increasing preformance on my geforce 6800?

[Sanius]

i'm having troubles with preformance on my geforce 6800, amd 2500+, and 512 mb ddr. I'm using the latest videocard drivers from nVidia, latest nForce drivers, did tweapXP, checked my bios, and scanned the pc. half-life 2 still preforms badly (40-60 fps indoors, 30 and less outdoors) at 1024x768/highest settings/no aa/4x af. turning off af doesn't help. I went to 800x600, 4xaa/4xaf, and all seems to be well. but I wouldn't mind being able to bump up to 1024x768..I don't care if my cpu/ram is not good enough, I think thats all poppycock. I will not overclock, and i will get a gig of ram, just not now.

so, 1) what are the best drivers for the geforce 6 series? and, 2) what else can I do to increase preformance? I'm just asking for an extra 10 fps, 15, maybe. but that's probably pushing it.

I mean, come on! I didn't pay $270 for a videocard upgrade to deal with this crappy preformance!

also, I upgraded from a geforce 2 mx. I used driver cleaner 3, and when I got the card (from until then to now) I checked the bios and never really made some changed, I made graphics apature size 128 mb instead of 32 mb (the geforce 2 had 32 mb). and agp 8x and fastwrite was on. maybe voltage is low? this is also on an aspire 500w powersupply, btw.

woo..please help!

 

[Sanius]

I would also like to add that I browsed this forum, and someone said that this guys videocard might be undered powered because most people forget to put in the molex connecter. I realized just now that when me and my dad were putting in the new powersupply/videocard, there were two dangles from the powersupply not inside the pc. what does this mean? we got it connected to the motherboard, harddrives, cd-drive, one in the videocard..what am I missing?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Just a few of the standard questions....what scores do you get in 3dmark (just for comparison purposes)? If you've not yet run that, do so (you should be getting near 8000 points in 3dmark03; I forget exactly how the scaling is in 05 but you should be over 3000 I think). What kind of scores do you get in the CS:S stress test? Also, are any other games running slower than you think they should?

My first thought is "driver problem", but I don't know....it sounds like you basically know what you're doing. Are you using the latest video drivers, or the latest official ones? I've gone back to the 66.93's myself (the official ones), but I remember reading that 67.02 and some of the newer ones were supposed to have some performance increases for HL2...I didn't notice all that much though.

Edit:

Originally posted by: Sanius
I would also like to add that I browsed this forum, and someone said that this guys videocard might be undered powered because most people forget to put in the molex connecter. I realized just now that when me and my dad were putting in the new powersupply/videocard, there were two dangles from the powersupply not inside the pc. what does this mean? we got it connected to the motherboard, harddrives, cd-drive, one in the videocard..what am I missing?

Not sure what you mean by that....are you just talking about unused power connectors from the PSU? As long as the video card is connected to one of the molex connectors (preferably one that's not shared with other devices), you should be fine. And I've never heard of an underpowered card being slow either; just unstable.

 

[Sanius]

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-148-003&depa=0 - here is my powersupply, also

and yes, there are two unused connecters. since I use an amd processer, is it bad for me to use that powersupply right now? it does say P4 powersupply, so that makes me worry.

and i'm using 66.93. I got 8285 on 3dmark03 with ALL tests (cpu, video,sound, ect). 1024x768/4xaf/no aa. I got 43,500 on aquamark with the same settings. haven't tried 3dmark05, I will soon.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Sanius
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-148-003&depa=0 - here is my powersupply, also

and yes, there are two unused connecters. since I use an amd processer, is it bad for me to use that powersupply right now? it does say P4 powersupply, so that makes me worry.

and i'm using 66.93. I got 8285 on 3dmark03 with ALL tests (cpu, video,sound, ect). 1024x768/4xaf/no aa. I got 43,500 on aquamark with the same settings. haven't tried 3dmark05, I will soon.

I'm not too familiar with Aspire power supplies, but I'm going to assume they're pretty decent. It also doesn't matter if it's marketed as a "P4 power supply" - that will generally just mean that it's tested for compatibility with certain P4 system configurations, or that perhaps it has that extra 4 pin 12V connector. As long as it's a standard ATX power supply (which it is), it should be fine.

Now....I'm a little more confused. Your 3dmark03 score seems to be right where it should be, which to me would indicate that the video card and drivers are working fine. It would be helpful to know your results from the Counterstrike:Source stress test too, to see if the HL2 engine is just being screwy or not. For reference, I get about 113fps at 1024x768 4xAA/8xAF on my 6800GT/2.4GHz Athlon XP, so I would be very surprised if you didn't break 80 or 90 at least in there (especially with no AA). Are you experiencing framerate problems everywhere in the game? Just on certain levels? You are going to be somewhat CPU limited with that machine, but I'd imagine not to the extent you're indicating. I also don't think your RAM would really slow you down that much. And the fact that 800x600 with AA and AF was just fine...confuses me even further, lol.

You aren't by any chance running with Vsync on, are you?

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: Sanius
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-148-003&depa=0 - here is my powersupply, also

and yes, there are two unused connecters. since I use an amd processer, is it bad for me to use that powersupply right now? it does say P4 powersupply, so that makes me worry.

and i'm using 66.93. I got 8285 on 3dmark03 with ALL tests (cpu, video,sound, ect). 1024x768/4xaf/no aa. I got 43,500 on aquamark with the same settings. haven't tried 3dmark05, I will soon.

That 3dMark03 sounds right. Maybe you're running a very intensive scene in HL2?

I use forceware 71.24Beta and they work pretty well and perform great. Do you have Vsync on (i don't think so)?, turn it off and see if that helps. Also you've tried with latest MoBo drivers :S

It's quite strange.

 

[Sanius]

I got 2095 on 3dmark05. 81.42 fps at 1024x768 4x af no aa no vsync. wow, thats weird. I remember other drivers I tried gave me 90 fps with those. forgot which..

 

[McArra]

3dMark05 is way too low. Something wrong there. Have you tried latest MoBo BIOS? Sometimes when you update it with certain hard there's a performance boost. Also reinstall Nforce drivers. Maybe you also want to reinstall everything (I mean reformat comp and make a new install).

 

[Sanius]

reformatting is not an option, sadly. i can't back up my files, and won't be getting a dvd-drive until next month or so. i did defrag, also. i'm going to try the 71.22 drivers in a minute. an i'll try a bios update for my motherboard.

 

[mwmorph]

i think all of you guys forgot 1 thing. Background Processes, any real ram hogging background processes? try ad-aware and spybot to clean out some stuff and then try some tweak utility (majorgeeks.com) to turn off all unnecessary processes/apps.

 

[Sanius]

i looked at the splash screen for the 71.22 drivers, and I NEVER seen these drivers before. i don't want to bother with a bios update right now, don't know how to do that. i will try these drivers.

 

[Sanius]

okay, thank you guys. I got these drivers and scored 3372 points. amazing! thats an extra 1277 points! i'll try the stress test soon.

edit: sadly, the stress test only gains 2 fps :/ but still. i'll see how it runs IN GAME.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

u can also try the latest chipset drivers for ur mobo....its a common problem, people not using right drivers for the chipset and get horrible scores

 

[LoneWolf15]

I think everyone forgot one other thing...the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU. With such a high-end video card, the CPU is now becoming the bottleneck. I was running an Athlon XP-M 2500+ (clocked at 2.3GHz) and going from a Radeon 9700 to my Geforce 6800 netted performance gains, but nothing radical. Switching to an Athlon 64 3000+ really brought it over the top.

Running your Athlon XP 2500+ at 3200+ speeds by upping the FSB from 166 to 200MHz (provided you have the cooling gear in your case and RAM that can take it) will help you some. Your scores don't seem all that unusual to me given your current CPU and 512MB of RAM.

 

[Sanius]

okay, these new drivers get rid of the urine water, but give no preformance increase. same fps in 3dmark05, fps in hl2 is better, but not completly better. keeping it at 800x600 would help..here are 3 things i have not done

1) updating bios. mine is a year old
2) reformatting. can't do that for a month or so
3) checking to see where the other two power connecters go

 

[McArra]

I think a BIOS update may fix it.

 

[Sanius]

how do I do that? I downloaded it, and it's just a .bin file called 1010-X.bin

 

[Zardnok]

I made graphics apature size 128 mb instead of 32 mb (the geforce 2 had 32 mb). and agp 8x and fastwrite was on.

Fastwrites should be set to off and graphics aperature should be 1/2 of total system memory. So increase to 256 aperature and turn off fast-writes.

I would also recommend greatly adding another 512 stick of RAM. Increasing BUS speed as mentioned before will give great improvements as well.

 

[Sanius]

ok, i increased apeature size and turned off fast-writes, will try it now.

 

[Gamingphreek]

No!

Fastwrites should be left on unless you experience problems.

As for AGP Aperture it is a highly debated subject. SOme argue equal to VRAM, others say 1/2 of system RAM. THe best advice anyone can give is leave it at 128mb unless you are playing DIII or HL2 or Far Cry.

Secondly 2500+ will not bottleneck him much at all. Now is that 512mb in Dual Channel or in Single Channel. Dual Channel will improve performance a LITTLE. But going to 1 gig should increase by a decent amount. For the record i get better HL2 framerates with my 5900XT @ those settings so something is definately wrong.

What Chipset drivers are you using? What M/B are you using? Can you get us some voltage readings? When you install the drivers can you geta reading on clockspeeds?

-Kevin

 

[Sanius]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
No!

Fastwrites should be left on unless you experience problems.

As for AGP Aperture it is a highly debated subject. SOme argue equal to VRAM, others say 1/2 of system RAM. THe best advice anyone can give is leave it at 128mb unless you are playing DIII or HL2 or Far Cry.

Secondly 2500+ will not bottleneck him much at all. Now is that 512mb in Dual Channel or in Single Channel. Dual Channel will improve performance a LITTLE. But going to 1 gig should increase by a decent amount. For the record i get better HL2 framerates with my 5900XT @ those settings so something is definately wrong.

What Chipset drivers are you using? What M/B are you using? Can you get us some voltage readings? When you install the drivers can you geta reading on clockspeeds?

-Kevin

alright, i'll turn fastwrite back on in a bit. i'm using 71.20 extreme G drivers (they run better, and don't have piss-yellow water, and run better then official), i'm using A7N8X-X mobo with..I belive version 9 bios, I don't know how to get voltage readings. and i'm running the card at 325/700, if thats what you mean.

 

[McArra]

If your using that MoBo update the BIOS through windows with ASUS UPDATE Utility, is fast and easy.

 

[Sanius]

Originally posted by: McArra
If your using that MoBo update the BIOS through windows with ASUS UPDATE Utility, is fast and easy.

do i just click "flash" like I thought I should? do I have to worry about it screwing up?

also, the back of the powersupply says "110", with this red switch

 

[DusterAZ]

Try a Counterstrike stress test @ 1280x1024 noAA, trilinear, high settings and reflect world. My system is similar to yours except I have the CPU overclocked and my 6800 is unlocked. I get 109 FPS when I just did the VST at those settings.

Edit - also vsync off (of course) and I am using the 67.03 drivers.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Sanius
I got 2095 on 3dmark05. 81.42 fps at 1024x768 4x af no aa no vsync. wow, thats weird. I remember other drivers I tried gave me 90 fps with those. forgot which..

That score is low because you've got 4x AF enabled during the test. Disable that. Now...you've tried turning off fast writes, correct? Did you notice any difference in performance when doing that? Try running some loops of 3dmark03 or 05. Perhaps your card is overheating during games, but I wouldn't think that would be the case.