Card Crash? Stutter? bad performance? The first look thread

[DonRayden]

so many many many people open threads about "card chrases" etc...
so here is a little guide for all angry people to look before opening a new thread (perhaps should go sticky )

card crash:
- try agp voltage in bios up to 1.7 (should fix 95 % of the problems)..try 1.8 if 1.7 did not function
- install all the latest motherbard bios
- run in agp 4x mode (powerstrip or even with the smartbus) (should fix chrases in 98%, I run in agp 4x mode, there is no certain perfomance loose and you don't have to set up your card to 1.7 agp voltage)
- uninstall ati drivers , then install directx 9, after that the ati cat 3.0 drivers
- minimum 300 watt power supply (even some guys have no problems with 250 watt, so it is a question of other components in your system)
- try not to share the power cable of the ati card with many other devices
- do not share irq of the ati card with other devices (seems to be a big problem especially with soundblaster cards)
- use no card on pci 1 slot (next to agp slot) , look in your motherboard guide which slot also shares irq with agp slot
- the ati card gets very hot, so you look if the card has enough air

-----------------------------------------

stutter problems:
- try to disable all icons in the tray (right bottom corner in default...where the clock is )
- try disabling as many programs as possible (use alt+ctrl+del to see which programs run in background)
- you can set with the task manager the priority of your 3d program up to high (causes some problems, but could also help)
- you can set the hardware acceleration in windows down a notch (fix stutter in 95 %)
- try disabling agp fast writes in bios (some guys say so , I have no certain results with it)
- execute smartguard and look if everything is enabled
- try changing "system" in the device manager from acpi-uni (default win xp, means a motherboard with 2 or more cpu) to acpi (one board with one cpu)..some people have success, some not (me inclusive )
- stutter in opengl is fixed with the latest ati drivers

----------------------------------------------------------

bad performance:
- see stutter problems
- antivirus programm in background?
- other heavy programm in background ?
- execute smartguard and look if everything is enabled
- many people are angry about bad performance in some games like battlefield..remember that perhaps your firwall or internet conection makes trouble

--------------------------------------------------------


the stutter in some direct3d apps is still a bug in the drivers and i think ati is working on it...perhaps you have success with my tips

and now .. where is my medal ?

[johnrr6]

Good Post-----as for the medal-----as my old Top Sergeant used to say, "Medal hell!------see the Chaplain!"

I'd add just a couple of things:

Make SURE you've cleaned your old drivers out----there are some good methods in the forums----I use DriverCleaner-----a nice little App I got from www.driverheaven.com.
Disable Vsynch
Defrag your machine
Maybe Flash the bios to 8004
Try different refresh rates-----after trying everything-----I set my monitor to 60 htz and UNBELIEVABLE! the stutter was gone!!! I have no clue why that made a difference-----but it worked. A little harder on the eyes----but I can live with it.
Get rid of that godawful heatsink shim and apply some good Arctic Silver 3----your temps will drop making for better performance.

John

[**G.I.BRO**]

Some good tips mentioned here.
Kudos!

[The_KELRaTH]

"Try different refresh rates-----after trying everything-----I set my monitor to 60 htz and UNBELIEVABLE! the stutter was gone!!!"

Yeah... thats the big one. As long as your fps is at your monitor refresh rate all is perfect - problem is in some games that's near impossible to do.

[WarFlail]

Re: Crashes

Would it help to increase the DDR voltage as well as AGP voltage? I heard something like 2.6-2.7V for the memory and 1.6-1.7V for the graphics card works well.

-=W=-

[WarFlail]

Also, would changing 'AGP Aperature' (Aperture?) size have an effect on improving stability/smoothness?

-=W=-

[azukre]

The best way. Never buy ATI cards again.
Man, I shoulda buy TI 4600. They have better driver programmers than ATI. Damnit, wasted $399.

[Scrapper_511]

Originally posted by azukre
The best way. Never buy ATI cards again.
Man, I shoulda buy TI 4600. They have better driver programmers than ATI. Damnit, wasted $399.

Uhm...WRONG!!!

[DonRayden]

the agp aperture size is not as important as many people think...

in the news asus bios, it is limited to 32 mb..i think 64 mb is the best option

[azukre]

Originally posted by Scrapper_511
Uhm...WRONG!!!

I'm damn right about it.

[Drunken Janitor]

i was going to try an rma my card because of random corrupted graphics but ati tech told me to try upping the agp voltage. it's been smooth sailing ever since =)

[SuperFanBoy]

Originally posted by azukre
I'm damn right about it.

you could have problems with nvidia card as well, i have couple 9700pros and both work very well and this is coming from ex-nvidia follower so there you have.

[azukre]

Originally posted by SuperFanBoy
you could have problems with nvidia card as well, i have couple 9700pros and both work very well and this is coming from ex-nvidia follower so there you have.

There are more problems on ATI Cards itself other than 3rd party related.

[kiljaden5]

Does this include stuttering occasionally in video/movie clips and flash animations??

[Adversary]

Don't waste my bandwidth by registering yourself and your complaints. Ask for help, be specific, don't spend any more time slating the card till you can tell us all what is wrong with it.

[Zoolander1]

Originally posted by azukre
The best way. Never buy ATI cards again.
Man, I shoulda buy TI 4600. They have better driver programmers than ATI. Damnit, wasted $399.

Here fishy fishy. Troll

[rwolf]

Originally posted by azukre
The best way. Never buy ATI cards again.
Man, I shoulda buy TI 4600. They have better driver programmers than ATI. Damnit, wasted $399.

ATI's drivers would be perfect too if they kept releasing the same card over and over again.

Look at the Geforce FX, first really new architecture since the Geforce 256, crappy performance, graphic glitches, missing fog, and this was for software coded for using nvidia's "golden" drivers. Reviewers only had 48 hours to try the cards so only a few actually discovered the problems with real games.

I used the hints off rage3d to fix my problems with my ASUS motherboard and ASUS Geforce 3 video card.

The reason nvidia has 40+ driver releases is because they give you performance in one release and take it back in other. I have had problems with studdering in Dungeon Siege and other games that quit working so I can tell you that nvidia drivers are perfect.

The release of the 9700 has shown that there is a problem in the industry with crappy motherboards, chipsets, oem powersupplies, poorly ventilated cases. You can't blame this on ATI or drivers.

Most nvidia fanboys quickly forget the problems going to agp 4x or the flood of bad 4200 cards that have hit the market.

I had to turn off my usb ports, serial, and parallel ports before my nvidia board was stable. Figure that out!

[blazeya5]

Hi;
I have a problem with my card:
I have:

Sapphire 9700
amd2400+
AV78x
audigy platinum 2

(just purchased) running win2000.

I bought a copy of medal of honour slammed it in and.. after 2 seconds. the game freezes/black screens.
I tried Unreal Tournament (the old version) ... same thing.

I finally got MDOH to work by turning off agp textures in directX but the whole point of putting myself in debt was to have awesome performance. (unreal still doesnt work)

On your site it says that a7v8x has problems.

my questions are:
a) How do I TOTALLY un install the drivers
b) When you talk about bios, you mean motherboard right? you can't really fiddle with the graphics card bios ? :-0

thanks for any pointers.
aubs

[azukre]

Originally posted by rwolf
ATI's drivers would be perfect too if they kept releasing the same card over and over again.

Look at the Geforce FX, first really new architecture since the Geforce 256, crappy performance, graphic glitches, missing fog, and this was for software coded for using nvidia's "golden" drivers. Reviewers only had 48 hours to try the cards so only a few actually discovered the problems with real games.

I used the hints off rage3d to fix my problems with my ASUS motherboard and ASUS Geforce 3 video card.

The reason nvidia has 40+ driver releases is because they give you performance in one release and take it back in other. I have had problems with studdering in Dungeon Siege and other games that quit working so I can tell you that nvidia drivers are perfect.

The release of the 9700 has shown that there is a problem in the industry with crappy motherboards, chipsets, oem powersupplies, poorly ventilated cases. You can't blame this on ATI or drivers.

Most nvidia fanboys quickly forget the problems going to agp 4x or the flood of bad 4200 cards that have hit the market.

I had to turn off my usb ports, serial, and parallel ports before my nvidia board was stable. Figure that out!

Now you talking about how bad GFX is when it's not yet in the market.

[Zoolander1]

Originally posted by azukre
The best way. Never buy ATI cards again.
Man, I shoulda buy TI 4600. They have better driver programmers than ATI. Damnit, wasted $399.

Yes,I think you made it quite clear who the 'Damnit' is.

[TrippleG]

So much for removing the shim... my radeon is DEAD

NOT HAPPY JAN

[rwolf]

Originally posted by azukre
Now you talking about how bad GFX is when it's not yet in the market.

Good point, but if the card and drivers were fantastic don't you think every nvidia fan site would have one to benchmark and review?

[TrippleG]

Sheesh give the GF-FX a few months.

For a while after the GF1 was released, it barely performed better than a TnT2, however after many driver updates, it outperformed it easily. Ill be picking one up when theyre released, to replace my deceased r300 card.

Currently running a GF2mx, and Im absolutely loving the stability, and for most apps, the speed is better than what the r300 was giving me. ATIs tech support couldnt even help out, they gave up after suggesting prolly a hundred different things, none of which made any difference at all.

[azukre]

Originally posted by Zoolander1
Yes,I think you made it quite clear who the 'Damnit' is.

YOU!.

Now that 3.1 catalyst, it's definately much better than the buggy 3.0.

[Zoolander1]

Azukre,
What are you.. 10.. 12. Grow up.
Someone comes on this board and posts a legitimate helpful guide and you come spouting off pure drivel with no help for anyone. If you feel you wasted your mother's money on a card that doesn't work for you, then start another thread in another section and go cry about it there.
Oh, and btw, learn to type in English - you really do come across like a trolling child. Other than in a pre-school class, not one of your posts is comprehendible... Damnit.

[wolveryne9]

i thought this was a tech support thread???

[deleterious]

i have a 9700pro and an asus p4t533 mb

where in the bios do i go to change the agp voltage?

is it cpu VCore ? i changed that to 1.700 and when i booted my pc.. it said "error, incorrect voltage" so i dont think that would be my agp voltage.

does anyone know where I can increase my agp voltage on an asus p4t533? please help. Thanks.

[Zoolander1]

Originally posted by deleterious
i have a 9700pro and an asus p4t533 mb

where in the bios do i go to change the agp voltage?

is it cpu VCore ?

No, it is not the CPU Vcore. There should be a section in your Bios to change the AGP voltage up from 1.5 (usual default).
I have a P4PE and it can be changed to 1.6 or 1.7. I don't remember off hand exactly what section of the Bios to look in but check every section. Good luck.

[Boot]

Originally posted by DonRayden
stutter problems:
- try to disable all icons in the tray (right bottom corner in default...where the clock is )

yeah, that helps... but its not the solution...
the solution is:

- you can set the hardware acceleration in windows down a notch (fix stutter in 95 %)

wow, thanks man... i already thought to build myself a secondary computer for irc/web/everything else because this bad stuttering when there is some 2D activity in windows but this fixed it!!! THANK YOU

[MoopMeep]

This line doesn't seem right.

try changing "system" in the device manager from acpi-uni (default win xp, means a motherboard with 2 or more cpu) to acpi (one board with one cpu)..some people have success, some not (me inclusive )

acpi-uni is the default for win xp and it is for systems with a single cpu. Acpi-multiprocessors is the HAL for systems with multiple CPUs.