Expected better graphics with my new X850XT PE card. Is this normal?

2006-01-12 08:58:45

#1

Adonlude: Member; +2|7204

Just replaced my ATI 9800Pro with an ATI X850XT PE, should be a pretty big upgrade.
Here is the rest of my system:
P4 3GHz OC'd to 3.15GHz, 800MHz FSB
P4C800 Deluxe motherboard
2 Gb low latency RAM
An old 19" Dell CRT monitor with max resolution of 1600x1200
All my drivers are up to date.

So with my 9800Pro I could play with mostly high settings, some medium, and no AA at the resolution just above 800x600. I would get low FPS in 64 man servers occasionaly and always on the Iron Gator.

With my X850XT PE I have everything on high with 4x AA and 1600x1200 resolution (which doesn't even look that much better) and my FPS ocassionally drops to 20 in some situations. This is ok but sometimes my picture gets choppy as if I am getting quick FPS drops although I dont see it drop below 20FPS. It is almost as if I am getting processor lag or something but I have 2GB of memory and all my background programs terminated. I cant believe my processor cant keep up with the game. I expected to be able to max out everything and get smooth gameplay at all times with this new card.

My second issue is with the shadows:
Even with my new card when I walk up to any of the shadows for vheicles or other moveable objects they look all squareish at the edges like they were drawn in MS paint with the largest brush. I also get really bad shadows on vheicles when I am close to them and at the right angle. These shadows look like Venetian blinds that flicker on and off and just look like an obvious rendering error. Is this a normal issue?

Overall I am kind of dissapointed with my upgrade. A $400 graphics card has only made my gaming experience marginally better. The extra gig of RAM I added for $120 had more of an effect than the new graphics card.

I would appreciate any feedback on these problems.
Thanks!

Last edited by Adonlude (2006-01-12 09:21:42)

2006-01-12 09:55:10

#2

[CANADA]_Zenmaster: Pope Picard II; +473|7171

1600x1200 4xAA and High AF (I believe 4x or 8x AF) will give any card a work out, especially on BF2. Shadows are also notorious for gutting your fps. I'd just scale back your resolution and take the shadows off. Check what fps you get with that. If it doesn't improve, do you have the latest catalyst drivers? Are you running ATI Tool? Do you run something stupid like Norton antivirus? Take a look.

2006-01-12 09:57:36

#3

IBKCKNURASS: Corrosion Inhibitor; +172|7162

since you went from ati to ati you need to be sure that you un installed all the ati drivers first. if not then remove them with the ati software removal crap from thier website. Then just DL the latest drivers package and install

2006-01-12 10:08:49

#4

sit0: Member; +1|7133|Halifax, Canada

Hmmm, sounds like u have a bottleneck somewhere. I have a similar system and can run everything high and still get around 60+ FPS. Have you tried benchmarking at all? If the benchmark doesn't pick anything up and re-installing the drivers doesn't work, I would try reformatting.

You should a get better performance than what you're currently seeing

2006-01-12 10:09:16

#5

Adonlude: Member; +2|7204

Catalyst drivers are up to date. I disabled the ATI Hotkey poller service (atiptxxx.exe or something), and the system tray. I allow ATI Smart service to run. I allow the Control center processes to run. I have Norton System Works 2005 but I manually terminate about 5 of its processes before playing games (2 of its processes do not dissapear after I terminate them, I am not sure why).

So ya, I kill most background process before playing. Maybe I need to kill all of ATI's processes.

I have reinstalled drivers twice with no effect. I will run 3DMark 2005 and post back tonight. What sort of benchmarking would you recommend besides 3DMark 2005???

Last edited by Adonlude (2006-01-12 10:13:41)

2006-01-12 15:50:38

#6

xilix: Member; +0|7192

Try dropping lighting to medium. I run 6X AA on my X800XT with everything high (except lighting) and it runs like a champ. Once I turn lighting to high it really takes a performance hit.

2006-01-12 15:59:22

#7

JON.ANTONSSON: Member; +51|7117|Sweden

I have everything on low exept: 100Hz (So I dont get blind), 100% disctance. And its lagging all the time.

2006-01-17 11:40:52

#8

Adonlude: Member; +2|7204

Ok, graphics still suck. To get good FPS without choppyness or skipping I have to run:
Lighting, DLighting, DShadows = medium
2x AA, Medium Filtering
Rest = High
1280x1024

These settings are barely better than my 9800 pro. I have updated chipset drivers and gfx drivers and deleted BF2 cache files, nothing has helped.

2006-01-18 08:31:33

#9

Sh4rkb1t3: Member; +6|7110

What you were getting was called stuttering. It happens when you have no more free RAM left, so your processor has to read off of the hard drive. The hard drive is very slow, so it causes stuttering. Upgrading your RAM fixed this problem because now your CPU doesn't have to read off of the HD. You COULD have just lowered your texture quality to medium to fix this problem, since medium textures use about half as much RAM as high textures.

At high textures, BF2 uses about 1.3GB of RAM.

At medium textures, BF2 less than 1 GB of ram.

Last edited by Sh4rkb1t3 (2006-01-18 08:32:26)

2006-01-18 14:13:42

#10

Adonlude: Member; +2|7204

UPDATE:

I have a backup install of XP on a second hard drive that is totally stripped down of programs and services. I used Driver Cleaner Pro on this OS and reinstalled all drivers. I then reinstalled BF2 on this hard drive and played to see if there was any change in performance. It feels like I might be getting a couple more FPS but there is no real difference. I still have to play on the same settings mentioned previously to get a perfectly smooth play experience (even then it snags ocassoinally).

So after 2 hours of installing not much has changed. Getting the same results on 2 seperate systems now leads me to believe that this is as good as it can get.

2006-01-18 14:18:44

#11

maddogjj: Member; +3|7257|U S A

Just replaced my ATI 9800Pro with an ATI X850XT PE

HEY LoOK LOOK I just found your problem , look at those three letters in front of your card it says ATI

SHOULD READ NVIDIA LOL LOL LOL

2006-01-18 14:29:54

#12

josh's: Banned; +2|7114

ATI is way better then nividia un less your talking the nivida 7800 gtx whith 512 md ddr then nivida wins

2006-01-18 14:29:55

#13

fikraag7: j00baroni w/ l33t sauce; +1|7180

Try a new monitor--I had an old Gateway CRT and it f-ed up all the time...get a decent LCD or borrow one from a friend

2006-01-18 14:29:55

#14

SuB: Member; +50|7101

this sounds odd.. it's almost as though you didn't clear the drivers out completely

The only thing that will be limiting you is that CPU
2GB of ram is AMPLE
that said what hard drives do you have? this might be having and effect if you have a slow drive.
cooling ok? no issues with heat/downclocking of the setup?
have you upgraded your power supply since the 9800 or are you still running an old low powered low amp one
this CAN have a big effect on the system if there isn't enough power being given.

2006-01-18 14:33:51

#15

fikraag7: j00baroni w/ l33t sauce; +1|7180

The power issue (or lack thereof) may be the problem...you'd need probably at least a 400 watt PSU...

Try posting on ocforums.com or something if you still have problems

2006-01-18 16:28:28

#16

xilix: Member; +0|7192

Is this a PCI-E or AGP card and what model mobo? Newer Mobos allow you to incrementally increase voltage to video BUS via the BIOS. If yours supports that, you may give it a shot.

2006-01-18 17:20:55

#17

SuB: Member; +50|7101

there is NO need to change voltage to the card... it won't change anything
if it's power it needs u need a higher rated QUALITY PSU NOT QTEC! i say that again
NOT QTEC!!!!
get somthing like a tagan 480 upwards and i'm sure it'l sort things out

2006-01-18 18:41:43

#18

Rofl_My_Waffle: Member; +11|7116

what type of ram do you have DDR P400? or something lesser, because it may be your ram not being able to transfer quickly enough.

2006-01-19 05:25:34

#19

onthelam: Member; +0|7192

Punkbuster takes screenshots every 20 seconds, a bit excessive if you ask me..
Change the amount of time between screenshots by opening console, type pb_sleep 500, then pb_writecfg
I have a similar system and that tweak made the biggest difference for my stuttering problems.

2006-01-19 05:42:44

#20

Rakasan: Member; +7|7262|California, USA

I run an X850XT, but the AGP version. I run 1024x768, 4x AA, everything on high without no probs. Try using the Omega Driver, delete the files in the BF2 cache dir (there is another one in SF), startup BF2 and let it optimize the and shaders. Once in the game, type: renderer.drawFps 1, then game.lockFps 200 (I do this every BF2 startup once loaded). You also might want to change renderer.allowAllRefreshRates from 0 to 1 in the VideoDefault.con file.

edit: I'm running AMD 3200, 2 gigs RAM

Last edited by Rakasan (2006-01-19 14:09:04)

2006-01-19 05:43:10

#21

kilroy0097: Kilroy Is Here!; +81|7269|Bryan/College Station, TX

Since it's in the same subject as the original poster of this thread I will add my concerns.

I can't seem to get a decent performance out of my machine while playing BF2.
Yes I have installed all new Cat Drivers so that's not the issue.
I have recently upgraded from a 9800 Pro to a x850 XT
I am concerned that my CPU might be my bottleneck. Any hard facts to that?

Computer Specs:
Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz Prescott
2 Gb DDR PC3200 RAM
Radeon x850 XT 256Mb AGP

My Settings are set to Medium Default for the game and Distance set to 100%.
I did overclock the Video Card a small bit with the ATI Overclocking tool to recommended settings.

I can't see why it's not running much quicker than it is.

I still see noticable lag or studder on any server that has more than 45 players on it.

So bottom line. CPU. Is it really that much better with a 3.2 Ghz Prescott over a 2.4 Ghz ??

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis

2006-01-19 05:54:48

#22

Ali: Official Hell Bound Turbo Action Club Member; +17|7135|Gütersloh, Germany

I have a similar system.
Everything on High, AA on 4x and 1280x1024 (19" Hyundai LCD with max 1280x1024)

Runs perfect but my shadows are also ugly

2006-01-19 07:18:28

#23

Dirrty_Bird: Dirtier than thou; +5|7166|Vermont

Just a noob question, but how do you get fps to show in game?

2006-01-19 07:39:51

#24

Cybargs: Moderated; +2,285|7141

BiRdMaN829 wrote:
Just a noob question, but how do you get fps to show in game?

read the posts above: renderer.drawfps 1

https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png

2006-01-19 13:35:59

#25

unnamednewbie13: Moderator; +2,072|7197|PNW

I'm not going to get into the NVIDIA vs ATI arguments, as it all depends on what you're playing, the system you're playing it on and the set of drivers used.

To clear this up, the Asus P4C800 Deluxe is AGP8X. However, a bottleneck of the P4C800 is its 800MHz FSB. My own AGP8X BFG 6800 video card runs BF2 on my ASUS A8V Deluxe mainboard (and 2x512MB of CAS2-2-2-5 Corsair memory) without much difficulty.

The X850 is indeed a significant leap beyond the 9800, but with the X850XT priced at $400, I'm unsure why you didn't just grab a PCI-e motherboard and a $350 X1800 XL, or just get a regular old X850Pro for $260.

But don't feel bad. People are still making the mistake of grabbing very pricey 6800U's when they could get 7800's for alot less.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2006-01-19 13:37:31)

BF2S Forums Expected better graphics with my new X850XT PE card. Is this normal?

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