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Sub-par results than expected, help?

J

jubei

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Messages
466
I just got and built my new computer and it's not playing nice...not even to where I had hoped it would. Here's the specs.

Thermaltake Damier V6000 420watt case
Athlon64 3000+ (Newcastle)
1GB (2x512mb sticks) corsair value select PC3200 DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 SE 128mb 256bit
Audigy2 ZS Platinum
Creative 5.1SBS560 speakers
Samsung CD/DVD burner
120GB Seagate 7200 RPM SATA
Chaintech VNF3-250 mobo
Samsung 17" Syncmaster 1280x1024@75mhz monitor
WinXP pro

Now, with this hardware I was expecting to play doom3 at the native resolution of my monitor at the very least medium quality x2AA and get decent fps. For some reason the resolution picked by the game is the lowest possible with no AA on medium quality and the gameplay is a bit choppy. I downloaded the 4.9 catalyst drivers from ati and installed them, but all that did was take care of the crashing problems.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I set something up wrong in the bios or not that would cause this, but it's just really bothering me. I also can't set my agp slot to x8...not even to x4. Everytime I try to set it in the ati control panel, it always resets itself after the manditory restart.

Any help or suggestions would really be appreciated.

[was posted in gaming and was told to ask here]
 
Make sure you've installed all drivers for your motherboard, chipset, etc...Old chipset drivers and Smartgart don't play well together. Sometimes to the point that Smartgart will turn your AGP slot off.

As for Doom3, when it auto detects it normally will pick very conservative settings.
 
Well you have a Radeon 9800 SE. Which is a crap card and nothing like a 9800 Pro. I'd say that is your problem.

With my 9800 Pro I could play at medium, no AA, 1280x1024 and it was pretty smooth. Choppy in some parts, but no big deal.
 
Yeah, I was hoping to be able to softmod the SE to a pro which is why I bought it. Come to find the omega drivers leave artifacts really bad on doom3 so i have to run the catalyst drivers.

Anyway, how would I go about finding the version of my mobo chipset driver version? Also, the bios says v6.0 but the chaintech downloads have a 1.0 and a 2.0 being the only ones. The 2.0 says it is compatible with sempron, does that mean it's an upgrade specifically for sempron processors or will it work with my athlon64?
 
I would suggest downloading cpu-z. This will help you determine which bios you have and give you all sorts of other useful info.

Also, any chance of returning that vid card? Even if you flash it to a pro it will still be the bottleneck in your system.
 
I ran cpu-z and it also said I have the v6.0pg bios...which i have seen no upgrade for. I've also heard bad things about the beta drivers for the chipset. I guess some people have trouble with the bios acknowledging dual ram sticks and raid arrays. I still can't get my agp slot to go anywhere but the off setting in smartgart, which is really starting to bug me. Can you think of any other fixes besides a chipset driver install?
 
Archer75 said:
Well you have a Radeon 9800 SE. Which is a crap card and nothing like a 9800 Pro.
Click to expand...

"Nothing like a 9800 Pro"????

The 9800 SE IS a 9800 Pro.
Same board design, same GPU, same core and memory speeds. Same amount of memory and memory bus width. Same number of vertex pipelines (4).

The only difference is the number of pixel pipelines (4 vs 8)... and many of the SE's can be turned into Pro's with a quick patch.

Yeah, totally different :rolleyes:
 
Let me rephrase. It PERFORMS nothing like a 9800 Pro.

There are those who have been able to unlock the additional pipelines, but for alot it leads to artifacts and other anomolies and still the performance does not quite reach 9800 Pro levels in all cases.
 
He's right. The SE performs nothing like a Pro, and this is evidenced by its much cheaper price tag. You have a very nice system, with solid motherboard, processor, memory, and audio, yet your video strength is a bit lacking. To complement your choice of hardware, maybe picking up a 6800 or 6800 GT would be in order? Then, you should be able to run doom 3 well.

Good luck, I wish I had a system like yours with a new video card in it. :)
 
If your into 3d games please don't skimp on the video card. I upgraded my system from a 9800 pro to a 6800 GT and I got a very noticeable increase in performance. I can pretty much play any game at max settings now with no hiccups. Do yourself a favor and get a better video card, trust me.
 
"The only difference is the number of pixel pipelines (4 vs 8)... and many of the SE's can be turned into Pro's with a quick patch.

Yeah, totally different"

Fact: stock 9800 SE performance is horrible compared to a 9800 Pro. There is no way a 9800 SE will handle Doom 3 at 1280x1024. It simply isn't capable, unless you can mod it to a Pro, which this guy said up front he wasn't able to do on his card. Had you actually read the post, you would know that. ;)

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-12.html

28,802 vs. 44,138 for the Pro. I'd say that's a pretty big difference... :rolleyes:
 
CastleBravo said:
"The only difference is the number of pixel pipelines (4 vs 8)... and many of the SE's can be turned into Pro's with a quick patch.

Yeah, totally different"

Fact: stock 9800 SE performance is horrible compared to a 9800 Pro. There is no way a 9800 SE will handle Doom 3 at 1280x1024. It simply isn't capable, unless you can mod it to a Pro, which this guy said up front he wasn't able to do on his card. Had you actually read the post, you would know that. ;)

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-12.html

28,802 vs. 44,138 for the Pro. I'd say that's a pretty big difference... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

He said its "nothing like a 9800 pro". I disagree. As I stated, its the same GPU core, same board, same memory and core speeds, completely same feature set. Just half the pixel pipelines, and yes I saw the the original poster got unlucky with opening his card up.

I also disagree with "its a crap card", btw. Seems like pre-Doom 3, there were plenty of people 100% happy with 9600XT/9800 SE performance. Now one game comes out, and it makes every card "crap". The world aint so black & white. <sigh>

Hey, lets look at some of the USEFUL numbers in the Tomshardware article you linked to

9800 SE (all at 1024/768)
Unreal Tournament: 68.3 FPS
Battlefield 1942: 144.6 FPS
Call of Duty: 83.7 FPS
Quake 3 TA: 170 FPS
Warcraft III: 55.34 FPS (pro got 56.85)
C&C Generals: 44.6 FPS (exactly the same score as the pro)
Halo: 28.07 FPS (the only one to score low, so far)
Nascar Thunder 2004: 63.3 (pro got 63.8)
X2: 45.9 FPS

Yes, look at those horrible numbers! OH MY GOD those suck. ATI should be embarased for selling "crap cards" that perform like that for a whole $125. I mean, I can only play ALMOST every game on the market with more than acceptable frame rates.

:confused:
 
Ignad said:
He said its "nothing like a 9800 pro". I disagree. As I stated, its the same GPU core, same board, same memory and core speeds, completely same feature set. Just half the pixel pipelines, and yes I saw the the original poster got unlucky with opening his card up.

I also disagree with "its a crap card", btw. Seems like pre-Doom 3, there were plenty of people 100% happy with 9600XT/9800 SE performance. Now one game comes out, and it makes every card "crap". The world aint so black & white. <sigh>

Hey, lets look at some of the USEFUL numbers in the Tomshardware article you linked to

9800 SE (all at 1024/768)
Unreal Tournament: 68.3 FPS
Battlefield 1942: 144.6 FPS
Call of Duty: 83.7 FPS
Quake 3 TA: 170 FPS
Warcraft III: 55.34 FPS (pro got 56.85)
C&C Generals: 44.6 FPS (exactly the same score as the pro)
Halo: 28.07 FPS (the only one to score low, so far)
Nascar Thunder 2004: 63.3 (pro got 63.8)
X2: 45.9 FPS

Yes, look at those horrible numbers! OH MY GOD those suck. ATI should be embarased for selling "crap cards" that perform like that for a whole $125. I mean, I can only play ALMOST every game on the market with more than acceptable frame rates.

:confused:
Click to expand...

calm down dude....the 9800se isnt as crappy as theyre saying..but it still isnt a very good performer...especially when the new 6600gt is coming out for 200$....so for 75$ more you can pretty much double the performance and have better features and drivers....not only that but the pro has 4 MORE pipelines...and thats a big deal....just ask ATI right now :p
so unless you can successfully softmod it...its still a crappy card compared to the pro...
 
I am totally calm. <shrug>

I was just trying to talk the language of the "if it doesnt run doom 3 at 100FPS+, it's crap" crowd.

(gotta love fat bastard lol)
 
Ignad said:
Yes, look at those horrible numbers! OH MY GOD those suck. ATI should be embarased for selling "crap cards" that perform like that for a whole $125. I mean, I can only play ALMOST every game on the market with more than acceptable frame rates.
Click to expand...

I agree it is crap. Shoulda got a 9800 Pro for $200, or a 5900xt for $180, or a 6800 vanilla for $300.
 
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