Weird performance issues with Radeon 9800 Pro/128

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited April 2004 in Hardware
I have a sapphire Radeon 9800 pro/128mb - it is passively cooled.

It MOSTLY works great, although I have a weird problem, especially noticeable in BF:Vietnam.

When any game FIRST starts up - not the menu system, but when I actually start to play a game (UT2K4, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam, etc.) the performance is terrible for a few seconds - say, the first three seconds. Everything stutters and I get terrible FPS. Then, after a second, everything smooths right out and works great.

One other performance problem I've noticed is that when flying a plane in BF:V, if I turn the plane so that the horizon is approximately vertical, performance drops significantly. This is pretty consistent :banghead:

Catalyst 4.4s installed on a fresh windows XP SP1 installation. Dx9.0b.
Athlon Mobile XP 2600+. Temps are fine.

Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    For BF:V I think you're gonna have to disable lighting and shadow and if that doesn't work, lower the detail to medium.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Damn! My card is like 2nd or 3rd from top of the line! WTF do they expect!?! :mad:
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited April 2004
    they're thinking ahead!
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Nah, the game is buggy like that. It hates ATi cards. How much ram do you have?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    512mb
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd
    ducks from saying this but here it goes nVidia baby!
     Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    ducks from saying this but here it goes nVidia baby!
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    * Gnomewizardd ducks from saying this but here it goes nVidia baby!

    :rolleyes:
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    512mb
    I think you got performance problems cause you don't have enough ram.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    It never ends. :(
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    You'll need atleast 768mb.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    run memtest86!!! j/k
    turn off fastwrites in smartgart but on in bios. Mack and I spent a whole thread finding optimum settings for this chipset (gpu).
    Are these directx or opengl based games? How do you have the drivers configured in advanced settings?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Ah! the memtest comes back to bite me in the ass!

    Actually I did run memtest ;D

    FastWrites was ON in the smartgart. I'll turn it off and see what happens.

    These are Direct3D games. I have the Direct3D slider set to "balanced" - no custom settings.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    once you remove fastwrites from within smargart you may need to tinker with in game settings. I usually set those "balanced" or conservatively as well.
    What cooling are you using and how much overclock?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    a very minor overclock on the CPU - none on the video card. The sapphire is passively cooled with a heatpipe cooler. CPU temp hovers around 49
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    49 is pretty high ...mine won't opperate at 50 so 49 is too close for me ...but we all know how accurate those sensors are. How about your system temp? If it's like 29 or warmer I say cool that booger down about 4-5 degrees.
    also ...49 is full load right? ehem running F@H I assume? LOL ...probably gets a degree or two warmer during gameplay.

    Right now I'm running F@H 24/7 @ 2.3g 400 fsb with vcore at 1.675v ...vmem at 2.7v ...and video at 1.6v with a 393/393 oc. chipset is @ 1.6v I think. My temps are 39cpu and 25sys ...during gameplay temps go to around 41cpu and 26sys at night and around 44cpu and 28sys during the day gaming.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Yeah, 49 at full load - case temps are like 28-29 depending on ambient. The other day the AC was off while contractors were working in our building and humidity went way up, my CPU temps shot up to 56-57 ... Yuck.

    I should probably get another case fan to vent this sucker.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Yeah, 49 at full load - case temps are like 28-29 depending on ambient. The other day the AC was off while contractors were working in our building and humidity went way up, my CPU temps shot up to 56-57 ... Yuck.

    I should probably get another case fan to vent this sucker.
    Most definitely ...and if you think you have the room you could probably lower your cpu temp about 5 degrees with the sunbeam ductmod ...best $16 I ever spent. There is a 60 70 and 80 kit ...the 80 that I have comes with 2x80 and 1x70 shrouds in case you dont have fans that match. Very efficient for the processor.

    Those temps you have would never survive south louisiana! ;D
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited April 2004
    Prime?

    What happens when the card is at default (No OC). Also try running aa/af to default. The conspiracy theorists are yakking about some NVIDA/EA games alliance and "sticking it to ATI owners".

    I buy into that...NOT.

    Allegedly there are confirmed problems with ATI high end cards. Amazing how the 9700 PRO isn't considered high end anymore. EA knows of the problem and like with BF: 1942...there will be patches in the near future. For now I suggest AA and ANIO be shut off and see if that smooths things out.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    MediaMan wrote:
    For now I suggest AA and ANIO be shut off and see if that smooths things out.

    LOL ...sorry MM ...just looks funny saying to shut off AA to smooth things out! :respect:
    I know what you meant though.:thumbsup:
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited April 2004
    heh...guess so. Sort of an oxymoron ain't it? "make things jaggy to smooth out the game."

    rofl.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    MediaMan wrote:
    Prime?

    What happens when the card is at default (No OC). Also try running aa/af to default. The conspiracy theorists are yakking about some NVIDA/EA games alliance and "sticking it to ATI owners".

    I buy into that...NOT.

    Allegedly there are confirmed problems with ATI high end cards. Amazing how the 9700 PRO isn't considered high end anymore. EA knows of the problem and like with BF: 1942...there will be patches in the near future. For now I suggest AA and ANIO be shut off and see if that smooths things out.
    AA nd AF work in the Battlefield engine. The only problem is that the text gets blurry. I really think it's the lack of ram cause I used to play it with 512mb and it would stutter at the beginning of a map. Added 256mb (total of 768mb) and the game runs smoothly. The game uses alot of ram.
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited April 2004
    I've heard about that too. 768 MB of ram seems to be the magic number with this particular game.

    Go gig or go home. ;D
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited April 2004
    I feel your pain prime. I recently upgraded a friend's videocard in his Dell to the Sapphire passively cooled 9600 from a GF4MX. He then complained of stuttering in the game (BF42/Desert Combat) and blurriness in the text. I didn't think he knew what he was talking about. The computer is a Dell P4 2.4GHz with 512MB ram. The game has worked fine in the past with 512MB so I can eliminate that as a limiting factor. I ensured he had the latest catalyst drivers and would never think I would have to turn down settings to get the game to stop stuttering for him. The machine is maintained by me via pcanywhere so I know it's spyware/trojan/virus free and has had the regular housecleaning regimen. Has anyone found the "fix" for the blurriness in the text and will turning down the aa only in the game solve the problem of low framerates? I'm perplexed on how big of an upgrade of a videocard this was supposed to be and is turning out to be a dog.

    KingFish
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Only way that I know of to fix the blurry text a bit is by increasing the AF. If you use 4xAA, use 8x AF. 2xAA = 4xAF.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Everything seems fine in BF:V for me. The only time i got freezing or stuttering was when i had 4X AA and 8X AF. It seems to play best with no AA or AF. Plays fine at full 6X AA and 16X AF too, except for annoying atrifacts in plane wings or helicopters which i think is a bug and not overheating card issues.

    I have heard of people complaining that their 9600pro/xt cards are choking miserbaly on BF:V, and also that you need an almost top-o-the-line cpu just to play smoothly. I guess i can add a gig of RAM to the list too!

    I don't care.........i am addicted to BF:V.....and i will do whatever it takes to play......

    specs: p4 2.8c @ 3.36ghz, 1gb geil golden dragon ddr433 @ ddr480, sapphire 9800xt 128mb
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited April 2004
    DEFINATELY need more RAM.

    I play on the same card only with 1GB RAM. Runs great.


    I had the same problem when I had less RAM.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect
    fires up the credit card :(
     Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    fires up the credit card :(
Sign In or Register to comment.