Help !

[Fugbert]

Firstly hi everyone

This is my first post so i hope i explain myself ok ..lol

My system specs :

Amd xp 2.2
Mobo Asus A7V8X-X all latest chipset drivers installed
OS Windows Xp pro
Mem 512 DDR
GFX Crucial Ati 9700 pro 128meg Driver cat 3.2
Sound SB Audigy 2
Hd 2x Maxtor diamond max 80 gig ata 133


Ok So my problem is My Agp card well actually its also the motherboard , i recently ditched my geforce 4 ti 4200 64meg card for a Crucial Ati 9700 pro Card whoopie! as i opened the box ! lol

Anyway after installing it into my elitegroup K7s5a mobo and benchmarking using ( 3d mark 2001 se standard build) i wasnt impressed with the score of 13000 ok i hear some of u say thats ok but hey my geforce 4 card got 11000 :S and all the benchmarks ive seen around it seems to be getting 15k + . anyway i thought it must be because i dont have an agp 8X compliant motherboard and that was why i wasnt scoreing as high as i had hoped ...
So i recently brought a new Asus A7V8X-X motherboard which surports agp 8X ! yay well yeah it would have been yay , but the new board wont let me set my cpu speed at 2.2 because i dont have ddr 333 memory even if i setup the multiplier manualy :S so until i get the new ddr 333 mem ( coming monday ) im stuck at 1800 mhz .. Anyway i benchmarked the graphic card again with agp 8X enabled only to get a mark of 10023 :'( what the hell is going on ok my cpu is now 400 mhz slower but im now running agp 8x and ive looked up other overclocking sites and they are still getting around 14000 marks while using an Amd xp 1800 ..


Basicly what im getting at is why regardless of the drop in cpu speed why am i getting such a low benchmark score ? in comparision to other amd xp 1800 benchmarks around?

Also if i run Smartgart i have ( agp write ) set to off and cannot set it to on could this be one of many reasons why im scoring so low?



Anyway i think i have gone on long enough any help or ideas would be greatly appreaciated ...

Fugbert

[nurdonsite2]

first of all welcom to TechIMO.

APG 8x will make little or no difference in preformace, this is because, there are little or no games/programs that need this much speed.

check out this thread for more info.

other then that, i donno why ur 3d marks are low.

[Fugbert]

ahhh so agp 8x makes little difference ty for the info still need to know why my score stinks tho ive read alot of posts recently theres one on this forum infact and it seesm that the motherboard i brought the asus A7V8X-X with the VIA chipset is a pile of wet socks, so i may ethier go back to my old board or buy a new one any surgestions on a new board ?


I was thinking along the lines of a Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 what are ur thoughts on this?

Fugbert

[nurdonsite2]

yes definately an nforce2 mobo. u should have bought one in the first place because they are simpley the best amd mobos u can get.

[Peter M]

Well well well ... first of all, the K7S5A is not exactly a slowie.
Now, you are aware that NVidia did cheat massively in 3DMark 2001? Rename the executable of 3DMark to something else and try again; you'll find that the GF4 suddenly gets a much lower score.

AGP 8x does zip for actual performance, and yes, there still are slower new boards than ye olde K7S5A. I'd say go back and don't bother.

[Fugbert]

Thanx for ur opinion's guys and yes i agree for a cheap board the K7s5a was and still is a half decent board if it wasnt for the fact it doesnt surport agp 8x regardless of wether or not it is needed on todays games and it surported high speeds of ddr mem id still be using it .. :'(

Fugbert