Radeon X800 XL AGP runs horrible in my old PC

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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
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I replaced my GeForce4 Ti4200 128 MB with an ATI Radeon X800 XL AGP (used). So far for all the games I play (old games, from 2003) with the same settings the framerates are much lower with the X800 XL. Did I install something wrong? Is there something I need to adjust in my system?

I have tried installing the drivers that came with the CD, the Catalyst 6.9 drivers, and the latest omega drivers. None seem to do the trick. I made sure I uninstalled all of the old nvidia drivers and ran drivercleaner before I installed the new card. My power supply is only 160W (the X800XL requires power from the PS), and so I replaced it with a 300W...and it still runs slow. Can anyone give me any advice?

My system specs are in my signature. It's a Gateway 500SE I believe. Thanks in advance :)
 
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mancunian

Senior member
May 19, 2006
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His CPU is slow, but the X800XL should still give a decent boost.

OP, did you run DriverCleaner and remove all traces of NVidia drivers?
 
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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
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Originally posted by: happy medium
How many amps on the 12 volt + rail for your power supply?
Click to expand...
8.5A. I reverted back to my old 160W PSU when I saw that the 300W didn't fix the problem.

Originally posted by: mancunian
OP, did you run DriverCleaner and remove all traces of NVidia drivers?
Click to expand...
Yes, I did.
 
JPB

JPB

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2005
4,064
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I ran a X800Pro on a 118 BestTec psu. So im sure the XL you have should be fine. I think there is something else wrong, ie...drivers
 
schneiderguy

schneiderguy

Lifer
Jun 26, 2006
10,801
91
91
Originally posted by: BauleyF1
Originally posted by: happy medium
How many amps on the 12 volt + rail for your power supply?
Click to expand...
How can I check this?
Click to expand...

should be on the PSU box or, if you dont have that, there should be a sticker on the PSU that has the voltages listed :)

or you could just look it up online if you know the PSU model #
 
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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
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Originally posted by: x80064
I ran a X800Pro on a 118 BestTec psu. So im sure the XL you have should be fine. I think there is something else wrong, ie...drivers
Click to expand...

How can I check this??
 
happy medium

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
I read that the x800xl card requires 58 watts under load. But I can't find how many amps it needs. I would think more than a 8.5 amp 12v rail though. Can anyone help with these numbers?
 
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AndrewL

Member
Aug 29, 2006
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Run a synthetic benchmark like 3dmark. Then post your scores with each card. What games specifically are you talking about?
 
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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
14
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Originally posted by: AndrewL
Run a synthetic benchmark like 3dmark. Then post your scores with each card. What games specifically are you talking about?
Click to expand...

I will do that.

The games i'm trying to play are:
F1 Challenge 99-02
NASCAR Racing 2002 Season
e.g. the Ti4200 ran N2002 at 35fps with all the cars on the screen, the X800XL only runs it at 25 or so with the same settings.

I downloaded ATITool (to make sure it wasn't DOA) and the little cube thingy was spinning at 270FPS. Also, I ran the artifact tester and it didn't find any errors.
 
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akshayt

Banned
Feb 13, 2004
2,227
0
0
In case you have a winchester, that x800xl will give you a 0% boost. With a north wood things should be better.

 
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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
14
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0
Originally posted by: akshayt
In case you have a winchester, that x800xl will give you a 0% boost. With a north wood things should be better.
Click to expand...

Um, how do I tell which I have?

 
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Maxspeed996

Senior member
Dec 9, 2005
848
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This makes me wonder....when I upgraded to my card a while ago. I just uninstalled the drivers for my ATI card , and all of the CCC apps. Restarted , and installed the drivers for my 7800gs. Are you saying that I could have gotten better performance by running driver cleaner after removing the ATI drivers ?
 
SpeedZealot369

SpeedZealot369

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2006
2,778
1
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I doubt it's your cpu because games were running fine before the GPU swap, but try oc'ing your cpu a little and see if that's helps at all.
 
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BauleyF1

Junior Member
Oct 29, 2006
14
0
0
Okay. So here's some new info for you guys. I downloaded 3DMark03 and ran it. We'll start with the Ti4200's score.

GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB - 1517
http://mixedmotorsports.com/ati/ti4200.jpg

Now, the Radeon's scores.

Drivers that came w/ CD - 8718
http://mixedmotorsports.com/ati/x800xl2.jpg

Catalyst 6.9 Drivers - 8971
http://mixedmotorsports.com/ati/x800xl.jpg

Now...i'm baffled that the Radeon X800XL did so good in 3Dmark03 but was so bad at running my games! One thing I recognized was that in 3Dmark03, it said my AGP slot was only 2x.

http://mixedmotorsports.com/ati/agp2x.jpg

However, according to SmartGart and FreshDiagnose...my slot is 4x.

http://mixedmotorsports.com/ati/agp4x.jpg

I'm thinking that since 3Dmark03 runs without AA and AF...the card runs fine. However, in ATI's CCC you can't turn off AA or AF, and so therefore the card runs crappy on the old games. I'm using my 160W PSU now (since I saw that the 300W didn't do anything)...so maybe when AA and AF are on, it needs the extra power? Oh well. At least I know the card works so I can put it up on eBay with confidence.
 
lopri

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,310
687
126
I think the Driver Cleaner is overrated. With modern (recent 1~2 years) drivers, I haven't had the bad (used to be real bad, especially with AIW lines) experiences while upgrading. On the contrast I had to deal with some horrible occurrences while using the Driver Cleaner. The problem I see is it's overly ambitious. Once in the past it deleted critical files in the drivers and I ended up with no display. For my upgrade from 6200 TC to X1950 XTX via Windows (Un)Installer, I didn't need a reformat. (although I did it anyway later on)
 
Captante

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,342
10,860
136
While your game benchmarks might be cpu-limited with the X800XL, theres no way ANY game won't run faster on it then on a GeForce 4 unless its so old that newer drivers simply don't support said game anymore which isn't a hardware problem.

I think the most likely culprit however is your power supply .. you mentioned you replaced a 160 watt unit with a 300 watt unit, but despite claims to the contrary, I don't think either of those is powerful enough & the GPU is likely being starved for power in 3d mode. I suggest you get a 450 watt (or more)
model from a quality company & try again.
 
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