SOLVED 9800GTX+ Not Performing

gth44331 · 28th November 2008, 9:29 PM

Okay I'm sorry if I'm going about this the wrong way, but hopefully as I'm new I get a bit more room for error.

System:
Pentium 4 3.2Ghz HT
ASUS P5KPL-CM (Original BIOS)
LG Multi DVDRW Burner
2 x Western Digital 160gb 7200rpm
Thermaltake ToughPower 750w
1gb DDR2 Kingston 667mhz
ASUS 9800GTX+
Only air cooled

Long story, but I went out and bought the 9800GTX+ to replace my poor 6200SE and ended up having to purchase a fairly cheap mainboard as it didn't fit my original. (Poor location of ATX connector)

After several blue-screens, probably caused by using old drivers I've been crash free all day. (Updated VIA sound and NVidia drivers) Fired up Team Fortress 2 and set everything to maximum except for anti-aliasing. I was greeted by a miserable 24fps which varied up to 56fps. I get crazy slowdowns occasionally when firing and often when entering the front line. Wandering around empty levels is usually fine.

I know I've probably not provided enough information but hoping it's enough to get started. Help would be greatly appreciated!

Flux · 28th November 2008, 9:34 PM

Your cpu is more then likely a bottle neck.

gth44331 · 28th November 2008, 9:38 PM

Oh and I forgot to add, just using the taskmgr.exe 'Performance' tab and leaving it open while I play for a few minutes, it never goes above 60% load.

EDIT: I think the problem was that TF2 was trying to do Eight Channel audio on high! :P (Onboard sound) Set it back to two channel, everything is pretty much right. Thanks anyway and I'm aiming for a new CPU soon.

gth44331 · 19th December 2008, 5:52 PM

Sorry for the double post, but I still have ongoing problems and I've got no idea how to solve them.
Source engine/Team Fortress is still the 'issue', I've asked around and friends are using 8600GT's and a lesser processor that perform way better than my card.

Could it possibly be not getting enough power? (I have it on one 6pin pci-e and one 8pin to 6pin pci-e)

I'm also getting nearly 'consistent' freezing/lag including looping sound although I assume that's an unrelated problem.

Both the above problems seem to occur in my 'old' install of XP and fresh Vista Ultimate SP1. I might have the completely wrong idea, but I'm so frustrated that my new purchase doesn't live up to its name.

spectre257 · 20th December 2008, 11:57 AM

Like flux said your system is bottlenecking.
More RAM, a decent CPU to pair up with your video card and you should see a huge difference.

gth44331 · 20th December 2008, 1:23 PM

Forgot to mention, I've borrowed a friends RAM, 4gb Kingston @ 800mhz. Hasn't helped TF2 much at all...

Sorry if I'm being ignorant, but how is the CPU 'the' problem if a friend can play at higher resolution and better settings with his 8600GT and a 3.0ghz p4?

EDIT: Turns out cranking up the AA from 0x to 16x actually improves performace?! Now if only I could fix the freezing...

Utetopia · 21st December 2008, 10:39 AM

A 3.2GHz P4 (630??) & 9800GTX+ are a very rare combo.

I would definitely suggest a shift to even a small E4400 or E7200. It's amazing how bad a game can run when the system is not scaled properly.

Maybe a card like the 6800 Ultra would be more suitable. Don't be surprised if the game runs smoother..

spectre257 · 21st December 2008, 8:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gth44331

Forgot to mention, I've borrowed a friends RAM, 4gb Kingston @ 800mhz. Hasn't helped TF2 much at all...

Sorry if I'm being ignorant, but how is the CPU 'the' problem if a friend can play at higher resolution and better settings with his 8600GT and a 3.0ghz p4?

EDIT: Turns out cranking up the AA from 0x to 16x actually improves performace?! Now if only I could fix the freezing...

To put it simply your video card is 'waiting' for your cpu to feed it instructions; hence the bottleneck.
Sorta like a fan you're not feeding enough power to get it to run normally but enough for it to spin.
There's a huge difference in processing power between the 9800GTX you have and your friend's 8600GT.

Dodge M4S · 21st December 2008, 9:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gth44331

Long story, but I went out and bought the 9800GTX+ to replace my poor 6200SE and ended up having to purchase a fairly cheap mainboard as it didn't fit my original. (Poor location of ATX connector)

After several blue-screens, probably caused by using old drivers I've been crash free all day.

You are using the old windows on your new mobo ?

gth44331 · 22nd December 2008, 10:16 PM

^Umm? I didn't install a fresh copy of Windows XP, no. I did install Vista Ultimate fresh on a separate HDD though... I hardly use Vista yet as all my junk is on the other install.

I bought a E8400 and an Antec 900 today, hoping its not overkill or a waste of money, but that's the last part of my PC that needed replacing. Next year some time I'll probably grab an i7, a full-sized board and some DDR3 RAM. Depends on how things scale I suppose, might not even need to worry.

I can't get any results until Wednesday as I forgot to grab some heat paste, and the 4gb of RAM I currently have is on loan from a friend. :P

Grechie · 23rd December 2008, 8:09 PM

dude reformat if you havent

gth44331 · 25th December 2008, 1:05 PM

After a BIOS update and installation of new CPU everything is running perfectly. My 'lag' spikes were caused by Windows Zero Config. Sorry if I doubted those who blamed the CPU!

Merry Christmas!

28th November 2008, 9:29 PM	#1
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	9800GTX+ Not Performing Okay I'm sorry if I'm going about this the wrong way, but hopefully as I'm new I get a bit more room for error. System: Pentium 4 3.2Ghz HT ASUS P5KPL-CM (Original BIOS) LG Multi DVDRW Burner 2 x Western Digital 160gb 7200rpm Thermaltake ToughPower 750w 1gb DDR2 Kingston 667mhz ASUS 9800GTX+ Only air cooled Long story, but I went out and bought the 9800GTX+ to replace my poor 6200SE and ended up having to purchase a fairly cheap mainboard as it didn't fit my original. (Poor location of ATX connector) After several blue-screens, probably caused by using old drivers I've been crash free all day. (Updated VIA sound and NVidia drivers) Fired up Team Fortress 2 and set everything to maximum except for anti-aliasing. I was greeted by a miserable 24fps which varied up to 56fps. I get crazy slowdowns occasionally when firing and often when entering the front line. Wandering around empty levels is usually fine. I know I've probably not provided enough information but hoping it's enough to get started. Help would be greatly appreciated! Last edited by gth44331; 25th December 2008 at 1:05 PM. Reason: Solved

28th November 2008, 9:38 PM	#3
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	Oh and I forgot to add, just using the taskmgr.exe 'Performance' tab and leaving it open while I play for a few minutes, it never goes above 60% load. EDIT: I think the problem was that TF2 was trying to do Eight Channel audio on high! :P (Onboard sound) Set it back to two channel, everything is pretty much right. Thanks anyway and I'm aiming for a new CPU soon. Last edited by gth44331; 28th November 2008 at 11:00 PM. Reason: Solved

20th December 2008, 11:57 AM	#5
spectre257 Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: ACT 2614 Posts: 973	Like flux said your system is bottlenecking. More RAM, a decent CPU to pair up with your video card and you should see a huge difference. __________________ Portfolio\|Flickr\|FB\|Blog\|Trades $$ Addicted to Shop & Swap #0017 $$

20th December 2008, 1:23 PM	#6
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	Forgot to mention, I've borrowed a friends RAM, 4gb Kingston @ 800mhz. Hasn't helped TF2 much at all... Sorry if I'm being ignorant, but how is the CPU 'the' problem if a friend can play at higher resolution and better settings with his 8600GT and a 3.0ghz p4? EDIT: Turns out cranking up the AA from 0x to 16x actually improves performace?! Now if only I could fix the freezing... Last edited by gth44331; 20th December 2008 at 9:37 PM. Reason: Almost fixed

21st December 2008, 10:39 AM	#7
Utetopia Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: BNE/TWMBA Posts: 2,517	A 3.2GHz P4 (630??) & 9800GTX+ are a very rare combo. I would definitely suggest a shift to even a small E4400 or E7200. It's amazing how bad a game can run when the system is not scaled properly. Maybe a card like the 6800 Ultra would be more suitable. Don't be surprised if the game runs smoother.. __________________ 3570K \| NH-D14 \| UD3H Z77 \| GSkill 8GBXL \| 128GB Falcon \| Blu-ray \| HD7970 \| Stacker & HX620W \| 26" Acer \| AL 641 4.1 \| G15 & MX1000 \| AD700

19th December 2008, 5:52 PM	#4
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	Sorry for the double post, but I still have ongoing problems and I've got no idea how to solve them. Source engine/Team Fortress is still the 'issue', I've asked around and friends are using 8600GT's and a lesser processor that perform way better than my card. Could it possibly be not getting enough power? (I have it on one 6pin pci-e and one 8pin to 6pin pci-e) I'm also getting nearly 'consistent' freezing/lag including looping sound although I assume that's an unrelated problem. Both the above problems seem to occur in my 'old' install of XP and fresh Vista Ultimate SP1. I might have the completely wrong idea, but I'm so frustrated that my new purchase doesn't live up to its name.

22nd December 2008, 10:16 PM	#10
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	^Umm? I didn't install a fresh copy of Windows XP, no. I did install Vista Ultimate fresh on a separate HDD though... I hardly use Vista yet as all my junk is on the other install. I bought a E8400 and an Antec 900 today, hoping its not overkill or a waste of money, but that's the last part of my PC that needed replacing. Next year some time I'll probably grab an i7, a full-sized board and some DDR3 RAM. Depends on how things scale I suppose, might not even need to worry. I can't get any results until Wednesday as I forgot to grab some heat paste, and the 4gb of RAM I currently have is on loan from a friend. :P

23rd December 2008, 8:09 PM	#11
Grechie Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 158	dude reformat if you havent

25th December 2008, 1:05 PM	#12
gth44331 Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 9	After a BIOS update and installation of new CPU everything is running perfectly. My 'lag' spikes were caused by Windows Zero Config. Sorry if I doubted those who blamed the CPU! Merry Christmas!