New 6800GT

[vetteguy]

I managed to pick up a BFG 6800GT yesterday, and installed it this morning. I've been running Doom 3 ever since and am a bit disappointed by the results. After reading the hardware guide on HardOCP and the CPU shootout here, I was hoping to get a bit more out of it. My system consists of:

Shuttle SB61G2
P4 2.8C
1GB Kingston HyperX dual channeled
Raptor
Seagate 120GB SATA
BFG 6800GT

According to the AT CPU shootout, a 2.8C on a 6800 Ultra should be getting around 68FPS at 800x600 high quality. I'm only getting 48-49 consistently. I have AA, AF, etc all turned off. Do you think I'm CPU limited at this point? My plan is to build a new system pretty soon, and I'm leaning toward an Athlon64 3500+.

 

[JBT]

Something is wrong with your set up big time... I get 65 FPS with mine on 1600x1200 on high in the benchmark anyways. Also on high settings 8x AF is on.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: JBT
Something is wrong with your set up big time... I get 65 FPS with mine on 1600x1200 on high in the benchmark anyways. Also on high settings 8x AF is on.

Even when I'm playing at 1024x768 medium, whenever I get into an area with fire/smoke/etc, the games slows to a crawl. I'm talking chug-chug-chug like crazy. Any thoughts as to what might be going on?

 

[imported_Salvatore]

You're a Platinum Member, so this is highly unlikely, but...

Spyware? Adware? Viruses? Do you leave Norton or any other AV running while you play? Too many background applications?

 

[Keysplayr]

Yup, your doing something wrong somewhere. My 5900U on a 2.8b 1GB doesn't slow down to non playable level at all. I think you might have just a little more horsepower than I do.

Download the latest 61.77 drivers from nv web site. Download driver cleaner 2.7 or later.

Uninstall your nv drivers in Add-Remove Programs

Reboot into safe mode by tapping F8 on your keyboard before windows starts. Choose the first option "Safe Mode".

After your OS starts in safe mode, run driver cleaner to clean out any ATI/Nvidia drivers, then run the Cab cleaner from the tools menu. Clean Driver Cab and SP1 cab if you have it.

Restart your computer and when windows asks you to look for a new driver for new hardware, click cancel.

Install the NV61.77's. Reboot.

Done.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Salvatore
You're a Platinum Member, so this is highly unlikely, but...

Spyware? Adware? Viruses? Do you leave Norton or any other AV running while you play? Too many background applications?

Nope...everything turned off while I'm playing...nothing running in the background.

 

[Bateluer]

Does the Geforce 6800 GT slow itself down when there's not enough power? Kinda like how the old 5800Us would ramp up their clock speeds and fan RPMs when a user started a demanding task?

The Shuttle XPCs aren't exactly known to have massive wattage PSUs, even though they are very HQ PSUs.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Yup, your doing something wrong somewhere. My 5900U on a 2.8b 1GB doesn't slow down to non playable level at all. I think you might have just a little more horsepower than I do.

Download the latest 61.77 drivers from nv web site. Download driver cleaner 2.7 or later.

Uninstall your nv drivers in Add-Remove Programs

Reboot into safe mode by tapping F8 on your keyboard before windows starts. Choose the first option "Safe Mode".

After your OS starts in safe mode, run driver cleaner to clean out any ATI/Nvidia drivers, then run the Cab cleaner from the tools menu. Clean Driver Cab and SP1 cab if you have it.

Restart your computer and when windows asks you to look for a new driver for new hardware, click cancel.

Install the NV61.77's. Reboot.

Done.

I have the 61.77s, but I'll give your suggestion a try. Just for reference, in 3DMark03 I get 11064.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Does the Geforce 6800 GT slow itself down when there's not enough power? Kinda like how the old 5800Us would ramp up their clock speeds and fan RPMs when a user started a demanding task?

The Shuttle XPCs aren't exactly known to have massive wattage PSUs, even though they are very HQ PSUs.

I don't know...good question though. From my 3dmark03 score I would say no, but I'm going to check over at Sudhian.

 

[Regs]

Download CPU-Z and report back the info it gives you. And what type of motherboard do you have?

 

[Dman877]

Try ocing that proc. 2.8 P4 is pretty weak.

 

[Kobra]

Somethings seriously wrong bro.. My rig is a bit similar to yours, and I have a 6800NU, and i'm scoring way higher..

Intel P4 2.8Ghz @ 3.4Ghz
Asus P4S800D
1024MB PC4000 CorsairXMS
eVGA 6800 @ 401/855

1600x1200, 4xAA and 8xAF, everything maxed, i'm scoring 35.9FPS on the TimeDemo, and i'm still tweaking, i'd bet I could hit 40FPS..

http://www.boredmofo.com/downloads/timedemo1.jpg

Anyone that says the vanilla 6800 sucks needs a wakeup call, that simply rocks at those settings and resolutions. Oh, and you don't need a new processor, all you need to do is overclock that 2.8, they are easily capable of going to 3.6Ghz and beyond. But your motherboard is poor, i'd recommend a better one.

 

[Lonyo]

AGP apature set to 256MB or thereabouts?
AGP 8x enabled?
Latest motherboard drivers?

Does seem odd that you have an 11k 3DMark score but Doom 3 has issues, makes it seem like everything is OK with the system in general.

 

[Kobra]

Good point, I betcha you aren't on 8XAGP...

Go into drivers for the card and check to see if 8xAGP is enabled, also check bios AGP settings.. I remember a ways back I had my AGP set at 4x and the performance BLEW..

 

[vetteguy]

Ok, here's what I've checked:

In the nVidia control panel, it says I'm on AGP 8X. CPU-Z confirms that. I have my aperature set at 256MB. I believe I'm running the latest motherboard drivers, but it's kind of hard to tell (Shuttle's site isn't the greatest). In the game, I can run pretty smoothly up until I encounter any kind of smoke, fire, heat, etc. Then it gets EXTREMELY choppy. This is true at all resolutions. It's as if once whatever it takes to render those effects launches my system just gets bogged down. Oh, as far as overclocking that's pretty much out, this little SFF doesn't handle that too well.

 

[WicKeD]

Is vSync enabled??

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: WicKeD
Is vSync enabled??

No, it's turned off. What's weird is that if I run the timedemo for different resolutions at high quality, I get nearly the same result every time. 800x600 is 49fps, 1024x768 is about 49fps, 1280x1024 is 46fps, 1600x1200 is 42fps. Does that seem right?

 

[Kobra]

That doesn't seem right at all, there should be more differences.. I'm almost leaning towards a defective card now.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Kobra
That doesn't seem right at all, there should be more differences.. I'm almost leaning towards a defective card now.

But it seems to run everything else very well...I just tried Far Cry and did auto detect...it put me at 1600x1200 very high on settings. Hmm...

 

[Boogak]

Sounds like the same problem this guy was getting. Try doing what he did to fix it:

I went into my display settings->advanced->geforce->performance and quality settings->Show advanced settings- then scrolled down and turned on Anisotropic Optimization ON.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Kobra
That doesn't seem right at all, there should be more differences.. I'm almost leaning towards a defective card now.

But it seems to run everything else very well...I just tried Far Cry and did auto detect...it put me at 1600x1200 very high on settings. Hmm...

Doesnt mean you hardware is running at spec. Did you download CPU-Z and install updated chipset drivers?

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: Regs

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: Kobra
That doesn't seem right at all, there should be more differences.. I'm almost leaning towards a defective card now.

But it seems to run everything else very well...I just tried Far Cry and did auto detect...it put me at 1600x1200 very high on settings. Hmm...

Doesnt mean you hardware is running at spec. Did you download CPU-Z and install updated chipset drivers?

Yes, I downloaded CPU-Z and ran it, not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for though. It says I'm running at AGP 8X.

 

[Regs]

How about your Bus speeds? Is your P2.8c running at the correct multiplyer and FSB speed? And is your memory running 1:1 ?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: WicKeD
Is vSync enabled??

No, it's turned off. What's weird is that if I run the timedemo for different resolutions at high quality, I get nearly the same result every time. 800x600 is 49fps, 1024x768 is about 49fps, 1280x1024 is 46fps, 1600x1200 is 42fps. Does that seem right?

This is a tell tale sign of being CPU limited. At higher resolutions is the only time your fps falls a bit. Thats when the CPU no longer becomes the bottleneck, but your GPU does.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

It seems like you are CPU limited, but since it is only smoke, fire, etc. that causes the problem I doubt the CPU is a problem.

What about the NV driver settings? Is there anything in the control panel that might affect that sort of thing? Maybe any OpenGL settings that can be tweaked to help improve things?

Also, what if you change from high quality to medium quality? Does that help? I think the first thing to do is try and find out why you get poor performance with the smoke, and then start messing with the other settings.

Good luck!

-D'oh!