Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

[Adonlude]

Just replaced my ATI 9800Pro with an ATI X850XT PE, should be a pretty big upgrade.
Here is the rest of my system:
P4 3GHz OC'd to 3.15GHz, 800MHz FSB
P4C800 Deluxe motherboard
2 Gb low latency RAM
An old 19" Dell CRT monitor with max resolution of 1600x1200
All my drivers are up to date.

So with my 9800Pro I could play with mostly high settings, some medium, and no AA at the resolution just above 800x600. I would get low FPS in 64 man servers occasionaly and always on the Iron Gator.

With my X850XT PE I have everything on high with 4x AA and 1600x1200 resolution (which doesn't even look that much better) and my FPS ocassionally drops to 20 in some situations. This is ok but sometimes my picture gets choppy as if I am getting quick FPS drops although I dont see it drop below 20FPS. It is almost as if I am getting processor lag or something but I have 2GB of memory and all my background programs terminated. I cant believe my processor cant keep up with the game. I expected to be able to max out everything and get smooth gameplay at all times with this new card.

My second issue is with the shadows:
Even with my new card when I walk up to any of the shadows for vheicles or other moveable objects they look all squareish at the edges like they were drawn in MS paint with the largest brush. I also get really bad shadows on vheicles when I am close to them and at the right angle. These shadows look like Venetian blinds that flicker on and off and just look like an obvious rendering error. Is this a normal issue?

Overall I am kind of dissapointed with my upgrade. A $400 graphics card has only made my gaming experience marginally better. The extra gig of RAM I added for $120 had more of an effect than the new graphics card.

I would appreciate any feedback on these problems.
Thanks!

P.S. Selling my 9800Pro for slightly less than Ebay market value, ill have to check what that is. Card works perfectly and I have the box and everything that came with it.

[Razorman01]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

Strange how you say it doesn't look beter @ 1600x1200 with 4XAA it should look stunning, i run at same settings & it looks great with average fps's between 60-100, it does drop down to low 30's on 64 player servers in some areas of heavy fighting & arty etc, the shadow problem is the same for all of us as AA is not applied to shadows in BF2, the only thing i can sugest is to use a driver cleaner from www.guru3d.com to completely remove the old drivers & then reinstall the latest Catalyst's, try a fresh install of BF2 as well or at least clear out the BF2 cache folder in my documents, good luck.

[Adonlude]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

OK well I am happy to hear that the shadow issues are normal and my FPS situation sounds good in relation to yours. You have 2x6800's which should be better than my single card.

Maybe 1600x1200 isn't that amazing becuase of my monitor? What do you call it when a diagonal line looks ****ty becuase It crosses over to the next row of pixles on your monitor and just jumps up? I have lots of that and higher resolutions dont change that effect. Do newer monitors perform better in that respect and if so what monitor specification adress that?

[Razorman01]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

What you speak of sounds like graphical "tearing" due to refresh rate set wrong or v-sync is disabled, try setting your monitor refresh rate in your graphics control panel to the highest your monitor will support (probably 85hz), also check in the same place to see if you have v-sync disabled, if so enable it.

Good luck.

[Jofaba]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

Make sure your monitor supports that resolution. Also, you don't need that resolution if you have like a 17" crt. You won't notice it really (at least that's my opinion, possibly not technically true). Go into catalyst and click "alternate pixel center": "Might resolve vertical and horizontal lines around textures in 3D games".

Really though, what you're experiencing is pretty much what to expect from this card. I'm surprised that you're not stoked about such a dramatic quality jump. Then again, I can understand that you probably wanted everything on high. So do I heh.

What is your 3DMark05 score?

Anyway, the good news is that your videocard isn't maxed out yet. Have you used the overclocking tool yet? But besides overclocking, there's tons of tweaks that can help you gain a few fps here and there. They add up to some significant peformance boost. But there's still a possability that in the end, some piece of hardware will be holding you back. Personally, I'm testing out a 3700+ San Diego this weekend to see if my processor is a bottleneck, and if peformance suddenly flys through the roof I'm going to be purchasing the 4000+ San Diego. My roomate has the pci-e X850XT PE (and I have the AGP), we both have the same exact ram, same brand of motherboard (but his is the delux and pci-e version), same Raptor hard drive, page file on separate drive, and of course, the same videocard. He can play ANY game completely maxed out with hardly any stutter. Games like FEAR, COD2, and Special Forces I have to set to mostly medium.

Good luck.
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Adonlude... what the hell are you talking about? I can only assume that I totally missed something on this page, or you have multipe windows/tabs open and meant to post about the booster packs elsewhere. =P

[Adonlude]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

Hehe, I deleted that other message, it was posted in the wrong place.

Back to topic: I am not yet using any overclocking on the card. I hope to do some 3DMark05 testing tonight at various CPU OC settings to see if it is my 3GHz P4 holding me back. I will post the results here.

Thanks for the Catalyst setting suggestion, ill give it a shot tonight as well.

[Jofaba]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

... to see if it is my 3GHz P4 holding me back.

Judging by my own experience, my roomates experience, and the way that AMD's are named (ie, my 3200+ is supposed to be the equivilant of a 3.2ghz pentium, and his 3700+ is supposed to be equivilant to a 3.7ghz), I'd say that yeah, your processor is holding you back, at least a little.

[RA-1972]

Re: Expected better graphics with new X850XT PE. Are these issues normal?

try useing omega drivers i was useing ati but didnt like them version i am useing is 2.6.87