bfg 6800gt not impressed

A

apcor

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
455
I was wondering anyone could tell me if there was something I am just not getting. I just upgraded from an evga 6600gt to a bfg 6800gtOC. The visual quality and game play experience is completely the same. With the 6600gt I can play HL2 and Doom3 at high quality no AA/AF and get a good visual quality, and gameplay has minor stuttering/hitching in both games (playable but annoying at times). I wanted to have a solid gameplay experience so I forked out $420 for the upgrade and I have noticed absolutely 0 difference. Same issues at the same settings. Call me a crazy noob but was I expecting too much for just wanting to use 2 or 4 AA/AF and have completely smooth gameplay?

By the way - I have had to RMA the first BFG OC purchase (completely DOA), and they sent me a card clocked at 350/1000. Now going through 2nd RMA for a properly clocked card. Luckily they have let me hold onto the 350/1000 card until the new one arrives.

would appreciate any input.

Dimesion 8400 - 3 months old
p4 - 3.4ghz
1 gig ddr2
350 watt psu
 
To start out with you might want to look into getting a better PSU...

As for your problem try a different version of the drivers.
 
I think your missing something or need to reinstall the drivers, because the 6800gt owns the 6600gt.
 
Gillette said:
To start out with you might want to look into getting a better PSU...

As for your problem try a different version of the drivers.
Click to expand...



I know I am still a noob but do you think my power supply is really taxed to the point where I am on the edge of affecting the performance of the card? Could explain in a bit more detail? I thought it was pretty much a black and white issue (either the card will or will not work at the psu requirement. As for drivers - used both 66.93 and 67.66

thanks
 
The 6800GT will last you longer.

In the games you're playing, there IS an actual difference in performance. It just might be so subtle to you that you cannot notice it. However, if you benchmark each card in whatever game you're playing, the 6800GT will come out on top by a fair margin. It beats the 6600GT in pretty much all categories.

The more I hear about this stuttering issue, the more I want to wait for the x800XL AGP...
 
As much as I have been through with this card.........

little voice in back my head .......

should have paid up and gotten the damn x800xt
 
Mojo said:
The more I hear about this stuttering issue, the more I want to wait for the x800XL AGP...
Click to expand...

Myself and most other people have not experienced this issue. You just tend to read about it a lot because people only post their complaints. I play all my games on my 6800gt with zero stuttering or performance issues. No offense to anyone, but I think a lot of people just don't know how to take the proper steps to set up a good system, or skimp on the parts that are actually very important (most often the psu).
 
Dr. X said:
Myself and most other people have not experienced this issue. You just tend to read about it a lot because people only post their complaints. I play all my games on my 6800gt with zero stuttering or performance issues. No offense to anyone, but I think a lot of people just don't know how to take the proper steps to set up a good system, or skimp on the parts that are actually very important (most often the psu).
Click to expand...

Not really complaining (maybe a little)- just trying to learn. I dont however see what setting up a good system means. I have plenty of ram (1gig)(one of the newest as far as I know -certainly not outdated), a P4 (3.4ghz) processor, 80 gig HD, windows XP, new drivers staight from Nvidia - what else do I need (a freakin flux capacitor)?????. As far as the PSU if you can say for certain that I am taxed to the edge of affecting the performance of the 6800gt and explain a bit I would gladly upgrade the PSU. But up until now as stated I thought it was a black and white issue (either it will or will not work at 350watts, bfg says all I need is 300).

sorry if it sounds like a complaint - just a little frustrated
 
apcor: wtf?!?!?! You didn't even mention resolutions. I mean it is plainly obvious that you wont notice the extra frames that you get by switching to a 6800GT if you are running at 1024x768...

Just compare a 6600GT vs a 6800Gt at 1600x1200 4xaa 16xaf, if you can't see the difference at that point, I would go to the optometrist.
 
Stop complaining, Dell would probably be the cause of your troubles with that terrible p4 :rolleyes: and psu :eek:

Trust me, I had one of those; I am never buying a Dell ever again
 
J-Mag said:
apcor: wtf?!?!?! You didn't even mention resolutions. I mean it is plainly obvious that you wont notice the extra frames that you get by switching to a 6800GT if you are running at 1024x768...

Just compare a 6600GT vs a 6800Gt at 1600x1200 4xaa 16xaf, if you can't see the difference at that point, I would go to the optometrist.
Click to expand...

yes!! omg....
the thread starter is such a noob....bump the dang resolution and AA/AF up please!
and if your monitor don't suport resolution higher than 1024x768...buy a new one..
 
Definitely bump up the resolution and other effects, if you haven't already. I went from a 6600GT to a 6800GT and I could tell a huge difference in performance under higher resolutions with FSAA and AF cranked up.
 
J-Mag said:
apcor: wtf?!?!?! You didn't even mention resolutions. I mean it is plainly obvious that you wont notice the extra frames that you get by switching to a 6800GT if you are running at 1024x768...

Just compare a 6600GT vs a 6800Gt at 1600x1200 4xaa 16xaf, if you can't see the difference at that point, I would go to the optometrist.
Click to expand...

Not sure I get your point. The best res (native) on my monitor is 1024x768 and I have not stated that I would notice the extra frames, although I was under the impression that more frames would help smooth out hitching and stuttering (which is why I bought the card), but I guess I was wrong in that assumption. I have played at 1600x1200 and it does not look acceptable on my monitor so why would I want to compare at those resolutions?

As i have stated many times I am noob at this so I am just going by common sense. I am simply stating the facts. Get light stuttering/hitches with 6600gt at xyz settings, upgrade video card to solve problem, get same stuttering/hitching (no difference) at exact same xyz settings. If you think that I have made a big mistake by thinking an upgrade in video card would solve the problem let me know and I will take it on the chin.

thanks
 
if you're talking about the studdering with hl2 then it's not really linked to the video card. You do need a better psu though. Considering it's a dell it's a crap psu that is probably strained heavily at the rails and can't take the extra power consumption of the card. I think you should try a different driver set as well. Go over to guru3d and check out what the latest beta they have. there are other resolutions than 1024x768 and 1600x1200.
 
aZn_plyR said:
yes!! omg....
the thread starter is such a noob....bump the dang resolution and AA/AF up please!
and if your monitor don't suport resolution higher than 1024x768...buy a new one..
Click to expand...

You must be an astute MIT grad for pointing out my noobness. I have only stated that umpteen times as a defacto warning in vain hopes to receive a little patience from willing helpers.

res and aa/af has been bumped up and down.

Just trying to learn and solve a problem....

what the hell are you here for?
 
Dr. X said:
Myself and most other people have not experienced this issue. You just tend to read about it a lot because people only post their complaints. I play all my games on my 6800gt with zero stuttering or performance issues. No offense to anyone, but I think a lot of people just don't know how to take the proper steps to set up a good system, or skimp on the parts that are actually very important (most often the psu).
Click to expand...
Well I only have a 350w PSU anyways. But it is a quality Enermax one, and has a 26A rating on the 12V rail. Will it suffice?
 
I have a 6600GT in my Dell 4700 system with a p4 3.4 Ghz and a gig of ram, with 305W power supply. I run Half Life 2 and counterstrike at 1280 x 1024 max everything 4X AA and I usually stay above 37 FPS. Refresh rate is at 75, so at least I stay above the halfway point most of the time. Of course I could get an occassional stutter, but I'm not quite sure of the problem you're having. If you're only running at 1024x768 you should be able to run as much AA as you want even with the 6600GT and still get a good gameplay experience, if I'm doing it at 1280x1024.

Maybe you have some programs running that are accessing your hard drive alot during gameplay and causing your problems? Might want to try a reformat, your hardware should definitely be performing better than it is. Also, if you're using vsync, try raising the refresh rate of your lcd monitor to 75 instead of 60 if it's set at that, you'll then be getting 37 fps most of the time instead of 30 if you've been dipping below 60.
 
apcor said:
Not sure I get your point. The best res (native) on my monitor is 1024x768 and I have not stated that I would notice the extra frames, although I was under the impression that more frames would help smooth out hitching and stuttering (which is why I bought the card), but I guess I was wrong in that assumption. I have played at 1600x1200 and it does not look acceptable on my monitor so why would I want to compare at those resolutions?

As i have stated many times I am noob at this so I am just going by common sense. I am simply stating the facts. Get light stuttering/hitches with 6600gt at xyz settings, upgrade video card to solve problem, get same stuttering/hitching (no difference) at exact same xyz settings. If you think that I have made a big mistake by thinking an upgrade in video card would solve the problem let me know and I will take it on the chin.

thanks
Click to expand...

The stuttering is not a function of video card power, as you have found. Getting a more powerful one won't fix it. A 6600GT will play any game out right now just fine at 1024x728, especially HL2, which is not a particularly demanding game. That's why you arn't going to see much difference between the two cards, because at that resolution, your FPS is not limited by your videocard, but by your CPU. People buy high end cards to run their games at resolutions of 1280x1024 and above... usually with some AA and AF.
Your problem is that you replaced the part that was not the bottleneck in your application, (videocard in HL2 at 1024x768) so you see no performance difference.
 
like others said get a better PSU...i had basically what u r running on a 480antec true blue then i got a neopower and my 3dmark03 score jumped 600 points(no joking)
 
Did you run 3dmark05 or Aquamark to compare the two? Is Vsync disabled in your games? 1024x768 native means your on a 15" LCD correct?.. id either get a CRT or a much larger LCD to get the resolution up. That card should own the 6600GT.
 
But Jonesey.... a p4 3.4 Ghz should in no way be enough of a bottleneck in HL2 to cause the visible stuttering problems that he's talking about.

BTW Apcor... you do know how to test framerates in halflife 2 right? Open the console and type cl_showfps 2.

Also, you could download the FRAPS program (will test your framerate in any opengl or directx game) and run a benchmark with a demo you've made to test the performance of the 6800 with the 6600GT. If you do this then you can have some objective numbers to go on and we can figure out if your scores are that out of whack.
 
jhokie said:
But Jonesey.... a p4 3.4 Ghz should in no way be enough of a bottleneck in HL2 to cause the visible stuttering problems that he's talking about.

BTW Apcor... you do know how to test framerates in halflife 2 right? Open the console and type cl_showfps 2.

Also, you could download the FRAPS program (will test your framerate in any opengl or directx game) and run a benchmark with a demo you've made to test the performance of the 6800 with the 6600GT. If you do this then you can have some objective numbers to go on and we can figure out if your scores are that out of whack.
Click to expand...

I didn't say the 3.4 was the bottleneck causing the stuttering. It is the bottleneck that will keep the 6800GT from having much higher framerates than the the 6600GT in HL2 though. The stuttering is caused by something else. All I was saying was he bought the wrong part to fix his problem. In the [H] reviews, even the 6800U has stuttering problems in HL2.
 
Try increasing the AGP aperture size in bios to 256. Also disable fastwrites. All of this stuff was written on an insert in the box with my BFG graphics card. Once I did that, my performance was smooth.

Try running the Nalu tech demo and see if it stutters on that.
 
That is hardly a cost effective upgrade regardless of whether he's having problems or not. There just isn't enough performance difference between the two cards except at high res and settings.
 
get valence studio or other modded 75.90 bios, 10% more increase in most benchmarks, WITH better quality. 75.90a fixes problems watching movies. 6600GT is 128bit bus, whereas 6800GT is 256, so basically your Antialiasing ability should be a bit better(seen it elsewhere). Are you running DX9, and before could you run 1280x1024(or 16x12 depending on ur system ram), and with max AA AF? If not you should try that now, up the quality settings of not. All of these would make it look quite a bit better of any of them not done...
 
mbmadness said:
Try increasing the AGP aperture size in bios to 256. Also disable fastwrites. All of this stuff was written on an insert in the box with my BFG graphics card. Once I did that, my performance was smooth.
Click to expand...
Even CS:S?
 
I work on computers for a living, and most Dells are not exactly high performing machines. They seem to go with the lowest common inator part that will work. Can you try the card in another machine?

Lyquist
 
apcor said:
You must be an astute MIT grad for pointing out my noobness. I have only stated that umpteen times as a defacto warning in vain hopes to receive a little patience from willing helpers.

res and aa/af has been bumped up and down.

Just trying to learn and solve a problem....

what the hell are you here for?
Click to expand...
I am here to *hell*p you out...and o yeah...by ur name...u are known as a noobie..... :rolleyes: ....
 
Thanks for all the input people but problem solved. It was indeed a driver issue. Being new I thought 2 different drivers straight from Nvidia would eliminate that as a factor. I just downloaded the new beta 71.84 I have tested them on d3 and HL2. Game play is very smooth and stuttering is 99% unnoticeable (very smooth - noticed the difference immediately). Running at 1024x768 2Xaa/ 4Xaf. Will pump it up higher later.

Still not sure about the whole power thing. But all I am concerned about is gameplay and I am happy with it as is. Now if BFG will send me a properly clocked card I will be fat dumb and happy.

Thanks again to all who helped
 
Your problem may be solved, but running your card at those quality settings is still wasting alot of power, and you still won't notice much of a difference between a properly configured 6600GT and a 6800GT @ 1024x768 2xAA, 4xAF.

If you absolutely must run at 1024x768 (i'd recommend at least 1280x1024) then at least take advantage of your card's massive power headroom at that resolution and run it at 4 or 8xAA and 16xAF in all games. You should have no problems with that.

I would really recommend getting another monitor as your next upgrade project. I did the same thing as you with my whole machine: I upgraded one piece at a time as I could afford it. But being able to play at 1600x1200 4xAA and 16xAF is truly amazing, and an experience that shouldn't be missed when you have a 6800GT NOW, while it is one of the best around. In one year, the 6800GT won't be able to play the latest and greatest @ 1600x1200 4xAA 16xAF.

Glad you fixed your problem.
 
apcor said:
Not sure I get your point. The best res (native) on my monitor is 1024x768 and I have not stated that I would notice the extra frames, although I was under the impression that more frames would help smooth out hitching and stuttering (which is why I bought the card), but I guess I was wrong in that assumption. I have played at 1600x1200 and it does not look acceptable on my monitor so why would I want to compare at those resolutions?

As i have stated many times I am noob at this so I am just going by common sense. I am simply stating the facts. Get light stuttering/hitches with 6600gt at xyz settings, upgrade video card to solve problem, get same stuttering/hitching (no difference) at exact same xyz settings. If you think that I have made a big mistake by thinking an upgrade in video card would solve the problem let me know and I will take it on the chin.

thanks
Click to expand...

How would you play at 1600x1200 if your monitor only supports 1024x768?

"As i have stated many times I am noob at this so I am just going by common sense."

noobs and common sense go together like oil and water.

Well to actually quasi-pseudo-help you, I would like to know just how much of a noob you are. I am assuming you are the dietcoke of noobness b/c you can install a vid card...
Are you an IE noob? Do you use P2P? Random pr0n d/ler?

Cause if you are any of thoose I would definately do what somebody else stated and thats format your drive.

A noob's computer is kinda like Keith Richards. It still functions, but definately needs some transplants. Also, Keith doesn't necessarily hang out with the best crowd.

If you are on a home network I would make sure that there isn't anyone else on the network jackin up my game cause they have a Zombie Root Kit installed on their machine overloading the network (and possibly causin your firewall to overwork your machine)

Also turn off fat writes in your BIOS if no one else mentioned it...

One more thing... if your are having probs at XYZ settings... Well change X Y and Z.
I think I have a pretty decent rig ( 2.5ghz a64, 1gb TCCD, dual 6800gt's at 400 1100 for stability) and I can easily cripple it's performance on some games at XYZ settings... So I have to back down a bit...

Edit: Well I always tend to ramble b4 I even read the rest of the thread. You officially can call me a Thread Noob!!! ;)
 
aZn_plyR said:
yes!! omg....
the thread starter is such a noob....bump the dang resolution and AA/AF up please!
and if your monitor don't suport resolution higher than 1024x768...buy a new one..
Click to expand...

Hey Sorry might be a noob question but im about to get a BFG 6800 gt oc and was curious what the AA/AF stand for and how you can raise it? Sorry I know im a noob but I got to learn someday
 
you can turn on aa..which is anti aliasing and af which is anisotropic filtering..AA gets rid of jaggies and AF makes the ground more visible from far away..you can do this by going into the nvidia control panel and choose the AA/AF
 
I was playing HL2 last night and found major stuttering in outdoor areas. Im upgrading to a BFG 6800GT tonight and will turn off Fast Writes (which are on) to see if it improves it.
 
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