Okay, WTF is going on with this new card I got ? (6600GT)

[mjrpes]

Previous card: ATI Radeon 9600 128MB (vanilla 9600, isn't the faster Pro or XT)
New Card: nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB (using 66.93 Drivers)


Benchmark: Quake 3 Demo (1024x768, High Detail, 32bit, no AA)

ATI 9600 Results:

demo 001: 168.3
demo 002: 173.7

GeForce 6600GT Results:

demo 001: 130.2
demo 002: 117.8

WTF could I be doing wrong? I played some quake3 maps on both (not the demo, the latest release) and the 9600 is definitely much faster. But the 6600GT should be much much faster than the 9600. I tried newer drivers, but besides locking up my system, they didn't make a difference. Google isn't helping me either.

[4g3nt_Smith]

Is this the same install of XP? If so, thats your first problem; going from one brand to the other on the same install generally results into a shitty experience.

[+JuggerNaut+]

Is this the same install of XP? If so, thats your first problem; going from one brand to the other on the same install generally results into a shitty experience.

wtf

so basically, most reviewers who bench, say, three different vid cars on the same system/install, are giving us bogus numbers and we should ignore said reviews?

[U4EA]

I believe they do fresh installs for significant hardware changes while benchmarking.

[dzjepp]

If you don't wanna format I'd suggest giving these 2 proggies a try:

http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/ (Remove all the ATI/Nvidia components)

http://www.macecraft.com/jv16powertools2005/ (Remove ATI/Nvidia reg. entries with this)

Then have a go at installing the Nvidia drivers once again for your new card.

[mjrpes]

Huh, I've never heard it mentioned to reinstall windows for a video card upgrade.... I would think card manufacturers would put a big notice in huge font about this if performance were to degrade so much by going to a new card on the same install of windows.

I do have an extra hard drive lying around, so I could install windows on it to check performance out.

EDIT: thx, I'll try those links out first.

[mjrpes]

Driver Cleaning software didn't help. Still fustratingly slow. What's weird is that the 71.84 drivers cause lots of artifacts to show in quake and causes the syste to freeze up within half a minute. I wonder if I could have a defective card.

[Tormentius]

Huh, I've never heard it mentioned to reinstall windows for a video card upgrade.... I would think card manufacturers would put a big notice in huge font about this if performance were to degrade so much by going to a new card on the same install of windows.

When switching brands (eg ATI to Nvidia) its always better to reinstall.

[mjrpes]

I will reinstall tomorrow and hope for the best

If it fixes the problem then everyone in this thread gets a beer on me

[+JuggerNaut+]

Huh, I've never heard it mentioned to reinstall windows for a video card upgrade.... I would think card manufacturers would put a big notice in huge font about this if performance were to degrade so much by going to a new card on the same install of windows.

When switching brands (eg ATI to Nvidia) its always better to reinstall.

hm, maybe i've just not ever seen it mentioned in reviews or they don't say. interbreasting.

carry on.

[Magestic]

Driver Cleaning software didn't help. Still fustratingly slow. What's weird is that the 71.84 drivers cause lots of artifacts to show in quake and causes the syste to freeze up within half a minute. I wonder if I could have a defective card.

I would return it right now. That shit ain't right.

[SOAPboy]

Is this the same install of XP? If so, thats your first problem; going from one brand to the other on the same install generally results into a shitty experience.

wtf

so basically, most reviewers who bench, say, three different vid cars on the same system/install, are giving us bogus numbers and we should ignore said reviews?

They do FRESH FORMATS on each card.. and keep OLD DATA from old benchmarks.. remember, they generally keep the test bed the same.. and if they do, guess what, fresh format..

Reason being.. No matter HOW CLEAN you get your drivers, it wont run as good as a fresh install..

it also helps that most people who do reviews, make a nice HD backup for quick formatting.

BTW what motherboard.. i had this SAME SHIT happen with my 6800gt..

[AmIdYfReAk]

if you actually backtrek a little when they where first noticing the issues with ATI VS Nvidia Driver issues, they did note that they use Norton Ghost to Make a "Fresh" install of xp on the drive, they apply the drivers and install the app's and Give'er.

btw, toms, and anandtech both said this.

[mjrpes]

Just to recap:

GeForce 6600GT Results - Old Install:

demo 001: 130.2
demo 002: 117.8

and these are the results with the card running off a new install of XP:

GeForce 6600GT Results - New Install:

demo 001: 255.4
demo 002: 251.9

That's more like it!!

Free beer for everyone!!!

I think ATI must have installed some super evil hidden software that prevents nVidia cards from reaching their potential

Thanks for your help everyone

[AmIdYfReAk]

Glad to hear its workin man.. GG

[Kills On Site]

Well switching either side sucks for performance. Like everyone said, chanigng grahpics card companies is always better for a fresh install.

BTW Juggernaut, yea that mustve been embarassing.

Now when I ditched my 9800 Pro and got the 6800GT I didn't see horid performance, the reason I didnt do a fresh install is because I was waiting for the Raptor, but I have seen performance drop dramatically from ATI to nVIDIA and nVIDIA to ATI, here is a great example.

[AmIdYfReAk]

ohhh, btw.. gimmie the 9600

[+JuggerNaut+]

BTW Juggernaut, yea that mustve been embarassing.

wut?

[mjrpes]

ohhh, btw.. gimmie the 9600

It's a very decent card.... good performance and fanless. The reason I got the 6600GT is because Gigabyte came out with a fanless version of it.

I hate noise

[mjrpes]

Oh, another thing. On this reinstall of windows I used the latest nVidia drivers (71.84). On my older install I couldn't even use these because artifacts would show up and quake would freeze within half a minute (as I mentioned above).

Something was really fucked up with my system.

[Kills On Site]

BTW Juggernaut, yea that mustve been embarassing.

wut?

Saying that all the reviews and shit were bogus

[+JuggerNaut+]

i was pointing out that they seemed to be bogus since i've never seen anything stating that they reinstall XP for different manufacturers when then test vidcards. i've just not seen or heard of that before.

hardly embarassing you twit.

hm, maybe i've just not ever seen it mentioned in reviews or they don't say. interbreasting.

carry on.

which is why i stated the above, dumb dumb.

[Kills On Site]

Hence my yea, I was agreeing with you

[mjrpes]

I've never seen it mentioned in review sites. And neither have I seen it mentioned, or even recommended, in manuals that come with video cards. that led me to believe not having a clean install of windows wasn't the problem.

But now I see I was wrong

[Foo]

Probably something the card manufacturers dont want you to know.