8800GTS problems

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 20:20

I bought a:
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB

For £170 in early March, excluding VAT, think it was £200 including, from Overclockers. I got a BFG 800w PSU too.

I've had nothing but problems with it. I was dissapointed with it's performance and now it's not playing new games I try.

Lost Planet, Large artefacts, everything went orange with minty coloured edges, it crashed and doesn't load back up.

BF2142, I can run medium/high settings with a reasonable frame rate but not high, I don't run a high res, only 1024x768, reviewers benchmarks show all high with huge FPS but I can't get a playable game with anything higher.

Cellfactor, 5fps, I read this was a problem with the game but still, even on low settings, 640x480, it looked worse than a Gameboy, and still didn't go over 5fps!

Nvidias Tech Demo, "Froggy", this takes 10min to load and lags really bad, I have to restart my PC from the box because I can't close it.

That's about it really, I'm just not happy with it, could it be faulty? Rest of my PC maybe?

My specs are:
AMD 3500+ 2.2ghz
1gb DDR, (2700 speed I think)
Creative Soundblaster
...all good temps too.

Anyone able to shed some light on this? I know it's a really good card but I haven't seen anything that has got anywhere near what I expected.

Is it returnable?

Will_3rd · 25 May 2007 at 20:21

Your CPU and RAM might be letting you down by the looks of it.

or your card is borked if you say it is artifacting.

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 20:25

I understand my RAM/CPU isn't great but didn't expect it to pull the card down this much, I see a small improvement over my old card and that was a 6600, better frame rates, a few higher settings but not worth £200.

I'm not ranting at the card by the way, I know it's great just it doesn't like me.

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 20:26

Is there anything I can test it on? Like a 3d program or any tools to check it?

Will_3rd · 25 May 2007 at 20:29

ATI Tools have a test to tell if your card is artifacting or not

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Sean_UK · 25 May 2007 at 20:32

Use a driveclean program and check for any leftovers of your old former gfx card drivers.

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 20:37

Will_3rd said:
ATI Tools have a test to tell if your card is artifacting or not

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

It didn't find anything after 3min, which is good? I get 120fps on the furry cube.

Sean_UK said:
Use a driveclean program and check for any leftovers of your old former gfx card drivers.

Can you recommend any that are free?

Sean_UK · 25 May 2007 at 20:46

Driver Cleaner Professional Edition should do the job. Revome the 8800GTS drivers, run this program following the supllied instructions etc. Re-instal 8800GTS drivers afterwards & see how you get on.

DRC clicky

esiemi · 25 May 2007 at 21:21

i had a 1950pro and i was getting artifacts, i found a program on the forum that stress tested the whole sytem and the graphic card had some vram problems. i try to find the program for you

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 21:25

Sean_UK said:
Driver Cleaner Professional Edition should do the job. Revome the 8800GTS drivers, run this program following the supllied instructions etc. Re-instal 8800GTS drivers afterwards & see how you get on.

DRC clicky

I just did this, it cleaned some old files up which was good but it hasn't improved the performance at all.

I tried Froggy again (here: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_froggy_downloads.html) and I still get really bad lag, it takes 5-10min to load and it's horrible, with lots of white noise looking pixels as it loads up.

nicksource · 25 May 2007 at 21:45

Going to ring them tomorrow, see if it can be returned/swapped/refund whatever.

Thebug · 25 May 2007 at 22:08

try using cpu-z to make sure your card is running in 16x pci mode not 1x

nicksource · 26 May 2007 at 00:32

It's 16x.

LoadsaMoney · 26 May 2007 at 12:39

Could be overheating, what are themps of the card.

nicksource · 26 May 2007 at 21:00

60C idle.

nicksource · 26 May 2007 at 21:43

Got worse today, enjoying 2142 on an amazing low/medium graphic setting.

I'm going to try reverting back to the drivers I got on my CD, wondering if the new ones are dodgy for me.

nicksource · 26 May 2007 at 23:16

I looked on Nvidia Control Panel, it says my memory is at:

790mhz.

Shouldn't it be 1700mhz?

Renton · 27 May 2007 at 00:51

its ddr memory so u double the rated ie. 1580. it actually under clocked at that speed but should not make to much of a difference, whats the gpu clock?

braz2kuk · 27 May 2007 at 01:01

Hi,

Just a thought i bought a BFG 8800GTS OC2 from OCUK, got it home stuck it in fresh xp install fresh drivers etc started up flight sim X and it was artifacting a little bit, so downloaded rivatuner oc'd the core to 630 and oc'd the mem clock to 920mhz fired up 3DMark2006 ran about 10 loops of it not one artifact and has been fine ever since....

I would suggest try overclokcing it a bit i know it sounds strange but it has worked for me twice now and i have heard about it working for other people give it a go if it does not work just RMA the card

nicksource · 27 May 2007 at 01:32

The chip speed is fine, I'm running out of ideas what it could be!