sure you istall all the drivers for your Mobo. And something that just poped into my head: try uninstalling the SB Live, I know my friend had some trouble with it. That's all the help i can offer you for now. I have tryed just about everything but nothing seems to work. Might be something with ABIT Mobos or some BIOS settings. If you find out be sure to let me know! I will be very iterested. Same goes for me! Good Luck!!!

 

[bbdixwork]

Thanks for the info. Here is an update. Talked to ABIT and ELSA support and got nowhere. ELSA support will be continuing efforts so I'm not giving up on them yet. Put the TYAN MOBO back in last night with absolute bare bones and got a 5600 and it didn't lock up so that problem might end up being easier to solve than dealing with the ABIT board. Wiping out the CMOS and starting over by running the onboard video and then manually disabling it in the BIOS then installing the video card and no other cards produced a 4000 which is slight improvement but still not too near what the results should be. Efforts continuing today so I'll update with more info later. Seems that this is a particularly difficult problem with nobody getting an answer so any of you people out there want to take on a big challenge, this may be it.

 

[bbdixwork]

AtaStrumpf - do you have any suggestions for tracking down the SB Live problems? The reason I ask will be evident as you read below.

I have taken a new approach. After trying both the ABIT and the TYAN again, each with only the video card installed, the ABIT creeped and could muster a 4040 only once. The TYAN produced a nice and pretty consistent 5700+. We started building onto the system slowly. After running five successful benchmarks without a problem, installed the SB Live. Lockup on the first run. Five total runs produced 3 lockups. Removed the sound card and we are again running smoothly around 5700 with no lockups. We are working to see how we can update/tweak the sound card setup/drivers/etc to make the SB Live work with the GeForce and TYAN board. Any ideas?

Soooo... Anyone wanna buy an ABIT board??? Slot 1. I815e chipset. virtually new.

 

[mastertech01]

This has me miffed.. I am running an SA6R and with a Geforce GTS II PRO it runs like a scalded dog on win me with a 122GB partition on the raid controller... Ill be monitoring your situation as you progress..

 

[bbdix]

Well, for those of you who are waiting for an answer to the ABIT mobo problem I must apologize. Looks like we got the TYAN Mobo working instead. We narrowed it down to a driver conflict between the video card and the sound card that was producing lockups. We swear we had the updated drivers in before and it still locked up but somewhere along the line they must have gotten screwed up. We ran 3D Mark2000 all day yesterday and consistently got 5200+ after everything was installed. No idea why the ABIT board was so slow and now no incentive to try and figure it out.