X800XL - help me keep this card!

OK - it gets even more bizarre. I cleaned the old Cats, reinstalled 5.7, and did a fresh install of F1C. 1280x960 gives 85M Tri in 3DConfig, but FPS in game are still mediocre (60ish in testing). Turned off replays, AA/AF, etc. The bizarre thing is if I spin the car, FPS then drops 10-15FPS and will not come back up. I can reproduce this over and over. Other games are great, 3dMark05 gives just over 5000. Am I crazy? Kendt

On 28 Jul 2005 18:13:51 -0700, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>OK - it gets even more bizarre. >I cleaned the old Cats, reinstalled 5.7, and did a fresh install of >F1C. >1280x960 gives 85M Tri in 3DConfig, but FPS in game are still mediocre >(60ish in testing). Turned off replays, AA/AF, etc. >The bizarre thing is if I spin the car, FPS then drops 10-15FPS and >will not come back up. I can reproduce this over and over. >Other games are great, 3dMark05 gives just over 5000.

Do you use an LCD screen by any chance? >Am I crazy? Prolly.... :-) Cheers! Remco

Thanks, but its a Sony CRT, vsync off I just posted this to rsc: ISI-based sims seem to have a real problem on my rig. Just upgraded from 9700Pro to an X800XL - everything but F1C and GTR are screaming now. In both F1C and GTR I saw a major performance hit. In GTR, even with mirrors, windshield, wheel, and Motec off the cockpit causes a 50FPS hit compared with bumper-cam. This is consistent across multiple driver versions (4.12 through 5.x) and variations (omega, dna, ati). Only thing I can find is that "AGP Writes" is turned off with the X800, while it was on with my 9700Pro. Even with SMARTGART disabled I can't get it back on (though I did track down the relevant registry keys) Anyone else seen this? I'm going to try on a fresh XP install, then the card goes back and I get an nVidia. Kendt

[email hidden] wrote:

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> Thanks, but its a Sony CRT, vsync off > > I just posted this to rsc: > > ISI-based sims seem to have a real problem on my rig. > Just upgraded from 9700Pro to an X800XL - everything but F1C and GTR > are screaming now. > In both F1C and GTR I saw a major performance hit. In GTR, even with > mirrors, windshield, wheel, and Motec off the cockpit causes a 50FPS > hit compared with bumper-cam. > This is consistent across multiple driver versions (4.12 through 5.x) > and variations (omega, dna, ati). > Only thing I can find is that "AGP Writes" is turned off with the X800, > while it was on with my 9700Pro. Even with SMARTGART disabled I can't > get it back on (though I did track down the relevant registry keys) > Anyone else seen this? I'm going to try on a fresh XP install, then the > card goes back and I get an nVidia. > > Kendt

hi - i might know a little about this :) try reinstalling your chipset drivers - without proper GART drivers, any r/w across AGP bus will be painfully slow. you have to get smartgart active and agp r/w back on. what sort of mobo do you have? jc

Aha! Sounds like an interesting approach. I've got an MSI KTV6-LSR - VIA KT600 chipset. I've just uninstalled the VIA AGP driver with no ATI driver loaded. I'll reboot and drop the 5.7s back on w/Smartgart. I'll send a 6-pack of your favorite beverage if it works :)! Kendt

Duh! - just reread what you wrote - I have the latest VIA Hyperion drivers. They were working fine, AGP 8x, AGP Reads on, AGP Writes (not fastwrites) would just not turn on for some reason. Seems like ISI's engine is not happy without this feature working. I'll still send the 6-pack if I get this working ;). Kendt

i dont think our engine is unique in that respect - any modern 3D engine is gonna suffer if the apg bus is off. Apparently, we just use a lot more dynamic vertex and texture stuff than others? anyway, no need to send brew - just hope to see ya on an rfactor server :) jc

That would fit in with what I'm seeing - one part of the F1C slowdown was caused by skidmarks, I'm guessing that the dynamic texturing of the track relies on AGP Writes. I think this card needs to go back - it's just not happy in my current rig. If a 6800GT doesn't do the trick I'll just wait to go PCIe and a dual-core x64 later in the year :). Thanks! Kendt

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> That would fit in with what I'm seeing - one part of the F1C slowdown > was caused by skidmarks, I'm guessing that the dynamic texturing of the > track relies on AGP Writes. > I think this card needs to go back - it's just not happy in my current > rig. If a 6800GT doesn't do the trick I'll just wait to go PCIe and a > dual-core x64 later in the year :). > > Thanks! > Kendt > >

VIA is at fault (and it's been this way for at least the last four years. If you want the ATI card to work, use the mobo drivers that come with Windows - do NOT load the 4-in-1's that came with your mobo. When you get your AMD64 system, get an nForce chipset mobo (actuially, ANYTHING but via) if you're going to hang on to ATI video cards.

Thanks - I bet the native WinXP drivers open up a whole other potential stability/performance issue. I'm going to do what I should have done - return the card and save the money for a better system. If it had worked flawlessly I could have got my money out of the extra enjoyment in games, but as it is I'm already behind in aggravation level ;). Kendt

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> Thanks - I bet the native WinXP drivers open up a whole other potential > stability/performance issue. > I'm going to do what I should have done - return the card and save the > money for a better system. If it had worked flawlessly I could have > got my money out of the extra enjoyment in games, but as it is I'm > already behind in aggravation level ;). > > Kendt > >

Well, the win2k drivers made my system *more* stable. I tried retty much everything evberyone suggested and the only answer was to either buy a non-via mobo, or not use the 4-in-1's that came with my mobo. Either way works.

Too late - card's gone ;).