Sapphire 256MB X800 only gets 12 fps in Vampire Bloodlines

[Bill Jones]

System specs:

Sapphire 256MB X800 AGP - OEM (just plain X800, not Pro, XL, or XT)
ATI Catalyst 5.6 drivers
Intel P4 2.53GHz 533FSB CPU
Intel motherboard with 845PE chipset
1 GB Crucial PC2700 RAM
IBM Deskstar 80GB hard drive
Soundmax integrated sound
DirectX 9.0c
Windows XP Home

The resolution in the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines game is set to
1024x768, and all display options set to maximum.

A couple weeks ago I upgraded the video card to the X800 from a128MB Radeon
9500 Pro, reformatted the hard drive and did a clean install of Windows XP.
Everything went well and the card seems to work well.

I ran the standard 3DMark05 tests using the Catalyst 5.2 drivers that came
on CD with the X800, and got a score of 3549. Then downloaded and installed
the 5.6 drivers, re-ran 3DMark05 and got a score of 3662.

I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines with the 9500 Pro and
only 512MB of system RAM, and it was barely playable at the default settings
it detected my system should run the game at. I added 512MB of RAM first,
and that made a HUGE difference in playability - no more lag when turning by
moving the mouse in first-person view. Then with the new video card and
Windows install, I bumped up all the game's display settings to maximum. It
still is very playable and has no noticeable lag.

However, I installed FRAPS to see what the frame rates were, and was shocked
to see that it would go as low as 12 fps in the city streets where lots of
characters were roaming around. In back alleys where there were no
characters, the frame rates would jump to 60.

Even though Vampire does have quite a bit of fighting, it is not really an
action game, so even at 12 fps the game is still very playable. I would
have guessed the fps was much higher actually because of the responsiveness.

I played Half Life 2 and Doom 3 on the old 9500 Pro and 512MB RAM, and they
both ran well enough on medium graphic settings. Vampire uses the HL2
engine, so I wouldn't think it should strain the system that much.

Does 12 fps in Vampire Bloodlines seem right for an X800?

 

[Augustus]

Does 12 fps in Vampire Bloodlines seem right for an X800?

No it doesn't seem anywhere near right. I suspect you are CPU limited here.
But I can't find any relevant benches of just the straight X800. I refer you
to this review where an X800XL and a 6800GT are benched at 1200x1600 in that
games, amongst many others. 48fps is about what they got in the V:TM
timedemo. So even though yours is a straight X800, 12fps at 1024x768 seems
off. Just for reference, my Barton 2500 @ 2200Mhz (3200 spec) with a 9800
Pro at XT clockings gets 2689 in 3DMark05 (1024x768). You're getting 3549
with an X800? A 400Mhz core and 350Mhz memory with 12 pipes should do
better. Upgrade the CPU.

 

[Augustus]

Review here..

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2299&p=3

 

[Bill Jones]

That review is the X800 XL, not the X800 like I have. However, in the
conclusion of the article, it does say that the X800 is more a competitor
for the NVidia 6600GT rather than the 6800GT.

 

[Augustus]

That review is the X800 XL, not the X800 like I have. However, in the
conclusion of the article, it does say that the X800 is more a competitor
for the NVidia 6600GT rather than the 6800GT.

Yeah, I know. Reviews for the straight X800 are few and far between. But
your results are very low regardless.