Performance issue

Lyon85 · 8 Sep 2006 at 21:34

My new system is:

Core 2 Duo E6300
HIS ATI X1900XT
2GB Geil PC6400
DS4 mobo

Ive just got everything set up, so I haven't started overclocking the Conroe yet, or updated the BIOS. However, I was interested to see what performance was like in game at this stage. So I fire up Quake 4, everything seems decent, a couple of jumpy bits for some reason but that didn't bother me too much. Black and White 2 was great, but then I installed FEAR. I know this game is demanding but hell, at some points it dropped lower than my AMD 64 3200+, 6800GS! I ran the performance test, full settings (No soft shadows) at 1680x1050, it dipped as low as 18fps and as high as 86. Is this normal for a Conroe before an overclock? More noticeable though, was the slowdown in the opening intro sequence. Where Fettles scream wakes up the clone soldiers, it dropped so low it was scary. I wasn't running fraps but it seriously looked like 10fps. I'm not too worried, cause performance in the other two games was fine, I would just like to know if this is normal or not though?

I'm downloading 3Dmark06 right now, to see what IL get before I start overclocking.

Also, is there a way to update my DS4 BIOS through windows? I don't have a floppy drive so I cant do it through the BIOS (I assume that's how you typically update the BIOS?)

snowdog · 8 Sep 2006 at 22:06

sounds to me something is wrong, im getting no less as 40 fps at all times in fear on 1600x1200 and ''maximum'' gfx & performance settings, while im running on a 6800gs &4ghz p4.

Cant tell tho about conroes as never had one yet but seems very strange to me...

SkeeterUK · 8 Sep 2006 at 22:25

Gaming wise, amd still has a tiny boost due to the onboard memory controller. At least thats what i read.

Lyon85 · 8 Sep 2006 at 22:37

Cheers guys, we'l see whats going on when I get my 3dmark score. Remember though, this conroe is still only at 1.86ghz. I would imagine there would be a hefty performance increase at 3ghz+

Blackhorse · 8 Sep 2006 at 23:14

snowdog said:
sounds to me something is wrong, im getting no less as 40 fps at all times in fear on 1600x1200 and ''maximum'' gfx & performance settings, while im running on a 6800gs &4ghz p4.

Cant tell tho about conroes as never had one yet but seems very strange to me...

how can you tell how many frames per second your game is running at?

Nami · 9 Sep 2006 at 10:54

Please post full specs in your sig.

Have you installed all the correct and up-to-date drivers? It does sound like something is wrong tbh. AA and AF on?

SkeeterUK · 9 Sep 2006 at 11:14

Blackhorse said:
how can you tell how many frames per second your game is running at?

Fraps. Use google to find a demo.

Lyon85 · 9 Sep 2006 at 12:20

Nami said:
Please post full specs in ** sig.

Have you installed all the correct and up-to-date drivers? It does sound like something is wrong tbh. AA and AF on?

Im new to ATI, but as far as I can tell ive just updated to the newest drivers. Where do you check driver version?

4xAA 8xAF, I really dont think that would knock a X1900XT down to 10FPS though.

Oh, just got my 3Dmark06 scores. 4934. After I OC my CPU and give the GPU room to breathe im sure things will pick up, even so that score isn't terrible right?

Nami · 9 Sep 2006 at 12:31

You can check the driver version by ropening the Catalyst Control Centre and clicking on the 'Information Center'. Check this against www.ati.com downloads.

AA and AF will really harm your performance, even on that gfx card. Try it without them on and see what your FPS is like.

SkeeterUK · 9 Sep 2006 at 13:53

No that card wont knock ** fps down to 10fps. As far as im aware ati do aa different to nvidia and there is not as big as a performance drop as nvidia cards.

Id say its either some limiting bios option or possibly a driver issue. Uninstall ** gfx card drivers and go to ati site and download latest and install em. Do this even if u have latest just to make sure there cleanly installed etc. Possibly use a driver cleaner if you think its neccasary.

Also check that you dont have them downclocking bios options on like the equivelent of amd cool n quiet.

snowdog · 9 Sep 2006 at 14:43

Blackhorse said:
how can you tell how many frames per second your game is running at?

Fraps benchmark option, logs max, avrg. and min fps
Fear built in banchmark, also min max and avrg fps ( dunno if called benchmark, maybe called ''test gfx settings'')

On topic: I doubt it would knock down to 10 fps by the aa and af, im runnign 4x AA and 16x AF and as i said its 40+ all the time while mh specs are a lot worse...
Check your bios settings, disable c1e (enhanced halt state), disable speedstep, and any other junk that may slow your pc down.
Try without antivirus if you have one, and check for any problem with windows (spyware, borked background apps, virus, etc...)
Also do you have at leats sp1 on windows? i dont think windows suppported multithreading (or dual core) on on the 1st release...

unde4d · 9 Sep 2006 at 17:44

Lyon85 said:
is there a way to update my DS4 BIOS through windows? I don't have a floppy drive so I cant do it through the BIOS (I assume that's how you typically update the BIOS?)

You can use the "@BIOS" software that you got with your DS4 to update the Bios from Windows. It's a bit sketchy, no instructions or anything, just download the latest bios and run it thru @BIOS. I updated my DS3 to F4 with it.

Lyon85 · 9 Sep 2006 at 21:01

Yeah, there deffinatly should be no problem running AA and AF, my old AMD 3200+ Nvidia 6800GS could handle that.

snowdog said:
Check your bios settings, disable c1e (enhanced halt state), disable speedstep, and any other junk that may slow your pc down.
Try without antivirus if you have one, and check for any problem with windows (spyware, borked background apps, virus, etc...)
Also do you have at leats sp1 on windows? i dont think windows suppported multithreading (or dual core) on on the 1st release...

Il give that a go, cheers. I'm on SP1, which deffinatly does

unde4d said:
You can use the "@Bios" software that you got with your DS4 to update the Bios from Windows. It's a bit sketchy, no instructions or anything, just download the latest bios and run it thru @bios. I updated my DS3 to F4 with it.

Thanks. I thought it would be easy enough, but how the hell does it work? I download the BIOS, I get a zip which conatins three files. What do I do with them? Ive tried clicking update new BIOS and none of those files work, I also tried the entire zip. I just get "Could not load ROM image from BIN file. Maybe BIN file size not match."
Where is the BIN then, I see no such file!

[EDIT] And when I try Update from the Internet, I get as far as chosing the F3 BIOS, and then get a "The parameter is incorrect" :mad:

unde4d · 10 Sep 2006 at 01:19

the file named "965pds4.f3" is the file you need. Point @BIOS towards it. i think the other 2 files are used when you update with a floppy.

Lyon85 · 10 Sep 2006 at 11:24

That didn't work either, but I have it fixed. Someone on another forum was having the same problem. Its pretty strange, I didn't use the version of @BIOS that came with on the CD, I thought it would be better to use an updated version from the website. It seem's no other version (and I tried 3) will actually flash the BIOS without an error! So I installed the one on the CD, updated from the internet and I was on my way to a better BIOS.

Now, if I could figure out what the hell is wrong with my performance

snowdog · 10 Sep 2006 at 11:43

hmmm so all the stuff i said before didnt work? well then i cant think of anything but try diff hardware,
Try it with different ram, different hdd (maxtors sometimes have probs) , different gfx card and just remove all unneeded stuff ( other cards) and retry then, try to isolate what hardware is causing the lag.