If my memory is good on anandtech discovery vegas is based on ue3.0 bat that is false (ue~~2.5 true)
sorry but*
Question.HD2900XT or 8800GTS
- Thread starter deck16
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sorry but*
Ordered a Sapphire 2900xt, hopefully it'll show up tomorrow. I had to do BPAY (Direct Deposit) and they constantly told me it would take about 2 days to go through...which is bullshit because I buy parts from all over with BPAY and there's never a 2 day delay. The longest it's taken is overnight, and that's expected of course.
It'd better damn well come by Friday, if I have to wait for the weekend, heads will roll.
It'd better damn well come by Friday, if I have to wait for the weekend, heads will roll.
I can test Lost Planet as much as you'd like, however I don't have GRAW 2 yet. I guess I could just go hire it though.
Oh and hoorah! I just checked the online order form, they've confirmed payment for my card and it's ready to go... I guess they just have to wait for the courier. What do you guys think the chances would be of a same-day delivery from 1pm? The courier i'm using is notoriously fast and generally offers great service...think they'll get it to me today?
Oh and hoorah! I just checked the online order form, they've confirmed payment for my card and it's ready to go... I guess they just have to wait for the courier. What do you guys think the chances would be of a same-day delivery from 1pm? The courier i'm using is notoriously fast and generally offers great service...think they'll get it to me today?
Blazkowicz
Legend
if you want "everything possible" there's rivatuner, which I use for a few things including hotkeys that trigger gamma profiles and desktop resolution.
Unknown Soldier
Veteran
Allmost
The system for tracking parcels is a bit slow, but it shows that at 12:08pm (1:15pm right now) it was in transit between the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast depots, which is a good hours distance between (though couriers do it in 45 minutes or less, the crazy bastards). So i'm guessing it's been delivered to the depot and probably on its way to me.
So...close
The system for tracking parcels is a bit slow, but it shows that at 12:08pm (1:15pm right now) it was in transit between the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast depots, which is a good hours distance between (though couriers do it in 45 minutes or less, the crazy bastards). So i'm guessing it's been delivered to the depot and probably on its way to me.
So...close
You got the Black Box as well. I see now Sapphire is offering COJ with the 2900XT instead at newegg, not sure which I would have preferred as I woulnd't mind playing COJ but didn't want to fork out the cash. At least now I can check out the 2 titles from Valve when (if) they are ever released.
To be blatantly honest, i'm not having fun right now with this card.
Random, senseless BSOD's (that I think I may have solved), failure to apply AA in various titles. Strange stutters all over the place... In Oblivion on my x1900xt 512, there was naturally stuttering, but it was light and infrequent. On this 2900, every time I try and turn around and it has to load something new, it pauses for a good second, loads it up, moves a few pixels, pauses again as it loads more stuff and so on... It sucks ass, and i'm using all the latest drivers with stock settings. Also, performance is nowhere near what I would've expected. Games run much faster at the exact same settings as on my x1900, but as soon as I start upping various settings, they just go back to near-unlpayable (though in some cases like DiRT this is understandable). And for some reason i'm finding bugs in plenty of games...for instance in GMOD, looking at the water top-down in the default construction map results in a paltry 28fps (1280x1024, 2xAA, max settings, Simple water reflections). Work that one out...my x1900 was happily providing 100+ fps at the same angles. I checked with Rivatuner, clockspeeds are applying in 3dmode as normal, so that's not the problem.
Perhaps I just need more time to work things out and get to know the quirks of this card (or wait for better drivers!), but right now it's pissed me off more than its wowed or pleased.
Oh and to those who say it's a noisy card - Get real. This is th quietest card i've used in years...and I have a damn HEATER on near my PC. It doesn't make that stupid whiney noise when you boot your system up, and while I was playing ArmA on near-max settings and really taxing it, it barely sounded louder than a crappy fan
Random, senseless BSOD's (that I think I may have solved), failure to apply AA in various titles. Strange stutters all over the place... In Oblivion on my x1900xt 512, there was naturally stuttering, but it was light and infrequent. On this 2900, every time I try and turn around and it has to load something new, it pauses for a good second, loads it up, moves a few pixels, pauses again as it loads more stuff and so on... It sucks ass, and i'm using all the latest drivers with stock settings. Also, performance is nowhere near what I would've expected. Games run much faster at the exact same settings as on my x1900, but as soon as I start upping various settings, they just go back to near-unlpayable (though in some cases like DiRT this is understandable). And for some reason i'm finding bugs in plenty of games...for instance in GMOD, looking at the water top-down in the default construction map results in a paltry 28fps (1280x1024, 2xAA, max settings, Simple water reflections). Work that one out...my x1900 was happily providing 100+ fps at the same angles. I checked with Rivatuner, clockspeeds are applying in 3dmode as normal, so that's not the problem.
Perhaps I just need more time to work things out and get to know the quirks of this card (or wait for better drivers!), but right now it's pissed me off more than its wowed or pleased.
Oh and to those who say it's a noisy card - Get real. This is th quietest card i've used in years...and I have a damn HEATER on near my PC. It doesn't make that stupid whiney noise when you boot your system up, and while I was playing ArmA on near-max settings and really taxing it, it barely sounded louder than a crappy fan
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Rainbow Man
Veteran
Aw, sorry to hear that. Almost nothing sucks so bad as having a new shiny expensive piece of hardware that gives you the finger when you start playing around with it.
Don't you think there could be some sort of driver confusion going on here? You switched between ATi generations. Maybe there's some old junk from your previous card still getting loaded and creating problems.
A fresh windows install could perhaps help. Even though it's a big hassle. Maybe you should simply try rolling back the video driver version instead first.
ATi puts out one every month don't they? Try an older one and see what happens.Best of luck to you.
Peace.
I can safely say it's not a driver issue, i'm extremely thorough and diligent in that respect. I've got the latest version of Drivercleaner on hand and my process is as follows; Uninstall display drivers->Boot into safe mode->Run Drivercleaner twice (with every ATi option added manually)-> Reboot->Install Display drivers->Reboot->Install WDM drivers->Reboot-> Install ATT (stock settings not unlike CCC, though i've tried CCC once more and it's of no help). So i'm pretty sure it's not drivers giving me hell.
I was planning on picking up a couple of 500gb Seagates later today and raiding those (raid 0), as my current 2 x 250gb's for my Windows / Games install are getting a bit long in the tooth...fingers crossed. But I honestly can't work half of it out. I've got a good system (X2 4600+ @ 2.90ghz, 3gb ram, 550w Antec NeoHE which has more than enough power and headroom for this single 2900xt, and my raided hdd's). I guess I can try the last driver release, 7.6, it's just that in this cards infant stage, every damn driver contains so many potential fixes
I tried ArmA just before going to bed too...that's a mind bender. Runs 'OK' 99% of the time. On mostly medium settings at 1280x1024 with 'Low' AA, throughout this particular area of a mission (that I use to 'measure' performance) I was seeing an almost constant 35fps. Upon upping all the settings to High (or Very High for one or two, can't recall right now), I saw a solid 28-30 fps, never higher, never lower. But that strange occasional stutter is still there as I move around.
The card is just far more goofy than I might've expected. My friends 8800GTS and A64 3200+ (!!) in GMOD give plenty high framerates overlooking that water on the same settings as me, so there's got to be something wrong (i'm talking about 85-90fps on his GTS compared to my 2900's 28 with this far superior CPU). I haven't given up...as bad as it all sounds, it's still not enough to convince me to go green. :smile:
Oh you
I'm just switching back to the 7.6's now, midway through a restart. Brought on by yet another BSOD in that same 'ati3duag.dll' file, for which every fix on the 'net is powerless to stop. Man, I play Vietcong right... on my x1900 at 1280x1024, 6xAA and 16xAF, this one level I play frequently was a constant, never-failing 100+ fps, it never went below 100, ever. Playing it on this 2900xt just now at the same settings saw constant dips around 60-70 fps... And not quick-dips either, these were sustained framerates. Not happy Jan.
*edit* Running the 7.6's now.
Basically, when I first installed this thing and ran the CSS stress test, it came back at 190fps... Decent, but not much higher than my x1900xt (164fps). After installing these 7.6's, it dropped to 130 (look ma! A downgrade!). So I disabled ingame AA and enabled it through CCC, still the same. Disabled it in CCC and re-enabled it ingame, and suddenly it's up at 170...still massively short of the previous 190 and still barely any more than my x1900xt.
ArmA is wierd too, with most settings on Normal/High, I used one custom mission area I created myself to test framerates. At a standstill overlooking a bushy area with a heap of 'frozen' troops and buildings with plenty of shadows and AA-ready objects, I saw a steady 28fps. I set shadows from Normal to Low, and found that the framerate went DOWN by 10fps. Setting them back to normal returned it to 28fps. Setting them to High then dropped me back down to 18. Setting them to Very High put me at a solid 20fps... What gives?
The trend i'm seeing with this card is that games run better at the same settings as on my x1900, but any higher and they seem to run worse. I wonder if there's a power problem? My PSU has more than enough amperage and spare wattage for this thing, and it's relatively new.
*double-edit* Look at this crap.
That's 1280x1024, 4xAA, 16xHQAF, everything max with NO vsync and water quality set to 'Simple Reflections'. It's the default construct map (small), with nothing in it. I used a remover on all the jeeps and boats, so it's just the level... My grass detail distance is at minimum so it's not even visible. As soon as I look away from the water, at ANY other part of the level, it's a good solid 180-200fps. Setting Texture Detail to low makes the game run PERFECT while looking at that exact same patch of water, regardless of water quality settings.
What do you think is going on there? Christ this card is a pain. No BSOD's yet though on these 7.6's... Fingers crossed.
I'm just switching back to the 7.6's now, midway through a restart. Brought on by yet another BSOD in that same 'ati3duag.dll' file, for which every fix on the 'net is powerless to stop. Man, I play Vietcong right... on my x1900 at 1280x1024, 6xAA and 16xAF, this one level I play frequently was a constant, never-failing 100+ fps, it never went below 100, ever. Playing it on this 2900xt just now at the same settings saw constant dips around 60-70 fps... And not quick-dips either, these were sustained framerates. Not happy Jan.
*edit* Running the 7.6's now.
Basically, when I first installed this thing and ran the CSS stress test, it came back at 190fps... Decent, but not much higher than my x1900xt (164fps). After installing these 7.6's, it dropped to 130 (look ma! A downgrade!). So I disabled ingame AA and enabled it through CCC, still the same. Disabled it in CCC and re-enabled it ingame, and suddenly it's up at 170...still massively short of the previous 190 and still barely any more than my x1900xt.
ArmA is wierd too, with most settings on Normal/High, I used one custom mission area I created myself to test framerates. At a standstill overlooking a bushy area with a heap of 'frozen' troops and buildings with plenty of shadows and AA-ready objects, I saw a steady 28fps. I set shadows from Normal to Low, and found that the framerate went DOWN by 10fps. Setting them back to normal returned it to 28fps. Setting them to High then dropped me back down to 18. Setting them to Very High put me at a solid 20fps... What gives?
The trend i'm seeing with this card is that games run better at the same settings as on my x1900, but any higher and they seem to run worse. I wonder if there's a power problem? My PSU has more than enough amperage and spare wattage for this thing, and it's relatively new.
*double-edit* Look at this crap.
That's 1280x1024, 4xAA, 16xHQAF, everything max with NO vsync and water quality set to 'Simple Reflections'. It's the default construct map (small), with nothing in it. I used a remover on all the jeeps and boats, so it's just the level... My grass detail distance is at minimum so it's not even visible. As soon as I look away from the water, at ANY other part of the level, it's a good solid 180-200fps. Setting Texture Detail to low makes the game run PERFECT while looking at that exact same patch of water, regardless of water quality settings.
What do you think is going on there? Christ this card is a pain. No BSOD's yet though on these 7.6's... Fingers crossed.
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I've had Rivatuner running occasionally through the last few driver installs i've tried, and it seems to be switching to 3d mode clocks just fine... Clocks jump around 200mhz on the core and something similarly large on the memory (I recall it being pretty much what the operating speeds are supposed to be).
It just shits me, that's all. Everything else in my system is as good, clean and functional as could be inspected, yet this card seems to have a hard time giving my x1900xt a run for its money. If I play games at the exact same settings as I did with my x1900, I do see on average some pretty nice boosts...but upping the settings any higher is generally back to unplayable. 1600x1200 still seems out of the book for most games, which is just plain pathetic.
Not much more I can do I guess except wait for more drivers.
*edit* I'll say this, Lost Planet was a big surprise. I only have the Dx9 demo, but damn did it run NICE. Almost always a constant 45-50 fps, absolutely smooth and playable on far higher settings than my x1900 could ever maintain. That was a pleasant surprise :smile:
It just shits me, that's all. Everything else in my system is as good, clean and functional as could be inspected, yet this card seems to have a hard time giving my x1900xt a run for its money. If I play games at the exact same settings as I did with my x1900, I do see on average some pretty nice boosts...but upping the settings any higher is generally back to unplayable. 1600x1200 still seems out of the book for most games, which is just plain pathetic.
Not much more I can do I guess except wait for more drivers.
*edit* I'll say this, Lost Planet was a big surprise. I only have the Dx9 demo, but damn did it run NICE. Almost always a constant 45-50 fps, absolutely smooth and playable on far higher settings than my x1900 could ever maintain. That was a pleasant surprise :smile:
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You can always switch sides, for this round. That's your best bet for your own sanity.
I wouldn't hold your breath or even bet $1 on drivers being released to address those issues.
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