8800GT: performance reality check, please (seems slow)

H

horseflesh

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
109
Fellas,

I just upgraded from an ATI X850XT 256MB to the 8800GT 512MB and things don't seem to be greatly improved. I just wanted a reality check before I go reinstalling drivers or even flattening the system.

OS: WinXP pro, fairly recent install with minimal crap
CPU: AMD 4200+ X2 (2.2 Ghz dual core)
RAM: 1.5 GB, non interleaved obviously
Chipset: nForce 430 (the kind with 6150 graphics built in--used to be a home theater system)
3d: eVGA 8800GT 512MB, stock speeds
Driver: 169 series--a recent beta version. Don't have the number handy but I think it is only a few days old

3dMark 06 free version: 6450 (unfortunately I never benched the old card to compare)

Crysis and Team Fortress 2 feel about the same as they did with the X850XT. I am running Crysis at 1280x720 and TF2 at 1920x1080.

Crysis recommends Medium but the game is almost unplayable at those settings. Seriously, it does not feel any better than the old card, though I didn't run tests.

TF2 drops frame rate any time there is a big open space, as it did on the old card. I tried TF2 at 1280x720 and still had to turn things down to medium to get a consistently good frame rate. I would think that at this lower res, I ought to be able to max out everything except AA/AF. Vsync doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Do things sound about right, or is something rotten? Thanks for any observations or tips... Maybe I'm going to the driver rodeo tonight after work.

Maybe my crappy motherboard is to blame--I could be asking a lot of the nForce 430. (I have a 4 Ultra board in another machine that I could try, but maybe it's just time to upgrade...)
 
Something is not right. You should get more like 10k+ in 3DMark06, and your games should play at much higher settings/FPS.

What PSU are you using?

I also have a suspicion that your old ATI drivers are conflicting with the new nvidia video card.
 
somthing is rotton, i would overclock your AMD if you can, jump up to 2 gigs of ram, and reinstall windows

that would probably help, when i had to play with 1 gig, i had good frames but it lagged all the time in big battles, 2 gigs fixed it...(running full settings at 1650x1080 w rig n sig)
 
Overclocking your CPU will definitely help your situation - right now it is a bottleneck. More RAM couldn't hurt, either.
 
OK, good to know I am not crazy!

The PSU is what came with the Antec Sonata case... "TruePower" of about 400W. I haven't seen any kind of artifacts, glitches, or reboots that I would attribute to a power problem.

I used ATI's "Delete Everything" utility before installing the nVidia drivers, though I did not use a 3rd party tool like Driver Sweeper. Now that I know there is a problem I'll purge and reinstall.

It's been so long that I was CPU limited as opposed to 3d limited that I honestly didn't even think about that possibility...

Thanks!
 
Try to get your CPU up to around 2.7GHz. Most get to around there, and it will make a big difference in gaming.
 
Good stuff, thanks guys. It's been a long time since I had the patience for overclocking... time to get back in.

If RAM ends up being a major issue, it's just time for a new board/CPU/RAM. This is a DDR1 system and you know how expensive that stuff is now.
 
I have a very simliar rig 3800+ 2.4 Ghz w/ 2 gigs. Did almost same upgrade went from a 850 xt pe to the 8800 gt. I currently got about 9900 w/ a BFG GT OC. That was using a old XP install w/ a ton of applications running in the background also.

*Edit*
So I agree with the previos posts about the drivers / maybe pci 1x etc.
 
What kind of motherboard/chipset?

Anyway, thanks, your numbers are good to know.

I'll fool around with this stuff tonight. Thanks everyone.
 
this sounds like the pcie2.0 issue, download gpuz- make sure your interface is x16 not x1, if it is youll need to go into your bios to fix it
 
I was too curious, I VPNd home and ran GPU-Z. It shows the card is running at 16x.

2002362027161607595_rs.jpg
 
I would say you are definitely not CPU bottlenecked (not as bad as your 3dmark shows at least), or ram bottlenecked. First thing i would try is a fresh install. I do a fresh install whenever i install new hardware.
 
I had a similar issue when I got my 8800GT. Here are my scores from running at 2.2GHz, and yes, slot is at x16:

3DMark Score 7893 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 3582 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4107 Marks
CPU Score 1568 Marks


After I O/Ced to 2.7GHz:

3DMark Score 9487 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 4301 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4664 Marks
CPU Score 2030 Marks

And at the current 2.5:

3DMark Score 9134 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 4153 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4583 Marks
CPU Score 1896 Marks

So now we can compare to a similar system. The nf590 and the RAM might make up for the higher score, not sure if hes running am2 or 939.
 
This is a 939 board w/ nf430. Thanks for posting your numbers.

Maybe I should have gotten that CPU/RAM combo from the other day!
 
I have a system nearly identical to Banditfromhell (check the sig) and get flawless framerates in TF2, albeit at 1280x1024. Something's wrong with your framerates, and drivers seem the most likely culprit.
 
Coming from an ATI card to Nvidia card, I'd really urge you to format. I never had a transition between the two go well...
 
Driver voodoo! I'll try putting a fresh system on a spare drive, that'll be easier to stomach tonight than committing to a rebuild.
 
I thinking its your psu. your psu might not be able to handle the 8800GT. whats the Amps on the railing for your psu. Because a psu that can not handle the video card can make it not run the way it should.
 
AdmiralFlameberg said:
I thinking its your psu. your psu might not be able to handle the 8800GT. whats the Amps on the railing for your psu. Because a psu that can not handle the video card can make it not run the way it should.
Click to expand...

When talking about power, video cards typically either work or they don't. If it was being underpowered, you would get artifacts, random lock-ups/reboots, and other wierd stuff, rather than a lack of performance. It might be worth it just to double check the clock speeds, and also to check for artifacts.
 
I believe you are CPU-bound. I saw someone complaining about something similar with that processor, and installing a *slower* clocked Core 2 Duo unleashed his GPU a bit. Those AMD X2's (especially the lower clocked versions) are not very friendly to fast cards.
 
horseflesh said:
Fellas,

I just upgraded from an ATI X850XT 256MB to the 8800GT 512MB and things don't seem to be greatly improved. I just wanted a reality check before I go reinstalling drivers or even flattening the system.

OS: WinXP pro, fairly recent install with minimal crap
CPU: AMD 4200+ X2 (2.2 Ghz dual core)
RAM: 1.5 GB, non interleaved obviously
Chipset: nForce 430 (the kind with 6150 graphics built in--used to be a home theater system)
3d: eVGA 8800GT 512MB, stock speeds
Driver: 169 series--a recent beta version. Don't have the number handy but I think it is only a few days old

3dMark 06 free version: 6450 (unfortunately I never benched the old card to compare)

Crysis and Team Fortress 2 feel about the same as they did with the X850XT. I am running Crysis at 1280x720 and TF2 at 1920x1080.

Crysis recommends Medium but the game is almost unplayable at those settings. Seriously, it does not feel any better than the old card, though I didn't run tests.

TF2 drops frame rate any time there is a big open space, as it did on the old card. I tried TF2 at 1280x720 and still had to turn things down to medium to get a consistently good frame rate. I would think that at this lower res, I ought to be able to max out everything except AA/AF. Vsync doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Do things sound about right, or is something rotten? Thanks for any observations or tips... Maybe I'm going to the driver rodeo tonight after work.

Maybe my crappy motherboard is to blame--I could be asking a lot of the nForce 430. (I have a 4 Ultra board in another machine that I could try, but maybe it's just time to upgrade...)
Click to expand...

For sure the CPU is not fast enough to push the 8800GT, you will see a decent performance improvement with a CPU over 2.5GHz, the faster the better.
Also as you noted you are running your system ram in single channel mode, this will have a fair impact too.
After fixing the above, clock the gfx card too, you will see a very nice overall jump in performance :)

However things dont look right anyway.
I strongly suspect hangover drivers left behind are the problem.
If you want to quickly check, install Windows on another drive and see if its a lot better.

edit:
After more thought, it could simply be just the memory bandwidth and CPU speed holding everything back.
Faster ram timings can make a good difference too if you havent tweaked them.
Can you test the above?
 
I will be able to adjust the clocks but I am stuck with single channel RAM for now--it's a DDR1 system and I don't want to throw money at it.

I'll set up a new Windows install on a spare drive and see what happens. If there is a magical improvement, great, if not, I will start playing with the the clocks and see what that buys me.

If it isn't enough, time to keep an eye on the deals forum. :)

Thanks for all the help.
 
horseflesh said:
I will be able to adjust the clocks but I am stuck with single channel RAM for now--it's a DDR1 system and I don't want to throw money at it.
Click to expand...

DDR1? Yeah, you definately need to move off that cpu/mb/ram combo to do that card justice.
 
You're probably right. I put a 10% OC on the CPU and it made a noticeable difference. I'll fiddle around more but it looks like it's time to upgrade...

edit: with the 10% CPU OC and a small GPU OC, 3dmark went up about 1000 to 7500. Can't OC the CPU any more as this mobo has no voltage tweaks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top