NF7-s2 - games run slowwwwwwwwww

[peab0dy]

I just got an abit nf7-s2 and installed it Friday. I had been running a Gigabyte 7vt600L

Problem is all my games are now unbelievably slow. In fact they run about 50% of the fps they previously did. For example doom3 was 45fps, now it's 22fps. Ran a bunch of game benchmark utilities (3dmark01,03,aqua) and they all show similar results. This is despite the cpu running 180mhz faster than before.

Desktop speed is fine and haven't had any instability. CPU runs cool and case temps stay low

I did format and fresh load of XP, tried old and new mb drivers (both abit and nvidia), tried old and new vid card drivers, loaded new bios, disabled all peripherals in bios that weren't necessary (lan/audio/usb/serial/parallel), tried many different mem timings and nothing makes a difference. Nothing!!!

System:
winxp pro sp1
dx9c
nf7-s2 - 400fsb
barton 2600+ @2.3ghz
geil 512mb 2.5-3-3-6 pc3200
powercolor 9800se w/vga silencer
- note: tried many drivers including 8 pipeline and standard 4 pipeline. Nothing makes a difference
AGP 8x, 128MB aperture, fastwrites off

Please help! Any ideas would be great! thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Did you install the motherboard drivers first, THEN the video drivers, on the first go-around? Yes = , no =

 

[peab0dy]

yes mb drivers were the first thing I installed. Since then I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling them in every possible order

 

[LTC8K6]

What does DXDIAG say about your display?

 

[peab0dy]

has anandtech been unreachable for anyone else for the past day?!?

dxdiag tests are all good. One big problem I'm having is the memory is not performing well and I believe this is the cause of all my troubles. I'm running at 200/200 and my Sandra memory bandwidth benchmark scores are horrible. I get around 2200MB/1700MB!! It should be around 2900MB on both

Tried different DIMM slots and same results. I'm starting to wonder if this board needs pairs to run at full speed. It would be nice if the manual gave any good information about the memory :|

 

[mechBgon]

The motherboard doesn't need pairs, and Sandra is trashware, so don't let it get under your skin. If games are performing slow, then yes, you have an issue. I would download the following and burn them to CD for another go-around:

SP2 for WinXP
DirectX 9.0C full installer
nVidia 4.27 UDP
Latest Radeon driver set
ZoneAlarm free version

and install them in that order (don't plug your network cable straight into broadband until you're sure you've got a firewall up, if you don't have a hardware firewall/router). Notice that SP2 and DirectX 9.0C come before the motherboard or video drivers here.

Also (duh) remember to give your Radeon its power cable from the power supply.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Also is that the NF7-S2 or NF7-S Rev2. Big difference.

-Kevin

 

[peab0dy]

nf7-s2

I reformatted and reinstalled everything last night, same deal. I think I will be returning it :disgust: