flux
11-05-03, 09:34 AM
I got a little story to tell, that some of you might not believe.....
I was on (now don't laugh) GSA about 6 weeks ago, just chatting away. Into the lobby comes this random guy, who offered a 9800 Pro for free. I was the first person who said 'OK', so he said he would send it to me. 'Yeah, right' I though, but sure enough, 5 days later it turned up on my doorstep! (all the way from the US too!)
The box contained the card, and a piece of paper reminding me to plug in the power, and to download the drivers for the ATi website - becuase I haven't been installing GFX cards and other hardware for the past 13 years, honest! (sheesh!)
Overjoyed at getting a £300 GFX card free I rushed it into my comp, installed 3.8 Cats, and it was away.
Performance was excellent - a real boost over my Gainward Ti4800 - mostly.
Playing Max Payne 2 was..... interesting. Most of the time the game played super smooth. But every now and again looking in a a particualar direction (about a 100 degree arc) would cause the frame rate to drop to about 6 fps - and I'm not exagerating. Saving, quiting and reloading the game would fix the prob for a short while.
Homeworld 2 was the same, with the added joy of often crashing to desktop, and even occasionally crashing the machine completely. As someone who is seemingly not cursed with the fabled instability of Windows (the only reason my comp ever shuts down is when I'm changing hardware) this was unacceptable. Still, I struggled on.
The CoD Burnville demo would lock up (again machine too, not just game) a few seconds into the game.
In my attempts to troubleshoot I've tried all sorts of different driver versions - of both official and Omega flavours - with no difference between them. In frustration, I relegated the 9800 Pro to my server, and went back to my trusty 4800.
The the nightmare didn't end there - now my server is restarting at random points. No warning, no entry in the event log, nothing. And when it starts up again the res is reset to 640x480.
Basically. what I want to know is if this card is ****ed, or is it worth trying some more - and if so, what. I know I shouldn't complain too much as the card was free, but if this is typical of ATi, I'll be sticking to nVidia dispite the under-par performance.
Specs of main machine are:
AthlonXP 2400+
Abit KX7-333
768Mb Corsair XMS PC2700
Server:
AthlonXP 1800+
Elitegroup K7S5A (I know it's ****e - but I was poor and needed a board that took both SDRAM and DDR)
512Mb Generic SDRAM
any help you can offer will be greatfully recieved.
I've probobly forgotten some vital information - just ask if needed!
I was on (now don't laugh) GSA about 6 weeks ago, just chatting away. Into the lobby comes this random guy, who offered a 9800 Pro for free. I was the first person who said 'OK', so he said he would send it to me. 'Yeah, right' I though, but sure enough, 5 days later it turned up on my doorstep! (all the way from the US too!)
The box contained the card, and a piece of paper reminding me to plug in the power, and to download the drivers for the ATi website - becuase I haven't been installing GFX cards and other hardware for the past 13 years, honest! (sheesh!)
Overjoyed at getting a £300 GFX card free I rushed it into my comp, installed 3.8 Cats, and it was away.
Performance was excellent - a real boost over my Gainward Ti4800 - mostly.
Playing Max Payne 2 was..... interesting. Most of the time the game played super smooth. But every now and again looking in a a particualar direction (about a 100 degree arc) would cause the frame rate to drop to about 6 fps - and I'm not exagerating. Saving, quiting and reloading the game would fix the prob for a short while.
Homeworld 2 was the same, with the added joy of often crashing to desktop, and even occasionally crashing the machine completely. As someone who is seemingly not cursed with the fabled instability of Windows (the only reason my comp ever shuts down is when I'm changing hardware) this was unacceptable. Still, I struggled on.
The CoD Burnville demo would lock up (again machine too, not just game) a few seconds into the game.
In my attempts to troubleshoot I've tried all sorts of different driver versions - of both official and Omega flavours - with no difference between them. In frustration, I relegated the 9800 Pro to my server, and went back to my trusty 4800.
The the nightmare didn't end there - now my server is restarting at random points. No warning, no entry in the event log, nothing. And when it starts up again the res is reset to 640x480.
Basically. what I want to know is if this card is ****ed, or is it worth trying some more - and if so, what. I know I shouldn't complain too much as the card was free, but if this is typical of ATi, I'll be sticking to nVidia dispite the under-par performance.
Specs of main machine are:
AthlonXP 2400+
Abit KX7-333
768Mb Corsair XMS PC2700
Server:
AthlonXP 1800+
Elitegroup K7S5A (I know it's ****e - but I was poor and needed a board that took both SDRAM and DDR)
512Mb Generic SDRAM
any help you can offer will be greatfully recieved.
I've probobly forgotten some vital information - just ask if needed!