Sapphire X800 Pro not performing as expected

ThomasMack · Feb 24, 2005, 06:00 PM

Recently I purchased my Sapphire X800 Pro from Newegg for $385.

I expected at least a 25% increase from my Sapphire Radeon 9800SE LITE. Instead I got a 20% increase.

In America's Army, on the most intense map, I get 55FPS (average). That's with settings on high.

With my Radeon 9800SE Lite, I got 35-45 outside, and 90 inside. That's pretty close to my X800 Pro that costs $385.

Now get this: With my Radeon 9800SE LITE card, on the CS:S Video stress test I averaged 98FPS! With my Radeon x800 PRo I get 56FPS.

On Battlefield Vietnam, I hit the limit and it stays there all the time (it's 100FPS I think, or is that BF1942?)... but if something happens, or even if I look through my sniper scope my FPS suddenly drops to 20-30FPS. This is HORRIBLE, my Radeon 9800SE Lite was getting 100FPS almost all the time!

When I tried Omega's drivers, my fps was even lower then now. However, I did use Omega's Drivers with my other video card (the Radeon 9800SE).

I am using the latest ATI Drivers.

Here is some screenshots I took:
www.sidrahq.com/mack/screenshots.zip (I zipped them up, it's a lot)

Overall, I am not happy with X800 Pro right now. Anyone have suggestions for improvements? Thanks

Edit:
My System Specs:
ASUS K8V SE Deluxe Motherboard
Athlon 64 2800+
3 HDD all 7200 RPMs and SATA, 40, 80, and 250
1 GIG PC3200 Ram (and no it's not bad, I've tested it)
Latest drivers on almost everything I know of.
XP Pro

mkk · Feb 24, 2005, 07:59 PM

What does the SmartGart report on AGP mode and Fastwrites?

ThomasMack · Feb 24, 2005, 08:26 PM

AGP is set at 8x.
Fast write is ON
AGP write is ON
AGP read is ON
PCI write is ON
PCI read is ON

mkk · Feb 24, 2005, 09:01 PM

Ok, then at least the AGP interface is properly initialised. Are you positive that you are using the same settings for things like AA and AF for the games? Running DriverCleaner might be worth a shot if nothing else pops up.

roadrunner72 · Feb 24, 2005, 09:44 PM

OK..... this might sound like a stupid question but when you put the X800 in did you change the AGP apture size in the bios from 128 to 256 ?

Magician Lord · Feb 24, 2005, 10:40 PM

What a surprise, you're using a VIA chipset. I say that with a certain sense of sarcasm because this is yet another example of how- "ATI and VIA don't play" Feel lucky you are just having frame rate problems, at least your hardware doesn't lock up 30sec to 15min into a 3d game... VIA's agp drivers apparently suck with some VIA/ATI combinations.

ThomasMack · Feb 25, 2005, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magician Lord

What a surprise, you're using a VIA chipset. I say that with a certain sense of sarcasm because this is yet another example of how- "ATI and VIA don't play" Feel lucky you are just having frame rate problems, at least your hardware doesn't lock up 30sec to 15min into a 3d game... VIA's agp drivers apparently suck with some VIA/ATI combinations.

Interesting. My computer runs smooth, it's fast, and always running top notch. Except this crappy frame rate.

Is there a alternative to the VIA Hyperion drivers from www.viaarena.com?

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadrunner72

OK..... this might sound like a stupid question but when you put the X800 in did you change the AGP apture size in the bios from 128 to 256 ?

I will check that, but I do know it is reporting as 256MB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkk

Ok, then at least the AGP interface is properly initialised. Are you positive that you are using the same settings for things like AA and AF for the games? Running DriverCleaner might be worth a shot if nothing else pops up.

If you looked at the screenshots, the "AAO" screenshots you could see I had AA and AF off. I had it set on Application Peference.

Now I have it set on 8xAA and 16xAF, and AAO gets a 3FPS drop at the most (strange

)

I will uninstall the drivers. Should I give the Omegadrivers a try again? It caused my Radeon 9800SE to have artifacts..

Tipstaff · Feb 25, 2005, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadrunner72

OK..... this might sound like a stupid question but when you put the X800 in did you change the AGP apture size in the bios from 128 to 256 ?

The biggest misconception is that bigger is better. There is no need to make the aperture bigger than 128mb. The only time this gets used will be if you have a graphics card that has too little memory (16/32mb), or is an onboard video card. It won't hurt to set it higher, but it won't do you any good either. In fact, if you have a good deal of system memory, and a 256mb video card then you should actually shrink the aperture to 64mb. Nowadays, if a program requires more memory for texturing it will grab that needed memory from the swap file first, then the AGP aperture unless told to do otherwise (as you can do with Unreal Tournament). The only other time you will need a bigger aperture is for editing programs that specifically uses or requires it.

The biggest thing you can do right now Thomas would be to do a clean install of your drivers. Uninstall the drivers, reboot Windows into safe mode, and use Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of the old drivers. Reboot, the install the drivers again. Also, take a look at your system for other factors that can cause performance problems. Make sure you have the right monitor drivers installed, and that you have the frequency (refresh) set properly. XP might be bogged down with unnecessary apps running in the backgroud, or another program could also slow the system down.

ThomasMack · Feb 25, 2005, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tipstaff

The biggest misconception is that bigger is better. There is no need to make the aperture bigger than 128mb. The only time this gets used will be if you have a graphics card that has too little memory (16/32mb), or is an onboard video card. It won't hurt to set it higher, but it won't do you any good either. In fact, if you have a good deal of system memory, and a 256mb video card then you should actually shrink the aperture to 64mb. Nowadays, if a program requires more memory for texturing it will grab that needed memory from the swap file first, then the AGP aperture unless told to do otherwise (as you can do with Unreal Tournament). The only other time you will need a bigger aperture is for editing programs that specifically uses or requires it.

The biggest thing you can do right now Thomas would be to do a clean install of your drivers. Uninstall the drivers, reboot Windows into safe mode, and use Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of the old drivers. Reboot, the install the drivers again. Also, take a look at your system for other factors that can cause performance problems. Make sure you have the right monitor drivers installed, and that you have the frequency (refresh) set properly. XP might be bogged down with unnecessary apps running in the backgroud, or another program could also slow the system down.

It was set to 128MB, and I changed it to 256MB and now I get 80.6FPS. However, I *think* I changed my AA to 6xAA and my AF to 12xAF.. I will check tomorrow, it's almost 1 AM and I have work tomorrow.

I ensure that my computer runs the best it can, and in benchmarks I do better then the system that is the same as mine.

Are you saying I should set the aperture size to 64MB rather then 256MB? Can you explain what it *really* is because I'm.. confused :P I'd look it up but it's too late to go Googling.

Right now my computer is running 33 processes, with 0% cpu usage, and the commit charge is 280MB..

Any more suggestions? And thank you.

Tipstaff · Feb 25, 2005, 02:05 AM

It would take too long to explain the finer details of it, so I'll just link to THIS PAGE for you to read instead.

Let's just say that AGP aperture size has been a long debated subject. The only thing anyone can do is test out the sizes themselves. Depending on the system it MAY help, but the one common thread in almost every forum has been that between 64mb and 128mb is the 'sweet spot'. It's your call though. I can only suggest things, and as I said it's a long debated subject. My personal view and experience tells me that 128mb is the max, and personally I've found on my system (as you can see from my signature below) 64mb is the 'sweet spot' for me.

tyellbee · Feb 25, 2005, 03:09 AM

If you are not using Omegadriver or the new Castalyst Control Panel try downloading Ati Tray Tooll and check tweak settings like A.I., AA & AF Optimization, Geometry Instacing, Temporal AA...

Mr cairo · Feb 25, 2005, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magician Lord

VIA's agp drivers apparently suck with some VIA/ATI combinations.

dont the latest set ( 4.55 i think ) now come without the intergrated AGP driver ??

i use an x800 pro and a Via chipset and it gives me no probs

as said though a clean install may solve a lot of your probs and AGP @ 128 does seem to be the sweet spot

ThomasMack · Feb 25, 2005, 10:46 PM

Ok I get 79FPS in CS:S Stress Test that's with:
6xAA
8xAF
Reflect Simple...
Vsync off.
1280x1024@75Hz

Now I have some questions. What should I set the following (to get good performance all the time):
Anti-aliasing with TEMPORAL enabled, 6x.
Anisotropic Filtering is set to APPLICATION DECIDE
Catalyst A.I. <-- no clue what this does. Right now disabled.
Minimap detail level is set to "Performance"
TruForm is set to ALWAYS OFF.
Wait for vertical refresh, always off.
Enable Geometry Instancing OFF
Support DXT Texture formats ON
Alternate pixel center is OFF

Edit: Opps this is for opengl :P!
Triple buffering OFF
Force 24-Bit Z-Buffer Depth OFF

Any tips? Thanks again for your time

Tipstaff · Feb 27, 2005, 01:38 AM

I just posted something similar to this in another thread, so I'll repost it here. I had an issue with a client today, and coinsidently the same performance issue. I don't know if this will fix your problem, but you never know. It's also something I should have mentioned, but never dawned on me.

Most games, while installing or upon their first run, will optimize themselves for the detected video card. The problem occurs when the game continues to use specific optimizations for a specific series of cards, but doesn't redect and optimize for a new card. This is a long shot, but what you can try to do is delete the config files for the games in question, and get it to redetect the card. For CS:S look into the C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\username (whatever you created)\counter-strike source\cstrike\cfg and delete the config.cfg file. Restart CS:S, and see what type of performance you get. The only other thing to try would be to reinstall the game. Waste of time, I know, but it could resolve the issue at hand.

Again, I don't know if this will work for you, but I can't think of anything else.

As for AA/AF settings, CS:S has built in settings for those. Leave the CP settings to Application Preference, and use the ingame options for AA/AF. Sometimes forcing AA/AF in a game that has those options can infact hurt performance (you would be forcing AA/AF in a game that is already doing that.

Sorry I can't be of much more help. If I find anything else I'll surely post it.

- Tip

Geminiwave · Feb 27, 2005, 11:28 AM

Turn fastwrites OFF!!!

Fastwrites are the devil when it comes to the newer radeons.

ThomasMack · Feb 27, 2005, 07:05 PM

OK, I will turn fast writes off and tonight I will reinstall my drivers. Should I go with OMEGA DRIVERS?

Zorg · Feb 27, 2005, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomasMack

Interesting. My computer runs smooth, it's fast, and always running top notch. Except this crappy frame rate.

Is there a alternative to the VIA Hyperion drivers from www.viaarena.com?

......

u run the Hyperion 1455 on XP SP2? Install the 1455 AGP driver manually since it likely has not been installed.

ThomasMack · Feb 27, 2005, 11:45 PM

OK I turned off fast writes.

I deleted the CS:S settings, but I still get 68FPS with 4xAA, and 6xAF. I am going to uninstall my radeon drivers, go to safe mode, delete my ati drivers with driver cleaner and install OMEGA

ThomasMack · Feb 27, 2005, 11:48 PM

Great I just recently today noticed that my monitor is changing.. uhm.. colors.. It turns a "purplish" color, not that bad but it's well noticable.

Could it be that my LCD LiquidVideo 17" monitor is going? I'll send the sucker back if it is!

It's getting WORSE now.

OK, with Omega Drivers I get no effect in frame rate. I did the safe mode thing etc, fastwrite is off (Im going to turn it back on maybe that's why my screen is acting weird?)

Where can I get this AGP driver?

Tipstaff · Feb 28, 2005, 12:59 AM

Easiest place would be HERE at VIAArena. It is still the 4-in-1 Hyperion driver, but during the installation choose a 'normal' install, and you can pick and choose what drivers to install.. including just the AGP driver.

- Tip

Zorg · Feb 28, 2005, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomasMack

.....
Where can I get this AGP driver?

I assume you should have the 1455 installed since it is the Via chipset driver?!
However, under SP2 the agp driver is skipped under normal install due to a MS recommendation. Just extract the zip file to a location of your choice, open the device manager and scroll down to system devices/"via cpu to agp" controller (something like that). double click on it and do a driver update where u point to the location of the unzipped file - inside is a AGP folder..select viagart.inf and install it. Once it is done the agp controller is called "VIA CPU to AGP2.0/3.0 controller"
Now reboot and check if it helps you. It helped me big time getting rid of problems with my Radeon card.

However, I feel your time is ripe for a fresh install of XP? - then install the chipset driver as the first driver once the XP base installation is done.

hth

ThomasMack · Feb 28, 2005, 10:04 AM

Yea, I agree it is very close to that special 'format' time. Right now I am slacking on that because I have to finish some projects up.. so once that's done, I'm going to format.

My dog hit the power switch on the adapter, so my computer was off all night for the first time and the monitor issues are gone.

I'll download and install the AGP Driver.

My theory is it's best to format when you get new hardware, as it'll perform better. I wish this was true for my Sabrent TV Tuner Card, it's crap.

redsolar · Feb 28, 2005, 10:46 AM

If you are using temporal AA, this effectively turns vsync on. Your high FPS will be limited to your refresh rate, and when your fps drops below your refresh rate, it will be limited to half of it (and so on). If you want to compare apples to apples, do not compare Temporal AA results to anything, they are not an indicator of potential performance.

always bench without VSync, but play with VSync.

ThomasMack · Feb 28, 2005, 11:43 AM

OK temporal is off, I was only testing :P

I'm really disappointed-- I dropped from 80fps to 14 on HL2. I think I need to format...

sc3000 · Feb 28, 2005, 02:58 PM

Turn A.L. on to get higher FPS
also a human eye can see only 60FPS so you don't need to get anything over that

BurL · Feb 28, 2005, 03:09 PM

Everytime I get a new video card if I dont format stuff gets messed up I thought things were gonna be ok with my new card but after a little while the bugs come out. So try a fresh install and see if it does anything.

redsolar · Feb 28, 2005, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sc3000

also a human eye can see only 60FPS so you don't need to get anything over that

That's not exactly true. While some humans may not be able to see more than 60, it's a lot more essential for fast-paced games due to response time. It adds the smoothness a lot of us would frag for

. That's why most professional cyberathletes play their games with lowest possible quality settings at very modest resolutions.

ThomasMack · Feb 28, 2005, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sc3000

Turn A.L. on to get higher FPS
also a human eye can see only 60FPS so you don't need to get anything over that

Uh yea, but I'm getting 16FPS.

ThomasMack · Feb 28, 2005, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BurL

Everytime I get a new video card if I dont format stuff gets messed up I thought things were gonna be ok with my new card but after a little while the bugs come out. So try a fresh install and see if it does anything.

Let's hope formatting stands true, because right now 16FPS on HL2 (a game designed for the card!) is just pathetic.

I know if I format and I get the same frame rate.. it's going to be.. EBAY HERE I COME, NVIDIA LETS GET READY!

Anyhow, I'll post when I format and tell the results.. Thank you everyone for your time

Zorg · Feb 28, 2005, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomasMack

Let's hope formatting stands true, because right now 16FPS on HL2 (a game designed for the card!) is just pathetic.

....

dont forget that VIA chipset drivers - most importantly the agp driver as mentioned above..

Feb 24, 2005, 06:00 PM	#1
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	Sapphire X800 Pro not performing as expected Recently I purchased my Sapphire X800 Pro from Newegg for $385. I expected at least a 25% increase from my Sapphire Radeon 9800SE LITE. Instead I got a 20% increase. In America's Army, on the most intense map, I get 55FPS (average). That's with settings on high. With my Radeon 9800SE Lite, I got 35-45 outside, and 90 inside. That's pretty close to my X800 Pro that costs $385. Now get this: With my Radeon 9800SE LITE card, on the CS:S Video stress test I averaged 98FPS! With my Radeon x800 PRo I get 56FPS. On Battlefield Vietnam, I hit the limit and it stays there all the time (it's 100FPS I think, or is that BF1942?)... but if something happens, or even if I look through my sniper scope my FPS suddenly drops to 20-30FPS. This is HORRIBLE, my Radeon 9800SE Lite was getting 100FPS almost all the time! When I tried Omega's drivers, my fps was even lower then now. However, I did use Omega's Drivers with my other video card (the Radeon 9800SE). I am using the latest ATI Drivers. Here is some screenshots I took: www.sidrahq.com/mack/screenshots.zip (I zipped them up, it's a lot) Overall, I am not happy with X800 Pro right now. Anyone have suggestions for improvements? Thanks Edit: My System Specs: ASUS K8V SE Deluxe Motherboard Athlon 64 2800+ 3 HDD all 7200 RPMs and SATA, 40, 80, and 250 1 GIG PC3200 Ram (and no it's not bad, I've tested it) Latest drivers on almost everything I know of. XP Pro Last edited by ThomasMack; Feb 24, 2005 at 06:44 PM.

Feb 24, 2005, 07:59 PM	#2
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,697 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	What does the SmartGart report on AGP mode and Fastwrites? __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else.

Feb 24, 2005, 09:01 PM	#4
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,697 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	Ok, then at least the AGP interface is properly initialised. Are you positive that you are using the same settings for things like AA and AF for the games? Running DriverCleaner might be worth a shot if nothing else pops up. __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else.

Feb 25, 2005, 02:05 AM	#10
Tipstaff DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Toronto Posts: 5,529 Rep Power: 94 System Specs	It would take too long to explain the finer details of it, so I'll just link to THIS PAGE for you to read instead. Let's just say that AGP aperture size has been a long debated subject. The only thing anyone can do is test out the sizes themselves. Depending on the system it MAY help, but the one common thread in almost every forum has been that between 64mb and 128mb is the 'sweet spot'. It's your call though. I can only suggest things, and as I said it's a long debated subject. My personal view and experience tells me that 128mb is the max, and personally I've found on my system (as you can see from my signature below) 64mb is the 'sweet spot' for me. __________________ >><<

Feb 27, 2005, 01:38 AM	#14
Tipstaff DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Toronto Posts: 5,529 Rep Power: 94 System Specs	I just posted something similar to this in another thread, so I'll repost it here. I had an issue with a client today, and coinsidently the same performance issue. I don't know if this will fix your problem, but you never know. It's also something I should have mentioned, but never dawned on me. Most games, while installing or upon their first run, will optimize themselves for the detected video card. The problem occurs when the game continues to use specific optimizations for a specific series of cards, but doesn't redect and optimize for a new card. This is a long shot, but what you can try to do is delete the config files for the games in question, and get it to redetect the card. For CS:S look into the C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\username (whatever you created)\counter-strike source\cstrike\cfg and delete the config.cfg file. Restart CS:S, and see what type of performance you get. The only other thing to try would be to reinstall the game. Waste of time, I know, but it could resolve the issue at hand. Again, I don't know if this will work for you, but I can't think of anything else. As for AA/AF settings, CS:S has built in settings for those. Leave the CP settings to Application Preference, and use the ingame options for AA/AF. Sometimes forcing AA/AF in a game that has those options can infact hurt performance (you would be forcing AA/AF in a game that is already doing that. Sorry I can't be of much more help. If I find anything else I'll surely post it. - Tip __________________ >><<

Feb 24, 2005, 08:26 PM	#3
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	AGP is set at 8x. Fast write is ON AGP write is ON AGP read is ON PCI write is ON PCI read is ON

Feb 24, 2005, 09:44 PM	#5
roadrunner72 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: wisconsin Posts: 25 Rep Power: 0	OK..... this might sound like a stupid question but when you put the X800 in did you change the AGP apture size in the bios from 128 to 256 ?

Feb 24, 2005, 10:40 PM	#6
Magician Lord DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0	What a surprise, you're using a VIA chipset. I say that with a certain sense of sarcasm because this is yet another example of how- "ATI and VIA don't play" Feel lucky you are just having frame rate problems, at least your hardware doesn't lock up 30sec to 15min into a 3d game... VIA's agp drivers apparently suck with some VIA/ATI combinations.

Feb 25, 2005, 03:09 AM	#11
tyellbee DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 29 Rep Power: 0	If you are not using Omegadriver or the new Castalyst Control Panel try downloading Ati Tray Tooll and check tweak settings like A.I., AA & AF Optimization, Geometry Instacing, Temporal AA...

Feb 25, 2005, 10:46 PM	#13
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	Ok I get 79FPS in CS:S Stress Test that's with: 6xAA 8xAF Reflect Simple... Vsync off. 1280x1024@75Hz Now I have some questions. What should I set the following (to get good performance all the time): Anti-aliasing with TEMPORAL enabled, 6x. Anisotropic Filtering is set to APPLICATION DECIDE Catalyst A.I. <-- no clue what this does. Right now disabled. Minimap detail level is set to "Performance" TruForm is set to ALWAYS OFF. Wait for vertical refresh, always off. Enable Geometry Instancing OFF Support DXT Texture formats ON Alternate pixel center is OFF Edit: Opps this is for opengl :P! Triple buffering OFF Force 24-Bit Z-Buffer Depth OFF Any tips? Thanks again for your time

Feb 27, 2005, 11:28 AM	#15
Geminiwave I Have lovely Breasts Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: In the closet... Posts: 5,395 Rep Power: 44	Turn fastwrites OFF!!! Fastwrites are the devil when it comes to the newer radeons. __________________

Feb 27, 2005, 07:05 PM	#16
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	OK, I will turn fast writes off and tonight I will reinstall my drivers. Should I go with OMEGA DRIVERS?

Feb 27, 2005, 11:45 PM	#18
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	OK I turned off fast writes. I deleted the CS:S settings, but I still get 68FPS with 4xAA, and 6xAF. I am going to uninstall my radeon drivers, go to safe mode, delete my ati drivers with driver cleaner and install OMEGA

Feb 27, 2005, 11:48 PM	#19
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	Great I just recently today noticed that my monitor is changing.. uhm.. colors.. It turns a "purplish" color, not that bad but it's well noticable. Could it be that my LCD LiquidVideo 17" monitor is going? I'll send the sucker back if it is! It's getting WORSE now. OK, with Omega Drivers I get no effect in frame rate. I did the safe mode thing etc, fastwrite is off (Im going to turn it back on maybe that's why my screen is acting weird?) Where can I get this AGP driver? Last edited by ThomasMack; Feb 28, 2005 at 12:18 AM.

Feb 28, 2005, 12:59 AM	#20
Tipstaff DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Toronto Posts: 5,529 Rep Power: 94 System Specs	Easiest place would be HERE at VIAArena. It is still the 4-in-1 Hyperion driver, but during the installation choose a 'normal' install, and you can pick and choose what drivers to install.. including just the AGP driver. - Tip __________________ >><<

Feb 28, 2005, 10:04 AM	#22
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	Yea, I agree it is very close to that special 'format' time. Right now I am slacking on that because I have to finish some projects up.. so once that's done, I'm going to format. My dog hit the power switch on the adapter, so my computer was off all night for the first time and the monitor issues are gone. I'll download and install the AGP Driver. My theory is it's best to format when you get new hardware, as it'll perform better. I wish this was true for my Sabrent TV Tuner Card, it's crap.

Feb 28, 2005, 10:46 AM	#23
redsolar Off duty Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Iowa, USA Posts: 1,252 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	If you are using temporal AA, this effectively turns vsync on. Your high FPS will be limited to your refresh rate, and when your fps drops below your refresh rate, it will be limited to half of it (and so on). If you want to compare apples to apples, do not compare Temporal AA results to anything, they are not an indicator of potential performance. always bench without VSync, but play with VSync. __________________ Real_Men_Do_Not_Use_Space_Bar Main rig: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.6 GHz (Zerotherm Nirvana NV120) \| 2x2GB Mushkin + 2x2GB Corsair DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 \| Abit IP35 Pro \| XFX 8800GTS 512 800/1100 \| 2x160GB Seagate 7200.9 RAID1 + Hitachi 1TB 32MB \| NEC SATA DVD+RW + Xbox 360 USB HD DVD Drive \| Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PSU \| Antec Nine Hundred Case \| 3x 24" LCD (Dell 2407WFP + 2x StarLogic) \| Logitech Z-5500 \| Vista Business x64 Laptop: Dell Vostro 1500 \| Core 2 Duo T7500 \| 2.5 GB RAM \| nVidia GeForce 8600M GT \| 200GB 7200 RPM \| DVDRW \| 15.4" 1680x1050 LCD \| XP Pro

Feb 28, 2005, 11:43 AM	#24
ThomasMack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 80 Rep Power: 0	OK temporal is off, I was only testing :P I'm really disappointed-- I dropped from 80fps to 14 on HL2. I think I need to format...

Feb 28, 2005, 02:58 PM	#25
sc3000 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: New York Posts: 231 Rep Power: 0	Turn A.L. on to get higher FPS also a human eye can see only 60FPS so you don't need to get anything over that

Feb 28, 2005, 03:09 PM	#26
BurL Liver SUCKS!!!! Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 230 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Everytime I get a new video card if I dont format stuff gets messed up I thought things were gonna be ok with my new card but after a little while the bugs come out. So try a fresh install and see if it does anything. __________________ If I had a bean burrito I would smash it all over my chest.