6800GT --> 1950pro - Poor BF2 Performance.

warren_1979 · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:00

Hi. I've just gone from a 6800GT to a Sapphire 1950pro 512MB AGP and my performance in Battlefield 2 is not what I expected. If anything its worse as the framerates are all over the place 70 one second and then 30 the next. I'm also getting some screen issues when looking down the sight of the gun. In the distance little parts of buildings will go black and then back to normal.

My system is:
Athlon 64 3000+
2gig ddr
Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU
Win XP SP2
Cats 7.5

I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and used drivercleaner in safemode prior to removing the 6800GT. I'm thinking of reinstalling XP tonight, see if that makes a difference.

What you guys think?

jigger · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:17

Try jumping the cmos first.

dante6491 · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:20

PSU powerful enough?

Cyber-Mav · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:24

this is where benchmarks come in handy.

run 3dm 2005, we can then see if your card is performing as a x1950 should.

once you get the result post on here then we progress further with the fault finding process.

in 3dm05 using default settings the x1950pro should be getting around 9k to 9.5k at stock speeds.

4T5 · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:25

I'd try older drivers or better still do some research on what are the best drivers to use with that card & BF2.
I also wonder if your PSU is up to the job, what sort of 3D 05 or 06 score do you get ?
Also what are your CPU & case temps like under load & what temps does your card reach under load ?
Another thing is that if you have been messing with vid settings in BF2 you need to delete your cache files so that it resets your settings. Once reset Leave your settings alone.

Start off with older drivers though & make sure you use driver cleaner between All driver swaps.

warren_1979 · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:42

dante6491 said:
PSU powerful enough?

I've been told its a decent unit. two 12v rails delivering 27A. Some guy got a 8800GTX system running off it no sweat (http://www.overclockers.com/articles1452/)

Cyber-Mav said:
this is where benchmarks come in handy.

run 3dm 2005, we can then see if your card is performing as a x1950 should.

once you get the result post on here then we progress further with the fault finding process.

in 3dm05 using default settings the x1950pro should be getting around 9k to 9.5k at stock speeds.

How long does 3dmark 05 run for? I've tried running 3d mark 05 but after the balloon and dragon scene it repeats the balloon and dragon scene but the graphics seem to be worse and it seems to repeat the other scenes to.

malc30 said:
I'd try older drivers or better still do some research on what are the best drivers to use with that card & BF2.
I also wonder if your PSU is up to the job, what sort of 3D 05 or 06 score do you get ?
Also what are your CPU & case temps like under load & what temps does your card reach under load ?
Another thing is that if you have been messing with vid settings in BF2 you need to delete your cache files so that it resets your settings. Once reset Leave your settings alone.

Start off with older drivers though & make sure you use driver cleaner between All driver swaps.

How do I delete the cache files? Where can I find the card temps to? Used to Nvidia stuff so the cats are all new to me.

4T5 · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:55

To delete the cache files go to Start

/my Documents/Battlefield2/mods/bf2/cache & Delete the contents.

Remember this though, sort the drivers,delete cache files then adjust ingame settings & LEAVE them Alone. If at any time you adjust your vid settings then you will have to delete the cache files again Yourself, set them & then leave them. It is Only in this state that BF2 runs smoothly.

*WARNING*
You are deleting files from your BF2 folder. Don't trust my word just move them elsewhere then if anything should go wrong you can put them back.

Card temps.
God knows mate as i switched to NVidia a while back. Must be some kind of temp reading somewhere, Try Ati tool that should do it.

Also BF2 likes a sorted HD so Defrag your HD, Prior to that run Ad Aware SE & Spybot S&D. You'll be sorted one way or the other so i look forward to seeing you on the Battlefield some time :cool:

Let us know how you get on or what made a difference or didn't.

jigger · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:09

How long does 3dmark 05 run for? I've tried running 3d mark 05 but after the balloon and dragon scene it repeats the balloon and dragon scene but the graphics seem to be worse and it seems to repeat the other scenes to

just leave it running, the repeated tests are done on the cpu not gpu so they look rough.

spookywillow · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:12

or just press escape when you see the balloon scene again and you will still get your score.

warren_1979 · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:13

malc30 said:
To delete the cache files go to Start /my Documents/Battlefield2/mods/bf2/cache & Delete the contents.

Remember this though, sort the drivers,delete cache files then adjust ingame settings & LEAVE them Alone. If at any time you adjust your vid settings then you will have to delete the cache files again Yourself, set them & then leave them. It is Only in this state that BF2 runs smoothly.

*WARNING*
You are deleting files from your BF2 folder. Don't trust my word just move them elsewhere then if anything should go wrong you can put them back.

Card temps.
God knows mate as i switched to NVidia a while back. Must be some kind of temp reading somewhere, Try Ati tool that should do it.

Also BF2 likes a sorted HD so Defrag your HD, Prior to that run Ad Aware SE & Spybot S&D. You'll be sorted one way or the other so i look forward to seeing you on the Battlefield some time
Let us know how you get on or what made a difference or didn't.

Alrighty. I've just deleted the cache files and BF2 seemed to play a lot better. I'm thinking of doing a clean install of Winxp anyway as there is loads of stupid programs that I never use cluttering things up.

4T5 · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:18

No need for a re instal unless you have only been running it a week or so & have nothing on it.
Personally i would have a Mass clearout, then a Spy + Ad sweep then use a decent Reg cleaner then use Ccleaner, then reboot. Then Defrag your HD then Reboot.
Jobs a good'en & much better than re-installing xp & everything else that goes along with it.

jigger · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:46

Have you got it sorted now.

warren_1979 · 5 Jul 2007 at 18:54

Just run the test and got 7888, something ain't right.

Another thing as well was my CPU was hitting 71c! An Athlon 64 3000+ shouldn't be hitting those kinds of temps. I bought some Arctic Silver 5 a few weeks ago as my CPU was was running a little hot, but didn't apply it as it seemed to stabilize a bit. I think I'll apply some tomorrow pronto.

I'm also gonna try to run the card off one Molex line because my PSU has two wires each with 3 molex's on them and at the moment the card is sharing the wires with hard drive and dvd drives and fans. Gonna see if giving the card its own dedicated molex's on one wire will help.

Nullvoid · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:43

I wouldn't worry overly much about those cpu temps warren, I've had my e6300 running for ages now and it hits 70 degC at load. Down to 55ish since I got a new case this week however, so maybe that's something worth looking into for you (I know buying the psu already put you over budget so the last thing you want to hear is "spend more money!"

). It would also go some way to explaining the behaviour of your graphics card...more and more I see complaints involving 'x1950pro' and 'overheating'.

edit - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17750678 here for example

warren_1979 · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:55

I've got a strong hunch the CPU is the cause of the low 3dmark05 score. I've heard Athlon 64's should never hit 70c and it could be throttling back. The CPU test on 3dmark05 was like 1 frame a second or something like that. I've got some Arcticsilver in the draw and I'm going to apply some tomorrow.

Hopefully it will make a difference.

jigger · 5 Jul 2007 at 21:48

Right, try this.

1.Jump the cmos go into the bios set the date and load failsafe defaults then make sure all settings are correct for your x1950pro.(agp aperture and so)look at the sticky afew threads up for details.

2.make sure all power and data connections are ok, one molex from each lead for gfx card and everthing else evenly on the other molex plugs.

3.install the latest drivers and pacth bf2 if needed

4Start bf2 play for while exit, check temps. also put your hand over the back of your case and see if the air is a lot warmer that your room temp, if it is then take the side pannle off,(point a desk fan at your case if you have one)and retest temp's.

It sound like one of two things,air flow through your case or the PSU isn't upto the job, if the temps are to high everthing will start to go flakey, the PSU being the main one(voltage droop).

jigger · 5 Jul 2007 at 21:59

also what case fans do you have? and what size fan is on your PSU ?

warren_1979 · 10 Jul 2007 at 17:12

Oh man I bust my CPU friday morning. Cleaned everything up and applied some Arctic Silver 5, thought the little blighter was in the socket and it wasn't - result was a couple of pins that looked like question marks

, I tried to straigten them out but it was impossible and some fell off.

Could have been worse, could have been a Core 2 Duo or something, at least it was only a Athlon 64 3000. Have to wait a week or so now until I get a replacement CPU from America.

I guess you live and learn.

El Jimben · 10 Jul 2007 at 23:03

warren_1979 said:
I've got a strong hunch the CPU is the cause of the low 3dmark05 score. I've heard Athlon 64's should never hit 70c and it could be throttling back. The CPU test on 3dmark05 was like 1 frame a second or something like that. I've got some Arcticsilver in the draw and I'm going to apply some tomorrow.

Hopefully it will make a difference.

The CPU test is supposed to do that. Even with my system it never goes above 1 or 2 FPS and I don't think it's much higher for C2D users either.

Scougar · 10 Jul 2007 at 23:15

The CPU test is supposed to be like that as mentioned. You are trying to get a 'general' computing processor to do the job of a processor that is designed for one particular task. Even on my C2D I am lucky to get 2 fps on it!!

YOu didn't need to remove your cpu. BTW.. have you not seen the prices on OCUK for athlon's recently? VERY cheap

Pick up an X2 (dual core) for under £40! (939)

Also.. make sure your not running on the bios clocks of 500/594 with your card.. the performance WILL be awful like that. Also, if your getting artifacting.. aim a fan at the VRM near the back of the card to cool them down.

Lastly, make sure your PSU is powerful enough, as even the pro is a bit of a power beast.

Oh.. lastly my 6800LE sometimes made black bits etc and I would put that down to it getting to hot or overclocking too much. What software are you using? 7.2? 7.6 and atitool etc?

Matthew