*sigh*....GeForce 3, 1.33Ghz Tbird, 512mb DDRAM and a score of ***1600** on 3DMark and horid Q3 performance-plz help :(

[pg22]

I'm *so* close to destroying my brand new rig :|

Here's what I put together yesterday:

1.33Ghz Tbird, GeForce 3, 512mb DDR RAM, EpoX 8K7A motherboard, etc etc.

Basically, my 3D gaming peformace is miserable, and I have no clue why. My 3DMark score never goes over the 1600's, and my Quake 3 timedemo's are a little over half Anand's. I tried some other Direct3D game demos and thy were unbelievably slow. Essentially, Direct3D games are crippled and OpenGL games are severely slowed.

Prior to this, I had a P3-1ghz, BE6-2 mobo, and GeForce 2 and it blows away what I've put together just now. I've tried the 12.40, 12.00, and 6.5 drivers. No help. I've tried my old GeForce 2 in the new setup - trying to see if it was the GF3 - and I barely beat 1000 in 3dmark (simply unreal). So I know it's not a videocard problem.

I've already installed the VIA 4 in 1 drivers (4.31), so I have no clue what the problem is. But I do know that I'm fuming :|

Thanks for any help and/or suggestions.

 

[odog]

you reload the OS?

 

[fitzhue]

That does sound very strange. Do you have the latest Epox bios? Are the settings on optimized? If they are at fail safe, then I would suspect it to run pretty slow. Just tryin to give you some suggestions.

 

[pg22]

oh yes. Reformatted both the Win2k and 98 dual boot. That was the next thing I was going to explain - that the 3d performace blows in *both* Win2k and Win98.

So I know it's not the OS or videocard, but I'm dead stuck

 

[pg22]

My BIOS is dated at 3-15-2001. I checked their website, but they had no bios update for the 8K7A, unless I completely missed it.

Someone suggested that it has to be some random BIOS setting somewhere, that's set wrong. But I'm pretty sure I did everything correctly. I've checked, re-checked, then checked again. AGP is at 4x....

 

[Wingznut]

That really sucks. Sorry that I don't have a suggestion for you, but you do have my sympathy. I hope you figure it out soon.

 

[odog]

what exactly is in this system....

be specific in its most exact sense.

 

[stultus]

You did install DX8, right?

 

[pg22]

1.33ghz Tbird w/ Alpha 3065
512 Crucial DDR RAM
Visiontek GeForce 3 w/ 2Cooltek GeForce cooling kit (blue orb)
EpoX 8K7A mobo
SB Live 5.1
Maxtor 7200 RPM running at ATA66
SMC NIC
Adaptect 2930 SCSI Card
Plextor 12/4/32 SCSI burner
Win2k/98 Dual boot
DirectX8
USB Intellimouse Explorer


Can't think of anything else of signifigance. Everything seems installed ok, and system performace is rock solid, except for 3D gaming

 

[pg22]

Yes, DX8 is installed. I've searched other forums and have come up with no similar problems. My next idea is to just go to the BIOS and start turning sh1t on and off at random. lol...woe is me

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

have you tried dropping back your 4n1 version? how about turning off vsync for you opengl stuff?

 

[Techno]

Here is a link to a new BIOS for u'r board!

I don't have this board so i don't know what the bios does, but there it is.

 

[pg22]

Yes to both Bruno. I'll try that BIOS right now Techno. Thanks guys.

 

[pg22]

Here's from the 3dMark 2001 test I just performed in Win98:

----------------------------------
Project Name AT

Operating System Microsoft Windows 98
DirectX Version 8.00

Mobo Manufacturer
Mobo Model 761-686B

CPU AMD Athlon(tm) Processor 1330 Mhz
FSB 133 MHz

3D Accelerator NVIDIA GeForce3
Graphics Chipset NVIDIA GeForce3
Driver Version 4.13.01.1240
Video Memory 64 MB

Resolution 1024x768 32bit
Texture Format Compressed
FSAA Disabled
Z-Buffer Depth 24bit
Frame Buffer Double
Rendering Pipeline D3D Pure Hardware T&L

----------------------------

3DMark Result 1615 3D marks

Game 1 Car Chase - Low Detail 22.6 FPS
Game 1 Car Chase - High Detail 12.3 FPS
Game 2 Dragothic - Low Detail 13.7 FPS
Game 2 Dragothic - High Detail 5.5 FPS
Game 3 Lobby - Low Detail 34.4 FPS
Game 3 Lobby - High Detail 19.1 FPS
Game 4 Nature 8.0 FPS

Fill Rate (Single-Texturing) 568.8 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing) 1294.0 MTexels/s

High Polygon Count (1 light) 1.4 MTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (8 lights) 1.4 MTriangles/s

Environment Bump Mapping 49.9 FPS
DOT3 Bump Mapping 53.4 FPS

Vertex Shader Speed 7.0 FPS
Pixel Shader Speed 40.6 FPS
Point Sprite Speed 4.2 MSprites/s


-------------------------------

Look how slow some of those FPS are

 

[Leon]

Do you have FSAA enabled?

 

[pg22]

nope.

You would think though, with those scores, eh?

 

[Renob]

If I were you I would start from scratch and rebuild it ant reformat take your time and do everything right start with just the vidcard in and load the OS then the 4in1s and one card at a time. Good luck.

 

[Dill]

try the 4.29 4-1's

I've heard of some problems with the 4.31's

 

[UT4EVER]

I hope you didn't get a bad board....

 

[pg22]

Ok, I tried the new BIOS, and then turn 2 options on that (according to the manual) would improve performance. Unfortunatley, nothing changed

Dill - I tried the 4.29's....no improvement.

renob - Do you really think that may solve the problem? One thing I wish I didn't do was install the 4 in 1's prior to any benchmarking. Maybe it's the 4 in 1's that are screwing 3d performance up (keep in mind, I've tried like 3 diff. versions)?

UT - If the board was actually bad, don't you think more than just piss poor 3d performance would occur? I dunno, I'm flat outta options.

Anyone else?

 

[Renob]

I would start all over and like I said load your os then the 41n1s use the 4.29 and be sure to click on turbo mode and DMA

 

[CAMS]

First you must read the manual.

Secondly I am surprised that after all these posts no one pointed out that you have an AMD761 chipset (not VIA) and that it requires there driver that is on the disk supplied with the motherboard and should have instructions in manual.

You need the AGP miniport driver or AGP performance will suck bigtime, download it for both OS from here.

Drivers and Utilities

I Should have been more clear. get AGP miniport 5.22 for Win2000 and 4.80 for 98

 

[Renob]

good catch Cams I was just now checking what chipset he had but you beat me to it. BTW I guess I need to read the orginal post more carefully be for I try to help.

 

[CAMS]

Ha, Beat you by 4 minutes.

 

[Cutepunk]

And don't forget to remove VIA 4-in-1 drivers first.
Install AMD AGP Miniport driver, and then Install VIA IDE Busmaster.
Here's the link
http://www.viahardware.com/download/580_3011.EXE

good luck