Got Geforce 3 card today, some issues

[Pinky]

I love this card, I will love it more once I resolve some issues.

Sometimes when the card is displaying 2D it looks like little ripples are going through the image. This also occurs if the card is at a lower refresh rate (60) and if I leave a video intensive program and go into windows to do something else. On higher refresh rates (current max at 85mhz) it doesn't happen often.

The benchmarks are poor. Using the 12.90 drivers:
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_2001.jpg"]
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_2000.jpg"]

Not good, but not terrible. I think this may be a drivers issue. The card doesn't behave strangely, just not perfectly. I tried 12.00, 12.41, and 12.90 and haven't seen any improvement in 3dmark scores or with the 2D imaging. As I type this, there's nothing wrong with the display (32bit). UT runs well, about 70 FPS on high detail 800x600).

I am open to any suggestions.

[Placid]

Well if your signature is correct I guess you have tried the default speeds?
Did you install the drivers that came with the card for your 1st install?
Have you reinstalled the via 4 in 1 in turbo mode?

I have never used the 12.41 or 12.90 drivers.
I like the 10.80 myself.
Well I waited 5 mins for your attachments to show and nothing maybe you could just give the scores.

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 19, 2001 10:41 p.m.):
Well if your signature is correct I guess you have tried the default speeds?
Did you install the drivers that came with the card for your 1st install?
Have you reinstalled the via 4 in 1 in turbo mode?

I have never used the 12.41 or 12.90 drivers.
I like the 10.80 myself.
Well I waited 5 mins for your attachments to show and nothing maybe you could just give the scores.

Thanks, I kinda smiled when I saw your post, I know you have the same card. I'll give those suggestions a try.

The attachment thing was fixed, sorry.

[Placid]

Those scores are ok if you are running your cpu at 133fsb. 3Dmark 2000 score will greatly increase with more cpu mhz. It does not not just test the video card as much as 2001.
Your 2001 score is about right if the card was not overclocked. If it was at your signature you should be getting into the 5000's.
If it was overclocked you might also try checking the driver settings for direct 3d and Opengl and set the video sync off and d3d mipmap detail for best performance.

[Pinky]

I took all your suggestions, including reinstalling the via, trying the 10.80 drivers, changing the D3D and Open GL settings, and got all around the same scores. Made sure the CPU was at 133 fsb and the default settings on the card (they were not for the prior posts).

with the 1200 drivers, all default settings:
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_1200.jpg"]

and with the 1241 drivers, all default settings:
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_1241.jpg"]

The images are beautiful, and this is a far cry from the 2500 I struggled to get with my MX Pro card, but I expected more.

I'll keep tweaking away, can sqeeze a few more mhz and FPS when overclocked. I'm certainly satisfied, but not thrilled by the performance increase.

I will say the demos were outstanding (the chameleon rulz), this card can do things others can only dream. It is the real deal. Now it's waiting for the games to come out this Fall/Holiday season that use this card's onboard features. THEN we will truly sing her praises. For now it's a nifty GF2 Ultra for all practical purposes.

[Placid]

Try not to blow it up to fast ???
Next time you have some spare change maybe try a different motherboard.

[Jon]

I have nearly the same setup plus RAID 0 on a VP6 and my P3 1GHz is running at 1125. I have my card overclocked to 220/500 and am running the 12.90 drivers on Win2k and get a score of just over 5500, so you're in the neighbourhood of where you need to be, I'm guessing.

No sidebanding or fast writes are enabled. Just tweaked it a bit for the benchmark and overclocked it a little. Overclocking that little bit gave me over 150 points. A little tweaking using RivaTuner gave me over 500...

When gaming I max out all the little goodies, though, since that's what a $400 video card is for. :]

[zoopa_man]

Stupid question but never assume the obvious. Have you downloaded the latest OpenGL and the new DirectX 8a is now avialable for download. The goofy lines thing your talking about happens to me too when I have a 3d app open and try other things on my desktop. It also does it when I watch a dvd movie and then open another window. Still don't know what causes it, I just run one thing at a time.

[Pinky]

Thanks for the responses.

Placid, you scare me. I was thinking about getting an Asus board sometime soon (better pay off the hardware costs I have now first, by then the Asus boards will be significantly less).

Jon, that does make me feel better. It's not like the performance now is poor. I hope to get more though.

Zoop, yep -- direct X 8a and the best drivers I could find. The open GL driver is whatever Nvidia supplies, if you know of better ones I would be happy to try them.

I'm very pleased with the card, have official braggin rights in the office since I am the sole techie (out of 50) that have this card :) But really, I get awesome performance (GF2 Ultra level+), and suspect a better motherboard (for even better overclocking) would improve things some.

[Pinky]

zoopa_man (Jul 20, 2001 10:05 a.m.):
The goofy lines thing your talking about happens to me too when I have a 3d app open and try other things on my desktop.

It looks like someone is mildly shaking the screen, right?

[Pinky]

Bump, gonna keep trying some things... I'd really like to see if I can get this puppy maxxed. Right now I'm gonna reinstall directx 8 and see what happens; then overclock.

**If I stare any more at the 3dMark2001 demos any more I'm gonna look like my pic :)!!

Changed all the settings again, reinstalled Directx8, no change. Still about 4370 default settings.

With the card overclocked to the specs below, I get 4701. Again, no changes if I tweak. So there it is. The max this card does with this configuration, which according to madonion is right on track.

I guess when I get one of those AMD systems I will get the 6000 scores I've been seeing.

[quark]

this might sound obvious but did you make sure you set the AA to application control in the properties menu for the card cus if you leave it on x2 or x4 or quin then 3dmark will not override these settings even though it says AA off in the default benchmark settings.
I got my card today and first try no tweaking got 4715 on the cell800@1066 system, not too shabby.
just a thought.

[Pinky]

quark (Jul 20, 2001 07:13 p.m.):
this might sound obvious but did you make sure you set the AA to application control in the properties menu for the card cus if you leave it on x2 or x4 or quin then 3dmark will not override these settings even though it says AA off in the default benchmark settings.
I got my card today and first try no tweaking got 4715 on the cell800@1066 system, not too shabby.
just a thought.

Hell I gave it a shot, I'll give everything a try although I noticed it said it was disabled during the benchmarks... no change.

Have noticed that the wiggle in the image is non-existent in windows 98se... must be directX.

[Placid]

Try dx 8.1 ver 648.

http://www.abitboy.com/files.htm

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 20, 2001 08:03 p.m.):
Try dx 8.1 ver 648.

http://www.abitboy.com/files.htm

Lost 13 benchmark points, but more importantly that wiggle I was referring to was worse... so I went back to 8.0a

I'm gonna save that link, though :)

**Placid, just curious, but what do you get for scores? (I checked your setup stats and we have the same processor and similar Abit boards)

[Froggy1]

Pinky (Jul 19, 2001 10:36 p.m.):
I love this card, I will love it more once I resolve some issues.

Sometimes when the card is displaying 2D it looks like little ripples are going through the image. This also occurs if the card is at a lower refresh rate (60) and if I leave a video intensive program and go into windows to do something else. On higher refresh rates (current max at 85mhz) it doesn't happen often.

The benchmarks are poor. Using the 12.90 drivers:
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_2001.jpg"]
[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/gf3_2000.jpg"]

Not good, but not terrible. I think this may be a drivers issue. The card doesn't behave strangely, just not perfectly. I tried 12.00, 12.41, and 12.90 and haven't seen any improvement in 3dmark scores or with the 2D imaging. As I type this, there's nothing wrong with the display (32bit). UT runs well, about 70 FPS on high detail 800x600).

I am open to any suggestions.


Hey Pinky..I think there might be something still wrong with your memory. My GF2 Ultra gets 8729 3DMarks in 2000. Default benchmark. And these 3DMark becnhes seem memory Dependent. Haven't ever run a 2001 test cuz I considered it a GF3 Benchmark.

[Pinky]

Froggy (Jul 21, 2001 12:06 a.m.):
Hey Pinky..I think there might be something still wrong with your memory. My GF2 Ultra gets 8729 3DMarks in 2000. Default benchmark. And these 3DMark becnhes seem memory Dependent. Haven't ever run a 2001 test cuz I considered it a GF3 Benchmark.

That might be true, but I would have to order a new motherboard to find out and right now, after dropping $350 on the gf3, is not the time for further upgrades. If I could fix the memory problem, that would be one thing, but I've been there already and it was a dead end. Thanks for the response, you confirmed my suspicions about the memory.

[Celemine1Gig]

Hi Pinky,

I think your Mobo does feature the original VIA Apollo Pro 133 and not the A version, or not? If so that's the reason for your low scores. This chipset has horrible memory bandwith. I once had an DFI PA61(Apollo Pro 133) after my FIC BX Board and was shocked by the poor 3D performance compared to the BX Board!

Hope this helps!

[Pinky]

I dunno which I have, very possible the poorer version.

[img="http://speshalk.dyndns.org:1812/chipset.jpg"]

[Placid]

You only have agp x2 on that board?
I must not be the 133a.

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 21, 2001 06:28 p.m.):
You only have agp x2 on that board?
I must not be the 133a.

Granted, it's a pretty crappy board. It was part of the CPU package and I got duped. Oh well, I just sold my old video card for $20 less than I paid, which is sweet considering I keep the cables, windvd, and got 3 months of use out of it :). Maybe I'll look into Asus in the coming month... CLUSC?? Which board's the best... oh, wait that's off topic!

[Pinky]

Hehe

New motherboard, this thing kicks some serious ass.

I've only got windows 98 se running right now, but with default everything, directx 8, 12.90 drivers, and VIA 4.32 4in1, I got a #DMark 2001 score of 4961, higher than my prior attempts even overclocked.

My memory bandwidth is much higher, and everything runs smooth as silk. Say b-bye VL6 mobo!!

[Froggy1]

Pinky (Jul 24, 2001 10:32 p.m.):
Hehe

New motherboard, this thing kicks some serious ass.

I've only got windows 98 se running right now, but with default everything, directx 8, 12.90 drivers, and VIA 4.32 4in1, I got a #DMark 2001 score of 4961, higher than my prior attempts even overclocked.

My memory bandwidth is much higher, and everything runs smooth as silk. Say b-bye VL6 mobo!!


Congrats on the new Mobo...If you don't plan on going past 150FSB I will trade you for my Abit VH6 board :)

[Pinky]

Right now it looks like my components can only do150 fsb, but this chip can do so much more!!... I'm going to try my luck on eBay, thanks for the offer though...