X1900XT Slow?

AlmostEvil

Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
814
I got the Sapphire 1900XT yesterday from newegg and went on to install it. I uninstalled the nvidia drivers for my 7800gt and then booted into safe mode and ran driver cleaner pro. I then shut down the comp. and installed the 1900. Went into windows and installed the drivers form the cd ( cat 5.16 i think), Rebooted and ran 3DMark05 and got a score of 8800. It seemed a little low so i ran NFS:MW at 1280*1024, settings high and i was shocked. Average frame of around 35 and dippping in the TEENS when i drive under some trees. My old 7800gt did much better at same settings. I delve into this problem further by running the stress test in HL2 Lost Coast and get an average frame rate of 66.7. At the same settings i got 77.8 before om my 7800gt. This is @ 1280*1024 settings high.

I have gone into the settings and changed a little of the stuff around to what i thought was appropriate.

So here i am, typing this thread up to get help as i dont know whats with this card. My specs are in my sig.

Note: I have installed cat 5.3 and 5.5 with no change in performance.
 
I was using 1920*1200 on one XT in nfsmw. You definitely have to try different drivers or more cleaning. I hope you mean 6.3 and 6.5
 
oh yea i mean 6.3 and 6.5 :p
yea i did try them and i just played NFS:MW on 6.5 and i got about 35 ish. Im probably going to do reformat the computer tonight to see if that helps.
 
Believe it or not, someone on another forum had a similar problem with low performance with his X1900XTX. IDK if it's drivers or what, because he got low frames in CS:S playing 10x7 with everything else cranked. I play 16x10 with everything cranked on my card and never drop into the 40's. Try a full reformat, clean driver install and all, see if that helps. If not, you may want to considering an RMA. :eek:
 
Forget what everyone else said FOR A MOMENT. Do this, reformat PC and install Catalyst 6.5 ONLY. That should do the trick. I got 6300 3dmark06 with a single xtx
 
Heh...chalk another one up for driver cleaner.


Some advice...you NEVER have to use driver cleaners unless you mess up drivers yourself. Simply changing cards is not a reason to do it and causes more problems than it solves.
 
Format. Now. Or die. (at work, dealing with stupid customers allday
 
Ok, just ran 3DMark06 and got 5500 (cpu @ 2250), that seems much better. now im gonna run 3DMark05 and see what i get.

OK, just ran 3DMark05 and got 9114. Does that seem right? It seems a little low to me.
 
i just installed the new oblivion patch and now my gameplay is unbearable, dont know what happened but this card is starting to piss me off.

Im also getting a weird graphical problem in 3DMark05 and in the sm2 tests of 06. It happens in only those tests and not in any games so far.
05


06


also my sm2 score is 1800 while the sm3 score is 2500, that seems wrong to me.
 
either a bunk card or PSU issues. performance drops could be attributed to throttling. make sure ur fan is spinning.
 
its on a vf900, the fan is working. the psu is new and it works fine. my bet is i need a new video card.
 
AlmostEvil said:
Ok, just ran 3DMark06 and got 5500 (cpu @ 2250), that seems much better. now im gonna run 3DMark05 and see what i get.

OK, just ran 3DMark05 and got 9114. Does that seem right? It seems a little low to me.

Seems a little low, not horrible though.
 
What's your CPU clocked at?

To me it looks like a software issue... so you formatted the PC right? You installed the latest NForce4 drivers as well?

Also make sure you don't have High Quality AF and AA enabled when running 3D Mark.
 
my cpu was at 2.5 but now it is at stock.

i habe formatted the pc but i have not installed the latest nforce drivers, just the drivers that came on the vd. ill install the latest ones now.

i ran both tests last night and the artifacting on the edge of my screen was gone but my scores were about the same. Also Oblivion is running a lot better than it was earlier. Before i would get like 10 fps in the forest, but now its at 30.

Do you think its my cpu overclock? could that have any effect on my video card?
 
cpu could be overheating... i had the same problem when my cpu overheated, got half of what i get now, 3dmark06. 5500 damn! you get better score than my stupid 7800gtx.
 
AlmostEvil said:
I got the Sapphire 1900XT yesterday.....

....Note: I have installed cat 5.3 and 5.5 with no change in performance.

LOL Those are ancient drivers, dude. The X1K family wasn't even out when 5.5 cats were out. :eek:
 
stopmenow said:
cpu could be overheating... i had the same problem when my cpu overheated, got half of what i get now, 3dmark06. 5500 damn! you get better score than my stupid 7800gtx.

my cpu is at 40C load, heat is not the issue

Mr. Stryker said:
LOL Those are ancient drivers, dude. The X1K family wasn't even out when 5.5 cats were out. :eek:

well if you read further down i meant the 6 series of drivers.


I just installed the new nForce drivers from DFI's website, restarted my computer and now it wont even go back into windows. Whenever i log into windows i get the BSOD and it restarts. I tried loading the defaults in bios and clearing the cmos. nothing works. I dont want to reformat b/c i started a new oblivion game and im 5 hours into it, lol. dont want to lose it. I cant even get into safe mode to copy the savegame files.
 
Sounds like a powersupply issue to me. Random BSODs, artifacts, DFI board, etc.

My tip is the Powersupply. Only because PSU is new, doesn't mean it's a good PSU. And please don't say something along the line of "Dude, it's a 550W"....because wattage means jack if

a) the rails are not stable and

B) the amperage is simply not there along with the wattage.
 
they are not random BSODs, they hapen every time i start up my computer. It started happening after i installed new DFI nForce drivers. I highly doubt this is psu related.
Is 4 12v rails at 18a each enough? i think so.
 
I just installed my Sapphire 1900xt last night after pulling my 7800gt. Uninstalled the Nvidia display drivers, installed 1900xt, installed Cat 6.5's and my first 3Dmark05 score was 10,700. I agree with the other guys about a fresh OS install. I know that sucks but Driver Cleaner may have hosed you up.
 
Another X1900 clock switching issue that ATi refuses to fix.

These artifacts might be voltage related, but I'd doubt it. If you have some issues with lock-ups or VPU recovers during extended gaming periods, this is probably the case.

So quick are many to jump on the "it's the power supply!" bandwagon.
 
i have been experiencing video lockups and vpu recovery. So would increasing the voltage a little bit solve this issue?
 
And so begins the lengthy process of making your $500 card work correctly. Let's get started, shall we?

You'll need ATi Tool to increase clocks and voltages. Voltage settings for 3D are: 1.4-1.425V (this will actually yield ~1.425-1.45V) , with MVDDC and MVDDQ at 2.086 (or possibly higher, depending on whether your RAM is any good - mine isn't). Leave VDDCI at 1.486. But for a moment, leave ATi Tool off and let Catalyst f*ck things up. We should test something first.

You'll want to use RivaTuner as your monitoring application. Essentially, you need to run RivaTuner (info on getting it to work with X1900 cards can be found elsewhere) and monitor your clocks and core voltage while gaming fullscreen. If nothing's changing, you have the bug. If not, then there's some other bizarre phantom around. With ATi, one never knows!

Basically, this bug means you can't use the CCC, you must use ATi Tool, or your expensive little piece of red PCB is nothing more than a doorstop (I used my dead 9800 Pro as one for quite some time, come to think of it). Unless, of course, you find some tricky workaround.

You might want to try your luck at an RMA. Depends on what you're willing to deal with. This is probably why there are so many of these things being sold as refurbs. If you ever want to CrossFire these things, you'll be stuck.
 
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