Yet another Radeon 9600 Pro Problem

[BispensGipsGebis]

Hi all,

I've just googled this site, and I have already found a lot of soul-mates in terms of problems with the Radeon 9600 Pro card, and also it seems a lot of competent persons to answer the questions.

Here goes:
I bought what I thought to be a splendid gfx card a couple of months ago: Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro card. Guess I shouldn't have done that. I tried playing Unreal tournament with it, but the fps were really baad. I have tried playing counter-strike also, and again the fps' are bad. I have 100 fps when running straight forward, but when I move left or right the fps' drops to around 30-40. The old card was a gforce 2 64mb from Asus, and that ran with 100 fps. I know there has been a 1.6 release on counter-strike, but hey... loss of 60 fps on one version and with a gfx upgrade... that sounds unrealistic.

Oh... you're probably wondering, what my setup is.
Mobo: Asus P4B533
CPU: Intel 2.26 ghz
HD: Maxtor fluid 80gb (6L080L4)
4 cabinet fans and a 350watt psu (can't remember the brand)
Win2k all updated

I've updated the chipset drivers from Asus... No luck
I've tried to set the 3D settings to all performance... no luck
I've installed the 3.09 catalyst drivers ... no luck
I've installed the 3.10 catalyst drivers ... still no luck
I've tried to turn the fastwrite off, but it's set to on when I reboot... don't know how to change that
AGP Texture Acceleration is Enabled
DirectDraw Acceleration is Enabled
Direct3d Acceleration is Enabled

It's rather frustrating as the old geforce card was performing better than this monster of a gfx card. I hope you can understand why.

I don't know what else to do, but maybe some of you guys can ask what you need.

I'll remember you guys in my nightly prayers if you help... hell, I remember you anyways!

Thanks in advance
Bispen

[eagle1]

Did you completely uninstall the nvidia drivers?
Also, does that motherboard has a Via chipset?
If so, did you updated the Hyperio 4 in 1 drivers?

To disable fast writes you can do it from the Ati Drivers Display Properties but you can also turn off fast-writes on the BIOS (some BIOS have this setting to manipulate -- at least mine does).

Also, are you sure you are not running the game with FSAA and Anisotropic filtering on?

[AsteralTraveler]

Here are just a couple of suggestions off the top of my head: When you installed the Cat 3.10 driver, did you first make sure 3.09 or 3.9 was completely uninstalled? There's a specific method for doing this, it can be found on www.rage3d.com, but if I recall correctly, you must completely remove any remnants of old Catalyst drivers before installing new ones. That MIGHT have something to do with why you can't turn off Fast Writes, which I do have turned off on my AIW 9600 pro card. Also, AGP Aperature should be set to 4x. You'll want to play around with your Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic(sp?) filtering as well.

Hope this helps a little bit. I'm at work right now, so I can't look at any of my other settings.

Trust me though, you DO have a great 3D card, you've just got to work out the kinks. BTW, I'm using 3.8 with no problems.

AT

So I'm a little slow at the keyboard.

[BispensGipsGebis]

Hi Eagle, thanks for the quick reply...

The chipset is the Intel 82845E MCH Intel 82801 DB ICH4...
The specs can be found here. Not that I'm lazy, you might just find something I can't

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P4B533&langs=09

I've tried to set the anisotropic filtering to the lowest: 2x and antialiasing to the same number. That's the lowest I can get it.

It's still the same... low fps when turning.

I have tried to set fast writes in the display property again, but it still reverse the selection back to on... can't seem to find it in the bios though.

Thanks again
Bispen

Edit ---------------------- Edit
Ups AsteralTraveler... I didn't see your reply sorry... Thanks for the link to the guide at rage3d. I need to study that closer, and I'll get back to you guys with the status.

It's late here in Denmark, and work is due tomorrow, so I'll get back to you after work!

Thanks yet again
Bispen

[eagle1]

Well.. if you ARE running with FSAA and anisotropic filtering on, that might be the problem with the "poor frames per second" you are getting.
Remember that when you activate these options, you want higher quality images but you DO get penalized for having them turned on (speed -- low fps count).

I suggest you do run a few benchmarks with Anisotropic Filtering and FSAA turned OFF! Then compare them to benchmarks from these pages:

http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.hardocp.com

Check if you do get approximate values to what they got (also take into consideration the system specifications used in these mentioned webpages).

Then enable the goodies and also do a check with benchmarks already on the net.

[BispensGipsGebis]

Hi Guys,

Solution found. Next time the best advice would be something like: "Have you remembered to ignite your brain??"

The problem was not the gfx, not the mobo, but the mouse. When I purchased the gfx I also purchased an USB2 hub, and I never thought that the problem might be that both the mouse and the keyboard was connected through the hub. I removed the hub, and put the keyboard and the mouse in separate ports and whoops... awsome performance on the gfx...

Thanks for helping, and sorry for wasting your time.

Tonight the stars belong to you.

Kind Regards
Bispen

[someone16]

teh m0uszors pwnz u!

It's always the little things that always get you...