Was running an 8600 that I bought ages ago for about "20 but it did ok. Today I put in an 8800GT and was expecting a big performance increase but lets just say I'm a little dissapointed. Even with Anistropic and AA settings off it's only performing marginally better then the previous card surely this can't be right. Yesterday I put another stick of ram in taking it up to 2GB DDR2 667 but different brand memory but don't see why this would slow it down. Currently my computer is at a mates house so using a widescreen LCD monitor that can only put out 60hz @ 1280x1024.
System specs are
MSI K9N6SGM-V (PCI-e 16x (@8x mode)) 2 GB of RAM DDR2 Geforce 8800GT ATA133 80gb WD HDD Windows XP 450w Ritmo PSU
Any suggestions greatly appreciated, I am using the latest nvidia drivers.
PSU might not be supplying enough, the 88** is a monster for power, I know my gtx one is. See if you can get multimeter to a check the voltage rails during load on the video card.
8600 to 8800 isn't that great a jump in performance in the grand scheme of things though.
Going through the manual it does state 500w power supply is recommended minimum for non sli and 600w for sli. Guess i'll replace that and see if it helps
also what cpu are you using? i know that when i upgraded to a e6750 core 2 duo from an athlon64 3200+, the performance increase in games was impressive.
Quote from rec;347433: PSU is fine. You need a decent CPU.
I'd say both. Apparently the 8800gt uses something like 227W, and given that's a budget Ritmo psu. Being generous it's supplying effectively probably about 320W - which doesn't leave much else for the rest of the PC. Then when you start pushing power requirements, supply can become flaky.
Though it's nothing that needs like Super Gabillion 10000W PSU. A good 550W should hold it.
1. I hear Intel are better for gaming (see post above). 2. Is your new RAM running in dual-channel (was your old RAM)? You need to stagger them in most motherboards (1 set in #1 and #3, 2nd set in #2 and #4). 3. Updated your motherboard BIOS/drivers lately? 4. I reckon you do need to upgrade your PSU. I had a 380w with a crappy graphics card and plugging in USB devices was powering the PC off. A monster graphics card would cause problems I thinkee. But hey, I'm no expert. Obviously.
Using an MSI monitor I'm watching the 12v meter at idle 11.79 and downloaded a quick graphics test to see if it changes much, during the benchmark I saw it go down to about 11.40v not sure if this much variance will cause much problems?
Make sure the Amps on your 12v are adequate. When I first bought my 8800GTS320 it didn't perform well at all (7K in 3DMark06 w AMD 4600+). I had a budget Codegen 650W that came with the single molex to 6pin convert for the graphics card. After trying many things I changed the molex converter to the one that came with the card (2 Molex to 6Pin) and ran them off of separate leads and scored 8.7k
Because clearly Im ignorant when my computer does, in fact, work perfectly fine. And yes I have used an 8600GT in there for comparison prior to it and there was a huge performance increase.
Not only that but I dont see a voltage drop any more than like 0.1 to 0.15.
Ignorance indeed.
Edit: And even with that drop its still sitting at like 12.1v
Quote from rec;347479: FYI; I ran a no-name 300w with a 7800GTX, and then an Antec 400w (not HE) with a 7950GX2. I'm now running a 500w Antec NeoHE with an 8800GTX.
I've had no power issues at any stage with any of the above set-ups.
7800gtx = 244W at load, on a 300W noname power supply?
I have a 500W antec something-or-other (neopower??) running my 8800GT, no power issues that I can see, although some of my network bits are screwed - that may or may not be related to power consumption
Okay I've had enough fishing. 550w should run Wrath's setup fine, just voltages will be screwed. Although basic electronics have a tolerance of about 5%, however voltage is a sign of bad design. At uni our power supplies we made ending up at 5% off we would have been walked out the back and shot.
Ignorance is bliss was just a shot at people not knowing how things work and just always choosing to accept that if it works it must be right.
With the 300w of rec's setup, what the cheap noname brands can do is build ALL of their power supplies rated at the same rating (nvm efficiency) such as a 450w design and then just sell them off labeled at 300w, 400w, 500w, 600w etc for increased profit.
I also have 5xHDD's 2xBurners a 6200LE in the second slot running my third monitor and a tuner card + wireless card in that mix. Also I have like 89723872432 USB devices.
I have no idea what it sits at with just normal amounts of stuff plugged into it.
Well I've replaced the PSU and noticed a little better performance.
Running TF2 @ 1440x900 16x AA 16xCSAA In big open areas it averages 40-70fps otherwise sits around 100-150 inside. I honestly don't even notice much of a change in fps when I turn on or off both AA and CSAA.
Quote from ZeReaper;347516: Well I've replaced the PSU and noticed a little better performance.
Running TF2 @ 1440x900 16x AA 16xCSAA In big open areas it averages 40-70fps otherwise sits around 100-150 inside. I honestly don't even notice much of a change in fps when I turn on or off both AA and CSAA.
Quote from Evil @ngel;347490: Yeah thats a bit off. A 12v supply of any kind should be supplying 13.8V with no load and shouldn't drop past 13V fully loaded.
Unregulated suppies are about 17v under no load Car battery charges are 13.8v regulated 12v supplies should be at 12v
Yes most electronics needs supplies within 5% of rating keep in mind the bios meter are not very accurate. I've seen about a 1v difference between what the bios was telling me and the measurement with a calibrated meter in the past.
Reaps; type into console "mat_queue_mode 2" and monitor your FPS. With Core 2 Duo's it doubles frame rates in TF2. May have the same effect for an AMD Dual Core.
Quote from morge;347522: Unregulated suppies are about 17v under no load Car battery charges are 13.8v regulated 12v supplies should be at 12v
Yes most electronics needs supplies within 5% of rating keep in mind the bios meter are not very accurate. I've seen about a 1v difference between what the bios was telling me and the measurement with a calibrated meter in the past.
13.8v is what 12V stands for 13.8v is the defacto standard of 12 volt power. Across every single functioning 12v regulated power supply I have ever seen from cheap to thousands of dollars they all supply 13.8v. Internally on equipment the 12v rail is usually sitting at around 13.8v. Most computer power supplies I have checked have been around 13+ volts, but they are generally poorly/cheaply built.
Thats because the general public has been taught that cars are 12v so there are a lot of "12v" power supplies on the market to run gear of that is designed to run in cars. You can actualy buy real 12v Power supplies and funnily enough that is what is inside your desktop PC. 13.8v=12v is like saying 1000mb=1024mb
Quote from Evil @ngel;347534: 13.8v is what 12V stands for 13.8v is the defacto standard of 12 volt power. Across every single functioning 12v regulated power supply I have ever seen from cheap to thousands of dollars they all supply 13.8v. Internally on equipment the 12v rail is usually sitting at around 13.8v. Most computer power supplies I have checked have been around 13+ volts, but they are generally poorly/cheaply built.
Maybe my next pc should be an Intel. Since day 1 every single PC i have owned has been AMD. Should try an XFX mobo with another 8800gt and intelqsomethingorother.
Quote from Evil @ngel;347534: 13.8v is what 12V stands for 13.8v is the defacto standard of 12 volt power. Across every single functioning 12v regulated power supply I have ever seen from cheap to thousands of dollars they all supply 13.8v. Internally on equipment the 12v rail is usually sitting at around 13.8v. Most computer power supplies I have checked have been around 13+ volts, but they are generally poorly/cheaply built.
13.8 volts measured is 12 volts in theory.
It's 13.8v so that at the maximum rated current you will still get at least 12v. The more you load up your power supply, the lower the voltage will get.