X800XL Upgrade hell

[LeeJend]

X800XL Upgrade hell, HELP!

Ok, this is not going well and has totally ceased being fun.

Has anybody played BF2 on 6600 GT or 6800 GT and on an X800XL system?

Several issues:
-Performance is disappointing - based on discussions with a buddy performance seems comparable to his AGP slot 6600 GT in BF2 when we both use the same settings. It should be significantly faster than the 6600GT 30-60% depending on the game. 3DMark05 Benchmarks are right where they should be.

-TV Tuner application won't load. Message - Unable to Start TV
-FM Application won't load. No message just crashes.

Have reloaded the drivers 8 times now using various removal tools (drivercleaner, nastyfileremover, regcleaner) in between installs on 2 different cards. Have flashed my MB bios with a PCI-e fix version. Have tried 3 different Radeon drivers. Problems are there with no overclocking of MB or Video Card. Ran spy check and virii checks with multiple checkers.

Spent an hour with ATI tech support about the TV Tuner. Have replaced the card once. The original card TV Tuner worked for about 5 days then stopped working. New card TV Tuner never worked. Sent them a detail problem report. They are looking into it...

Anybody have the AIW X800XL? I saw some complaints about the cards TV Tuner in web reviews but not very many.

I'd blame the speed issure on this strange dual video MB I have (ECS K8T890A) but the benchmarks looked about right.

 

[ElementalDragon]

uuh..... isn't the X800 range equivalent to the 6600 range, and the x850 range equivalent to the 6800 range? or somethin like that? if so, then yours would be the same. either way i don't think it'd technically be "significantly" faster. my 6800GT seems to handle it quite well....... i just don't like the game enough to get heavily into it.

edit: or was it the x800 range is in the general area of the 6800nu and 6800GT, and the x850 is around the 6800 Ultra range? damnit....... now it's confusing the hell outta me...

 

[Aprox]

I see that you have used driver cleaner and other driver cleaners, but perhaps you should just try a nice clean format. Its worth a shot at anyrate, I have never had much luck changing from Nvidia to Ati or vice versa on the same windows install. This may also fix your application errors you are getting.

Maybe I am not reading your post correctly, but are you saying that you own a 6800GT and its not performing as well as a friends 6600GT?

On a side note BF2 is very memory intensive, if you have anything under 1GB you will notice stuttering if you have your settings to high (almost anything above low really).

 

[LeeJend]

ED - The 6600GT is on par with the older 9800 PRO. Based on various benchmarks the X800XL scores close or equal to the 6800 GT depending on the game. I was looking for someone with hands on use of both cards to see if the benchmarks should be beleived or not. I know the X800XL will do worse on openGL but I'm running DX9 games.

Aprox - have never had an Nvidia card on this system, just want to see if anyone has hands on with both. Last clean install was in October. Then used the 9800 PRO until X800XL arrived end of November. I am considering a reinstall as a last resort but that represents 80 man hours of software reload and the chance of loosing software liscences.. For that kind of effort I'll throw this card away and buy something else.

Update: I've turned off cool and quiet and ATI AI, no changes.

 

[lancer]

ok lee here it is.

AGP
The 6800gt is faster in almost all games than the x800xl in AGP mode, not really sure why but all tests lead to this, also i have a 6800gt my friend has a x800xl both in agp and my card far outpaces his, infact i play BF2 with almost all settings maxed out except AA and it plays perfectly.

PCI-E
The X800xl is faster in PCI-E than the 6800gt, again all data points to this, i don't have either card in this format but toms hardware concurs with this.

as a footnot the PCI-E version of the x800xl is the best valued card out right now, well it was until the 7800gt came out.

So the question is what do you have PCI-E or AGP?

 

[LeeJend]

Lancer - thanks, that was what I needed.

So my x800xl PCI-e should be doing fine with BF2 since I only have the settings at medium and 1024x768.

Damn, Damn, Damn. Now my head really hurts.

That leaves
-vid driver issues (unlikely since I drivercleanered it).
-BF2 install issue (I just reinstalled it to get rid of a bug, but reinstall was with the 9800 vid card)
-MB issue (HW or Drivers), wierd because the 3dMark05 benchmarks are good.

I guess I spend the morning reinsatlling drivers and BF2 (in that order).

Thanks all.

 

[lancer]

also i know for a fact ati v/cards have issues with having other tv tuner cards installed at the same time leading to reboots and lock-ups, i don't know of any work around, i just had to get another card myself for my work pc.

 

[bush dogg]

Have you used the Cat-uninstaller from ATI?

If not then I would try it or there are instructions in one of the ATI KB articles below also for manual removal from the registry and system files (it seems everything ATI has to be removed including all registry and file entries including temp files before an update of the Drivers can be done without errors).
There is suppose to be and entry “DAO” in add/remove that has to go? I don’t have it but ATI claims it’s there.

Notes: from ATI site on installing the cat 5.13

(ATI recommends Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher to be installed)

(You must have Microsoft .NET Framework installed prior to downloading and installing the Catalyst Control Center)


(The Catalyst Uninstaller is an optional download. We recommend using this utility to uninstall any previously installed Catalyst drivers prior to installation)

From release Notes:

(Caution: The Catalyst® Control Center requires that Microsoft's .NET Framework Version 1.1 be installed. Without .NET Version 1.1 installed the Catalyst® Control Center will not launch properly, and the user will see an error message as a result)


ATI KB# 737-20561: Removing Old ATI Software.

ATI KB# 737-20429: Installing the Display Drivers.

ATI KB# 737-20655: Installing Multimedia Center

I don’t know but maybe some of this will help refresh your memory of something that you might not have done or didn’t know had to be done with ATI?
I haven’t upgraded my ATI card yet because I know for sure it will be a pain where I sit.

 

[LeeJend]

Bush - thanks. I already followed the service note instructions including manual registry cleaning and the MMC one. I'll check the display driver one next. I think I'll wait and see if the guru's at ATI find anything. Then go back to trying a complete uninstall and reinstall (again).

Lancer - never had another vid card on this system since the last format/install.

On the somewhat bright news front, I'm beginning to think some of my BF glitchiness is internet lag when in really busy firefights.

 

[Sazar]

Re: X800XL Upgrade hell, HELP!

Ok, this is not going well and has totally ceased being fun.

Has anybody played BF2 on 6600 GT or 6800 GT and on an X800XL system?

Several issues:
-Performance is disappointing - based on discussions with a buddy performance seems comparable to his AGP slot 6600 GT in BF2 when we both use the same settings. It should be significantly faster than the 6600GT 30-60% depending on the game. 3DMark05 Benchmarks are right where they should be.

If you have cleaned up your system and installed everything correctly, there should be no performance issues. The performance in BF2 is a little crappy but its true for all cards, the 7800 lineup and the x1800xt cards are the best for play for that game.

BF2 is also a memory hog so if you have less than 2gb, you might be suffering performance issues because of it (a la fear/quake 4).

-TV Tuner application won't load. Message - Unable to Start TV
-FM Application won't load. No message just crashes.

This is probably an issue you are having with some drivers or the software already on your system. I have no problems running any of the software on my system. Heck I moved from a 6800 ultra OC to my current card w/o a format and had 0 issues. Something must have been fubared somewhere along the line it seems.

Have reloaded the drivers 8 times now using various removal tools (drivercleaner, nastyfileremover, regcleaner) in between installs on 2 different cards. Have flashed my MB bios with a PCI-e fix version. Have tried 3 different Radeon drivers. Problems are there with no overclocking of MB or Video Card. Ran spy check and virii checks with multiple checkers.

What mobo do you have? Is it a via based board? Do you have all chipset drivers installed correctly?

Something just doesn't sound right in your setup and it might not be your fault.

Spent an hour with ATI tech support about the TV Tuner. Have replaced the card once. The original card TV Tuner worked for about 5 days then stopped working. New card TV Tuner never worked. Sent them a detail problem report. They are looking into it...

They should be able to get everything worked out hopefully. They were slow for me but the response was detailed and the card replacement was adequately swift.

Anybody have the AIW X800XL? I saw some complaints about the cards TV Tuner in web reviews but not very many.

I'd blame the speed issure on this strange dual video MB I have (ECS K8T890A) but the benchmarks looked about right.

My card I believe has almost the same tuner as you, there are some minor differences I believe but not ones that should break your performance.

Ensure that the on-board video is disabled, ensure your primarily display unit is set correctly and you should perhaps be able to iron out any conflicts you are getting.

Do you have any system conflicts showing through your CP? In your device manager?

 

[LeeJend]

Re: X800XL Upgrade hell, HELP!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Something just doesn't sound right in your setup and it might not be your fault.

Thanks for the help all, based on your inputs on what the performance should be like with an X800XL I found the $@#U(%(&) problem.

VIA 890A chipset onboard sound and this card do not play well (or at all) together. I should have realized this sooner since the first problem I had with the TV Tuner on the original card was loss of sound which I fixed with a sound driver reinstall.

I went into BF2 and max'd the details on high and game play was identical to medium detail. Watching closely I saw the jerkiness was when sounds were changing. Stuck my old SBLive in and BF2 improved markedly.

Then for the heck of it I clicked on the TVtuner ICON and it started installing itself. Problem fixed for now.

Now I can concentrate on the important things in life (making sergeant in BF2). In game I'm nmo_LeGen. Look for me while I'm still an easy target.

 

[Sazar]

The 890 chipset is crap.

 

[lancer]

Re: X800XL Upgrade hell, HELP!

hey i'm at the corp level i think, but the one just before sgt, man it takes a long time from the top corp lvl to sgt. been at least too months, i'm waiting to unlock to SF's alt gun, already unlocked the medical enfield and the new sniper rifle, which i have to say isn't much better than the original, my name is firetraq, if you want to look me up.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!



Thanks for the help all, based on your inputs on what the performance should be like with an X800XL I found the $@#U(%(&) problem.

VIA 890A chipset onboard sound and this card do not play well (or at all) together. I should have realized this sooner since the first problem I had with the TV Tuner on the original card was loss of sound which I fixed with a sound driver reinstall.

I went into BF2 and max'd the details on high and game play was identical to medium detail. Watching closely I saw the jerkiness was when sounds were changing. Stuck my old SBLive in and BF2 improved markedly.

Then for the heck of it I clicked on the TVtuner ICON and it started installing itself. Problem fixed for now.

Now I can concentrate on the important things in life (making sergeant in BF2). In game I'm nmo_LeGen. Look for me while I'm still an easy target.

 

[LeeJend]

The 890 chipset is crap.

Damn right on that. Back to Nforce for me next MB.