WTF

[zDmn]

My friend went to a computer show and bought an A7V8X with a 2200+ and a Radeon 9700 Pro. He's also got a gig of pc2700. Yet somehow he only scores around 8,500 in 3dmark. When i stick his 9700 pro in my 2400+ im getting around 16,500. But thats because my 2400+ is running just faster than a 2800+. The only junky thing about his new computer is his hard drive which is some 5400rpm Western Digi. Could it be possible that the 9700 pro is still too fast for a 2200+? I tried sticking a 9700 pro in my old 1.2 Athlon last summer and it wouldnt go any faster than my old ti4600. I quickly realized that a fast vid card is not to be used with a slow comp. This also brings me to believe that this could be the reason that the GeForce Fx Ultra was so slow for something with a 500mhz clock speed. Maby the power of the FX just bottlenecked because there is no cpu out right now fast enough for it. I have heard people saying that the FX scores low because of low memory bandwidth, but if you read the Anandtech article they say that they OC'd the memory bandwidth and only recieved a 2% increase. If anyone has an explanation for this i'd appreciate it.

 

[AnAndAustin]

An XP2200+ at 266FSB is not going to get the most out of a Rad9700PRO although you will find a faster gfx card with a slower CPU a much better combination than fast CPU with cack gfx card. If your CPU is a bit underpowered enable plenty of AA & AF which will come with smaller hits and even try increasing the res as it may hardly hit FPS. GF-FX really should have used 256bit DDR but comparing Rad to nVidia is a lot like apples and oranges anyway. So it would be a good idea for your friend to always run with 4xAA & 16tapAF as when you use these settings on your PC the gap will narrow a fair bit .... but a TbredB is what you really want after forking out for a top card like the 9700PRO.

 

[zDmn]

yeah we've tried different things. but like i said. the highest 3Dmark score we got was just under 8,500

 

[Dragon365]

Yup, something is definitely wrong there, as i score about 10,500 points in 32mark 2001 with an AXP2100 and an R9500 pro on a kt400 board - see my system specs. I honestly couldn't tell you what is wrong ther, however.

 

[jamesbond007]

Does he have the VIA Hyperion drivers installed? (Formerly the 4-in-1s) Also, which Catalyst driver set is he using? Does he have AGP 4x enabled in the BIOS?

 

[Dragon365]

Installing the hyperion drivers sounds like a good start. AGP 4x should be enabled automatically since the 9700 pro doesn't work with anything lower than that I don't think.