Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB - narrow down a problem

[optimist]

well i have a Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, ive studied a couple of threads in here, but couldnt finde anything that match up to my problem.

its been going on for quit some time now, when i boot up in windows and i get that windows loading screen where the little thingie moves from side to side. just before i switches to the login screen, its like a couple of pixel rows suddently jumps a couple of CM to the right. it can be one line, or many and its not everytime windows starts, ive tryed other monitores and the problem still exists.

another thing is, when i run aquamark2003 bench test, i get an ok score 35000Marks, but at diffrent places doing the test my graphic dosnt run smooth .. hmm how to explain this .. well if u take you hand and move it across a smooth surface and the suddently hit some dirt or a none smooth area, just for a micro sec your hand whould slow just in that instance... i dont know if that maid sence, but thats my problem, and the frame rate dosnt drop.

what ive tryed.

diffrent drivers (No change )
reinstalled multible times (No change )
looked for conflict/shareing devices (fixed another problem i had with a game )
turned fastwrite off (Fixed some system stability)
tryed with and without V-sync (No change)
ive tryed with BIOS default and Tweeked (No change)
i allso had the problem with my old computer( just bought the MSI resently)

my system is:

MSI KT6 delta FISR
Athlon XP 2600+ (2130MHz)
1 GB Samsung RAM 333MHz
200GB Sata Maxtor HDD
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 PRO 128MB DDR ram
Hyndai 19" monitor and Compaq V75 17" monitor

the current drivers im useing is Omega ( the newest )
and the card is cooled plenty (not over 50 C)

 

[DonnieDarko]

Sapphire Atlantis 9800 PRO 128MB DDR ram

Are you sure you didn't get the atlantis 9800pro that has the 128bit memory? Have you used a program like rivatuner to make sure?

AMD64 2800+
MSI Neo-Fis2r
512mb Kingmax ddr400
Sapphire 9800pro 128mb
10K WD Raptor

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya optimist:

Are you by chance Overclocking the CPU without locking your AGP/PCI bus to 66/33?

 

[optimist]

im running with a FSB on 170 MHz, i dont think this whoud cause it, but then again the problem have been there even when i boot up first time with only 133MHz

 

[optimist]

umm as far as i know, there is only one atlantis model, well 2 one wit 128 MB ram and the other with 256 MB ram, but im quit sutain that it has 128bit memory controler too.

does Riva Tuner support AIT, i thought it was only Nvidia

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya Optimist:

If you have been Overclocking your CPU without locking your AGP/PCI bus to 66/33 then there is a very very good chance you have trashed your graphics card, when you Overclock your CPU you are Overclocking your AGP/PCI bus as a byproduct and running your graphics cards Bus out of spec by that far will cause problems on most graphics cards, they dont have much of a tollerance for variance.

Sorry to have to tell you this, but no worries the manufacturer wont know the difference, just RMA it, and say nothing and everything will be fine.

 

[optimist]

8MHz is that much ?, could that bring my AGP card down ?

 

[xeenrecoil]

im running with a FSB on 170 MHz, i dont think this whoud cause it, but then again the problem have been there even when i boot up first time with only 133MHz

133Mhz to 170Mhz is alot more then 8Mhz, that is 37Mhz to be exact, and with a 37Mhz OC your AGP/PCI Bus is way way OCed and yes that much variance can bring your graphics card down, if ran at that speed long enough. If you are going to Overclock and you dont have the option to lock your AGP/PCI bus then you need to take that into consideration when you are OCing, and not take it as high or your Graphics card can suffer from it, not to mention your PCI cards.

 

[optimist]

umm i have a 333MHz proccessor so i need to run 166MHz in the bios and have a devider on 12.5/13 on the CPU.
the 133 where a default boot up. but due to that the BIOS somehow cant run at 13x but only 12.5x, so ive turned up the FSB alittle so it whould match out.
but as i said the problem where allso there when i booted with the default value of 133MHz

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya optimist;

DOH!!!
for some reason when you said 133Mhz FSB i thought you had a Pentium...I now see you are running an AMD, ok good enough.
A 8Mhz OC on your CPU wont cause your AGP/PCI bus to be out of spec far enough to cause a problem in most cases. So it may just be that your graphics card is simply defective if you said it has always displayed the errors even when it was new, a brand new defective graphics card isnt unheard of by a long shot. Sorry about the mixup, im trying my best to help here heh
Are you getting artifacts durring game play as well or only on the windows boot up screen? I have seen that happen before as well and thats just windows not your graphics card.
If its only doing it on that single instance then there is nothing wrong with your card.
The score of 35k is low, by about 10k, you should be getting closer to 45k in Aquamark 3.

Im guessing this is because the memory interface on your card is 128-bit. Saphire has been preying on unsuspecting buyers, selling the 128-bit version letting people assume it is the full Pro version with the 256-bit memory interface.

This is highly likely and if it happened to you, that sucks big time, although im not sure there is anything you can do to correct the injustice.

 

[optimist]

heh NP you just maid me wonder if i had misunderstood something very importan .. well the problem havent been there allways but started showing up for about 3 to 4 months ago, well i guess that longe i didnt keep trak, and to be frank, i havent bothered me that much too, but then again if i have a defect card i want to return it while i can .. and im asking this question only to make sure that ive havent [-peep-] up in some other way, ie by useing the wrong driver, wrong setting in bios, ect ect.

well i havent noticed any atifacts and stuff elsewhere only poor preformance, or what i consider poor preformance, even places where a GF4 could keep up.

is there any way for me to finde out if i have a 128bit or 256bit memory interface ?

 

[optimist]

well just a notification.. the Radeon i have is a Sapphire atlantis. ive have allways thought that the card i had was the "bedst" if u well, on the market when i bought it, ive never been at sapphires site, untill today .. and this is what met me

http://www.sapphiretech.com/press/128-bit-9800.pdf

though i might want to return it, or atleast try.

 

[Guest]

pay the extra 20$ or somethign and get a new card with 256bit memory it will be much faster and spanking new!
Trust me its worth the xtra money

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-3-3-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya optimist:

If you can meet their product return requirements HELL YES send it back and get the faster card, i wouldnt even hessitate!

 

[DonnieDarko]

is there any way for me to finde out if i have a 128bit or 256bit memory interface ?

I perfer using everest. It will give you all the info about any part of your computer. A pretty cool program.

AMD64 2800+
MSI Neo-Fis2r
512mb Kingmax ddr400
Sapphire 9800pro 128mb
10K WD Raptor

 

[optimist]

ive tested my soundcard with everest as suggested, and it says that i have a memeory BW at 256Bit, so now i wonder, my card is an atlantis verison, you said that i should have a much higher speed on it, could it be true that there could be something wrong with everest ?