Can't run 3DMark....Why?

**MatrixmaN** · February 2nd, 2003, 08:22 PM

Well, got myself an Ati Radeon 9500 Pro and I can't seem to run 3DMark to test my new card

I don't know why really. I have Windows XP Pro and DX9 installed. I was wondering if it could be the DX9 perhaps?

**LaWrEnCe** · February 2nd, 2003, 08:32 PM

What version of 3DMark are you using?

Do you get any error messages when you try and run 3DMark?

**Detritus** · February 2nd, 2003, 08:41 PM

Need some other system specs... processor, mobo, RAM, etc... please

Welcome to TechIMO...

**MatrixmaN** · February 2nd, 2003, 10:38 PM

1.4ghz Athlon Tbird
(ABIT) AMD KT7a-RAID (Via Chipset)
512 MB PC133 (Generic ComputerShow)
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
DirectX9
Windows XP Pro
_________________________________

Thanks for the welcome.

I've also come across another problem.......I run DXdiag and it scans my system, tells me what I have, then I go run the DirectX tests and it seems my computer can't even make it past the DirectX 7 tests becuase it freezes the second it starts. I mean frozen solid, total reboot.

I can run most of my games but certain games don't run.

Quake 3 Arena
Jedi Knight 2
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Sacrifice
and some others crash.

I noticed recently that certain demo's don't work right. I can't run any Nvidia demos, I can run a few ATI demo's like the Dogs and The bubble, tho the bubble demo is way cool it crashes alot.

I don't know whether it's Drivers, BIOS, Windows, or the card itself. I mean hell. I even made sure the card has enough power by hooking up to it's own power supply........is that a bad thing?

Hmm, if any of you can help me I'd be REALLY appreciative.

**JayMan** · February 2nd, 2003, 11:07 PM

Make sure your running the latest version of 3dmark01se (build 330).

Also make sure all of your nvidia drivers were removed correctly before installing the ati card.

Try plugging the card into the same power supply as the motherboard.

JayMan

**Kc2iLq** · February 2nd, 2003, 11:14 PM

Did you jumper the PSU before plugging card in? If not, just use a PSU that can handle the full load of all your components and run it off one. You shouldn't need more than a 350 watt psu for that system.

-Kc2iLq

**MatrixmaN** · February 3rd, 2003, 02:49 AM

Sorry about that Triple-post. I'd origonally thought they were different problems but now it seems that they are all leading up to being 1 or 2 problems.

About the Nvidia Driver this is from a fresh format.

I'll check the motherboard tommorow.

Jumper the PSU?

Thanks 4 the help.

**JayMan** · February 3rd, 2003, 03:00 AM

By "jumper the PSU" i believe he is thinking the same thing i was.

You said you have hooked the card up to its own power supply. Perhaps this power supply isn't actually being turned on? Like i said, try hooking the card up to the same power supply was you motherboard, harddisk, cd-rom etc...

JayMan

**MatrixmaN** · February 3rd, 2003, 08:57 AM

Ok,

I hooked the power cable thru the card into the hard drive.

It still can't do any directX tests but i CAN do DX shader options like the bubble and I can also play games maxed to the full like UT2003.

This is really weirdin me out.

**MatrixmaN** · February 4th, 2003, 12:31 PM

Still don't work.

What could be the cause of things randomly crashing? I have all my drivers updated as far as I know. The power is connected to the card correctly.

But it's just games and certain graphical applications that either freeze, make my screen go black or just crash back to the desktop.

**sigh**

**poopeyhed2** · February 4th, 2003, 05:53 PM

See my thread about my friend's computer. Like Wizzard~Of~Ozz said, disable fast writes. If you can't disable it in the BIOS get the ATI control panel, supposedly you can disable it in there. Try upping the voltage (very slightly) to the AGP and CPU. If that doesn't help, try out new ram.

How much wattage is your powersupply? Also, in the rage3d.com forum's they say reducing the AGP bus, from 8x try 4x or 2x, for you try 4x to 2x. Like scotlandtb said in my thread, it might be the ram since both computers are using Generic brand memory.

**MatrixmaN** · February 5th, 2003, 07:00 PM

Thank you,

Turning my speed to 2x worked. Now quake 3 works and my DXDIAG tests work too.

BUT:

This is horrible. Technically 4x to 2x is 1/2 the speed right? So now im only using 1/2 my card speed wise? I know i'll still have the features but to clear up my confusion; how much slower is my card now? What is the real difference between 4x and 2x........

And 1 more thing: My old Geforce2 mx400 ran all my games fine on 4x, and some games do run on 4x with this 9500 too. So doesn't what mean my mobo is 4x agp?

Edit: and i'm not complaining about the card.......it's too good of an update reguardless, but if I can get more out of it than I see no reason not too

**poopeyhed2** · February 5th, 2003, 07:05 PM

I'm glad it works! Now I feel good fixing someone's computer (not my friend's

but I told him to do the same). Now that's something I don't know. I don't think you're running it at half the performance because it depends on the games using the bandwith.

Also, if any mod see this thread, please make this a sticky for these following reasons:
1) MANY people have issues like this in rage3d.com and anandtech.com
2) This is a powerful card, and having problems with it would be easier to spot.

Thanks

**JayMan** · February 5th, 2003, 07:14 PM

Really there isn't much different between 2x & 4x in reality.

Just checking, do you have fastwrites & side band addressing disabled in your bios?

JayMan

**MatrixmaN** · February 5th, 2003, 08:52 PM

Well,

In my BIOS the only thing that says Fastwrites is "Fastwrite Supported", which after that post above I changed to disabled (prior enabled), though when this was enabled my SmartGart stated fastwrites were disabled.

Is there a difference between supported (as in BIOS) and enabled (as in SmartGart)?

Also there is 4x AGP support (In BIOS) which was enabled even though SmartGart said 2x. Also after that post above I disabled it because though Quake 3 ran with it enabled Neverwinter nights ran but crashed and blue screened me.

Just for reference my AGP Aperture size is 128mb (which is the cards mem) but it goes to 256mb (should I change it?).

**MatrixmaN** · February 5th, 2003, 09:05 PM

I just rebooted and looked and there is no Side Band Addressing in any of the options of any menu in my BIOS so im not sure what im looking for.

**JayMan** · February 5th, 2003, 09:23 PM

I've never used an ATI card, but from my understanding, smartgart basically helps to adjust bios settings (e.g. agp speed, fastwrites, sba etc...). You still should set fastwrites to disabled and AGP 2x in the bios if possible, will probably help speedup the bootup process since thats 1 less thing smartgart has to do when it loads.

As far as your aperture, leave it at 128MB, you wont see any advantage by increasing it to 256, if anything it may actually slow things down alittle.

Does smartgart have any options about SBA (side band addressing)? If not perhaps you might need to get a seperate tweaking utility to adjust this setting? Cuz really with both FW & SBA off you should be able to run in 4x agp mode....

Anyways, like i said above, up until now the really hasn't been much of a difference when it comes to 2x & 4x. Perhaps future games may show the difference, but yeh at the moment not really much difference, i think it was like 2-4% or something. I actually run my gf4ti 4200 on 2X agp since thats all my mobo supports....

JayMan

**MatrixmaN** · February 5th, 2003, 09:54 PM

SmartGart has no Sideband addressing options.

Do you have any tweak names/links that can enable that?

**JayMan** · February 6th, 2003, 07:01 PM

U could try rivatuner (www.guru3d.com), it has some radeon support now, but not sure how much tweaking it will allow. Or i think there is one called radeonator or something like that.... Someone here should know some radeon tweaking programs....

JayMan

**poopeyhed2** · February 9th, 2003, 06:55 PM

Maxtrixman, how did you fix it? Can I have it precisely, because my friend just changed it from 4x AGP to 2x AGP and it still doesn't work and he disabled the Fast Writes. HE used Powerstrip to turn it off.