x1800xt not performing as it should

[ugly ferret]

My new x1800xt 256mb gets 7100 in 3dmark 2005 which is exactly what my 7800gt was getting. From what I've read, the x1800xt should be getting at least 8500. It's not just in 3d mark, some games are running noticeably slower than my old 7800gt, so somethings not right.

I'm guessing it's a driver problem, I don't really understand how ati drivers work. When I click on catalyst control center nothing happens. What do I need to install and how do I access all the AA/AF options.

I've uninstalled all the old drivers with driver cleaner, and have tried both catalyst 6.4 and the one on the cd (don't know which one), and get the same problem with both.

I have a 2.6ghz opty 146 and 2gb g skil hz @260mhz, so I don't think the rest of my system is holding it back.

What could the problem be?

Cheers.

 

[ugly ferret]

I'd uninstall all ATi drivers and Catalyst Control Centre, then run DriverCleaner Pro (easily found on Google) in safe mode to remove any trace elements of Nvidia and ATi software.

Yeah, I did exactly that, safe mode and all.

But I'll try out the ati tray tools. One thing I'm confused about is, are the drivers and CCC completely separate? I'm sure that when I install the catalyst drivers, it installs CCC as well. So if I don't want to install CCC, do I not need to install the catalyst drivers.

And also, what should happen when I click on catalyst control center, cus when I do, nothing happens.

And finally, in a clean install, do I lose all my saved stuff like a reformat, or does it keep it like a repair install.

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for the help.

 

[ugly ferret]

Yeah I did install the .net thingy. So I still don't understand why ccc ain't working.

But I'll uninstall ccc and try out tray tools.

Don't really want to do a clean install yet, only as a last resort.

Cheers.

 

[ugly ferret]

Bah, still no good. I'm still getting 7100 in 3d mark 2005 using ati tools and the ati tray tool thingy. Also, I tried to overclock it using the autodetect feature in ati tool but the core wouldn't go past 630 and the memory got to about 780 when artifacts started appearing.

Maybe it's something wrong with the card. Even if my system needed a clean install, it still should be getting much higher than my 7800gt was getting a few days ago, but it's only getting the same score.

One strange thing I've noticed is that in all the benchmarks I run (3d marks, FEAR, aquamark, splinter cell), I get almost exactly the same score/frame rate as my 7800gt, and at all the different settings, I still get a near identical score/frame rate. It seems strange, I'd expect there to be some sort of variation.

 

[ugly ferret]

What, as in rma? Can I really do that?

 

[ugly ferret]

Ok, will do exactly that. One last thing, do I need to do a clean install or would a repair install be ok?

 

[ugly ferret]

Oh, I have to reformat as well?