Terrible 7800 GS performance - help!

[Five_Star]

Got the BFG 7800GS OC to replace my 9800 pro and its terrible if not worse

System spec
NF7-S 2.0
XP1700 @ 200*12
1GB Twinmos 2.5-3-3-8
461W Enermax PSU

I have the nForce 2 drivers installed

I found that forceware 81.98 did not recognise the 7800GS so I used the drivers on the CD, this was terrible, I got 487 in 3D mark 2006

I then updated to forceware 83.60 and they would install but seemed to give only mediocre performance. I did manage 2844 in 3D mark 06

Games performance still seems to suck, Far Cry is much worse @ 1024x768 and HL2 is only faster if I disable all the new affects.

Is this just a driver issue? What do people recommend driver wise for 7800GS cards – I’m honestly thinking of getting rid and going back to my 9800pro and saving the £240

 

[Five_Star]

Yep, I did a full reinstall last night. SP2, nvidia drivers, forceware and it gave me another couple of 100 in 3D mark but not a lot else.

Is this just a driver issue? I can’t believe some of the reviews of this card and in game performance on similar aged systems (2Ghz 754 machines)

 

[Five_Star]

That’s what I’m thinking right now, its like flogging a dead horse. It’s a shame because my 1700 is such a sweet chip.

If someone wants to post their install procedure / process I’ll give it one last go before I get rid. I don’t really want to sell it a few days old without exhausting all options

 

[Five_Star]

8x AGP, and fast write is on, 128mb aperture, the same settings I had the 9800pro on.

I did some quick benches on far cry but the other machine is off now I can't check but low quality the 9800pro was 90-100fps medium about 60fps where as the 7800 on low was 80fps and medium only 30fps!

This was very noticeable in game, all the same settings for both cards @ 1024x768 and the 9800pro was a good 25-30fps ahead.

I’m strongly thinking of getting rid now, I don’t feel the need to play over 1024 anyway as I still have a great Mitsubishi 720 17” CRT.

Maybe I was expecting too much from the 7800 GS, all I wanted was a faster frame rate about 80-100fps but all the 7800 seems to be able to do is give nicer looking graphics at half the frame rate of the 9800pro

Thanks for everyones help

 

[Five_Star]

Thanks for all the replies, I went for the full format option SP2, nForce drivers then forceware 83.60.

I’d left AA and AF as application preference in the control panel and made sure vsync was off. I’ve just tried the fastwrite option off did make quite a noticeable 15-20fps difference in performance in Far Cry which is a massive help.

Strange thing about temps is that in the nvidia monitor tool it seemed like the GPU was never over 50c from the graph, I though it would get much hotter?

Overall though I think its limited by the CPU. I wanted to avoid some difficult choices over a full upgrade to an A64 and PCI-E but I think that’s the way I’m gonna have to go.

Thanks for everyones help, at least it’ll get some use now till I’ve decided how to upgrade.

 

[Five_Star]

Honestly the biggest speed jump I got out of this card was when I pushed the cpu from 2.3Ghz up to 2.4Ghz to see if that made any difference to fps in games.

Its only on air cooling but max temp is only 48c at 1.75v. I’m a little worried to go to 1.9v to try for 2.5Ghz or 2.6Ghz but if it helps this 7800GS I might try this weekend.