Performance issues

[DuDe]

Well, the topic is self explaining I believe... I have the system listed below in my specs, and I'm having some terrible performance in games like Max Payne (the first one mind you), GTA3 (completely unplayable), and all sorts of other games. Now, I think that the problem might be with the Radeon, since the CPU benchmarks I've run came up fine, but my 3Dmark 2001 score was quite horrendous (about 6000). I've bugged Karth, Trotterwatch and vampireuk quite a lot on IRC about it, so I guess it's time that I bug you guys So help please, for great justice

P.S : oh yeah, forgot to say that the motherboard is a GigaByte 7VT600-L, and that I've updated to the latest VIA 4 in 1's.

 

[Remote]

I can play MP2 quite nice on my box so you are probaly having driver issues or similar, not sure but isn't MP2 nicer to GF cards?

 

[Trotterwatch]

It's Max Payne 1 he's having problems with Remote Max Payne 2 works perfectly fine on Radeons btw

 

[james.miller]

the both do trotterwatch - at least on my pc they do.

now, 6000 is terrible for a 9600. try re-installing the graphics card drivers

 

[DuDe]

I've found something quite strange. When I go to the display properties menu, it shows the Radeon both as a primary and a secondary card, when the secondary is a PCI card. I've tried removing the secondary one (which obviously doesn't exist beyond software level) by disabling it at the device manager, but it keeps coming back. Could that be the problem?
Regardless, I've rolled back to Catalyst 3.8, and now I can actually overclock my card, and I'm going to check if 3DMark gives any better scores.

 

[Gorxon]

I've found something quite strange. When I go to the display properties menu, it shows the Radeon both as a primary and a secondary card, when the secondary is a PCI card. I've tried removing the secondary one (which obviously doesn't exist beyond software level) by disabling it at the device manager, but it keeps coming back. Could that be the problem?
Regardless, I've rolled back to Catalyst 3.8, and now I can actually overclock my card, and I'm going to check if 3DMark gives any better scores.

I take it that your card has DVI support and TV-out? If so, that is perfectly normal, as it has dual monitor support. You cannot and should not remove the secondary "card".

If your card doesnt have DVI I am not so sure, but I wouldnt be worried anyways...

 

[DuDe]

Hm, I take it back, I still can't overclock my card, which is pretty weird on its own...

 

[Trotterwatch]

I think they can be clock locked in the BIOS of the card, if you want overclock you will need to flash the cards BIOS AFAIK anyways.

 

[DuDe]

That's a good call there Trotterwatch, apparently the only way that I can overclock this card is by changing the BIOS settings, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.

Edit : well shit, editing the Gigabyte bios didn't help much, because then the drivers wouldn't function at all. Had to go back to the original bios.

 

[ceedj]

That's a good call there Trotterwatch, apparently the only way that I can overclock this card is by changing the BIOS settings, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.

Edit : well shit, editing the Gigabyte bios didn't help much, because then the drivers wouldn't function at all. Had to go back to the original bios.

I think Trotterwatch was referring to the VIDEO CARD BIOS, not the motherboard BIOS (although mucking with certain settings can help sometimes too). As for FLASHING the BIOS to unlock the core, I'm not too sure, though I wouldn't be surprised if you had to. Maybe Tan can answer this one?

In regards to the poor performance, it could be anything from the drivers to a fudged up DirectX install. How long has it been since you've done a complete, clean OS reinstall (format, etc)? I assume you know about not running a ton of services in the background. I would check on little things like the hard drive settings in your BIOS - if you have a fast drive, it should be set to MODE 4 for best results, especially if the aforementioned games have to do a lot of loading from the hard drive for textures and such. Check your IDE cables too; I once had a bad one and didn't know it until I swtiched my cables with new ones from a new hard drive.

Maybe a little more info - do regualar, non-DX apps load and work ok? Are you getting any slowdowns switching documents? How long has this been happening; in other words, did you notice any slowdown before adding the card? It may seem silly, but in my 20+ years in dealing with computers, I've learned not to leave ANY stone unturned.

Good luck, and I hope this helps.

 

[DuDe]

I think Trotterwatch was referring to the VIDEO CARD BIOS, not the motherboard BIOS (although mucking with certain settings can help sometimes too).

Yes, and that's exactly what I've done, and that didn't help.

How long has it been since you've done a complete, clean OS reinstall (format, etc)?

3 days. Didn't help. The PC is brand new.

I assume you know about not running a ton of services in the background. I would check on little things like the hard drive settings in your BIOS - if you have a fast drive, it should be set to MODE 4 for best results, especially if the aforementioned games have to do a lot of loading from the hard drive for textures and such. Check your IDE cables too; I once had a bad one and didn't know it until I swtiched my cables with new ones from a new hard drive.

Yes, I've tried all that. The HD is not the problem, the Sisoft Sandra memory benchmarks all come out fine.

Maybe a little more info - do regualar, non-DX apps load and work ok? Are you getting any slowdowns switching documents? How long has this been happening; in other words, did you notice any slowdown before adding the card? It may seem silly, but in my 20+ years in dealing with computers, I've learned not to leave ANY stone unturned.

Yes, everything that isn't related to 3D graphics works just fine; WinXP loads in about 10 seconds, load times for levels in games are almost non-existant. The problem starts when you get in the game.
Anyway, Karth suggested on IRC yesterday that perhaps there's a pipeline damaged on the card or something of that matter, which sounds very logical to me at the moment, and I'm going to take my PC to the shop in which I've bought it so that they check if it's damaged, and replace it if needed.

Kudos for the advices though.

 

[Moose Jr.]

It's Max Payne 1 he's having problems with Remote Max Payne 2 works perfectly fine on Radeons btw

So does MP1, so it's definitely not the game.

One thing that may help is to fiddle with your memory aperture. I was getting a 2200 or so score in 3DMark2k3 until I changed it, after which it skyrocketed to 4200.

GL!

 

[DuDe]

So does MP1, so it's definitely not the game.

One thing that may help is to fiddle with your memory aperture. I was getting a 2200 or so score in 3DMark2k3 until I changed it, after which it skyrocketed to 4200.

GL!

How exactly do I change the memory aperture? And to what values should I set it?

 

[Moose Jr.]

How exactly do I change the memory aperture?

It should be in your mobo bios settings along with all the other AGP crap. It's possible that it may not have it.

And to what values should I set it?

Unfortunately this is an issue that is hard to get any two people to agree on, presumably because most people simply don't know (including me). Some say half your system memory, some say half your video memory, but in most tests setting it to 64 or 128 MB works best for cards with 64-256MB onboard. Try 32 and 256 as well and compare the 3DMark scores.

 

[The Khan Artist]

You could try disabling Fast Writes, but that usually only affects stability, not performance.

 

[DuDe]

Well then, some grave digging on my behalf : I've found the problem. And the problem is Gigabyte. Apparently, Gigabyte's 9600 line of cards has a 64bit memory bus, rather than a 128bit bus that it should have. And now I'm stuck with a card that is probably comparable to a GF3 or even worse.
So, let's sum it up : Gigabyte loves the cock. The salesman loves the cock for not telling me that the damn card has a POS memory bus. And I'm a dumbass for not checking the specs of that card before ordering the PC.
Bleh.