Good 1280 x 1024 Gaming GPU?

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MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
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Aug 21, 2007
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Well my 8800GT is broken or is somehow bringing the level of performance of my entire system down. I'll post something I posted on another site about my 8800GT issues at the bottom if anyone is interested.

Basically I was thinking I could sell my 8800 on Ebay for something then get something a bit cheaper but will do the same type of performance the 8800GT would do in 1280 x 1024. I don't know if that's how GPU's work or anything. If it's not please correct me.


My 8800 GT issue:

"Well i'm having some computer troubles. It runs fine with just everyday computing but i'm noticing that it isn't doing as good as it should. It's also getting worse I noticed.

I did Aquamark3 with my system and got a 99,500 a few weeks ago when I first got my 8800GT. Now after no hardware changes I did it again and I get in the 70,000's. MY GPU used to be rated 18k and my CPU was somewhere around 14k, now my CPU is 9k and my GPU is 11k.

Since i'm to lazy to type out my problem again since i've done it SO many times when asking for help at different places i'm just going to copy and paste my email to Activision (COD4) about this.



"I see a LARGE performance drop in COD4.

My main card is a BFG 8800GT OC edition. I've also tried my x850xt and i've gotten the same problem.

The one thing that ALWAYS happens is my FPS shoots down to like 5ish when I query for servers and it takes FOREVER for the servers to pop up.

Some things that happen most of the time are...
a) I go in a server and my FPS is anywhere from 1-20fps.
b) I go in a server and the game runs PERFECTLY for a certain time (sometimes only a few minutes or sometimes a few hours) and then it hits a point where it gets EXTREMELY laggy and then when I minimize it's alright but when I maximize it goes back to shit and I have to restart.

Sometimes it runs good for me but I have no doubt that if I would continue playing it would go to shit.

I have the latest drivers/ect.

I haven't seen this in other games BUT COD4 is the main game I play so it obviously has more of a chance to happen in cod4.


System Specs:
AMD athlon 64 x2 4000 (Dual Core) overclocked to 2.7ghz
2 gigs of Corsair XMS2 Ram
Asus M2n-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
BFG 8800GT OC
600w Rosewill PSU

Temps (avg min to avg max)
8800gt- 39c-54c
CPU- 28c-48c
Case- 18c-26c
Motherboard- 30c-34c"

Now I'd also like to add that I get about 30 FPS in TF2. There's no way this should be happening with my system. I do the steam stress test and I get an average of 88fps...A few weeks ago I got 148 avg. If you're not familar with steam stress test i'll put it in perspective. I got 103fps avg with my 7600GT, 95fps with my x850xt, and 146FPS with my 8600GT...

Any ideas what's wrong?

I'd also like to add that I got a 7441 on 3dmark. I don't know if that's good or not but i'm assuming it's not as good as it should be."
 
MrHood22 said:
Well my 8800GT is broken or is somehow bringing the level of performance of my entire system down. I'll post something I posted on another site about my 8800GT issues at the bottom if anyone is interested.

Basically I was thinking I could sell my 8800 on Ebay for something then get something a bit cheaper but will do the same type of performance the 8800GT would do in 1280 x 1024. I don't know if that's how GPU's work or anything. If it's not please correct me.


My 8800 GT issue:

"Well i'm having some computer troubles. It runs fine with just everyday computing but i'm noticing that it isn't doing as good as it should. It's also getting worse I noticed.

I did Aquamark3 with my system and got a 99,500 a few weeks ago when I first got my 8800GT. Now after no hardware changes I did it again and I get in the 70,000's. MY GPU used to be rated 18k and my CPU was somewhere around 14k, now my CPU is 9k and my GPU is 11k.

Since i'm to lazy to type out my problem again since i've done it SO many times when asking for help at different places i'm just going to copy and paste my email to Activision (COD4) about this.



"I see a LARGE performance drop in COD4.

My main card is a BFG 8800GT OC edition. I've also tried my x850xt and i've gotten the same problem.

The one thing that ALWAYS happens is my FPS shoots down to like 5ish when I query for servers and it takes FOREVER for the servers to pop up.

Some things that happen most of the time are...
a) I go in a server and my FPS is anywhere from 1-20fps.
b) I go in a server and the game runs PERFECTLY for a certain time (sometimes only a few minutes or sometimes a few hours) and then it hits a point where it gets EXTREMELY laggy and then when I minimize it's alright but when I maximize it goes back to shit and I have to restart.

Sometimes it runs good for me but I have no doubt that if I would continue playing it would go to shit.

I have the latest drivers/ect.

I haven't seen this in other games BUT COD4 is the main game I play so it obviously has more of a chance to happen in cod4.


System Specs:
AMD athlon 64 x2 4000 (Dual Core) overclocked to 2.7ghz
2 gigs of Corsair XMS2 Ram
Asus M2n-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
BFG 8800GT OC
600w Rosewill PSU

Temps (avg min to avg max)
8800gt- 39c-54c
CPU- 28c-48c
Case- 18c-26c
Motherboard- 30c-34c"

Now I'd also like to add that I get about 30 FPS in TF2. There's no way this should be happening with my system. I do the steam stress test and I get an average of 88fps...A few weeks ago I got 148 avg. If you're not familar with steam stress test i'll put it in perspective. I got 103fps avg with my 7600GT, 95fps with my x850xt, and 146FPS with my 8600GT...

Any ideas what's wrong?

I'd also like to add that I got a 7441 on 3dmark. I don't know if that's good or not but i'm assuming it's not as good as it should be."
Click to expand...

Just a guess...but do you have any AV/AS/AA software running? If not, I recommend you D/L some and update then scan...

Also, make sure you don't have any background programs running. Certain programs like XFire and other IM programs have been known to cause conflicts between games, ect.

Before you reformat, try reinstalling COD4.

Overall, it sounds like an O/S problem...since you've tried 2 cards with the same result.

Good luck.
 
dude...u got a lot of question and problems....My 1st answer for you would be if you did a clean install as far as using driver cleaner and removing any old driver files, etc. Second would be making sure you have done all the usual cleanup crap, like defrag, removing uneeded running program, etc.


Also, I would make sure your PCI-e link width speed is indeed set at 16x...I'm sure it is but I have heard of ppl having it set wrong....make sure your cpu is clocked correctly and everything is running normal..use cpu-z to check your hardware settings....other then that, U should be getting good results from that card...quit tweaking on old ass benchmark programs either...Use gaming to justify your comps performance issues.....
 
I have AVG. Yes i've scanned for viruses/spyware and i've also defraged. I also tried installing it on a different hard drive. It's also set at x16.

I'm not sure what it could be because it scored higher much higher on the benchmark a few weeks ago but it scores a lot less now.

What should I be getting on 3dmark06?

Is there a program to scan all of drivers and see which ones need updated?

My HT Link is 1290, is that normal? Also I OCed by doing 258 x 10.5 = 2.7ghz, I didn't adjust ram or anything. Is that an issue?
 
When I had an a 3800 x2, I remember reading Eclipse's OC guide. He said that some computers don't like have the HT set at over 1000. Your HT link multiplier must be set to 5, giving you 258 x 5 = 1290. It's a shot in the dark, but I would try setting the HT link multiplier to 3 (258 x 3 = 774) and see if it does anything.

You might want to also check to see if your RAM is running 1:1 with your FSB. If it is, it might be running out of spec (running at DDR2 516 instead of DDR2 400). However, if it was running out of spec, I would assume that you would be getting crashes, lock-ups, and BSODs, not bad game performance.
 
mrmetal_53 said:
When I had an a 3800 x2, I remember reading Eclipse's OC guide. He said that some computers don't like have the HT set at over 1000. Your HT link multiplier must be set to 5, giving you 258 x 5 = 1290. It's a shot in the dark, but I would try setting the HT link multiplier to 3 (258 x 3 = 774) and see if it does anything.

You might want to also check to see if your RAM is running 1:1 with your FSB. If it is, it might be running out of spec (running at DDR2 516 instead of DDR2 400). However, if it was running out of spec, I would assume that you would be getting crashes, lock-ups, and BSODs, not bad game performance.
Click to expand...

if he sets the link multiplier to 4 he should be okay too, 258x4=1032, should be close enough to 1000 to be okay and if not, then drop it down to 3............ doesn't really matter anyways though, as HT link doesn't have any real impact on performance.........
 
Install Windows on another hard drive and see if the problems go away.
If so you know Windows needs sorting out or its a config issue that has now been reset (ie gfx control panel settings, CMOS setup...).
If not, its a hardware issue or config issue if the same settings are being used.
 
you poster that your problems occur when going on servers. see if you have performance issues in the single player game. if you do not, the problem is not associated with the 8800gt.
 
I think I will try setting the HT to 4 and consuming solution.y since that's the least time consuming solution.
 
Well I set it at 3x (774 FSB) and I still had the querying issue. It couldn't be my internet could it? I just tested my internet and i'm getting 10.3mb/s download and 846kb/s upload.

rennyf77 said:
you poster that your problems occur when going on servers. see if you have performance issues in the single player game. if you do not, the problem is not associated with the 8800gt.
Click to expand...

It's not exactly when I join a game server, it's when I go to multiplayer, hit refresh so I can see the server list and as it's refreshing and showing me the server names my fps drops to around 5 from 45ish.
 
The one telling thing you have told us is that you are experiencing the same issue with your old x850xt which tells me its not the video card. "My main card is a BFG 8800GT OC edition. I've also tried my x850xt and i've gotten the same problem."

well for what its worth I would look at teh following;

1) psu get it tested if its dying then that might have something to do with it.
2) ram get it tested as well if one of your sticks is going bad this could also contribute to the problem.

Look at systemic issues rather than the card. This card is definitely more demanding than your old card but your system should be strong enough to handle it with ease.

GL :D
 
mrmetal_53 said:
When I had an a 3800 x2, I remember reading Eclipse's OC guide. He said that some computers don't like have the HT set at over 1000. Your HT link multiplier must be set to 5, giving you 258 x 5 = 1290. It's a shot in the dark, but I would try setting the HT link multiplier to 3 (258 x 3 = 774) and see if it does anything.

You might want to also check to see if your RAM is running 1:1 with your FSB. If it is, it might be running out of spec (running at DDR2 516 instead of DDR2 400). However, if it was running out of spec, I would assume that you would be getting crashes, lock-ups, and BSODs, not bad game performance.
Click to expand...

Ntune is saying: Memory Frequency 516 (DDR2) MHz.

I went into the BIOS and set it to DDR2 400 but it still says that.

It also says i'm doing 258 x 10 (instead of 10.5) and that my CPU freq. is 2.58 but "Ai Booster" and when I go to "My Computer" properties it says 2.71.

I ran a program called "Mem Test" for like 30 minutes and it said how my OS wouldn't let me test all my ram (2 gigs) at once so I'd be best off running 2 programs. So I ran 2 programs (1024 x 2) and one of them got to 80% with no errors but the other one was still at 0% so I shut them both off.

How do I test my PSU? My PSU is prolly 4 months old and my RAM is only 2.
 
Something I forgot to mention before, when I had my A64 processor, I would have problems trying to use any 0.5 multiplier (ie, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, etc.). So if I were you, I would try manually setting the multiplier down to 10 or up to 11. I would have the symptoms that you mentioned earlier, with Windows and the Asus utility reporting different (and way off) speeds, in addition to crashes.

Other questions:

1) Is your overclock Orthos stable? If you haven't run it, I would try running it for ~8 hours or so.

2) You said you ran Memtest. In my opinion, you want to run test #5 on memtest, and let it run through ~10 times to ensure RAM stability.
 
What's test #5? When I loaded Memtest it just told me to input the amount of RAM I want tested and it will test it.

I'll try doing 10 x 270 or something.
 
How were you running it? From a floppy? The last time I ran it (3-4 months ago), I put the floppy in, started the computer, and before it booted into Windows, the test started. You can pause whichever test is the default test and then choose your own. I've always ran test #5 to make sure my RAM overclock is stable.
 
MrHood22

Starting another thread was a tad silly as it sets all suggestions back to square one
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1247612

There are a couple of threads going on in here with the same theme.




We are all getting off track and over complicating this issue, MrHood22 has posted NOTHING to suggest a CPU performance problem or a memory issue, nothing I have seen anyway.

What is interesting is this, you have posted very low temperatures, which indicated possibly a POWER issue.

MrHood22 said:
If I maximize again then it does the same thing until I restart then it runs fine. It runs very cool to, it idles at about 40c and in game it gets to about 53c.

When I have the low FPS when querying for servers I can minimize in the middle of it while at 5 fps and when i maximize I go up to about 20 fps.
Click to expand...


FIRST you need to run 3D MARK and post the screenies with SM2,SM3,CPU Score, at least we can eliminate the CPU..

Second I would reseat and swap over the PCIE power connector as this problem seem most likely to be power related.


Lastly I would consider nukeing the OS if you have tried everything else. It will take you 2-3 hours to load all the crap back on, but you could EASILY spend another 10+ pissing around with what you have and still not solve it.
 
Yes sir, that's what I do. You can also use SuperPI to check your RAM overclock. If I were you, I would try running Memtest from the floppy first, using test #5 about 10 times through. If it passes this, try running the SuperPI 1M test.
 
Just a thought, but I ran into a problem like this with a DFI Ultra D. Somehow CPU thermal throttling got enabled to 50% in the bios. My overclocked opteron 165 at 2.8 throttled down to 1.4 when I ran any kind of game or benchmark.

It took me about a week to figure it out.
 
Battlenetter2, this post isn't really about my 8800GT (as the title clearly states) but it's sorta gone in that area and grown off of my other post regarding my 8800GT and how it MAY possibly be broken.


As for the low temps = power issue theory I don't think that's the case.

My basement is redone so my computer is down there and it's about 70F tops down here.



Why does it say my Ram Frequeny is 516 when I have it set to be 400?
 
Because when you set it to be DDR2 400, you are really setting it to run at a 1:1 ratio with the FSB.
 
Another vote for power issue. Check if anyone near you has a PSU Tester, I think they make those :rolleyes:
 
MrHood22 said:
Battlenetter2, this post isn't really about my 8800GT (as the title clearly states) but it's sorta gone in that area and grown off of my other post regarding my 8800GT and how it MAY possibly be broken.


As for the low temps = power issue theory I don't think that's the case.

My basement is redone so my computer is down there and it's about 70F tops down here.




Why does it say my Ram Frequeny is 516 when I have it set to be 400?
Click to expand...

With respect, the thread is the same issue with a different title and talking about it form a different angle.

Run some 3D MARK benches and post them, I want to see a CPU score, or you can continue running in 9 different directions with your head cut off, the choice is yours I guess.
 
How do you figure it's a power issue?

Voltages=

VCore = 1.56v
+3.3 = 3.42v
+5.0 = 5.16v
+12.0 = 12.18v

If my power supply couldn't dish out enough those values wouldn't excede their respective rails or w/e they're called.

Battlenetter, If you can try not to bash me in atleast one of your post I can try to provide you with screenshots of my 3dmark06. Right now i'm going to run Prime95 Small FTT's overnight, tomorow i'll do 3dmark06 and post them before I go to work.
 
MrHood22 said:
How do you figure it's a power issue?

Voltages=

VCore = 1.56v
+3.3 = 3.42v
+5.0 = 5.16v
+12.0 = 12.18v

If my power supply couldn't dish out enough those values wouldn't excede their respective rails or w/e they're called.
Click to expand...

Yep no help at all, how about some 3DMark results? Still could be power, I don't see any load figures in there, that does not show us power to the GPU.
 
Anyway I can go about getting the GPU power statistics?

All I know is that when I had my old PSU (420w) that came with my case my numbers were always a little lower. For example the +12.0 would be something like 11.6v or something.
 
MrHood22 said:
Anyway I can go about getting the GPU power statistics?

All I know is that when I had my old PSU (420w) that came with my case my numbers were always a little lower. For example the +12.0 would be something like 11.6v or something.
Click to expand...

Dude you are complicating things, just run some god dam 3D mark results and post them with SM2,SM3, CPU scores. LOGICAL process of elimination is the way to solve this problem, no wild stabbing in the dark.
 
I'd personally blame it on your PSU -- chances are that Rosewill unit isn't that great.

You also might want to try a NIC other than the onboard. Should be all of $5-15.

Driver cleaner and reinstall the latest betas.
 
What's a NIC?

This is the 3dmark06 that I took about 2 minutes ago ago (CPU: 281 x 10 = 2.8ghz, HT Multi is 3x *Current setting*)
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12589640


This is the one I took a week ago when BFG tech support asked to see it (Cpu 258 x 10.5 = 2.7ghz, Ht Multi is 5x)
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12468166


I should also mention that I ran Prime95 Small FTT's with my current 2.8ghz set up and it only ran 2 hours until it got an error. I never ran it for longer then 30 minutes on my 2.7ghz set up because I figured if it never gave me any shit when i'm using my computer why should I care if it completes Prime95.
 
MrHood22 said:
What's a NIC?

This is the 3dmark06 that I took about 2 minutes ago ago (CPU: 281 x 10 = 2.8ghz, HT Multi is 3x *Current setting*)
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12589640


This is the one I took a week ago when BFG tech support asked to see it (Cpu 258 x 10.5 = 2.7ghz, Ht Multi is 5x)
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/resultanalyzer.jsp?projectType=14&XLID=0&UID=12468166


I should also mention that I ran Prime95 Small FTT's with my current 2.8ghz set up and it only ran 2 hours until it got an error. I never ran it for longer then 30 minutes on my 2.7ghz set up because I figured if it never gave me any shit when i'm using my computer why should I care if it completes Prime95.
Click to expand...

Fist off 3Dmark

8.4K for a X2@2.8 gig looks fine. Your CPU score is 1949 Marks and is the main reason why the 3Dmark looks low which of course also effects the SM2 and SM3 scores.

Although your 3D mark score is 30% ish less than what it would be on faster processor, keep in mind with most games at 1280x1024 or more with high detail and maybe even AA, in most games it will translate into maybe a 15% ish less FPS difference (very very roughly) over a rig that scores 11K in 3D Mark.

I don't think you have a general performance issue relating to your GPU from those results, and in fact the CPU performance looks spot on. Your CPU is a "Slight" bottleneck.
 
So basically that cuts the GPU and CPU out.

I don't think it's the RAM either because I did that Memtest. Could it be drivers? Is their a program out there that will scan my computer and then find drivers and tell me if they're up to date or not?
 
MrHood22 said:
So basically that cuts the GPU and CPU out.

I don't think it's the RAM either because I did that Memtest. Could it be drivers? Is their a program out there that will scan my computer and then find drivers and tell me if they're up to date or not?
Click to expand...

Yea CPU and GPU mostly ruled out.

Well from your post you are mostly playing COD4 atm and mostly you are having online issues?

The big question is, how does it run on Single player? (not playing on the internet), do you get large drop offs in FPS, or does it seem fine?
 
I'll play around with SP for a little bit when I get a chance.

Luckily for the past few days I haven't had those big FPS drops where it just freezes up on me but I consistently have the Server list FPS drops.

I noticed that if I hit refresh and then as soon as my FPS drops I hit escape to get back to the main menu and then I just repeat that after about 6 or 7 tries I don't get that FPS drop anymore and it stays at 40 FPS roughly.

Could it be caused by something that the servers just come in to fast and it swamps down my GPU?
 
How about you run Hijack This and post the result, also, right after booting your computer run the game for a few minutes then in the task manager add the "CPU Time" column and see which proc. have been using the CPU.
 
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