Under-performing EVGA 8800GT SC

[Bacstar]

Friend has practically the same hardware as me and is only getting low 6k's on 3dmark2006 while I get around 10-11k on mine.

The only differences are:

1. He's running 2gigs of DDR2 while i have 4gigs.
2. He has a 500Watt PS from Dynex. Looking at the specs, it has 2-12volt rails with 15amp and 18amp ratings.
3. He's running Windows XP SP2 while I run Vista-64.

I suspect his powersupply isn't giving him enough juice, but I'd hate for him to go out and spend money on another piece of hardware based on just my recommendation. He's not experiencing any lockups so far, and I've advised him to contact EVGA.

What do you all think? Would a underpowered powersupply be enough to keep his card from performing at full potential? I had him reinstall the latest drivers and had him run some additional benchmarks, and his system seems to perform as expected when not utilizing the video card.

 

[Lazark]

Try checking the pci express bus in the BIOS... it may be working at 8x not 16x

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: Lazark
Try checking the pci express bus in the BIOS... it may be working at 8x not 16x

I had him check CPU ID and it reports his PCI Express links running at 16x.

 

[redlinez33]

did he plug in the power thing into the back of the card??

had to ask.

 

[nullpointerus]

Of the 3 differences, #2 is the only one that could have this effect.

Try uninstalling drivers, running DriverSweeper 1.0, and then reinstalling drivers.

You could also check out this thread. EDIT: nvm, that issue is Vista-only.

If you run out of good suggestions, I would seriously look into upgrading that PSU.

 

[imported_wired247]

"practically the same hardware" = ?

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: wired247
"practically the same hardware" = ?

Same hardware except for the powersupply and amount of RAM... If anything I think his score should be higher than mine since he is running on XP.

MB = ASUS M2N32 SLI wireless edition
AMD X2 6000+
EVGA 8800GT SC 512meg

His harddrive configuration shouldn't make a difference when it comes to 3dmark...correct me if I'm wrong. He's running an IDE drive while all mine are SATA drives.

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
Of the 3 differences, #2 is the only one that could have this effect.

Try uninstalling drivers, running DriverSweeper 1.0, and then reinstalling drivers.

You could also check out this thread. EDIT: nvm, that issue is Vista-only.

If you run out of good suggestions, I would seriously look into upgrading that PSU.

The poor guy lives a few hours out of Anchorage in a relatively remote area... I think, Kodiak, and hardware is hard to come by...all mail order. I've only been able to assist him over IM's and he's a first-timer in building his own system, but I've walked him through most things i can think of. I've suggested doing a reinstall on Windows since he did have an ATI card prior to getting the 8800, but he's reluctant to do that just yet. I'll look into running DriverSweeper. If worse comes to worse, reinstalling Windows is something he may have to do just to rule out any driver issues before he gets a new powersupply.

edit: thanks for the link...i'll forward it to my buddy...

 

[vanvock]

Originally posted by: Bacstar

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
Of the 3 differences, #2 is the only one that could have this effect.

Try uninstalling drivers, running DriverSweeper 1.0, and then reinstalling drivers.

You could also check out this thread. EDIT: nvm, that issue is Vista-only.

If you run out of good suggestions, I would seriously look into upgrading that PSU.

The poor guy lives a few hours out of Anchorage in a relatively remote area... I think, Kodiak, and hardware is hard to come by...all mail order. I've only been able to assist him over IM's and he's a first-timer in building his own system, but I've walked him through most things i can think of. I've suggested doing a reinstall on Windows since he did have an ATI card prior to getting the 8800, but he's reluctant to do that just yet. I'll look into running DriverSweeper. If worse comes to worse, reinstalling Windows is something he may have to do just to rule out any driver issues before he gets a new powersupply.

Bingo-by all means run the driver cleaner

 

[Bacstar]

Just an update. Before I was able to give him the suggestions from you guys, he updated to the latest Bios for his MB, and it seems it resolved any issues he was having.

He's now getting high 10k's on 3dMark, so he's a happy camper.

 

[DSF]

Glad it worked out.

If it hadn't, you could always have tried your PSU in his machine or vice versa. If the situation didn't change, you'd know that wasn't the issue. I understand that would be a bit of a hassle, but it would save him the trouble of unnecessarily buying a new PSU.