HL2 and X800XL issues

[brandon882]

HI! I just joined here to ask some important questions, because google doesnt seem to have the help i need.
So, here are my specs:
P4 2.80
1G DDR400
X800XL 256MB
MSI mobo
Sound Blaster live! 24-bit
240gigs HDDs

So Im wondering, before i had a 6600GT and i could play CSS/HL2 no problem (smoother in css) with high settings, but after i sold it and after a while I bought a X800XL 256MB and installed it. for some reason i dont seem to get the smoothest game play, its not as good as what i played before, and when i run into a alot of action, say... 16 players in a server, it gets chppy at times. the 6600GT was only a 128MB and the X800XL way surpasses that card. The settings i play with are High/Low water/No shadows without AA or AF and no Vsync. Would my set up alone be able to play this game good? ATI and Steam are no help, thnx!

 

[cleeve]

The amount of memory isn't all that relevant, but frankly ther X800 XL GPU should run circles around the 6600 GT GPU. Something looks really weird, there.

Did you overclock the card or something? Might be unstable for some reason. What does it get in 3dMark 2005?

 

[pauldh]

Those are some ugly settings to play at. I used to own an AGP X800XL and had no problems running HL2 at 1280x1024 max details 4xaa/8xaf with that card. How does your system do in single player HL2? Is it just during online multiplayer you feel the lag?

 

[brandon882]

For a score, i do not have a 3Dmark05 number, but in aquamark i have 53,507.
And the card is not overclocked at all, just at stock settings, and I also get the slow lag performance while on single player and multi player. i dont think its my internet cause I have high speed cable, and while online, it seems to chug as usual with anything over 16 players, and on single player it chugs just about when theres moderate action. (e.g. exploding barrels and owning combine faces) But i guess on the settings "pauldh" mentioned, it would get worse if i set it to those.. this is weird..

By the way, a quick question: Does ATI like Fast Writes?

 

[mactronix]

I would download 3dmark 05 and run it to see what you get that way we can tell if the card is obviously not running correctly. I had one and still have a history of the scores so could tell you if its on par or not, My system at the time was comparable to what your specs are so we will have a good idea where we are at.
Mactronix

 

[Anoobis]

Did you correctly remove the old Nvidia drivers?

 

[brandon882]

Yes i did completely remove all the drivers from my system and re-installed them. I just ran 3dmark05 and had a score of 4923 3dmarks. I even had my card on optimal performance. so is there a problem with it? Just to mention.. i ran a programm called "video card stability test" and it failed the stability test 20 seconds in.... should i be concerned? or has this card seen better days? Thanks for the help.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

The card *might* be on its way out the door, but it could very well be a power supply issue since the X800XL draws significantly more power than the 6600GT. What PSU do you have?

-mcg

 

[mactronix]

Hi brandon
Your 3dmark 05 score is good as i said i have the results from when i had a system very similar to yours, i compared mine online at the time and they were about right, you could well have a heat related issue that would take a while to show up but for a start i agree we should rule out the psu.
So as MrCommunistGen says What PSU do you have?
Mactronix

 

[brandon882]

Well before i got the x800xl, I put in a coolermaster 500 watt PSU. It's very good and tested ok.