HIS HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 IceQ Problems

[Hiron]

My Spec:

Intel pentium 4 2.8 Ghz 1 MB L2 Cache LGA 775
256 MB x 2 (512 MB) DDR PC-3200
Motherboard INTEL D915GAV
430 Watt Power Supply Unit

Windows XP SP2, DirectX 9.0c

Long days ago, I use my onboard VGA (Does'nt have problems),
then I buy HIS X550 128MB, still doesn't hav any prob...
Then I buy HIS HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 IceQ one weeks ago...

I formatted my harddisk and reinstall WinXP when I attach this new cards...

Let's talk about this game: Audition Online Dance Battle...
First, I don't change any settings in Catalyst CC (Balanced settings)
By default, this game doesn't apply AA and AF, but with VSync enabled in 800x600 16 Bit, 85 Hz...

In six players play, 68 FPS OVERALL PERFORMANCE (AA and AF Disabled)
Then I go to catalyst, apply 8x AA and 16x AF... I see the image is very smooth here...
66 FPS OVERALL PERFORMANCE
2 FPS Differents, how could it be???

And I COMPARE it with my old HIS X550 128MB Cards...
85 FPS (AA and AF Disabled)
43 FPS (8x AA and 16x AF)

I didn't believe that...
Without AA and AF, X550 WINS!!! (400 Mhz GPU Clock and 500 Mhz Memory Clock)
This HD 2600XT card have 830Mhz GPU Core Clock and 960Mhz (1.92 Ghz DDR) Memory Clock (Based on Brochure)...

Do U want to know the specs both of this card?
HD 2600XT: http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_sp.php?id=314
X550: http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_sp.php?id=231

Then I turned on ATI Tray Tools: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=733
This is the benchmark results:



PLEASE LOOK AT MY GPU AND MEMORY CLOCK: 13.50 MHZ BOTH OF THEM!!!
AND WITH QUALITY SETTING ENABLED, IT HAVES BETTER PERFORMANCE!!!

OK! Let's go to another games... Ragnarok Online...
I don't know whether this is artifact or not, but when I turned into right angles, it looks like this:


Then another games... Counter Strike...
Plays Well within OpenGL Renderer, but when I change it into D3D Renderer...
4-10 FPS OVERALL PERFORMANCE (800x600 16 Bit, 85 Hz, AA and AF DISABLED)

Then I try to overclocked it...
From 830/960 Mhz, I successfully overclocked it into 860/990 Mhz without noticeable rising temperatures...
But so DISAPPOINTED, and NONSENSE...
Audition: 68 FPS (Default) comes to 62 FPS (Overclocked)...

I think there is some problems with Direct3D renderer, or maybe my power supply doesn't meet the requirements?
Can anyone solves this problems? T_T

Thank You for your attention ^^



Hiron

[DMB2000uk]

Hello, welcome to the forums.

Where to start in reply?

First off, looking at ATI tray tools, it looks like it is incorrectly reading your software frequencies (It's read the right BIOS set ones though). I can say this as the performance chart looks to be in line with what it should be.

Your main problem with performance is that your P4 is holding back your new card. With the slower cards, it was able to process all the data the cards needed fast enough, but with your new card it is too fast for the processor! (This effect is called a bottleneck, the slowest component will slow down the others). Again, I'm saying this as the difference between the AA and non AA results are so close. If the graphics card was working as fast as it could (and wasn't bottlenecked by any other component in your system) then there would be a much bigger difference between AA and non AA scores (as seen with the slower cards).

Another factor could be the lack of power going to it. What are the rail specifications of your PSU? They are on a sticker on the side of the case like this:

It might alse be that your 12 rail(s) are slightly lacking (although the 2600 isn't a power hungry card, but I want to check them out anyway).

You will see a much better performance improvement if you also upgrade your CPU, preferably to something like a core 2 duo. But unfortunately your motherboard doesn't support those, so would require a decent outlay to replace that (and a new cpu and new ram). I suppose you could just buy a faster P4 (like 3.6+Ghz or something) and still get the desired result, but it would be a better investment going for a core 2 setup if you can afford it. And you would need to make sure you have some beefy cooling (and a better PSU) as fast P4's run really hot and use a lot of power (compared to C2Ds).

As for the artifacting, run ATITool and use its built in artifact tester to see if it is the card acting up. More than likely it is the game or drivers, so make sure you updated to the latest ATI drivers, but it won't hurt to test for a bad card.

Dan

Dan

[Hiron]

Maybe this things related to power problems, because when I overclocked it (Even only +5Mhz),
what's I've just got is only degraded performance...

This is my PSU...



Please tell me, do u think I hav to buy a new one? If yes, what's spec do U recommend? 450W?


Thanks for Your attention,


Hiron

[DMB2000uk]

While I am maintaining that there is a CPU bottleneck, which will not allow your card to perform at full potential, looking at the rails on your photo you could have maxxed out the first 12v rail quite easily.. So Your PSU could do with upgrading to a more decent/reliable make/model.

You want to get a decent 400w to 500w power supply to replace it. Even though your current PSU is 430w, most of that rated wattage comes from the 5v rail. This is a cheap trick that manufacturers use to get higher wattage rating on their PSU's. If you compare the Antec sticker I showed you to yours, it has much more amps on the 12v rail, which means that it is more capable of powering the main power hungry components in your system (as things like CPU, GPU, fans etc all use the 12v rail, and not many things use the 5v and 3.3v rails).

So, depending on your budget, you can check out decent brands of PSU's in this thread here:
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about7169.html
I think some of the links to the recommended products might have gone dead, but the brand advice still stands, so read through that, choose a model post back your choice and someone (probably me ) can tell you if it will do you any good.

Dan