Horrible gaming performance with 8800 ultra xt, need help pl

[Draztic]

I recently put a 8800 ultra xt in my rig and something is wrong... The performance in games is way
under par in some games. In Doom 3 it seemed ok though. I was getting 60fps with all settings maxed.
But in Medieval 2 Total war my fps fluctuated between 20-35 sometimes dipping as low as 10! And that
was with settings not even maxxed out. All settings on high(instead of highest for some) no AA, only
4x AF and running at 1200 x 900. When I tried maxing all settings the game wouldn't even start without
crashing!

My system(listed in sig) has a fresh install of the OS, fresh format of the drive(obviously), all the
newest drivers, and all games patched but something is wrong. I hear people who have 8800 gts
saying they can max settings in just about any game and get great fps...not so with mine

I currently also have these games installed on my comp:GRAW, Oblivion, Chaos Theory. I will continue
testing with them in the meantime, but does anyone have a clue what could be the problem? It's driving
me nuts. I haven't updated to the newest bios, I am still using the one that came with my mobo. Tbh,
I am a little scared to flash the bios as I have never done it before. Plus the newer bios's don't
fix any specific problems that I have as far as I know. But if I have to I will get my local shop to flash to a newer one...

My psu is very new and both pcie power connectors are connected to the gpu. Even when go back to stock speeds
it still doesn't change, so the overclock can't be an issue but just in case here are my oc settings:






I think my bios has all settings ok, as I didn't deviate from the auto settings except when told to by
mobo manual for my hardware(I know, I am no tech wizard><) I even double checked the settings against
Techarp's The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 9.9 and everything seemed fine except for
a few bios options that his guide didn't mention(which I didn't change). But if needed let me know and I will include all my bios settings as it is very possible I didn't set something correctly. Oh and would a dxdiag help? I will post one in a bit.

So I could really use a bit of help here please folks, I know my gpu should be kicking major ass but...
it is just kindof...licking it. Thanks in advance!

Draztic

[Apoptosis]

I run the XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra in my personal system and have been nothing but happy with it. Your performance levels seem a bit low, but keep in mind you will be CPU and memory limited for some gaming titles. Are you running everything on the highest possible settings in DOOM 3? The power supply is not the issue as I have quad-core and SLI on a 620W Corsair PSU with no issues.

I got to ask why do you have a $600+ video card and a $40 kit of memory? OCZ has a rebate on a 2GB kit that puts it under $60 shipped...

[Draztic]

Well after reinstalling the game and not patching to the latest version I can run it on max settings with 40 fps average. And what you say is true about cpu limiting me to a degree. But my memory unfortuneately didn't cost 40 bucks... A 2 gig package of dual channel ddr 500 of the listed type cost me almost 300 euros a year and a half ago when I bought it. And I got it from the cheapest place I could find it online. Keep in mind, I am in Europe and we pay a fair bit more than you guys do.

[Apoptosis]

true true... No offense was meant by what I said... DDR2 kits are now ~60 for a 2GB PC2-6400 CL4 kit, so I just had to ask... DDR1 500Mhz kits a couple years ago were very expensive (guess I need to remind myself that).

Wih I had Win XP on my system I'd run some DOOM3 benchmarks for you to compare, but Vista 64-bit would sku it too much. Maybe XFX Support will be on later today and can lend some advice.

[Draztic]

No offence taken man, its just too bad europeans can tax their citizens practically to death with no mercy...meh, whatcha gonna do..

[XFX Support]

Usually a low performance with the high end 8 series cards is due to either a underpowered or failing PSU (We all learned this the hard when when the 8 series cards first launched) or sometimes drivers. I recommend testing with the other games like you have talked about. Make sure when testing you disable Vertical sync so you can get a true idea of the FPS your games are getting. I would imagine this could be a driver issue, especially if most of those "better known" games all perform properly. If this is the case it might be necessary to try a different driver as well. Keep us posted. Also feel free to download the free version of 3dmark06 to get a comparison score.

[goldenchessboard]

im pretty sure it might be a defective product.. 8800 ultra is the best gaming card there is. it should run on highest settings and high fps very easily. try returning it if it still has its warrenty if all else fails

[vicaphit]

Don't return it just yet. As Apoptosis and XFX Support said, the CPU and Memory is the bottle neck in this situation, so I doubt the video card is defective

[hercules71185]

I put an 8800 gts in a computer with a amd x 3600 STOCK. No overclocking and using the cheapest ddr2 availible. Still maxed out a bunch of games on it. Doom 3 150 fps on maximum settings. I don't know why that would bottleneck it that bad. I know cpu power matters a lot because even with my card overclocking it increases my frames about 50% thats a lot

[kenc51]

I put an 8800 gts in a computer with a amd x 3600 STOCK. No overclocking and using the cheapest ddr2 availible. Still maxed out a bunch of games on it. Doom 3 150 fps on maximum settings. I don't know why that would bottleneck it that bad. I know cpu power matters a lot because even with my card overclocking it increases my frames about 50% thats a lot

Doom 3 is VERY dependant on the CPU with the newer GFX cards! Try some newer game or 3DMark 06, these will put more stress on the GFX card and won't rely on the CPU as much.

As XFX Support said, 3DMark is prolly the best way to go.
You could even upload the score to hwbot and use that to compaire with other systems -> don't forget to register for team legitreviews ;)