I've just "upgraded" from a Gainward GeforceFX 5600 to a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT and I didn't get the performance boost I expected. I know my system is a bit old but I still think I'm getting a bit too low score in 3dmark 2001se. I got 9983 3dmarks @ 1024x768x32 with VSYNC / AA / AF off. And another thing... UT2K4 runs noticable slower now!! That pisses me off because the reason I was upgrading my card was to get a smoother UT2K4 experience
yes that score does seem a little low i get 10400 with the cpu i got i have the same card as you and less ram. ok are you using the latest drivers? well not 4.6 they suck but 4.5 really are good, if your using cats3.8 or 3.9 that came with the card that would probly explain those scores my card came with 3.8 which really suck, and make sure u install the driver when the old 1 is completely removed (deleat old driver in control panel and use driver cleaner to scan for left out files). ive also exspearienced dud driver installs where for some reason the card only performs half the speed it does i dont think this is the case with you tho. theres also alot of problems when people change from nvidia cards to ati most reformat like i did to make sure it has no clitches from the old software/hardware. also when i was playing the demo of unreal2004 i noticed that when truform was enabled in the driver i think it ran abit more smoother. have u tried overclocking the card? i know thats not what u want to hear but if u have the saphire fireblade adition like me then it says on the box its 532mhz core speed ready altho its defaulted @ 500. i invested in a vga silencer which dont cost much and run it @540 without problems and can reach 560 maybe even more but im not that greedy.try using rage 3dtweak,ati tool or ati tray tool to overclock your card all of um also allow u to change other settings that can help improve performance a little except for ati tool(i think thats just an overcloaker). failing all else theres always a possiblility of overclocking the computer itself i personally use speedfan as my bios donesnt let me overclock. at the very most id exspect you to gain another 500-1000 3dmarks01 if your lucky.
3dmark 2001 tests your whole system try 3dmark 03 and you will have a good score i get 7xxx points in 2001 its just my system that sucks
I had the same mobo as you owziee and I got 10200 in 3Dmark2001SE, so I don't think that you have an unreasonable score. Just upgraded to a nForce 2 Ultra 400 a couple of days ago and it raised my score to 11481 p.
... Btw KNIFE, what is truform? I'm new to ati cards. Also I've noticed that I have the fireblade version. There's an overdrive tab in my ati control panel aswell. Is it safe to enable overdrive?
this should really of been moved to ati cards if anywhere but no matter. overdrive is completely safe to use, what it is is an overclocking tool that speeds the core up abit and will decrese the speed if it gets too hot. basically the safe way to overclock and not affect your warenty in anyway. altho my card is supose to have it it didnt come with it i would of sent it back to get 1 with the feature but bah i dont care i wouldnt use the overdrive tab for overclocking anyway altho knowing the temperature would be nice. truform is a feature that some games use it gives a better image and from what ive seen like its more clear of something. its even been used in halflife. good thing about it is that the games that suport it shouldn't run slower when truform is enabled but i cant verify that except in the unreal 2004 demo where it seems to increase its fps maybe coz it has truform optimiser language or something. all newer games should have the feature i believe, theres a real explanation on the ati website i think somewhere.
I know u problem..Its the Asrock mobo.. I hade nforce1 and had 11k. When i bouth this assrock my scores went to same OC 10k. asrock its just slow no mater what shipset it has.
... Ok. Well I did enable truform & yes now UT2k4 runs great at holy $hit settings. Strange but nice. I do like this graphics card and I've noticed it's really much faster than my FX5600 ever was. It's soon time to buy another mobo & cpu though. But I think I can live with my current cpu/mobo a few more months since it runs most games pretty fast afterall. Thanks for all replies.