[tenarc]

Lets see. First I spend $339, and then $100 on a new board for pci-e iface. Then I gave of my geforce 6800 to a friend which over clocked wonderful 325mhz to 410mhz core. I plug in my new 7800gt with giddyness and log into Far Cry. The fps was nearly the same as my 6800 OC.. I tried FEAR and it ran much better but couldn't handle max settings! Quake 4 however runs perfect with max gfx w/ 16x aa, and is the only new game that does run perfect on this card as far as I seen.
So then I try to over clock my 7800gt from 450 to 520 and then far cry locks up and locks up until I get the clock to about 497. I gained about 20 fps average over my 6800gt in far cry, however dips down to 26 fps which is the same as the 6800 lowest fps marks too. but FEAR runs at 30fps average, while 6800 ran it at like 15fps. Anyways, for the price I was expecting a bit more and if I could get my money back on this card I definatly would.. Is this normal though?
Also I only have a amd 64 3200+. I don't think cpu matters that much for games once you get up to amd 64, but was wondering if a 3800+ dual core would fix the problems? Keep in mind I play everything with MAX settings w/ full AA and at 1280x1024 except FEAR which I have to run at 1024x786 for it to be playable.
I guess this is why they have SLI and people will spend a grand on 2 of these cards I have and on the sli board. being poor is just not fair!

[Turtle Shell]

what psu,ram,mobo are you running and is that a o/c cpu if not that is probly the bottle neck..... to the forums!

[Mr.Guvernment]

yeah not all GT's are great overclockers. but it IS a better card then a 6800' for sure.

[tenarc]

Thanks, I'm really new to this OC stuff. I don't know what a psu is, unless it means powersupply and its a 425watt. I have 2 gig crosair of ram 2.5, 3, 8, 3.
my mobo is a ep-9npa+ultra which I saw excellent reviews for.
my cpu is a Winchester. I was able to overclock it from 2.0ghz to 2.34ghz, however, I gained not 1 fps by doing that.
I had enough money to make a good gaming machine but I guess I bought the wrong stuff because theres so much to choose from with all good reviews. I don't know what to do. Do I have to use sli? I don't want to spend 700 on gfx cards since it will only be completly out of date next year.. so annoying

[Turtle Shell]

whats the name of the powersupply and what do your rails look like??????

[Turtle Shell]

you dont have to use sli 1 gt should be able to play any game out now w/max settings and a decent res

[tenarc]

It says "turbo link switching powersupply" model 420atx

what are that rails?

[ShadowClock59]

Originally Posted by tenarc

It says "turbo link switching powersupply" model 420atx

what are that rails?

To check the rails youll either need a handheld meter, or you can look in the bios under PC Health status (Thats the term most bioses use). the rails will be labeled 3.3v, 5.0v, 12v, and -3.3v, -5.0v, and -12v. The readings will be to the right side, the ones that are constantly changing.

If that is a generic PSU (yes, powersupply) then it may not be efficient enough, i doubt it, but its possible, you may want to get a 500w. Aspire sells a 520watt for 50-60 dollars at newegg.

Make sure your using the latest drivers, the originals that came with my GTX didnt take advantage of the card very well.

[3DFlyer]

This is Cool Stuff Isn't It?

PSU = Power Supply Unit
Rails = 12 volt , 5 volt, 3.3 volt

When we say "What do your rails look like?" we're usually talking about how much amperage the rails are spec'd for. It will usually tell you this on the Sticker on the side of the Power Supply.

Sometimes we also ask people to "Check their rails" and we're talking about how much voltage they see when testing with a DMM (Digital Multimemeter or "Volt Meter" as some like to call it, but it really does more than that).

I also recommend you visit our Cases and Power Supply forum for info and help with your Power Supply questions. There is alot of people in there that know a LOT about those PSU's, and they can give you alot more speciffic advice.

Guys watch the abbreviations and stuff...he's new ok? He's probably overwhelmed with all this stuff flowing in. hehe

[Sentential]

You would be suprised. Most modern GPUs are all but totally bottlenecked by the CPU. Having a 3200+ at stock is the reason why your new card isnt shining like it should.

[Turtle Shell]

ya sorry about the abbreviations i just dont like to type them out:P ya go check out the powersuppy and case section for help there.

[tenarc]

cpu - 1.5v
+3.3v - 3.39v
chipset - 1.55v
dimm - 2.78
+5v - 5.15v
battery - 3.16
5vsb - 5.1

didn't see any 12v.. Some one mantioned about my 3200+ at stock speed being the bottleneck? I mention that I overclocked it to another 340mhz and it didn't add 1 extra fps to the games.

my PSU seems strong and I doub't thats causing any problems here. I have a hunch it's my CPU but someone in another forum said if I put in a 3800 X2 that I won't get much more performance out of games. So I don't know where to go.

[ShadowClock59]

Originally Posted by tenarc

cpu - 1.5v
+3.3v - 3.39v
chipset - 1.55v
dimm - 2.78
+5v - 5.15v
battery - 3.16
5vsb - 5.1

didn't see any 12v.. Some one mantioned about my 3200+ at stock speed being the bottleneck? I mention that I overclocked it to another 340mhz and it didn't add 1 extra fps to the games.

my PSU seems strong and I doub't thats causing any problems here. I have a hunch it's my CPU but someone in another forum said if I put in a 3800 X2 that I won't get much more performance out of games. So I don't know where to go.

With the x2 paired with the 7800GT, paired with the 81.85 drivers, the X2 will do a very very good job of keeping up with the graphics card. The 81.85 drivers were made with the main goal being better efficiancy when being run alongside a dual core processor. My stock scores with the 81.85, 7800GTX and x2 3800 in 3dmark05 was 200 points higher than with my NewCastle 3800, and the x2 was 400 mhz slower! I know thats not an ingame test, but if you jump over to www.anandtech.com or www.xbitlabs.com , cant remember which review site it was, but they had a lot of reviews for the x2's alongside a 7800GT and GTX.

Dont mean to turn this thread around or anything, but you'd be surprised by what nvidia has managed to do with these new dual core optimized drivers.

If you want to know about how the x2's are starting to perform in games, theres been alot of threads covering this in the CPU/AMD section.

To the forums!

[BBigJ]

Man I got scared when I saw the title of this thread. I just shelled out for this card on friday. I feel better now after reading the thread. Somehow I think I'll be seeing a bit more of a difference after replacing my current TNT2 ultra (which is filling in for my dead Radeon 8500) than you are seeing after replacing your 6800gt.

[3DFlyer]

Another test you can do is load the CPU with a program like a benching program or Super Pi or Prime and watch the voltages. If that was tested at idle (CPU wasn't working hard) then it's not showing you what the actual voltages would be when you are really calling on it.

[tenarc]

I don't know how to measure the CPU volts when not in bios. I have a Volt meter

[ShadowClock59]

Originally Posted by tenarc

I don't know how to measure the CPU volts when not in bios. I have a Volt meter

Download Motherboard Monitor 5, AKA: MBM5, and fallow the instructions during install.

[MassiveOverkill]

Originally Posted by tenarc

It says "turbo link switching powersupply" model 420atx

what are that rails?

You're asking for a nuclear meltdown really quick with that power supply. I'd get a replacement ASAP. OCZ Powerstream 520 or Fortron Blue Storm 500.

[Avg]

I also came from a 6800 and at the time I was very disappointed with it's performance, so then I upgraded to the 7800gt, and the first thing I noticed was that I was able to increase my res on BF2 to 1600x1200(i think that is it) and settings set to high, and in the driver panel I was able to increase af to 16x, set it to high quality and something else that I also increased that I forgot, although to set settigns even higher all I need is more ram. What I'm trying to say is that the XFX 7800gt has a lot more power then the 6800, and at stock I score about twice as high as the 6800, and your card actually oc higher then mine which stops at 472mhz, also games these days are very demanding and only a few setups can play them at the highest settings.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Originally Posted by Sentential

You would be suprised. Most modern GPUs are all but totally bottlenecked by the CPU. Having a 3200+ at stock is the reason why your new card isnt shining like it should.

Not so fast!!

The processor should actually work less hard with a newer video card!!

The processor is the bottleneck only if:

The game has a majorly high processor requirement.
(This is more common with emulating console games than when running real PC games)

The video card driver has to emulate functions, because of the video card you're using lacking them.

Thus, for example:

Your processor probably would work harder with a GeForce 4 MX than it would with a GeForce 7800 GT!!

Especially if you're emulating a console!!

Thus, a video card driver update alone could solve the problem.

But then, I dunno which games you're running.