whats wrong with my 9800 pro?

[thetman]

First, my system:

Epox 8RDA3+
Barton 2500+ oc'ed to a 3200+ (200x11)
512mb OCZ Perf Series PC3200 (2.5-3-3-11)
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
- 128mb memory
- 256-bit
- R350 Core
- GPU Clock: 378 mhz
- Mem Clock: 338 mhz

Now before you ask, I am running 3dmark 2001 Se at default settings (1024x768, 32bit color, d3d pure hardware t&l, no aa). I am getting scores around 13650 every time. I'm running the cat 4.6 driver. The one thing that I have noticed is that when I go to smartgart in the control panel, it always has agp speed set to off instead of 4x or 8x and fastwrite is always off. Whenever I try to change these and restart, they always go back. In my bios, I have both 8x agp and fastwrite enabled. In 3d settings, I have direct3d and opengl both set at high performance. If I missed anything, just ask. Otherwise, any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[reever]

Cat 6.14 driver?

 

[thetman]

sorry, i meant 4.6

 

[Delorian]

Check Sisoft's Sandra prog for your AGP settings, its a well known program that usually delivers accurate results where some other programs may not. Also check to make sure that V-sync is disabled for 3dmark (the option is in the direct3d tab of advanced portion in your system's display settings. Also be sure you haven't cranked up the AA/AF forcibly in your display settings as well.

 

[thetman]

sisoft sandra says under "agp capabilities", yes for fast-writes support and for data transfer modes support is says "4x 8x". Vsync is always off and aa/af are both set to "application preference".

 

[Philbill]

I get 13900 in 3d Mark 2001 SE with a standard 9700 128Mb.
So that does sound low.
Phil

 

[rbV5]

Does it pass the DX tests (Start>Run> type "dxdiag")? I'm guessing reinstall Nforce drivers will do the trick based on the smartgart issue and your low score for your system.

 

[thetman]

it passed the dx tests just fine. i'll try reinstalling the nforce drivers right now.

 

[Matthias99]

Look in dxdiag and see what it says about "AGP Texture Acceleration". If it's "off" or "unavailable", you need to reinstall your chipset drivers and DirectX (which you're already doing).

 

[thetman]

i reinstalled the nforce drivers and my score is now 15,000 even. Does that seem about right?

 

[Matthias99]

You know, you can compare against other systems on their website...

 

[Delorian]

15000 is very close. I get about 16.2k with my slightly OCed 9800 se -> 9800 pro.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: thetman
i reinstalled the nforce drivers and my score is now 15,000 even. Does that seem about right?

Smartgart reporting 8X AGP and Fastwrites on now?

 

[thetman]

yes it is