8x Graphics Card in 4x mobo

[PastranA]

Heyas, I got a MSI GeForce4 64mb MX440 8x that scores 4500 3d marks in a :

AM Athlon 1800+
512mb 2700 DDR Ram
4x Epox 8k3a+ mobo

My next door neighbour upgraded his computer and gave me his Sparkle GeForce4 64mb MX 440 4x and that scores 6000 3d marks now. The sparkle is getting 1500 more 3d marks with 4x rather than the MSI 8x.

The new graphics card my next door neighbour got is a Leadtek FX5600 256mb 8x. Except now he is getting 7000 3d marks which is way below what he should be up around. The thing is he has a 4x mobo with a 8x graphics card which is the same problem i had.

His system is:

AMD Athlon 2000+
768 2100 DDR Ram
4x Epox mobo



It seems that when a 8x card is put into a 4x mobo the score is a lot less. Surely this cant be coincedence both of us getting crappier score with 8x graphics card in 4x mobo.

What yous think? Why is there such a difference?

[joker_927]

it could be a driver issue if he is only getting 7000 in what I am guessing is 3dmark 2001 SE.

Although 7000 might not be too far off.

a 2700+ cpu scored 11,000 with the same card. Seems a tad low still.

I don't know what is causing these scores, but it is not the AGP rate.

The only thing I can think of is your 8x card was put into a 4x mobo, and the mobo lcoked it too 2x as a default. But when u put in a 4x card into a 4x mobo it ran at 4x.

The solution to this would be to check your 8x card in the bios and make sure its set to 4x and not 2x.

[PastranA]

Thanks joker I will see if he has it runnint at 4x.
I still dont understand why i got such a higher score with a 4x card in a 4x mobo over the 8x card. Should have still worked the same i thought.

[Peter M]

No, the AGP transfer mode does absolutely NOTHING to actual performance - outside serious professional 3D work where scenes actually do use more memory than any graphics card has. This is because AGP transfers simply don't ever happen as long as the scene fits into the card's own memory.

It's all marketing hype. Your bottlenecks are elsewhere.

[Eladijaz]

There are many permutations of the MX440. Probably your first version was an SE or had SDR RAM instead of DDR. The only reason the 8xAGP MX440 does better than the 4xAGP version is because it has a higher clocked processor and RAM. The 8x/4x AGP makes no difference.
The 3Dmark2001 score you gave for the 5600 doesn't sound that far off to me. The benefits given by the 5600 are more in dx9 and AF/AA, and not in dx7/8. Try comparing the scores in 3dmark2003 or Aquamark 3 with AA and AF on and you will see quite a large difference
Regards,
Elad.

[PastranA]

Thanks for the help guys

But I have heard of scores around the 12000 mark with the 5600 so theres gotta be something that isn't right.

[Eladijaz]

Perhaps it was a sup'ed up 5600ultra. Some companies are making them with higher than standard spec's.

[PastranA]

Yeah but I'm sure the increase wouldnt be 5000 points though. Got no idea why its so low.

[Eladijaz]

The 5600ultra highly overclocked can get up there. The ultra has considerably faster RAM and processor.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7014990

[PastranA]

Yeah that is the sorta Score that he was hopin for. If the score is **** does that mean games will play shitter than what they should be?


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