Ati Cards and 3DMark06: don't play nice?

[jay2tall]

So today I recieved my new ASUS Dark Knight 4870 1GB card. Nice card, runs coo, fan runs at 50% and is loud :-( but whatever. Anyways. I had an issue with a build a few months ago and have the same issue with my PC. 3DMark06 locks up when I launch it. The other build used a 4670 and now a 4870. Is there an issue with ATI cards and 3dMark? I installed the update on FutureMarks site and still a no go.

 

[meodowla]

May be because of any driver conflict... I'm using HD4850... have 3Dmark06 score 0f 12111

 

[meodowla]

 

[kingtz]

With 8.10, I got a 13305 using a 4850 OC and a E8400 OC. 3DMarks06 worked fine. I haven't tried benching since 8.12 though, but I'm not sure I want to, given all these driver failures.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Check your update again, when does it fail.

FM had the detect issue with 3Dmk06, but their latest update is supposed to fix it. But maybe it didn't, try this;

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ati_2900xt/5.html

 

[jay2tall]

I uninstalled it completely and downloaded a fresh copy. This seemed to work.

Very odd though at stock I am getting 11,xxx something which is lower than the 8800GTS512 (750/1000) card I had before. It was getting 12,xxx.

Actually the story is I had gotten a GTX260 55nm card that was defective so i RMAed to Newegg however as a refund not an exchange. So i purchased this card instead. My thought was the 260 was being help back by the CPU as it did not show a HUGe increase at all. I was told the ATI cards are more driver intensive and less on the CPU.

The odd thing is the 4870 gets lower frames on ALL of my game compared to the GT 260 and sometimes the 8800GTS. However its very odd because even though, for examply in FarCry2 it runs between 40-50fps (sometimes higher) it runs smoother than the other 2 cards at the same rate. With the Nvidia cards, if I wasn't getting 50-60 fps it was choppy. the Ati card can dip to 40fps and still not seem choppy or even that it is running a lower frame rate. I found that very odd. I can run FarCry2 Dx9 maxed out with x8 AA (1680x1050) and it runs really smooth even at 40-50 fps. It kind of baffles me. Even Crysis runs at mid 30-40fps and is buttery smooth.

This card has baffled me for the last day with all of this. The fan is annoying though, you would think ASUS wouldn't run it at 50% when its idling at 48-50C

My last ATI card was the x1900xtx.

 

[wh3resmycar]

jay, as far as reviews are concerned farcry 2 on ati runs faster on DX10 (it has dx10.1 support) especially with a bit of AA you might want to give it a try, too.

i think my 4850 became more stable when i switched to vista, too. so imo, you should do the switch.

and btw, i remembered that as soon as PhysX was enabled on the Geforce, the 3dmark06 score got a pretty huge boost. so a 3dmark06 test is not a pretty accurate way of comparing these cards anymore.

 

[jay2tall]

I am going to make the switch to Vista shortly. I think it is about that time. I'm just waiting on my buddy to say go because if you purchase Vista Ultimate through newegg by the end of the month with a HD,CPU, or motherboard you get a free $50 newegg gift card. So i want to take advantage of that deal and he said he'd give me the cash for the drive.

Hey $50 is $50 right?

So the newer ATI cards actually perform better in DX10 mode? That would be just sweet. I am excited for Vista. It's been out 2 years and is pretty well patched. Not sure why everyone despises Vista, XP was the SAME way when it first came out. And Windows 98, it's nothing new.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[wh3resmycar]

yep, and you can use that 50$ for this next month:

http://www.totalwar.com

its still depends on the games though, farcry2 has dx10.1 support so the 4800s are definitely better than the geforce on that game. but if you'll look on the crysis benchies @ dx10, the green goblin has the upper hand. but then again both cards are good performers anyway. as long as it runs stable, meaning no bsods and game crashes, i think theres nothing to worry about.

 

[jay2tall]

I'll have to check out that link tonight. I'm at work and it's blocked.

Yeah I think i need to get DX10 goin on my rig. It's the next step.

 

[wh3resmycar]

this is my opinion so its not a scientific fact.

dx9 crysis or dx9 fc2 on my rig happens to be a little slower than dx10 crysis or dx10 fc2, this happened as soon as i transfered from an xp catalyst 8.11 to a catalyst 8.12 vista.

no VPU recover errors as well with vista, because they removed it from the drivers (i cant find it on CCC). i'd rather get a BSOD than 10 VPU recover errors in 1 minute.

 

[meodowla]

jay, as far as reviews are concerned farcry 2 on ati runs faster on DX10 (it has dx10.1 support) especially with a bit of AA you might want to give it a try, too.

i think my 4850 became more stable when i switched to vista, too. so imo, you should do the switch.

and btw, i remembered that as soon as PhysX was enabled on the Geforce, the 3dmark06 score got a pretty huge boost. so a 3dmark06 test is not a pretty accurate way of comparing these cards anymore.

I think... its because FarCry2 is DirectX10.1 game and GPU also the same.... that makes the deal...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_10_support

 

[meodowla]

this is my opinion so its not a scientific fact.

dx9 crysis or dx9 fc2 on my rig happens to be a little slower than dx10 crysis or dx10 fc2, this happened as soon as i transfered from an xp catalyst 8.11 to a catalyst 8.12 vista.

no VPU recover errors as well with vista, because they removed it from the drivers (i cant find it on CCC). i'd rather get a BSOD than 10 VPU recover errors in 1 minute.

May be thats because of driver change... Catalyst v8.12 boasts increase of ~4% performance for games like Crysis... I'm not sure about that.. read somewhere in Toms Hardware..

 

[jay2tall]

Yeah definitely time for me to go Vista.