Weird Happenings with 8500

[Guest]

Here's what is happenning, when I first installed my Radeon 8500, I was able to get Quake3 to benchmark just under 200fps using demo001. Also my 3DMark2001SE scored 7500+, That was with the standard install drivers from the CD. Then i installed the 6043 drivers and bam, my 3dmark score soared to 8000, and after installing Powerstrip I got close to 8300 Overclocked to 290/290.But now, when I benchmark Quake3 it is stuck to my monitor refresh limit, ie. 85fps. I've tried the refresh fix and have vsync turned off but no matter what I do i still only get 85 fps.
2 things i noticed: with the original drivers installed wcpuid states that sideband adressing and agp fastwrites are both available and enabled, but with the 6043 drivers it says fastwrites disabled.
I have no problems with lockups with fastwrites or sideband enabled with the cd drivers, it runs very fast and smooth but why does it give great marks in Q3benchmarks but slow 3dmarks?
Also, When I try to enable fastwrites or disable the sideband adressing using powerstrip with the 6043 drivers, my system just locks up and pukes.
any suggestions?
System specs:
Asus A7v266-E W/Athlon XP 1600+
256 meg DDR PC2100
Radeon 8500(retail)
Soundblaster Audigy
Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB ATA100
19" Viewsonic

Thanks fellas

 

[AMD_Man]

I don't believe the Radeon 8500 supports Fast Writes. It's usually unstable with Fast Writes. Also, with 64MB, the AGP bus isn't used that much and Fast Writes wouldn't have much of an effect on performance. Type this in the console in Quake III:

/com_maxfps 0
/cg_drawfps 1

Then you can see the FPS while you're playing or while you're benchmarking in Quake III. It should always run at maximum FPS.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Guest]

hmm....
wcpuid shows it as enabled, sandra shows it as supported?
what makes you say fastwrites aren't supported on the 8500?
it appears to not only support it but on my system it is enabled and running flawlessly.
Please enlighten us

 

[AMD_Man]

Your motherboard supports Fast Writes but that doesn't mean the R8500 does. Fast Writes are basically an nVidia only thing that squeezes out a 1 or 2% performance boost for their cards.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[bront]

Interesting though, I thought Fast Writes were part of the AGP 4x standard, didn't think they were optional.

I do not like it Tom you see,
I do not like green PCB.