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Mother Technology hates me. But that's okay.. this is not.

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by Toiletman, Feb 16, 2005.

  1. Bubba1982

    Bubba1982 Regular member

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    I use version 4.0.100.1190, But you'll probably need a different one coz you got a slightly different card than me. just make sure you it's not the newest version of catlyst.
     
  2. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    I tried an older version of Catalyst, no luck. Mother Technology is such a bitch to me! =( WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU?! (Apart from look at pleasurable videoes, but come on, every 15 year old boy does that.)

    baabaa hasn't responded to my post yet, I don't think he frequents AfterDawn as much as he used to. Any other suggestions? Again, the last thing I want to do is send my card in for repair, and I am absolutely certain it is not a hardware problem but a software problem.
     
  3. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    he's around just pm him
     
  4. baabaa

    baabaa Active member

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    [bold]Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa![/bold]

    Funny, no-one really talks about me behind my back unless they are 'slagging me off'........LMAO.

    Thanks for inviting me, however it may come to no avail I'm afraid as I cannot remember any references to this sort of problem with my own card.

    The only reference I have was to this thread.
    http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/115099

    Scubabud does have a good pooint regarding backups.
    I have 4 machines at home that get a regular 'ghosting' especially if I am trialing some software......
    Worthwhile if you can get yourslef another HD......

    Your CPU remember is 64 bit and XP cannot fully utillise this power to it's max.
    As this is the case you may require to load up extra drivers for the CPU which are not included in the Operating system.
    Also there is a CPUID program that should display exactly what your CPU is running at at the link below:

    http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html

    Regarding your fps etc, after reading all of the responses, it does appear that all areas have been discussed.

    I think it'll be worthwhile loading up the 'drivers' as suggested above and see if you get any improvement.

    There may not be an actual problem, but may just be down to your CPU or video cards inability to talk to each other at the same speed and this may in fact point to the motherboard, however I cannot verify that statement.
    I come across lots of problems that sometime cannot be explained, and alot of them are down to PC architecture and the heart of the system is not the CPU but the motherboard, if the CPU cannot communicate to the motherboard at the motherboards maximum levels, then peripherals really have no chance but to 'lag' at slower speeds.

    You see the problem here is that the grpahics card is not 'refreshing/processing the information fast enough and this can be down to several things:

    Have you got the 'extra power connector connected' to the video card?

    Video Card drivers
    Video Card settings and refresh rates
    Memory allocation and useage
    System BUS activities
    CPU communication problems
    Incorrect speed settings for BUS clocks
    Chipset unable to process information fast enough
    Monitor refresh rates capabilities (people forget about these)

    If I can find some specific information I shall post it.

    However it does seem to me like an achitecture issue, and may well be cured with:
    Correct drivers for the CPU
    Correct drivers for video card
    BIOS values tweaked regarding AGP fastwrites etc
    Making sure Memory/CPU are at matched FSB
    Making sure settings within the Video card are at optimum values (I am not a gamer, so the little guru tweaks would have to found)

    Sorry I could not be of more help, but I shall keep my 'hand in' on this thread..............


     
  5. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    Thanks for the reply baabaa, I will install the CPUID and the Athlon 64 drivers in the link and see whether that makes any performance boosts.

    CPUID: Says my processor is running at 2,202 Mhz. DXDiag says my computer runs at around 2.2Ghz, so I would assume this is not problematic.

    Installed Athlon 64 drivers.

    My reported speed in CPUID is now 2,234 Mhz. So.. so I really have no clue what I'm talking about.. LOL.

    Yes.

    I have the latest Catalyst drivers. My settings are what tweakguides recommend and my monitor refresh rate is supported by both devices. =D I have fastwrite set to off.

    How would I adjust this? I don't really fiddle around with the BIOS much so are there any guides? =D

    UPDATE: Just finished testing out the fps on CS: Source. Unfortunately.. it has not improved. I went to check whether all my drivers were up to date (via MSI Live), and everything was up to date apart from the VGA Drivers which was newer than the version they provided...
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2005
  6. baabaa

    baabaa Active member

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    The 3200 under default should be running at 2Ghz according to AMD specs, have you overclocked this at all?

    If you haven't played around with the BIOS at all, then I can't see there really being an issue in there, as default values would be loaded so most things should be ok.

    Maybe worthwhile just emptying the BIOS and starting from scratch and clearing out any altered/screwed settings.

    The only thing that maybe apparent is AGP aperature (within the BIOS)

    The BIOS information should be contained within the motherboard manual along with all the individual settings and explanations.

    It may however just be down to your motherboard not being able to fully support the full function of the video card.

    Maybe worthwhile emailing ATI and see what they think - they will of course blame the cpu/operating system/motherboard etc etc and not their card.
    Explain the problem (in detail), I would have thought they would have references for optimum settings to improve the performance - there may just be a setting within the software you have overlooked.

    Have you got the latest Direct X installed?

    It just occured to me actually, is all that you have installed are the drivers for the card, I ask because you state in your first post that:
    Was this just OEM without any software etc?

    Have you read reviews around for your card, I have found some and they paint pretty much the same picture:
    http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/graphicscards/ati_x800_pro/index.shtml

     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2005
  7. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    It was OEM with all the software included. I got it within the first 2 weeks it came out.

    My AGP Apeture size is set at 64MB, according to most articles it is the optimum setting for ATi cards with 256 MB RAM.

    Y'see this is the thing, I got the Athlon 64 when it was first released and I'm absolutely positive that my CPU is the 754 socket one. Have you heard anything negative about having a 754 socket?

    I haven't overclocked the processor at all.. however I'm not sure if the shop I ordered it from has.

    I already sent 2 emails to ATi but they didn't reply, so I think I'll send another one at the end of the week... customer service probably fell asleep or something.

    I play my games at 1024 with 2AA and 2AF, so I SHOULD be getting around 80fps if not a LOT more lol. Those framerates (in your link) seem awfully low compared to other review sites such as Tom's Hardware Guide...
     
  8. baabaa

    baabaa Active member

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    I am not a gamer so 'all the little tweaks and stuff' I am not familiar with but what we need to discover is whether a hardware issue is causing your problem or in fact 'a tweak' in the software or via some sort of 'mod' to the card itself.

    Just one question, if you didn't have any reference to others obtaining a high fps, does the card actually perform ok whilst playing games or do you actually have problems regarding refreshing/blockiness etc etc?
     
  9. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    The card does everything it should apart from the frame rate. So for example Far Cry looks as good as it does in the screenshots, and so does Doom 3 etc.

    However the thing is I've never really noticed this problem because the card performs so well over games such as Far Cry (100+ fps, eyes can only tell past 85+)

    However once I got CS: Source the problem became apparent and I was appalled at the low frames I got.

    This article is a little old but:

    http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040504/index.html
     
  10. baabaa

    baabaa Active member

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    I think you could do with setting the AGP aperature to 256Mb in your BIOS, this may bring things up abit.

     
  11. joniliff

    joniliff Member

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    I'm sure you've already checked, but let's start at the beginning! "Always check to see if it's plugged in first!" What do you have in your startup menu? All of this sounds to me like you have things running that are interferring with max performance. You can clear almost ALL of the junk in the startup...and do you/have you run Ad-Aware (free) and SpyBot S&d (free). Any programs running in the background?

    John
     
  12. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    Woops baabaa, didn't see your reply there lol, will try it very soon and see if that fixes my problems.

    John: I scan weekly with Ad-aware and Spybot SD and I haven't gotten any real adware detected, I'm quite paranoid when it comes to spyware. =D

    About the plugging in. This is a slight problem I don't think I've mentioned. At the back where you're supposed to plug in the monitor cable to the X800, it doesn't quite go all the way in.

    What I mean is that the plug is slightly lopsided and so while my monitor runs perfectly, I can't screw in both the screws. Whether this is causing the problem or not, I don't know.

    Not much programs running in the background and I'm sure none of them is causing the FPS problem. I have the usual NA, mIRC, MSN and Word.
     
  13. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    I know this is a long time coming but... I've been quite busy during the last few months and also quite lazy.

    I switched to 256 MB, it made a bit of difference. Not much. Thing is, I've been lazy to the point that I haven't updated my drivers yet. So I will do so and update you all if there is any improvement. If not... just gotta keep pushing. =P
     
  14. baabaa

    baabaa Active member

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    Don't let it beat you, thats what Mrs PC is after, don't give in, she'll roll over for you in the end, they always do...............
     
  15. Omega575

    Omega575 Member

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    Hey, Toiletman I have the same goddamn problem you have. I have tried: getting new hardware such as a new motherboard, a new processor,new ram etc. I have tried getting new drivers for catalyst..... no good. My only explanation now is that the x800 pro just and it's drivers just dont like Half life 2 or CS:Source for some reason. But I have gone to a last resort, im going to send ATI an email explaining what my problem is.

    Even though I had gotten basically a new goddman computer, I cant seem to get rid of this problem...sigh. If anyone has a solution please email me at skykuhlman@yahoo.com or reply on the message board. Well i can just say it cant be the: motherboard, processor, ram or the power supply. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!When someone spends over 1k on computer upgrades and the problem still stands something is just not right!!! Thank you very much and I hope me and Toiletman get a solution!
     
  16. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    Omega575, edit out your email address as per forum rules above besides getting spammed.
     
  17. veredes

    veredes Member

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    Do you have AA or AF turned on in your driver settings?
     
  18. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    No, I haven't, I've turned them to application preference. I still haven't gotten around to downloading new drivers, pretty busy week being the end of the term and all.
     
  19. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    I've turned Vsync all the way to Always Off, just to let you know. Finally got my lazyarse to do a clean install of the new drivers, and it HAS improved. I now get 50+ fps in all gunfights. However, I'm still below the "normal" fps. =(

    Lately, I've been noticing that after a few days of leaving my computer on, my sound card screws up and starts playing static till I reboot. It only happens after maybe a few hours or so, and I click on something that produces a sound. Could this have ANY relation to my graphics card problem? Maybe it's because I keep switching between Headphones and speakers.
     
  20. Toiletman

    Toiletman Active member

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    Back from vacation! Lots of fun.

    I have a couple questions:

    1. Is my 350W PSU enough to power my X800?

    2. Could my soundcard have anything to do with this problem of mine?
     

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