Issue in 3DMark05

[Zenoth]

Heya.

Just got my X1800 XL today.

Made a few tests in games, and then went for one in 3DMark05.

Two things surprised me, on the negative side.

1) Score was 5403
2) Core frequency speed and Memory frequency speed both shows N/A

For the test, I made sure of the following: No A-A, no A-F, Texture and Mipmap quality set at "Performance"

The GPU's actual Core and Memory clock speeds are well set at their defaults, and I see no over-heating according to ATi Tool 0.25 Beta 9.

The GPU is also powered enough, and well configured (PSU behind this story is a brand new Antec NeoHE 550).

Also, the BIOS settings looks fine to me. Configured for a single-card, PCI-E frequency at default (100 Mhz), HTT set at "auto"

I'm not sure what could be wrong. When you consider most X1800 XL's score between 6800 to 7200 (usual is 7000'ish). So ... scoring as low as 5403 can't do anything else than tell me there's something wrong somewhere.

Oh, and the driver is Catalyst 5.11, newly installed, without previous GPU driver installation (the Motherboard is also new, and I'm just back from a fresh reformart).

I'm using nForce 4 Chipset driver 6.70.

I didn't install the IDE driver, as suggested by many persons here.

Need help/suggestions.

Thanks.

 

[terentenet]

Dunno about the low score, may be a driver issue. Did you run the 3d mark at defaults? 1024x768 NoAA NoAF?
What I want to say is that you need to install the IDE driver. It helps avoid bottlenecking alot. I can notice some substancial performance increase with it installed (system-wise).

 

[Zenoth]

Yep, I ran at default settings in 3DMark05, it's the free trial version, updated version too. I can't change settings anyway.

I'll try to install the IDE driver, to see if it changes anything.

But I originally didn't ... since many threads talk about it as a trouble maker, and people suggest not to install it.

I'll try and I'll come back to let you guys know what happened.

 

[Cooler]

Could be a driver problem with cpu and gpu you should be getting 7200+

 

[Zenoth]

I re-installed the drivers, all of them this time. But it doesn't perform better.

I'll try to completely remove the GPU drivers, and all traces in Safe Mode, and then re-install them.

 

[Matt2]

Yikes, your X1800XL just got pwned by my X800XL's 5753. J/K man.

That score is very low.try the 5.10 cats and see if there is any difference.

 

[Zenoth]

I noticed something upon verifying the cable connections from my PSU to the GPU.

I didn't pluged the right cable for it.

What I did was to take the "PCI-E connector" from the ATi package.

So, I looked in my PSU box again, and noticed not only one, but two PCI-E "dedicated" connectors, for SLi setups of course.

Both ends have 6 plastic slots. One end has actually all 6 slots with 6 pins inside, and one end has 4 slots out of the 6 with pins inside.

The 6 pins end is written "PCIE" on it, and the other end has nothing on it.

Anyways ... I feel dumb really.

So, that clable is properly pluged in as I type this, and I am downloading Catalyst 5.11 again (I just completely un-installed it).

Maybe my card just didn't have enough power.

But I also noticed something upon POST.

You guys know that A8N Logo before actual Boot ? (well that Logo is part of the Boot but I mean it's the first thing you see when you start up)

Well, it had all those strange, exaggerated colors all over it. Don't know why. Hmmm ...

 

[Zenoth]

I've set everything correctly ... and still the same problem.

I re-installed GPU drivers, and Chipset drivers, same score, 5400'ish.

But that A8N / A.I Logo at Boot is strange. The colors are all ... mixed up, not to say something else. Sadly I can't take a picture of it. But the colors are definitely not right.

But, when playing games, I see no artifacts at all, no dots, no nothing.

And no artifacts in 3DMark05 either.

GPU temp ranges between 53 to 57 idle, and around 61 to 66 at load, which I believe is good for a GPU.

Could it be a power supply problem ? I'm using Antec NeoHE 550. All cables are properly set, including the PCI-E cable of course.

This is beyond me ... I don't know what to do.

 

[Munky]

Hmmmmm... Do we always set stuff to Low IQ/High Performance when benchmarking? In that case, lemme go back and see how much higher I can score

Anyways, I usually go to the driver control panels 3d settings, and set everything to default using the "default" button. Dont ask me why, but it happens that if I dont reset the drivers (especially after installing new ones) then the score is lower sometimes.