AGP or ATI ?

?uzzled · Jul 10, 2003

I'm running a XP1800 @ 2Ghz (10 X 200) on an Abit NF7-S v2 with 1 512Mb PC3200 in sync and an ATI Radeon 9000 card.

According to http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/vgacharts-05.html an ATI 9000 card running 3DMark2001 can get 5433 on an Athlon 1Ghz and 7271 on a XP2700.

Yet the maximum score I can get on 3DMark2001 is 5135.

Currently running Catalyst 3.1 that came with the card. Have tried Catalyst
3.4 and 3.5 but the 3DMark actually went down.

What gives ? Surely I should be getting around the 7000 mark as well.

To make it worse, my friend is running a standard XP1800 with a GFMX440 on a Gigabyte board. He gets 5462 in 3DMark. In Quake 3, he gets 160fps at 1024 X 768 and I only get 82!

Is it my vid card or is there something wrong with the AGP slot on my mobo ?

Lester Piglet · Jul 10, 2003

Try 3dmark for the answer to that one.

Job60 · Jul 10, 2003

Did you try lowering your FSB and raising the MULTIPLIER ? NoJOB@aol.

?uzzled · Jul 11, 2003

Tried running it at stock speeds and got 5013 and at 12 X 166 I get 5130. :-(

"Job60" wrote:

Did you try lowering your FSB and raising the MULTIPLIER ? NoJOB@aol.

Mark H · Jul 11, 2003

check under system devices and see if hardware accels is on full. then check dxdiag for ddraw,d3d, 'n tex accels

?uzzled wrote:

Tried running it at stock speeds and got 5013 and at 12 X 166 I get 5130. :-(

"Job60" wrote:

Did you try lowering your FSB and raising the MULTIPLIER ?
NoJOB@aol.

?uzzled · Jul 12, 2003

Hardware acceleration is on full (all the way to the right), OpenGL and Direct3D ATI tabs are set to performance (all the way to the left). DXDiag shows the card is working normally.

Any other suggestions please ?

"Mark H" wrote:

check under system devices and see if hardware accels is on full. then check dxdiag for ddraw,d3d, 'n tex accels

Mark H · Jul 12, 2003

What operating system are you using? Next, 3dmark2001SE is what those marks are based on. what's your agp aperture? I'd install powerstrip and check to see if your gpu and gpu-memory clocks are normal. and as last test, see if you can switch vids cards with your friend and re-check your system.

?uzzled wrote:

Hardware acceleration is on full (all the way to the right), OpenGL and Direct3D ATI tabs are set to performance (all the way to the left). DXDiag shows the card is working normally.

Any other suggestions please ?

"Mark H" wrote:

check under system devices and see if hardware accels is on full. then
check dxdiag for ddraw,d3d, 'n tex accels

?uzzled · Jul 13, 2003

I'm using WinXP Pro. I've originally had the AGP aperture at 128Mb but looking at the Radeon forums, somebody suggested lowering it to the lowest possible (32Mb) but it still didn't make any difference.

I've installed Rage3D Tweak on the system but the card will not overclock. GPU runs at 249Mhz and memory at 200Mhz.

Thanks

"Mark H" wrote:

What operating system are you using? Next, 3dmark2001SE is what those marks are based on. what's your agp aperture? I'd install powerstrip and check to see if your gpu and gpu-memory clocks are normal. and as last test, see if you can switch vids cards with your friend and re-check your system.

Mark H · Jul 13, 2003

The reason I mentioned powerstrip, it's a 2nd check for dma access on agp. I agree, somethings not right, but the only useful check at this point would be temporarily swap video cards.

?uzzled wrote:

I'm using WinXP Pro. I've originally had the AGP aperture at 128Mb but looking at the Radeon forums, somebody suggested lowering it to the lowest possible (32Mb) but it still didn't make any difference.

I've installed Rage3D Tweak on the system but the card will not overclock. GPU runs at 249Mhz and memory at 200Mhz.

?uzzled · Jul 14, 2003

OK, I've installed Powerstrip 3.43 and DMA is enabled for the card.

I can't borrow my friends GFMX440 as he's in the USA now so we can only trade results via email. However, I did borrow an ATI 9600 non pro and can get about 8642 3DMarks on it. Still seems rather low don't you think ?

Anything else I can check ?

Much appreciated for your contributions Mark.

)

"Mark H" wrote:

The reason I mentioned powerstrip, it's a 2nd check for dma access on agp. I agree, somethings not right, but the only useful check at this point would be temporarily swap video cards.

Mark H · Jul 14, 2003

for the record all 2001se benchmarks I use are at the default of 1024x768x32 cause 8642 would be fabulous at 1600x1200x32 for the 9600.

Well, since there are no reported problems - this can still be a set up problem, Is WinXp-sp1 installed? It should be. In your original post you mentioned 1 512meg stick of pc3200 in sync. what's 'in sync' there's no bios option for it. and what bios are you using? realize that nvidia has made recommendations to abit for bios updates with high speed memory modules. I'm using a generic stick of pc2100 512meg micron at default setting of 'optimal' with the new released bios 17.

even with my radeon 8500 i get 9090 on 2001se with stock gpu memory timings and 9900's with rage3dtweak at 2gigs processor speed, so ya 8600's for the radeon 9600 is low and that card is faster than mine.

?uzzled wrote:

OK, I've installed Powerstrip 3.43 and DMA is enabled for the card.

I can't borrow my friends GFMX440 as he's in the USA now so we can only trade results via email. However, I did borrow an ATI 9600 non pro and can get about 8642 3DMarks on it. Still seems rather low don't you think ?

Anything else I can check ?

Much appreciated for your contributions Mark. )

"Mark H" wrote:

...

?uzzled · Jul 15, 2003

Yep, I'm running 3DMark 2001SE build 330 at it's default 1024x768x32 no AA etc.

The 512Mb runs at the same speed as the FSB (ie 200 x 2).

Just recently updated to 16 BIOS. The 17 BIOS must be new. Are there any changes to the AGP port in it ?

I've installed SP1 on XP pro and it hasn't made any difference to the benchmark. However, after installing Powerstrip, it keeps insisting on running the card at 216 GPU and 216 memory. 3DMark went up to 5165 (extra 30 points) and I get 89fps in Quake 3. I've also tried running my 9000 at X2 AGP but it doesn't make any difference to X4 AGP.

So now that I've had two ATI cards in my machine, does it sound like I've got a dodgy AGP port then ?

"Mark H" wrote:

for the record all 2001se benchmarks I use are at the default of 1024x768x32 cause 8642 would be fabulous at 1600x1200x32 for the 9600.

Well, since there are no reported problems - this can still be a set up problem, Is WinXp-sp1 installed? It should be. In your original post you mentioned 1 512meg stick of pc3200 in sync. what's 'in sync' there's no bios option for it. and what bios are you using? realize that nvidia has made recommendations to abit for bios updates with high speed memory modules. I'm using a generic stick of pc2100 512meg micron at default setting of 'optimal' with the new released bios 17.

even with my radeon 8500 i get 9090 on 2001se with stock gpu memory ...

Mark H · Jul 16, 2003

Yep, I dont have anymore good advice. The only thing I can suggest at this point is try the abit forums at http://forum.abit-usa.com/ which also has good retention. some of the major isp's have been dropping newgroup retension down to 20 days, luckily I've found a local w/supernews that has 8 months. or try google.

the recommended installation is xp>sp1>nvidia drivers for the nvidia board, but at this point I dont think that matters much. check abit for 17's updates at http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/bios/nf7-s2.htm powerstrip might require an uninstall/re-install.

?uzzled wrote:

?uzzled · Jul 16, 2003

Thanks anyway. You've been a great help and got me trying things I hadn't thought of myself.

"Mark H" wrote:

Yep, I dont have anymore good advice. The only thing I can suggest at this point is try the abit forums at http://forum.abit-usa.com/ which also has good retention. some of the major isp's have been dropping newgroup retension down to 20 days, luckily I've found a local w/supernews that has 8 months. or try google.

the recommended installation is xp>sp1>nvidia drivers for the nvidia board, but at this point I dont think that matters much. check abit for 17's updates at http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/bios/nf7-s2.htm powerstrip might require an uninstall/re-install.