9800 non-pro and not so good benchmarks

Does a motherboard really make that much difference?

I just got a new computer, a Dell 4600. i normally would not buy from them, but the company I work for picked up half the cost. It has a 2.8 800FSB, 512 MB ram, 9800 non-pro. The first thing I did was to format and reinstall XP pro. I have never overclocked a video card, but I have heard that the non-pro is just a pro in disguise, so I used radclocker to set it to the 9800PRO defaults. I then ran 3dMark03 and was dissapointed. I saw another post here where the 9800PRO stock settings got around 5500 or so, and another person with the Dell 9800 overclocked to the pro speeds got about 5600. I only got 3270. What is the deal? Is the dell motherboard that bad? or is it just me?

what are your suggestions?

What is the chipset on the motherboard? Non-Intel chipsets don't perform as well. Is the memory running in dual-channel mode? If there is only one stick of memory, then it will run in single-channel mode, which will limit memory bandwidth and thereby your 3dmark score.

more specs

Intel 865PE Chipset and i have 2 sticks of 256 DDR400 in dual channel mode. I am using Catalyst 3.4 drivers.

Update all of your drivers.

Do u have anit aliasing on, or anitsitropic filtering(cant spell ) cuz that will lower your score

catalyst settings

shat should they be on for these benches? use a preset for balanced or performance or quality or what? Do you guys alwasy set it to performance or the lowest and then just pick what you want for each game you play?

sorry for all the simple questions.

i dont even run it with the control panel.....ill say this only once for all of you to hear

when you have the control panel installed, there is NO real way to turn off AA or AF, the only thing you can do is set it to program preference or something like that.... i dont think that (even though it says it is) 3dmark turns it off.....i drop 2k pts in 3dmark01 with it installed! i havent tested it in 3dmark03 yet....dont really plan to either

When I get home, I will uninstall the control pannel and try again. I will post back with the results.

Thanks

Simply click "application preference" to turn AA and AF off for the 3dM03 tests, and any other benchies for that matter

dang.....my 9500np scores 4700 =)

uninstalled the control pannel

I uninstalled the ATI control pannel and my score changed fom 3722 to 3738. This is with my 9800 nonpro oc'd to standard 9800pro levels - 378/337.5

maybe I should get that new motherboard.

I was thinking about Abit IS7 motherboard, Fortron 400W Quiet PowerSupply, and a Vantec AeroFlow VP4-C7040 cooler. But that is $200 I dont really want to spend... Is a Dell motherboard and PS really that bad? I may find out.

Ummm, why did you uninstall the control panel?

Make sure that it is installed, and click the "application preference" tabs next to AA and AF.

Could you post a compare link to 3dM03?

The PSU couldn't be THAT terrible...

If you use a program like Rage3DTweak (although, it doesn't work with the Catalyst 3.4 drivers), you can take much more advanced control over your card's settings.

I have only run a benchmark 1 time, which was a while ago, so I don't even know if it makes a difference. But, what resolution and bit depth do you have your desktop at (I doubt it matters).

If it was a clean install of XP (I will assume XP Pro), there are a lot of services running, by default, which will take up a decent amount of resources and, in turn, decrease your score.

I probably should run another benchmark. The only one I ran was with 3DMark 01, with an ATI Radeon 7500 (Built by Sapphire). I DO remember that I got a higher score than you though. lol

Now, I have a 9700 Pro...

Do you have the latest ATI Catalyst 3.4 drivers? Something is definitely wrong here; you should be getting a much higher score.

Try underclocking the card to stock 9800np speeds... sometimes, when you o/c the core too high your score drops instead of increasing.

new score

I turned off a lot of services and reinstalled the control pannel and set it all to applicaion default and the sliders to high performance. Keeping it clocked at PRO speeds - 378/337.5 - I now get 5811. That is more in line with what I was expecting. Thank you all.

On a similar path, how can I tell if I have it clocked too high or how high it can go? Do I just keep increasing until it crashes? That doesnt sound like the way to go...

WTF?! That's a low score indeed considering u have a 9800np clocked to pro speeds. My 9700np (Samsung 2.8ns) runs at 324/310 default with the help of mufu pro bios and when I clocked it to 375/310 I get around 5500 with 3dmark2003. Sure one might argue that my cpu is mildly overclocked to 3.2 (check my sig) but that's a 2600+ increase over your setup. U have your 9800 running alot faster than mine as well in case u have forgotten. My AA and AF settings were never changed from default. So something is terribly wrong. Heck I'm not even running dual channel.

DOH i spoke too soon. LOL just as i finished posting my last thread u already fixed your prob. LOL

Re: new score

thebone said:

I turned off a lot of services and reinstalled the control pannel and set it all to applicaion default and the sliders to high performance. Keeping it clocked at PRO speeds - 378/337.5 - I now get 5811. That is more in line with what I was expecting. Thank you all.

On a similar path, how can I tell if I have it clocked too high or how high it can go? Do I just keep increasing until it crashes? That doesnt sound like the way to go...

Click to expand...

Take it nice and easy. Put everything back to it's default speed and start with one item at a time. Let's say u start overclocking the gpu first. Go increments of 1-5mhz and benchmark it with game 4 nature test from 3dmark2003. If that don't put your videocard on it's knees I don't know what wil cuz at 375/325 on my card I can pass anything (3dmark2001, all other 3dmark2003 tests, code creatures, u get the idea.....) except that one benchmark where I would get artifacts the moment u zoom in on the damn turtle. So once u see artifacts or if your video crashes then u know you've reached your max and to be safe I'd lower it 5mhz from that point. Now u bring the gpu clock back to default and work on the memory speed til u put it on it's knees. Once all this is done u will know what your gpu and memory are capable of. I suggest u burn your video card in as well once u get to maximum stability to in sure it stays stable even after 24 hours of stress testing. Some people have slower ways of getting the most outta their card but this is how I do it and my video card has been running at 375/310 for 3 months now. It's usually luke warm at most. Mind u a have a fair amount of cooling to help me out. Which brings me to another point. COOLING! U need it! Nuff said. If u don't know what cooling is for grab a dictionary and look up the word, "heat or hot" Soon after u may also need the definition for, "fried". As in, "I fried my video card".

TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT!

CHEERS!

Thanks

From all of your help and suggestions I got my ATI Radeon 9800non-pro oc'd to 414/342. I now get a nice 6124 in 3dMark03. Now I dont plan on keeping it at that until I get some cooling for the card...that comes next, but I know it can only get better.

Good work man. Thumbs up.