Major Underperformance by 6800 OC!

[bagelrain]

Doom 3, Nalu (demo nvidia program, you know the, mermaid), and 3dmark03 ALL say that my card is totally underperforming and i can't figure out why.
These is my computer:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Asus K8N-E Deluxe
512MB DDR266 ram
BFG Geforce 6800 OC 128
400watt power suppy, 5 case fans

In Doom 3, i max at 59-60fps, but when i move the mouse or a demon pops out i slow down to 2fps. This is on 1024x768, high quality, no FSAA or vertical sync.

3dmark03, i get a score of 8900 when people of the same computer get close to 11000, please help!

[MasterCraft]

the 128 onboard is gonna hurt you a little bit I'd imagine, as well as 512mb ram (i've heard this can kill compy speeds in games like doom)

can you post case and VGA temps (if you have them) and overclock #'s?

[bagelrain]

case temp 32 cel / 89F
VGA temp 46 cel

it's overclocked from 325Mhz to 350Mhz coreclock

[JeffP]

Same question has been asked before but do you have all your mobo chipset drivers installed? Sounds like the card is running in PCI mode instead of AGP mode.

[bagelrain]

yeah, ive got all the latest chipset drivers. as for it being read as PCI, i dont know whether that's happening our how to change it. this is all i know

in the bios:
Primary Display: AGP

in device manager:
IRQ 11: (PCI) Geforce 6800

in dxdiag:
AGP acceleration: enabled

[GunnerMan]

I just realised my system is the same as yours minus the video card.(I am planning on getting that card too) Your scaring me hehe. Just thought id say that :sn:

[Caviman2201]

I am wondering a similar thing... I only score in the mid to upper 8k's with my 6800 nu as well... When I go into the nVidia utility by right clicking desktop, going to the "nVidia Display" and looking at that, it says under the main heading "Bus: AGP 8x", however, when i go into device manager-display adapters-800-properties, it says "Location: PCI Bus 2, device 0, function 0" does this mean it's running under PCI or AGP?? Which one is correct?

[bagelrain]

thats weird, mine says

Bus: AGP 8x

[*jj]

It's not the amount of ram you have that is the problem per say, it is the speed of the ram. You need to get up to at least 400mhz ram (pc3200). The fact that your card has only 128mb of ram is not helping, but its getting into your system resources and having pc2100 that is a problem. Change out the ram to 512mb of pc3200 and you will notice a big increase in performance. If you look at the top performers in the futuremark ORB for 3DMark05 quite a few only have 512 ram. You can get a stick of 512mb pc3200 corsair from Fry's for like 60-75 bucks on sale at times. I have a gig of that corsair value ram and it works great, granted I could get my scores a bit higher if I could run a 1:1 cpu/ram ratio, but I need faster ram to do so. So if you just want better benchies and a bit better game performance, get some faster ram, I think it will cure what ails ya' :D


edit* mine says pci 1, it's no big deal, just depends on how the bios of the mobo is setup..if its in an agp slot, then its agp..lol

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS GUNNERMAN!!

[bobmanfoo]

yeah its definitely your ram, what are you doing with that ram when you have and a64 and 6800? you should really prioritize pc parts when upgrading

[Nandro]

I noticed huge lags when my pc would page out to the swap file when I used 512. 512 is good for benching, and horrible for gaming.

[*jj]

I noticed huge lags when my pc would page out to the swap file when I used 512. 512 is good for benching, and horrible for gaming. Shouldn't really matter IMO. You probably went from 512mb of one speed and added another 512mb of the same speed, of course there will be an increase in performance. But you will notice better gaming and overall computer performance switching to 512mb of some nice pc3200 or pc3500 than adding another 512mb of pc2100.

[nakatalee]

yeah, i think you should really change the ram to 2x512Mb PC3200. i use to own 6800nu and i am not satisfied at all, it makes you think that you can throw everything but it's not. The nalu demo was not built for 6800nu, i was getting 12-15fps as i remembered.

[Nandro]

*jj - didnt work that way in my case. I used 512 of mushkin 2-2-2 special and running farcry was great up untill it tried to swap out and then it would stutter like crazy. Using my crucial G of ram was much better even though it was looser timing.

[Rumrunner]

Ok well first off I will have to disagree with anyone that says that 128 mb of ram in his video card is the problem. Even though it only has 128 mb ram, it still is capable of memory bandwidth of 750 - 800 mhz! This card will smoke a 9800 pro too. Generally 512 mb ram compared to a gig (of the same type)will perform better in benchmarks because of latency issues. I think we should narrow the problem down.

download 3d mark 05 and try running it (this will test your video card more independantly) if the video card scores well, then we know that the problem is another issue.

[Rumrunner]

hold on I just saw that your ram is pc 2100. this could be the hold back then. run 05 anyway and lets see what you score

[Nandro]

FACT - with 512 running new games you will hit the HD for swap and it will stutter. I have seen this on 3 systems of mine. New games use alot of ram. It is playable, but the difference is signifigant. Find a benchmark on any site that runs them with 512 on any new game. I usually see over 700M of physical mem usage playing far cry and the same or more with doom 3.

[Rumrunner]

Minimum Requirements for 3DMark05:

DirectX 9 compatible graphics adapter with support for Pixel Shader
2.0 or later, and graphics memory of 128 MB or above.
Intel® or AMD® compatible processor running on 2 GHz or above.
512 MB system memory or more.
1.5 GB of free hard disk space.
Windows 2000 or XP operating system with the latest Service
Packs and updates installed.
DirectX 9.0c runtime installed (download) with the latest updates.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 installed, for some 3DMark
functionality (download).
Microsoft Excel 2000, 2003 or XP, for some 3DMark functionality.
Microsoft DirectX 9 Summer Update 2004 System Development Kit
is required to run the image quality test using the reference
rasterizer.
source (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=874)

I am just saying that 512 is good for benchmarking on 3d mark. However, I agree that pc 2100 will definately slow the system down bigtime. :santa2:

[*jj]

no one is saying that a gig of ram is not better than 512, but a gig of pc2100 is not worth buying. It will barely be better than 512 of pc3200-3500 if its better at all. Buy one stick of pc3200, and run it with the 2100..it will underclock itself but hell have a gig. Now when he can afford another stick of 3200 hell be set. Buying another stick of 2100 for around 50 bucks would be a waste of money when 3200 can be had for 60 bucks or so.

[Nandro]

I agree with that.

[bagelrain]

my 3dmark05 score was a 3145 :(

[rdytorave]

I'm not sure it's RAM that's the issue, but I do concur about buying 512mb of PC3200 over buying more PC2100.

Are you sure you aren't having some sort of IRQ conflict? Check your mb manual to see what other PCI devices share your AGP IRQ.

[lilxvietxboi]

I score a 8900 too with the same card. specs in my info (but i leave the vertex pipline disabled[even though it works])

[*jj]

I score a 8900 too with the same card. specs in my info (but i leave the vertex pipline disabled[even though it works])your referring to '03 correct, not '05?

[Rumrunner]

your 05 score is descent compared to your 01 score. this points out the ram as being the problem...and not the video card or driver.

your system right now is like a 500 ci big block chevy with a 2 barrel carb...restricted.

regards :santa2:

[lilxvietxboi]

yes im refering to 03.

i believe a 8900 in 3dmark03 for geforce6800nu is average right?

[DarkPurity]

Replying to the original post:

Your bottleneck is your memory, and that's what's slowing you, not the card. First problem: get a gig. Mushkin has been around $170 lately for the 1 gig kit, and Corsair around $160, both with CAS 2.5 latency. Mushkin is availible at Newegg.com and Corsair at Zipzoomfly.com. Secondly, you're using 266mhz memory on a processor that should be paired with MINIMUM 400mhz. Ditch that pc2100 crap: it will cause anything above an Athlon XP 1700+ to act like a Pentium 3 800mhz. PC3200 should be your minimum, and that's the memory I recommended above.

That little change will put you in what will feel like a whole new machine.