Sudden 9800pro performance drop

[Ace64]

9800Pro sudden slow down

Hi, i just bought a 9800pro about a month ago and everything seemed fine at first but i think it was after updating my computer it suddenly slowed down on certain games. Particularly newer games seemed to have a problem. My 3dmark03 score for example has went down to 4500 from 5500. At first i thought it was my 350w psu but my new 1 arrived this morning which is a qtec 550w pfc. My old psu didnt like it when i uped the voltage on cpu but overclocking works fine on the 550w psu. But the new psu hasnt fixed the gfx prob. So far ive tryed different catalyst drivers and turning agp fast writes off with no avail.

Specs:
Athlon xp2500 @ xp3200 1.8v
Powercolor Radeon 9800pro 128mb @ stock
Epox 8rda+ motherboard
512mb 3200 ddr
QTEC 550w PFC psu
Win xp wiv all major updates

 

[heyheyhey]

Take the heatsink off, clean out all the dust, clean off the core, and put it back on with Arctic Silver 5. This should fix it, the stock TIM blows.

 

[Ace64]

Well actually when i first got the 9800pro i had a go at pulling the heatsink off so i could put some artic silver 3 on, but i couldnt actually get the damn heatsink off. Anywayz i doubt its a heat prob as i havent overclocked it at all. Heat does not cause performance drops but artifacts and instability.

Heres my 3dmark01 score:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7510344

Look at test 4, before i would get 120+ fps, now i get 60+.

 

[Ace64]

Problem solved. Uinstalled then reinstalled latest radeon drivers.

Now look at my score:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7510905