8800GTS 640mb. Poor performance.

[mataus]

Hi all,

Well judging all the forums I have been reading over the past couple of days, I now know that I’m not alone with my issue.

I have been looking to upgrade my card for a few weeks and finally settled on the Asus 8800GTS 640mb. My motherboard at the time was AGP and I had an X800XT installed. As I can’t afford to upgrade everything, I was very fortunate to be given a brand new motherboard with a PCI-E socket and also enabled me to use all my current components. It’s not the fastest, considering today’s components, but it does ok.

The main games I use are flightsim versions 9 and 10. In FS9 with my old setup, I could have the settings medium and use complex add-ons and scenery and get an average of 20 fps, which was enough not to see any stuttering. FSX was somewhat not as forgiving and almost everything was turned down, just to run it. I was also unable to use any complex add-ons.

With my new card I was hoping for at least some increase in fps so that I could turn up the settings and maybe use FSX. Unfortunately things have gone the other way. I have had to turn down my settings to low in FS9 and FSX is just a no go. The AA issues exists, even changing the settings using nhancer or riva turner, I still have to have application AA on. I am bitterly disappointed, having used ATI for the past 4years and had no issues, that I upgrade to a different make and have poor performance.

I have rechecked all cables and voltages/amps. I have fans and plenty of ventilation, even running with case sides off just to check. I have checked all motherboard and other device drivers to ensure they are the latest. And then I have tried many different drivers going back to the 9x.xx. But no matter what, I do the performance is worse than my previous setup.

I also have Desert Storm II and EA Sports F1 and these games pull an easy 70+ fps. Is it really just a driver issue for FS, or is it more hardware related? I’m only going to wait another week, and then I’m sending the card back and getting a Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB instead.

My previous setup

Athlon 64 3700+ Clawhammer
Asus K8N-E Deluxe
ATi X800XT
2x SATA 120Gb Seagate Barracuda
2Gb Crucial matched pair
Antec TrueBlue 480w PSU
2x DVD-R

I have changed the motherboard, card and PSU to

Asus K8N4-E SE
Asus 8800GTS 640mb
Thermaltake TR2 500w

I know my CPU maybe a bit of a bottleneck, but was i expecting too much when i got the card? I never thought the performance would be worse than my old card, but this is what i have. Can anyone recommend anything or a more suitable card?

Almost forgot, I use Win XP Pro.


Thanks
Mataus

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

According to the specs for your psu you only get 14amps 12 rail 1 and 15 amps rail 2. Thats not much. May be your problem as I think the GTS needs more than that

 

[mataus]

This is what nvidia say i require:

8800 GTS:

This graphics card requires:

PCI Express®-compliant motherboard with one x16 graphics slot

6-pin supplementary power connector

Minimum 400W or greater system power supply (with 12V current rating of 26A)*

*Minimum system power requirement based on a PC configured with an Intel® Core™2 Extreme X6800


Would my PSU still not be powerful enough? All it says is the min required 12v rating, but doesnt really say what the card truly needs. I dont think my CPU drinks as much as the X6800, but maybe i'm wrong. I don't want to spend £100 on another PSU and i still have the same issue.

Thanks for your advice
Mataus

 

[mike99]

That PSU should be OK. What OS :?: Nvidie drivers for Vista are reported still poor. Did you do fresh install or repair install :?:

Mike.

 

[mataus]

Im using Win XP Pro, which i reinstalled recently, so theres no crap on the pc at the moment!

My previous card was ATi, so no previous nvidia drivers on there. Have tried about 10 drivers so far, going back to the 9x.xx versions, but every one the same. I always use driver sweep when uninstalling awell.

Thanks
Mataus

 

[mike99]

Download 3Dmark06 and you will see if performance is poor.

Mike.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Wheres mpilch when you need him? At 14 and 15 amps per rail on the 12 volt, combined it must be what?22amps? This may be an issue, as Ive seen on here before that the 8800GTS will underperform using a lessor psu. The 500 watts dont mean squat if they arent applied where theyre needed most, which is the PCI-E as well as the cpu.

 

[Techfan]

The problem probably is driver issue. I can't explain otherwise your new card results. Here are some benches that prove that, 7900 is faster than 8800GTX in flight sim X. I think before you change the card find out some benches that prove you 2900XT 512 is faster in flight sim X than 8800GTS.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=740&model2=722&chart=290

 

[mataus]

Well, my 3D score was 5506 - poor?

Well, maybe the best thing is to send back the card and get something that my PSU and CPU can handle best.

Any suggestions to what would be ideal for my current setup?

Thanks to all for your advice
Mataus

 

[Kronos76]

I think it could be either a driver issue or a PSU issue. Honestly, one question I find that is never asked is "How old is your PSU" What was its past loads, for example, was it run 24/7. Capacitor decay starts at Day 1. Your PSU may not be running at 100%, that being said, the GTS card is a power hog, not as much as the GTX, but still needy. I really suggest you consider that you may be under powering the card and check the actual power supplied to the card.

 

[petevsdrm]

I would check the PSU first, form the symptoms you are describing. Pick one up and try it out, if that's not the problem then just return it to the store and try another solution.

Good Luck

 

[haywood]

I agree with the others, that PSU is iffy. If it is the PSU then quite soon it will blow and possibly take the mobo, RAM and/or processor with it.

 

[Kronos76]

I agree with the others, that PSU is iffy. If it is the PSU then quite soon it will blow and possibly take the mobo, RAM and/or processor with it.

I will admit, that is something I neglected to mentioned, the overall effects of a declining/decaying PSU are unpredictable and sometimes can lead to problems you can not troubleshot at basic, and intermediate, levels.

 

[delluser1]

Well, my 3D score was 5506 - poor?

Average for your hardware ( cpu, gpu ) with no overclock.