Can a new video card cause more load for the CPU?

[Brian]

I recently brought a ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128Mb
Since I've installed this video card in my computer I've noticed more
load on the processor (CPU).
The CPU is a AMD 1900 XT running at 1600Mhz.
I have 512Mb of memory.

One of the examples of excess CPU load is when playing back an mpg
file.

It might be something else but I'm thinking it could be the graphics
card.

Is this possible?

Regards Brian

 

[Ben Pope]

I recently brought a ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128Mb
Since I've installed this video card in my computer I've noticed more
load on the processor (CPU).
The CPU is a AMD 1900 XT running at 1600Mhz.
I have 512Mb of memory.

One of the examples of excess CPU load is when playing back an mpg
file.

It might be something else but I'm thinking it could be the graphics
card.

Is this possible?

Some cards will have differing abilities to perform video decoding... so
it's distinctly possible, though I'd have thought newer cards perform better
in that respect, and thus have lower CPU usage...

Also, in games for example, you may find that they were GPU limited, a new
GPU does more and thus could result in a higher CPU usage as it now has more
tasks to give the Video Card - again, I wouldn't really expect this to be a
noticeable increase, but it depends how much sits in the driver and the game
itself, and how much is done purely in the GPU.

Ben

 

[Tod]

Could be left over drivers from your old graphics card are still there.

Some motherboard chipset (like VIA) require you to reload them
after any hardware or driver change.

Does the graphics card share an IRQ with anything ?

 

[Dark Avenger]

I recently brought a ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128Mb
Since I've installed this video card in my computer I've noticed more
load on the processor (CPU).
The CPU is a AMD 1900 XT running at 1600Mhz.
I have 512Mb of memory.

One of the examples of excess CPU load is when playing back an mpg
file.

It might be something else but I'm thinking it could be the graphics
card.

Is this possible?

Regards Brian

Have you looked at the software you play the mpeg files with. Ati
cards have certain technology inbuild to make mpeg output look nicer.
Actually every vidoestream can be optimized by ati cards, this though
requires the software to work together better with the card.

And your problem might lie there, from what do you upgrade?

 

[Tod]

That is reload the motherboard drivers.

Could be left over drivers from your old graphics card are still there.

Some motherboard chipset (like VIA) require you to reload them
after any hardware or driver change.

Does the graphics card share an IRQ with anything ?

 

[Brian]

Hi Dark Avenger,
I was playing back an mpg file
using MS media player. Also when playing back an avi file there is
even more load on the processor which is 90 to 100% causing pauses in
the video.
Before getting upgrading to another video card. I was using a Asus
AGP-V3800 Pro video card with nVidia TNT2 pro 128-bit graphics and 32
megs of memory.

Regards Brian

 

[Brian]

Hi Tod,
thanks for the suggestion about an old video driver
causing problems. Do you know how I can find out if the video card is
being shared with another IRQ?
I'm using Windows XP.

Regards Brian

 

[Dark Avenger]

Hi Dark Avenger,
I was playing back an mpg file
using MS media player. Also when playing back an avi file there is
even more load on the processor which is 90 to 100% causing pauses in
the video.
Before getting upgrading to another video card. I was using a Asus
AGP-V3800 Pro video card with nVidia TNT2 pro 128-bit graphics and 32
megs of memory.

Regards Brian

You are sure you removed every scrap of old drivers from the system?
nvidia > ati or ati > nvidia generally means you have to clean up the
drivers...

I would say an nvidia driver part is in the way.

 

[Tod]

There is a program called "Detonator Destroyer" that will remove all traces
of Nvidia drivers.
Just need to search the web for the latest version.

 

[GTX_SlotCar]

I don't think Detonator Destroyer supports XP yet.
Not to be too obvious, but you did connect the extra power cable to the
card, right?
If you can't find a solution, you might want to try reinstalling DX9.
Sometimes it helps and it only takes a couple minutes.

Gary

--

Tweaks & Reviews
www.slottweak.com

 

[Brian]

I checked the users manual for the Radeon 9600 video card (in my case
it's an GC-R96XT) and there is nothing in the manual about connecting
an extra power cable. You might be thinking of the 9800 model.
The only thing the manual says is to insert the card into a AGP slot
and plug a computer monitor into the cards socket.

Regards Brian

 

[Brian]

Apart from "Detonator Destroyer" which someone said does not work on
Windows XP, is there any other programs for checking old drivers
remaining in the system and providing a way to remove them?

Regards Brian

 

[GTX_SlotCar]

Ooops, sorry Brian. I forgot it skipped the 9600. The 9500, 9700 and 9800
all have the additional power connector.
Did you try reinstalling DX9?

Gary

 

[Brian]

Thanks Gary.
DivX9 was installed after I installed the driver for the video card,
but it might be worth uninstalling and reinstalling again.

Regards Brian