Good OpenGL FPS, but low Direct3D FPS with new FX5950 card

[Stuart Mackie [MCP, MSP]]

Hi. I have the system spec below, and as a short term solution I upgraded
my Ti4600 graphics card to a Gigabyte 5950 U-GT to cope with some of the
more recent games before upgrading other parts of the system later on.
After installing a Gigabyte 5950U-GT there was no obvious performance gain
in the games I'm currently playing which was disappointing (UT2k4, Americas
Army, Joint Operations Second Demo). I benchmarked the system with 3DMark03
and get a score of 6150 with the Gigabyte, and 1400 with the older Ti4600.
Both scores seem reasonable, and when comparing the 6150 online with other
similar system specs it is comparable. But, with the Gigabyte card, FPS can
fluctuate quite significantly and be as low as 15 up to a maximum of only
55. With the Ti4600 running the same game with the same setting using the
same current Nvidia 56.72 drivers, the FPS seems more stable and generally
runs between 25-70 (I'm using FRAPS to get FPS in game). On carrying out
additional tests I found that slightly older games like Quake 3 would give
200+FPS (FPS max limit set at 200) but Direct3D games like UT2k4 would only
give 20-45. My initial thoughts were specific to good OpenGL performance in
Quake 3 but poor Direct3D performance in everything else, but since 3DMark03
is purely Direct3D tests (from what I understand). One other thing I've
noticed is that changing the configuration of a game with the Gigabyte card
installed e.g. Americas Army, no matter whether using 16 or 32 bit, or
800x600 to 1024x768, the FPS stays in the same low range.

I've installed the system three or four times and carried out tests and
different points with none - all windows updates, limited hardware removed,
different driver revisions etc. But the system performance is still lower
with the newer Gigabyte card than with the older Ti4600. I've contacted
Gigabyte but would appreciate any other suggestions.

· Dual Intel P4 2.4 Xeon Prestonia (Hyperthreading Disabled)
· 1GB RD-RAM (PC 800)
· Supermicro DCE+ Motherboard
· Enhance ENS-0252A PSU (520 Watt)
· 256MB Gigabyte FX5950U-GT
· Adaptec 2200S Raid Controller
· 19" IIyama Vision Master Pro 450
· Intel Pro/100S Server Adaptor
· Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
· Creative GigaWorks S750 7.1 Speaker System
· 16x AOpen DVD-Rom
· Plextor DVD Writer (PX-708A)
· Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro
· Logitech MX510 Optical Mouse

 

[Chris Catt]

Hi, firstly I can't help you much with your gaming and video card issue
other to recommend this site http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50
to be a good place to start. I hope you do find a solution.
Chris C

 

[Ook]

You should have waited for an nVidia 6800 based card, as they have
supposedly fixed a lot of the performance problems that plagued the 59xx
cards.

 

[Stuart Mackie [MCP, MSP]]

Hi Chris, thanks for the suggestion, I've posted to the forums .

Thanks,
Stuart.

 

[Stuart Mackie [MCP, MSP]]

Hi, I had thought about waiting, but I've had this card since the end of
March along with the problem. I decided at the time I'd buy the FX5950 for
the time being, and if needs be when I upgrade my cpu, motherboard and
memory shortly will do the graphics card again. I was hoping to wait until
the first set of PCI-express motherboards have had all the issues fixed
thinking upgrading the graphics card would keep me going until then becuase
my system spec for the time being should be enough.

Thanks,
Stuart.

 

[Guest]

My only guess, and i'm sure you thought of this, is to make sure you have the same filtering options on both the opengl and d3d settings of the card. 16x antistropic on d3d and 2x on opengl would cause a difference, ya know

 

[Yves Leclerc]

The 6800 card will require a 480 watt power supply (or higher). nVidia did
not optimize the card's power requirements.