x1800xt 512 problem

hi!

I just bought a Sapphire X1800XT 512MB.. the thing flies... at 1280x1024 since thats the highest my lcd can do... AOE3 and FEAR all turned on and maxed out.. and i mean everything! now Oblivion defaults at Ultra High Quality.. i just dont know if theres any setting/feautre i lowered or adjusted.. but yeah everythings maxed out.

1. Now heres the problem.. I'm seeing artifacts.. theres like tiny squares around on my screen especially on fear which is mostly dark so its very visible.. i barely notice it on some games tho.. I dont see it on the desktop ofcourse and also not on ingame menus.. it just starts when im actually playing.

2. and sometimes when i boot.. just before the welcome screen shows it shows corruption between 1-3 secs then it loads the welcome screen. but not all the time tho.

Heres my rig setup.. its a complete new build.. just 2 months old

Mobo: Asus P5WD2
CPU: Intel P4 630 at 3.75Ghz
RAM: OCZ Gold EL Dual Ch. DDR2-800 at 900 something.. forgot
GPU: Asus EAX850 Pro 256 --> now Sapphire X1800xt 512
Sound: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music
HDD: 160gb SATA2 Seagate Barracuda
PSU: Coolmax 550w CX550b heres the link for the specs

Here are the other parts if it helps:

1 Asus DVD Writer
No floppy drives
Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R-80 Water Cooler
3 x 80mm case fan
1 Cold Cathode light.. just got busted

Theres my complete rig

Could the card be defective? is my PSU inadequate? could it be anything else? it was working flawlessly never had any problems until i upgraded my x850pro to x1800xt. and i dont want to change to a different card coz this thing just flies.

Please help! Thanks in advance

I see that we use(d) the asus x850pro...nice card!! Did you oc it?
So I was wondering if your problem lies in the driver version or the driver setup?
Maybe it is defective... hope it's not... have you tried any benchmarks?

yeah.. the asus x850pro was nice.. never had any problems.. solid performance. i upgraded it because of oblivion and the upcoming games hehe i didnt know i'm gonna have this problem with my x1800xt.

I never tried oc'ing it.. Its on my roommates rig right now.. i might try it on his.
for the benches.. i dont have my exact figures here but i will post later.

Asus X850pro stock
3DMARK05: 4700 up
3DMARK06: 1800 up

was it low for my setup?


Sapphire X1800XT stock
3DMARK05: 9200 up
3DMARK06: 4600 up

do you think its low? whats yours?

the psu could be to blame

by chance... do you think the card defective because of my issues? it is freaki* fast tho.. Thanks!

BLOOP! said:

by chance... do you think the card defective because of my issues? it is freaki* fast tho.. Thanks!

Click to expand...

The wacked out screen before the welcome screen is a common issue. My card does it and it can overclock like a champ. As for the little square artifact issue, my card does that at extreme OC's (840-ish on the mem). So it's possible that your card isn't getting enough juice.

550w psu with only 18Amps on the 12v rail? Thats your problem. Next time dont go with the el bargon cheapo crapo psu and look for a psu with a higher amperage rating on the 12v rail. My Rosewill 500w has 26amps on the 12v rail.

Best start looking for a new psu. Also, I noticed your mobo supports dual pci-express so try to look for something with dual 6pin pci-e connectors.

I'm thinking of buying this card right now Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT 620W. Or do you think this 550W model is enough for whatever's on my rig right now? The thing is I'm gonna be upgrading my cpu to a Pentium D930 and another 1 gig of ram soon.

Thanks for the replies!

BLOOP! said:

I'm thinking of buying this card right now Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT 620W. Or do you think this 550W model is enough for whatever's on my rig right now? The thing is I'm gonna be upgrading my cpu to a Pentium D930 and another 1 gig of ram soon.

Thanks for the replies!

Click to expand...

i think 550 is enough but 620 wouldnt hurt

Do tell us the results if you get a new PSU. I'm especially interested in the enermax, my PSU is also rather lacking so I'm stuck at 630/780 till I get a new one. The liberty was one of the few PSUs that really caught my eye and the 500W version seems to be an excellent deal.

Cobalt said:

Do tell us the results if you get a new PSU. I'm especially interested in the enermax, my PSU is also rather lacking so I'm stuck at 630/780 till I get a new one. The liberty was one of the few PSUs that really caught my eye and the 500W version seems to be an excellent deal.

Click to expand...

I just ordered 500W.. I'll let you know what happens when it arrives. I'm gonna try oc'ing mine too.

What are your scores in 3DMARK?

800 at stock but then I have the 256 version with crappy value RAM. I haven't benched it since I finished clocking it so I'm not sure how much improvement I've got so far. I'll do a run now and post back when its done.

EDIT: oops I ment 8150 at stock.

I jus ran the test again and got 8574 which is a pretty good improvement in my books. Once I get the PSU and cooler I may be able to gt my self closer to the 9000 mark. A 2gigs of RAM would help as well but that may have to wait a while. Some G.Skill HZ sticks would certainly help me get my CPU OC up as well.

Cobalt said:

I jus ran the test again and got 8574 which is a pretty good improvement in my books. Once I get the PSU and cooler I may be able to gt my self closer to the 9000 mark. A 2gigs of RAM would help as well but that may have to wait a while. Some G.Skill HZ sticks would certainly help me get my CPU OC up as well.

Click to expand...

Yeah its a good improvement... i got 8462 stock clocks. Can't wait for the PSU and see if i can reach 9000. Let us know what happens when you get your stuff.

Do you think my score is low considering ive 512 and 1 gig ddr2-800 dual channel? maybe my cpu is a bottleneck

BLOOP! said:

Yeah its a good improvement... i got 8462 stock clocks. Can't wait for the PSU and see if i can reach 9000. Let us know what happens when you get your stuff.

Do you think my score is low considering ive 512 and 1 gig ddr2-800 dual channel? maybe my cpu is a bottleneck

Click to expand...

Here's my score, completely "stock". Seems like your setup should be scoring a tad bit higher than it is.

Is just that extra 256MB vRAM making a 4-500 point difference compared to my scores then? Oh well I was really looking forward to trying for 9000 on my current setup even if it ment putting a bigger divider on my RAM.

EDIT: I noticed you have 2GB of sysRAM so that is proobably making up some of it as well.

coustang said:

Here's my score, completely "stock". Seems like your setup should be scoring a tad bit higher than it is.

Click to expand...

Nice scores! I noticed you have a opty.. good setup. I really think my old 630 is holding me back. Need to upgrade soon! But considering you have an opteron and mines a P4 630 and they're of completely different class.. shouldnt you be scoring much higher? or a CPU doesnt make alot of difference.

coustang said:

Is just that extra 256MB vRAM making a 4-500 point difference compared to my scores then? Oh well I was really looking forward to trying for 9000 on my current setup even if it ment putting a bigger divider on my RAM.

Click to expand...

yeah i really i think that extra 256 of memory is making alot of defference. I should get my PSU tomorrow. so yeah.. hope it'll take care of the artifacting. and I can oc mine too.

I tried underclocking mine yesterday.. just a little bit... and from 8462 i went down to 7600 something.. am surprised how a small margin can make alot of difference

Ouch. Its doens't really matter to me though cause I couldn't have afforded the £65 (over $100) extra for the 512MB version.

Cobalt said:

EDIT: I noticed you have 2GB of sysRAM so that is proobably making up some of it as well.

Click to expand...

You should also notice the memory is only clocked at 133mhz with awful timings, which probably negates any gain there would have been.

BLOOP! said:

Nice scores! I noticed you have a opty.. good setup. I really think my old 630 is holding me back. Need to upgrade soon! But considering you have an opteron and mines a P4 630 and they're of completely different class.. shouldnt you be scoring much higher? or a CPU doesnt make alot of difference.

Click to expand...

I assumed you ran that run with your P4 OC'd, which would counter my opty @ 2.0. If you made that score with your P4 @ stock then I suppose it's a pretty good score.

Whats with the 133 speed and timings then?