StickyMicky

i have finaly sorted out my crashing pc

i took out the GFX drivers and re installed them
the problem was that i couldnt find my proper drivers disk

so i downloaded the latest drivers and sorted it all out

pc wasnt crashing anymore but the GFX was jumping really badley
it was stuttering in games and my bench mark scores were' back down

i tried just about everything to sort it out, 2 weeks later after trying on and off every few days i re installed the drivers, still no joy, then i found an old nvidia driver in my "zipped programs" folder and tried that, and to my amazment my 3d marks score jumped by about 700 points

i then tried a few other drivers

5x.xx and 4x.xx, best results came with the 4x.xx ones, the jump from 5x.xx to 4x.xx saw a small improvment of 70 points in 3d2001 but it didnt afffect the 3d2003 score at all

why do these older drivers make my system run better?

system is xp2600 @ 2.31ghx
fx 5600 xt gfx card @ 349ghz cpu and 499mhz mem
512 genric ddr 400 memory

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

A couple of possibilities:

1) Later drivers tend to be optomised for top-of-the-range gfx cards to get the publicity that comes with high benchmark scores. The same optomisations may hurt a lower spec card's performance.

2) There was a time when nVida was playing very naughty games to improve 3DMark2003 performance, and that was around 51.xx IIRC. The perfomance gain was not real, but was caused by the drivers changing the rendering to suit the benchmark.


M

InvisibleMan

i've got an interesting one, one some games the graphics "tears" or flashes. its like when walk in a room like say Doom, walk to the wall & turn & you get vector conflicts as you look 'thru the wall into netherland' not precisely sure what the prob is.

The pc-***-grill is a P3.2E @ 3.8
980psb, 250fsb
256mb 6800GT as std
1Gb ddr400 2-4-4-8

one of the OC settings mustnt be quite right

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

That is usually a symptom of the gfx card overheating (GPU in particular). Is it overclocked? Have you tried running with the case side off?


M

InvisibleMan

its std & runs at 65c loaded which yeah could be a problem. need to find out what a 6800GT can be OCed too or what max speed the system can be, maybe it cant run on 980psb/250fsb, though some none really textured games work fine.
Havent upped the voltages anywhere but will need to try different combinations until i find a stable one

User 1421

Try turning on V synch as well.. Will slow the game down , but tears dont occur

As mentioned , the card isnt overclocked or anything is it ?

StickyMicky

if i push my gfx cpu or memory by 1mhz more i get these as well

if your card is standerd then im confused
i was planning to get sum extra heatsinks for my card but forgot all about it

InvisibleMan

as far as i know its std cos ive done nothing to it, how do you oc a gcard anyway? havent seen any obvious way. if the psb & fsb are increased will this increase the agp? it shouldnt do cos the 66/33mhz agp is fixed as recommended, unless ive misunderstood

DrEvil

I've got the Aopen 6800 GT @ 410/1100, runs fine.
All the GTs without artic cooling seem to run:

circa 57-60 idle
circa upto 70 under heavy load.

Regarding your issue, as said above turn on v-sync, especially when using LCD TFTs, it will help sort this out, although even 16ms LCDs you will still get a little bit of tearing potentially.

Also, what drivers are you using? 66.81??
Or the 'offical' 61.77s?

Most people are getting better results on the 'leaked' drivers, available from guru3d.com (look for Nvidia ForceWare Drivers in the Download section).
D3 runs fine on the 66.81 as far as I can see, on a GT.

Hope that helps, Alex

DrEvil

PS. also download Coolbits v2, this is a update that gives you the O/C 'ing menu under the Nvidia control panel.

InvisibleMan

cheers for that, mines an aopen too. so youve oced it from 350 to 410mhz?

think i started of with .77 then went onto .81 but in the meantime ive upped the 3.2 to 3.6 & changed the memory settings, much more stable with the new memory settings even when back down to 3.2 so i think ive got the memory correct. Will check out the graphics next. Its a 12ms 17"TFT so will try the v-sync. Seems to work ok with anything without the bitmap textures.

DrEvil

I had to enable V-Sync in D3 to make it playable.

12ms eh - just showin' off now aren't ya!

I waiting on my Neo Power PSU to arrive currently, as my OCZ PSU has broken within 1 week of installing it!! (will RMA it this week).

InvisibleMan

me a show off naahh

i did see on another bbs that someone who got a 6800gt from pc world online had the mermaid logo on it & not the aeolus faces & reckon its not the proper 6800GT. Mines the mermaid too, got me worried so will check it tonight! what about yours?

DrEvil

Nah, thats rubbish matey. From what I've seen, I think only the first few cards had the 'faces' logo on them, all subsequent Aopen's have had the 'mermaid' logo.

As for not being a real GT - my max 3Dmark05 score so far is 5285 using the 66.72s. Stock GT's are getting circa 4500-4600 in 3Dmark05.

PSU arrives tomorrow - a little annoyed, cos I ordered at mid-day on Monday and specified next day delivery... grumble moan etc.. Will try the 66.81s once thats in, assuming it has not taken anything with it...

InvisibleMan

are well thats ok then. The box just says 6800 with a 6800GT 256mb sticker over it. I guess thats just the std box they use for all models. Doesnt mention aopen anywhere but it says GT & is at its specified mhz. only had 66.71 drivers so installed .77 & have d/l .81 drivers.

Tried the cool bits, only have addition of D3D but no opengl. in 3d mode it selected best settings of 418/1100

DrEvil

Hi,

Mines the mermaid logo btw.

It's easy to check, in the Nvidia Control panel it should state 6800 GT and bios revision under one of the tabs.

I'm currently running:

WinXP home SP1 + security patches
DirectX 9.0c
Nvidia ForceWare 66.72 (but the 66.81s look good from testing on MATTeL's system).

Give them a go. You should see all the overclocking options (Clock Settings) with the later drivers (all thou I thought the 61.77s work with Coolbits v2)

InvisibleMan

lol so you tried to crash MATTeLs pc first

i just added "coolbits 3" to the reg. maybe there was more to it. Have you tried clocking it more with the simpson keys?

DrEvil

Ssshh.. don't tell him!

*cough* helped him put it together on Sunday, my old 3500/A8V/Antec True Blue and Praetorian. Hes using the Crucial Ballistix 4000 mem, which seems good. He wanted to try the 66.81s anyway honest

Nah, not tried the simpson keys, didn't realise Coolbits 3 was out...

Basically haven't been able to do anything since the OCZ PSU started to play up (at least, as I've said, I hope thats what is wrong).

Installing the NeoPower tonight, once stable will revisit GPU o/c'ing and drivers.

My Thermalright XP-120 turned up today... its a monster CPU cooler

InvisibleMan

there are a number of keys with the simpson names changing barts value to krustys apparently gives it another boost.

ive got a prescott so is running pretty hot but its good for keeping your takeaway trays nice'n'warm esp when it goes over th 4Ghz mark was thinking about the XP-120 but got the zalman 7000B instead. Hope that does the job ok.

DrEvil

Simpsons.. hmm...

Yeah, I've got another rig with 3.2e P4 in it, very hot, even @ stock.
Its got the Zalman 7000b Cu installed on it - still seems to run quite hot, but I might try reseating it.

Never did find the Zalman that much better than stock coolers, it was mainly quieter and a few degrees knocked off.

I'm actually upgrading the AMD cooler from a 7000B Cu to the XP120...
Or at least would have been tonight if Business Post hadn't let me down today.

Might still do it, but use the 120mm fans I have at home temporarily...

My prescott runs at 49/50 idle -> circa 60 load on a P4C800-E DLX mobo.