new video card is giving me sluggish performance

[QueBert]

I just popped a 9800 Pro in my box, and Far Cry felt like it was being held back. So I install 3d Mark 2003 to give me a general idea of what I'm working with. With the default settings and nothing else running, I got a score of 2850, rebooted and ran 3dmark again, bairly hit 2900. I know people with 9800's are hitting in the 6,000 range. Here is my setup.

Gigabyte NF2 MB
XP 2500+ (not OC'ed)
Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro 128 meg (stock speeds)
Corsair XMS Pro ddr400 512 meg.


The 9800 is an upgrade from my GF4MX. Before installing it, I ran one of the proggies that kills the Det drivers files that are left behind. And installed the latest CAT drivers from ATI's web site.

I feel I should be getting much better performance, people with a very similar setup are almost doubling my benchmark scores. Maybe I should do a clean install of XP? Besides that, I'm out of ideas.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

You might have AA/AF on.

 

[PacFu]

Or VSync

 

[jiffylube1024]

First, I'd do as suggested above - check if AA and/or AF is on (and also Vsynch, but I wouldn't think it would hurt performance THAT much).

If none of that is the culprit, then I'd say it sounds like there's still some kind of driver conflict in there.

What program did you use to get rid of Nvidia's drivers, and did you follow the instructions to the letter? Did you uninstall the Nvidia drivers first, and then run the driver removal program?

If you didn't run the latest version of Driver Cleaner (and even if you did already), I'd try uninstalling your current ATI drivers, then running the latest Driver Cleaner (again) and deleting all ATI and Nvidia drivers.

Then, after making sure you have the latest version of DirectX, install the 4.6 or 4.7 Cats from ATI's site and see if you get the same sluggish performance.

 

[selfbuilt]

You might want to also try re-installing your chipset AGP drivers. Often the source of problems after removal/re-installs.

 

[Marsumane]

1) check your ati settings for dx9 in the control pannel and make sure u dont have aa/af on.
2) check processor usage and even memory usage (tho not as likely)
3) maybe you have the 128bit version (although it still seems low)
4) uninstall and resinstall the drivers (maybe even try the omegas and set it for performance)

These are my only ideas. Hope they give u something.

 

[1ManArmY]

Your previous Nvidia driver's could be conflicting with ATI catalyst driver's

Did you use driver cleaner 3 from driverheaven.net to remove your nvidia drivers?

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Marsumane
1) check your ati settings for dx9 in the control pannel and make sure u dont have aa/af on.
2) check processor usage and even memory usage (tho not as likely)
3) maybe you have the 128bit version (although it still seems low)
4) uninstall and resinstall the drivers (maybe even try the omegas and set it for performance)

These are my only ideas. Hope they give u something.

did Hercules even make a 128bit version of the 3d Prophet? God I hope not, I didn't even check for that when I bought it

I don't have AA/AF on, my CPU/Mem usage is pretty normal, I'm going to try the omega drivers, and a different Nvidia cleaner.

I played True Crime with the AA/AF maxed and it seemed to run sweet, so maybe the problem has worked itself out *shrug*

 

[dejacky]

also check your power supply to make sure it's transferring consistent energy to your pc components. Once, I upgraded from a lousy Enlight power supply to an Antec True Power 330watt and I got an increase in ~20-30fps and the gameplay was finally stable/smooth and non-jittery.

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
First, I'd do as suggested above - check if AA and/or AF is on (and also Vsynch, but I wouldn't think it would hurt performance THAT much)

Vsync drops me from ~5600 to ~3200 or so in 3dmark03. It has to limit the frames to the refresh in order to avoid tearing therefore 3dmark assumes this is a slower piece of hardware... AA/AF will also cause this. You might check rivatuner or a similar program to see if it truly is a 256-bit card. The 128 bit will be dramatically slower.

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: QueBert

Originally posted by: Marsumane
1) check your ati settings for dx9 in the control pannel and make sure u dont have aa/af on.
2) check processor usage and even memory usage (tho not as likely)
3) maybe you have the 128bit version (although it still seems low)
4) uninstall and resinstall the drivers (maybe even try the omegas and set it for performance)

These are my only ideas. Hope they give u something.

did Hercules even make a 128bit version of the 3d Prophet? God I hope not, I didn't even check for that when I bought it

I don't have AA/AF on, my CPU/Mem usage is pretty normal, I'm going to try the omega drivers, and a different Nvidia cleaner.

I played True Crime with the AA/AF maxed and it seemed to run sweet, so maybe the problem has worked itself out *shrug*

You are right. Its only saphire cards that have the 128bit memory bus. I was in a rush and didnt read his entire specs. So ignore suggestion 3.