HIS HD3850 - not running at full clock...or is it??

[benzene]

Hey all and a merry xmas while I'm at it. Got a bit of a christmas conundrum for ya...

I've just put together a system for my bro, specs thus;

Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz prime stable
Asus P5k vanilla
Corsair xms 2 Gb
HIS ati HD3850 256mb
Antec 500w psu (I know...maybe not the best, but I don't think that's the issue here)
WD 160Gb Cav SE HDD

I'm currently using the latest Omega drivers on win XP sp2.

So that's the system, it went together fine and overclocked easily with reasonable temps in the case and on the cpu's.

The problem became apparent when I took a look at the clock speeds on the GFX card - the defaults should be 668 GPU and 829 for the memory but I get different readings, all lower, depending on what I use to read them, so;
ATI tool reports 335 & 414 (WTF!!), GPU-z gives us 669 and 829 (spot on), 3D mark 06 concurs with ati tool and the catalyst overclocking util bit gives 300 and 829.

Also I am unable to alter the clock speed using any of these tools (nor riva tuner) and the 3d view in ati tool displays very badly. To add to the mystery I can play UT3 demo at full settings at 1440x900 no problem but I get a well below par score in 3d mark 06.

Anyone got any ideas on this?? I really need to get the clocks to default and I'm not ready to RMA the card just yet.

Thanks in advance <3

 

[randomizer]

To save power, the cards clock themselves down when running in 2D mode (ie. desktop). What is your 3dmark06 score?

EDIT: Merry christmas

 

[benzene]

...thanks for the quick post. TBH I hadn't thought of that, speedstep for GFX!! In which case I'm surprised not to have found a thousand other posts asking "why is my gfx core slow"? like in the cpu forum

The 3d 06 score was 7500 ish, but it was bottom of the pile of similar machines. I still get the feeling something is awry (the crappy 3d view in ati tool for one)...do you know how I can disable this clock ramping?

Thanks for the tip & have a great Christmas.

 

[benzene]

...and why can't I adjust the clocks at all? Hmmm.