New 6600GT - Problems, What am I doing wrong?

[dzadzi]

I'm a moderate gamer, not an enthusiast. I recently upgraded my vid card from a VisTek Ti4600 4XAPG, to a BFG 6600GT OC.

I was originally going to get a AIW 9800 Pro, or a 9800XT. But after reading all of the gushing reviews I decided to spend a little more and get a better card. I only installed this card yesterday, but since have been experiencing quite a few problems. Such as freezing, tearing, slowdown, artifacts, etc.

Before installing the new card I removed the drivers (add/remove) then followed the steps through Driver Cleaner Pro, as well as running Cab Cleaner. then installed the latest nVidia drivers (from the website) ver 66.93. I haven't changed the settings from default on the card (with the exception of changing the resulution 1024x768 and the refresh rate 85Hz.) And I have to say - I'm not impressed. Downloaded the free versions of 3D Mark 05 and Aquamark and got the following scores...

3D Mark 05 = 2789
Aquamark = 50,499

Is that good - who knows? I don't think it stellar - but then again it might br good for my system?

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could make any suggestions to improve performance and stability?

Thanks in advance

PS - I don't want to over-clock the card for warranty purposes.

PPS - Here my rig

ASUS P4P800SE
1.0GB (2x512M) Dual Channel Ram (OCZ) PC-400 PC3200 DDR
Pentium IV-3.0Ghz 800FSB 512K HT
BF GeForce 6600GT OC (AGP) 128MB
Antec Sonata w/380w Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 EIDE
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 120GB / 7200 / 8M / SATA-150
NEC ND-2510A Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive (IDE)
LG 16X DVD int. IDE Black
SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer
Creative Inspire 5.1 5300
19" Samsung SyncMaster 955DF
XP Professional, SP 1

 

[Acanthus]

I would try underclocking the card to see if the artifacts go away, if they do, RMA time.

If they dont... i see a format in your future.

Your scores are right around where they should be.

 

[dzadzi]

Thanks for the info - I'm oh hold right now (BFG support)

How would one underclock? (I've never even OC'd a card)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Sounds like it is overheating. How is the temp on the card under load?

 

[Wolfshanze]

dzadzi... something doesn't sound right... if you check out my system specs below, you'll notice we have almost identical systems (I even have an Audigy and Samsung 955DF)... I am getting 3200 on 3D Mark 05 without any tweaks or adjustments (well, I do have MAM enabled in the P4P800SE BIOS, but that's it).

You should get more out of your card then what it's giving you.

One other possibility (though this is a stretch), with the amount of stuff you have in your system, perhaps you are putting a strain on your PSU? An Antec 380w is a good PSU, no doubt, but you've got a bigger burden on your PSU then I do, and I have an Antec 480w PSU just to be sure (always better to have too much then not enough).

 

[dzadzi]

Wolfshanze

Those specs are pretty close.

Here's a update. After waiting 30 minutes I got a tech @ BFG - bottom line is he couldn't detect anything wrong. After checking multiple things (including BIOS), he suggested updating the BIOS. So, off to asus.com I went. Downloaded the latest, re-booted and!!!

Nothing special, but a few of the games I was runnning with problems earlier seemed to have cleared-up (literally) I was seeing black lines in DAW and don't even get me started on Far Cry.

Tried running 3D Mark 05 again, and it seems as though I've moved-up a few points from 2789 before the BIOS update to 3085 (not huge, but it's an improvement!

Now I think I'll focus my attention of power consumption and heat. Can ayone please explain how to test the card's temperature under stress. My concern it surrounding the Antec case "Sonata" It's supposed to be quiet, any doesn't appear to have the best ventilation. Besides all fans are stock.

Any suggestions are again appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dzadzi]

I checked the temp under the videocard's settings and here they are...

GPU core temp = 44c
Ambient temp = 36c

Is that bad? Can anyone explain how I test the temp on my card "under load"?

Thanks again

 

[rocketbubba]

All I can tell you is what I've learned over the past few days.

Try the 67.66 drivers (I got them from 3dguru.com). I was using the 66.93 drivers and having a few problems - but things are stable now under 67.66.

Also, my power supply has been an issue. 6600GTs apparently draw a lot of power. I rearranged the power connectors and that has helped as well.

After doing those two things my system has been completely stable. Hope that helps! RB

 

[rise]

to test yor temps under load use rthdribl i think it is or ati tool actually works pretty good too. i dont have the links but you can google them.

 

[dzadzi]

Are the 67.66 drivers "Forceware". Aren't you only supposed to use these if you have nVidia based mobo?

 

[dzadzi]

Under 'rthdribl' my GPU core te,p went as hifh as 67c, however I'm not sure if I'm using the program correctly to be honest.

 

[rise]

i only ran it a couple times but my understanding is to open the window as large as you can but so that you can still view your temps and run it for some time. i ran it for about an hour, never got above 61 but people say that anything under 70 is fine.

and yes, the forceware is nvidia and the ati tool works fine with it as well, just doesn't give you the ati options, oc'ing and stuff.

but you might want to use that because it has 2 different "tools", it checks for artifacting and frame rates. also heats the gpu up just as well as the rthdribl and ran fine in the back round as well for me. its pretty cool.

 

[dzadzi]

Thanks for the feedback, I understand wha you're saying about 'rthdribl' and will run it that way when I have the time. However, I'm slightly confused at your comment surrounding the Forceware drivers.

The main question I had was if I could use the forceware drivers with my set-up. From what I understood forceware drivers are intended for use on nVidia-based mobo's, I have an nVidia-based card but the mobo is asus.

Thanks

 

[dzadzi]

Well I thought I was on the road to recovery, but alas my woes persist!

After updating the mobo's BIOS, I've experienced freezing in 2 games Far Cry and Halo. With my old card Ti4600 this NEVER happened. Now, twice in 1 day - Yipes!

So, when I have more time I will run rthdribl for an hour or so and try to determine if it's a cooling/heat issue and get back on the horn with BFG. Don't even want to think about an RMA at this point, I just got the damn thing yesterday!?!

I have to admit, I'm a little pissed right now.

BFG NFG

 

[rise]

well, i'm not a bfg owner but i've only heard good things about them.

a couple things: i don't know where you got your impressions of forceware but i have an asus board and use 66.93 and 67.66 drivers on my evga. forceware afaik is just like catalyst to ati, brand id.

also, if you just flashed your mobo bios you need to make sure all the bios settings are correct. i recently flashed my asus board and for some reason i couldn't print. turns out my port had been disabled? wtf? anyway, make sure all the settings are correct, aperature size, vid acel, etc...

 

[cubby1223]

Speed check - I've got an XP3000+, 512 ram, XFX 6600GT (nothing's overclocked) - and I get 41,500 in Aquamark3

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: dzadzi

I was originally going to get a AIW 9800 Pro, or a 9800XT. But after reading all of the gushing reviews I decided to spend a little more and get a better card. I only installed this card yesterday, but since have been experiencing quite a few problems. Such as freezing, tearing, slowdown, artifacts, etc.

I had to reinstall several games when I switched from a 5900 XT to a 6800 Ultra. And that is ever though I used the same NVidia drivers.

 

[Showtime]

According to your temps, heat wasnt an issue. Did you measure under load while gaming? If temps are good it's probably your ps. If I were you, I'd shut down the computer and unplug any extra hd's/opticals/etc. Basically only run one hd, one optical and the video card.

It's a quick trouble shoot and at the very least can eliminate the ps and heat from the list of possible problems.

Good luck

-show

 

[Wolfshanze]

dzadzi, YES YOU CAN USE NVIDIA DRIVERS... trust me on this one.

As you know, I have a near identical setup as you, including the exact same MB and video card, and yes, I use NVIDIA's 66.93 Forceware drivers just fine. Also, BFG tells you to use NVidia's referance drivers.

You might be confusing NVidia's video card drivers with NVidia's MB drivers, which are two differant things.

Your heat readings seem normal... I too have a BFG 6600GT OC, and my temps are anywhere between 41c and 44c at idle, so sounds like you're okay on heat.

I still suspect you may be putting a heavy load on a 380w PSU. You may want to get something beefier considering how much power you're drawing from your PSU.

Finally, realize my BFG 6600GT is my 2nd card! The first BFG 6600GT card I got locked up and froze immediately in every game and benchmark I ran... I had to return the card and get another... the 2nd card ran just fine, and I've had no problems at all with it. I never got a benchmark score from my first card because it would always lock up within a minute of doing anything 3D, so I never got any benchmark scores.

You might need to return the card if its freezing-up on you alot... you might have a bad chipset on the card (something NVidia themselves seems to have a high bad-chip rate concerning the 6600GT). I returned mine, and my replacement has run like a champ, compared to the chump my first card was.

 

[marmasatt]

Not to disagree w/ wolf but to help you trouble shoot....... Check my sig. I've got a very similar system to you guys. Love the P4P800 incidentally. Anyway, I've only got a 350 Watt PS which is the bare minimum and I'm just fine. I've got an MSI 6600GT and I'm using the 71.22's drivers which are still just beta I believe......These are really quirky chipset cards. Alot of bum chips out there....

 

[dzadzi]

OK folks firstly - thanks so much for all of the input . You guys have been 10x better than the BFG support team thus far!

A question.

1. If I experience a freeze/lock-up on select games and benchmarks (I.e. Far Cry, Breed, Halo and CSS Stress Test) but run others just fine (i.e. Doom3, HL2, UT2K4, Painkiller, Warhammer DOW, 3D Mark 05 and Aquamark) What would you attribute this to?

Chipset?
Overheating?
Ltd Power Supply?

At this point, I'm starting to think that it's most likely something wrong with the card itself. However, it seems very odd that certain games seem to have difficulty. All games worked before (Ti4600 days) - never benched then!

So, me thinks I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling my videocard drivers again. I've updated my nVidia drivers to 67.66. After the BIOS update and new nVidia drivers the black lines (and what I think were poor blocky textures have dissappeared), but the lock-ups still persist!

Can anyone suggest the best program to clean drivers, and (hopefully) limit my chances of further headache?

As always Thanks!

 

[knyghtbyte]

If you can run Doom3 and HL2 fine then i would go with it being drivers........those two games are far more demanding than anything else around........could be the card tho.

Get Rivatuner program, allows you to record the temps while you are playing the games, give it 5-10 mins worth of playing then come out and check the records, its always possible the card is overheating trying to perform certain actions, but i doubt it.
Also with Rivatuner you can underclock your card or overclock it to see if that makes any differences.

for info on how to do the actual over/under clocking, just search the video forum for 6800 GTO thread and i have posted detailed info (albeit a around 6 or so pages into the thread) on how to use the program, but ignore the pipeline unlocking, i dont think u wanna mess with that on your card.

If nothing else helps, get them to swap the card.

Edit: btw, i cant see it being the power supply btw, as again the games its working on tax ur CPU to the limit as well as your hard drive, normal memory and video card, my dell only has a 350watt power supply and happily runs what u see in my signature below.

 

[shimsham]

are you sharing the power line to the card with any other hardware? make sure you have the vidcard on its own line, if possible.

 

[dzadzi]

Yes,

I am sharing the power to the video card with the hard drives! Could that potentially cause me any grief?

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: dzadzi
Yes,

I am sharing the power to the video card with the hard drives! Could that potentially cause me any grief?

maybe. its recommended for the 6800 cards. i can share on my regular 6800, but my buddy had problems with his gt and ultra when he tried share.

probably not the issue, but worth a try before an rma.