9800 GX2 only uses single core!, Only 11073 from 3DMark

luv2sd

I bought a used KFA2 9800 GX2 and I'm almost beginning to think that it's faulty
I've updated driver to the latest 177.41 Vista 64bit and I've tried many different settings in nVidia control panel but no luck...
3DMark still gives me score of about single core from 9800 GX2
I've checked temperature and fan speed with gpu-z









I'm not sure if both should have fan speed but one of them has fan turned off
I've used rivatuner to manually set fan speed to 100% and ran 3DMark but I still get same low score with 9800 GX2

I have Q6600 overclocked to stable 3.3GHz and use windows vista ultimate x64
Does anyone have any idea what could be the problem here if the grahpic card is not faulty?
I got a OCZ 1000W PSU just in case it's the PSU not providing enough power but I don't know... I have OCZ 600W PSU right now

Just Learnin'

Does the PSU have both the 6 and 8 pin PCI-E connectors? Are they both plugged in to the GFX card and which 3DMark are you talking about. 01, 03, 05, 06, Vantage ???

Tipstaff

It's worthwhile to note that the card has many LEDs to indicate if there is a problem with the card, be it no power, not working, whatever the fault. Where the power cables connect to the card they should both be lit up green. On side of the of the card where the monitors connect one should be green, and the other blue (and if I remember correctly this is the one you should be connecting your monitor to). If any of them are red, then be worried.

BTW, I noticed the exact same issue you are having when I put together a system, and ran 3DMark under Vista x64. Once I began gaming with it, or ran something else like Vantage, that's when the card showed it's stuff. It was working as it was supposed to.

There is one thing you need to be sure of, and that is that in the Nvidia Control Panel that your card is set to multi-GPU mode, and not multi-monitor. In fact, this is a good test to see if the card is working as it should be. If you switch it to multi-monitor mode that turns off SLI. Run whatever tests, and make note of the results. Then redo the same tests, but this time have the control panel set to multi-GPU mode.

Last thing: audio drivers affect performance, so be sure to have the latest. The first time I ran any tests on the system with the 9800GX2 in it I got poor results. Stuttering, lag.. overall slow performance. Once I updated the drivers (in this case the Realtek HD audio drivers) the stuttering in the games disappeared, and overall system performance increased.

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BlueMak

Didn't futuremark disable something or other so that certain Nvidia cards don't take advantage of something or other?

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CDsDontBurn

there is an issue with all 9800 gx2 cards with 3Dmark06 in vista (not sure if the same is true for XP though), where 3dmark06 does not perform upto snuff. i'm not sure if it's a driver issue or if it's a 3Dmark issue, but it's a known issue.

i suggest you run 3Dmark Vantage to get the most accurate 3Dmark scores for your system.

i found this out through work if you were curious on how i know this. and no, i'm not saying where i work.

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kris23

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NUCLEARWINTER

i noes!

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insert witty comment here!

winco44

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I have Dimension 9200 from Dell.
4 GB RAM,
500 HDD
Intel Dual core proc, 1.9 GHZ (1 core)
motherboard with 1 PCI-E (I suppose it is only 1.0) and there is no SLI support by MB. On board is integrated sound card (Sigmatel) and ethernet adapter.

It had Radeon 900/1100 256 MB card, so I decided to upgrade it. First I got another 2 GB (I have 4 together) and then I bought used EVGA e-Geforce 9800 GX2. Of course I had to change PSU, because I had only 375 W and without 6 pin and (6+2) pin.

I got BFG EZ 800 W (it is certified and on Nvidia certified list).

I have Vista 32-bit and computer started normally, just date was changed in BIOS.

When I run first game (COD4) I was shocked. Suttered, breaked..scattered ..lagged...echoed sound. Also I had big lag in game (actually lag meter showed 90 ms) but confirmed by players my lag was very high. And I had around 60 FPS on 1650 x 1080 (my screen max) and it went down from time to time.

Then I found several forums how to solve a problem.

I uinstalled old drivers (radeon). I updated sound card drivers. Got newest Nvidia driver. Still same.

(another problem was with 8pin cable to GX2, because another day screen was black. connector to card is ...non stable, its a bit loose and card around that connector iluminate on red, but I can always set it into position that is green. If I would move it slightly, I lost completely image, screen will turn to black, so this not influence performance, it is just mechanical problem, and now it is green around that connector)

Then I red that I have to turn off onboard sound card and install some PCI card. I did it. Bought from brother SB live and I installed it. Same problem.

Strange is when I switch from game to explorer, sound is ok. When I watch video, sound is ok...until I start to move with it. For example during some you tube video, sound starts to break.

I can Evga precision software to check my card. I can change FAN speed to 100 % but there is no improvement. I can change clocking but it is not important now. It shows me only 512 MB DDR but I red somewhere it is normal because there are 2x 8800 GTX card and each with 512 MB.

In system manager I have 2 x Nvidia 9800 GX2 ..so I think system recognized I have 2 GPU's.

Is it possible that previous owner take out 512 MB DDR ram from one of the cards ? I saw some marks around screws. But I didn't want to open it.

Last chance is maybe to use driversweeper, or completely reinstall my vista.

What other solution if not this ? Do I need SLI supporting MB ? Is that loose connector problem ? Do I have lot of trafic on MB ? Is my card faulty ?

I want to solve it. Any thoughs guys ?

winco44

I found with driversweeper many drivers from ATI...I removed them but it is same..

CDsDontBurn

it sounds like it might be just that the SLI is not enabled. with the 9800GX2 cards, there is no need for you to have a motherboard that is SLI supported. the SLI feature is supposed to be enabled automatically for you, but in some cases, SLI needs to be enabled by the user. this is done within the NVIDIA control panel. the section for this is "3D Settings" then you'll see a radio button asking you to enable/disable SLI.

As for the stuttering issue, i think it may be an issue with the motherboard chipset drivers, so you might want to update those as well. as for device manager showing 2 9800GX2s, that's normal. also, since this card is essentially two video cards merged into one, there is NO way to remove 512MB of the RAM. if you do, the card is officially dead. the previous owner probably removed the HSF assembly to either clean it out or use some other thermal paste that's better than the stock stuff from EVGA on the GPUs.

Also, your CPU is another probable cause of the stuttering that you are experincing as well. a 1.9Ghz CPU that is single core is not going to feed the rendering information to the GPU as quickly as it would need it. i'm not saying that it is the cause, but it's definately something worth looking at.

finally, the warranty. you mentioned that you purchased this card used. was it used as in recertified from a store online or retail like Best Buy or NewEgg, or was it used as in, you bought it from some dude off eBay? the reason for this is because of the warranty. if you bought it from a store, you will have a 90 day warranty through EVGA should the card cease to work within the first 90 days of purchase. if you bought it from an individual on eBay, craigslist, etc., then the card has no warranty whatsoever as per EVGA's limited lifetime warranty terms and conditions.

oh, and finally finally....welcome to DH!

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Tipstaff

As a matter of fact, if you don't see 2 x 9800GX2 listings in Device Manager then you should be worried. As CDs pointed out, double check the SLI listing in the Nvidia Control Panel. What you want is for the card to be in Multi-GPU mode (SLI), and not in Multi-Display mode.

BTW, it sounds to me that whomever had the card previously was a little too rough in removing the power connector to the card, and has dislodged the soldier holding it on the PCB. This is why you are having a problem power wise. If the card is still under warranty don't touch it, but if it isn't, and you can't return it to the person you bought it from, see if anyone can touch that up for you (re-soldier the pins).

As for the sound issue, try turning off Creatives CMSS option. Check out a post I made HERE. It's for a different reason, but the location of the option is the same for the Live card under Vista.

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winco44

thanks a lot guys...I slept last night only 3 hours. This problem drives me crazy...thanks a lot for reply, I will try to do what you said. And yes, I bought it from ebay from somebody. And pins are very sensible, but they sit now well. I'll post my progress later.
Once again thanks a lot.
And BTW..I have Intel Dual Core so..2x1.9 (it was typo).

And CMSS option was switched off already. Can be a problem that one of GPU use IRQ 16 and sound card as well ?

Well I checked multi GPU mode - it was enabled, also for every game was multi GPU. I switched off (allowed just signle GPU) one card for instance...same suttering..but 30% less ..sound was a bit clearer ...just a bit. I'll leave switched off Physx acceleration for now.

Also yesterday I checked Dell pages. There was guy from France with absolutely similar problem and almost same model (CPU, MB) like I have. He also got GX2 and technicians in DELL didn't want to help him ..I may later copy his email.

Ok ..Also I found I have only 2.3.0 ver. of BIOS and DELL offered me on support page (after I entered product tag) newer. I got and I installed 2.5.3 BIOS version.
Nothing happened. Same.

Well last thing is my VISTA 32-bit reinstall. I have also another question. Does Vista-32 bit support GX2? Maybe I need to buy VISTA 64 bit ? I'll give it a try tonigh with that Vista..after that I am effortless. I might try to borrow my card to somebody here to test it. Maybe is faulty.

winco44

FRENCH GUY WITH SAME PROBLEM, I COPIED EMAIL FROM DELL PAGES.

Sorry in advance for this very long post…here’s my story. On 2nd Feb, my Dimension 9200 – bought in May 2007 - shut itself off and wouldn’t POST again. Here are the specs:

Pentium E6700
4 x 1Gb DDR Ram
8800 GTX 768 Mb
Creative X-Fi xtreme music
600Gb HDD (RAID array, dual drives)
375W PSU

The machine is still under guarantee (it’s a work PC so I got a three-year “next-day” guarantee, called “J-1” here in France where I live). So I used the online chat facility to talk to a support technician who was very helpful. He said the problem was the video card, and he’d send a replacement. On 5th Feb, Dell's supplier called and said they didn’t have the card, but it might be available in about ten days (but refused to guarantee it). So I waited.
By the 16th I had still heard nothing (just as I had suspected) so I emailed Dell Support and asked for a confirmed date - I use my PC for work and my ageing laptop can’t really cut the mustard. A week later Dell finally replied and told me they were sending me a new graphics card, and that it would solve the problem. It arrived on 24th Feb, and turned out to be a 9800 GX2, which I obviously wasn’t going to complain about. I installed it, but the PC still wouldn’t post. However it now started giving me a beep code, so I contacted Dell, who sent a guy round to replace the mobo on 27th Feb, and hey presto my PC finally booted up again.
Despite it taking three weeks (the guarantee contract does talk about “next day”, although I guess that only applies to the diagnosis), I figured you can’t have everything, and was happy with the outcome.
However, that afternoon, I noticed that I was getting slow frame rates, even in Windows. And when I tried listening to an MP3, any on-screen movement – like scrolling in IE or even typing in Word - distorted the sound heavily. And as for using graphics-hungry games or watching films, you can forget it. I reinstalled drivers, etc, to no avail.
I informed Dell of this new problem on 27th Feb, and emailed them again…twice. After getting no response whatsoever, I went back to the chat and spoke to a different technician. She checked my dossier, asked a couple of questions. Then I asked her whether it might be because the PSU I have is too small for the 9800 GX2, which Nvidia say needs 580W minimum. She promptly disconnected without further comment. I charitably assumed it was a technical fault. But she didn’t email or call me back (despite obviously having my details). I had to wait 20 minutes before I could try the chat again, and when I did I was connected to yet another technician. Before even saying hello he transferred me to another queue. I waited 20 minutes. Nothing. So I tried to reconnect. This time, I got stuck straight in a queue and after 42 minutes I disconnected because nothing was happening. By this time it was after 6pm, so I sent them ANOTHER email asking for assistance. I have not received a reply today.
I get the impression Dell wants me to just buzz off and stop bothering them. I’m not looking to hassle them, all I want is some help.

Am I being unreasonable? I’d appreciate your opinions.

THAT'S HIS EMAIL. OF COURSE GX2 NEEDS MORE POWER THAN 375, THAT'S WHY I BOUGHT NEW PSU. ALSO HE CHANGED MB.

winco44

Ok guys.

I installed Vista from beggining. From scratch if I can say it. I was so ....depressed...dis...whatever it was I didn't backup my desktop files. They gone...had there personal things (mainly photos (no backup of them) and some updates for games...Well...problems makes problmes. At least I will spend more time outside than sitting at the computer...what I wished for this year..

Well I finished instalation of Vista....first I put there latest drivers for Nvidia, drivers for sound card, direct X 9/10 and ...that's it.

Same shit.

Suttering...echoing...yeah...I will test that card in somebody else computer and if it will be bad card, faulty...that guys will get very negative advertisement from me. I am full of wrath.

Thanks everyone for support, my problem is too complex to solve.

Thanks again...

CDsDontBurn

sorry to hear man.

i suggest that, for future OS installs, you get yourself a secondary hard drive and put all your personal documents and pictures and stuff. programs that can be reinstalled can go. they can be reinstalled.

yea, if you've already reinstalled windows and everything and the issues are persisting, this sounds like a bad card. and the bigger thing here is, that since it was purchased 2nd hand, EVGA does not extend the warranty of the card to the 2nd owner.

you may perhaps try and register the card and submit an RMA for it. sometimes people get through the cracks in the system...just a suggestion if you're willing to try. the worst they can say is no.

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Tipstaff

Thing is that all this stuttering (if it's audio stuttering) and echoing, this points to a driver issue with the sound card, or some other driver (or lack there of), and not the video card directly. That's what has me baffled.

Not to say this can't be video card related. Just recently I've seen a system in which when the power supply was being drawn on too much by the video card (even though the PSU was 300 watts above thr recommend minimum) the PSU would cause feedback through the mainboard, and all you'd hear is static, piercing static through the sound card. I've also seen instances where sound drivers, such as pre 2.0 Realtek HD drivers would mess up systems running anything above the 8000 series Nvidia. In fact, as soon as I installed Realteks HD 2.01 drivers all the issues I had with the last 9800GX2 I worked on everything started to run smoothly where previously things, specifically games, ran like shit.

BTW, not sure if it's possible, but is there any way you can return the card for a refund, or was the item sold "as is"? If it is defective, and the guy never mentioned it, you could have reason for some sort of recourse either from him, or through Ebay.

A few things to think about:

1) If you have one on hand, be sure to try another video card in your system. If you can try that card in someone elses machine the least you should do is try theirs in yours just to make sure there isn't a problem with the motherboard.

2) Since you are running Vista, be sure to have it completely up to date. That means having Service Pack 1 installed, plus any Windows Updates.

3) Since you also bought more RAM, have you tried removing that new stick of RAM?

4) Out of curiosity, you did disable the onboard audio in the bios, right?

5) Go into Device Manager, and double check the settings for the hard drive controllers. Make sure that none of the drives attached are running in PIO mode. If they are they can greatly effect performance, and causing some very interesting issues with sound playback (distortions, stuttering, and lag) whenever Windows access hard drives or optical drives.

6) Disconnect or disable your Ethernet cable, or if you are using one, disable or turn off your wireless network card, and then test a game again.

7) Since an updated version of Direct X is now out, you may as well try updating it to see if this helps. You can get the new redistributable HERE.

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winco44

HI

Well, I'll try to test that card in someone's else comp, also all updates are installed.
I disabled on board sound card of course.

Well I bought a RAM but I inserted it before I start with new graphic card and everyting was ok. Yesterday I got info from vista that I have only 2.5 GB RAM. Wow I checked it and now there is 2.814 MB RAM...but I have 4 GB. Ok I will try to remove new RAMS.

Where to check mode of hardrives ? I have array here. So how to check it ?

I will try to switch off ethernet adapter ...and run game in single mode.

I am currently downloading that new direct x

I'll be in touch.

Thank guys keeping my hope alive

temeteus82

You have found the limitation of 32-bit Vista it supports maximum of 4Gb of memory space, that includes the memory of the GFX card and the RAM... 64-bit Vista can handle up to 128GB of RAM (Ultimate)...

To check your hard drivers run command prompt and type chkdsk [drive] /F it will say that it can't do that now and recommends that it would be done at boot. So select it to be done at boot.

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winco44

Ok,

I did some things last night. I updated new directx and I switched off ethernet adapter. Nothing happened.

Still didn't check those disks, but don't think so It will be a problem. Former owner of the card wrote me this:

"hi, this graphic card required atleast 600 watt power supply. And proper 8 pin connecter. If you have 6 2 oin connecter, it may not work properly for provide exact voltage. I have Cooler Master 850 watt supply. On that this card runs smooth way. I have played all high resolution games as i mention in description. May if card it not getting exact voltage that why one one core. And i only use Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit.
I will suggest you to check your supply or atleast the connecter."


8 pin connector ? Does this connector exists ? I check few PSU's supported by Nvidia and I found only 6 and 6+2 versions. Didn't see option with 6 and 8 pin.

Another very important thing is that nobody said you need Vista 64 bit. I think I saw somewhere a post and owner claimed he had only Vista-32 and he had no problem with that.

I am also going to put inside my old Radeon 1300 256 MB. It may happened during my installation I damaged something (I have experience in HP one year of installation industrial computers).

That's for now folks.

edit: I checked my old card with my new PSU, and everything went all right. Btw ...I found out dell deleted my account on dell.com ..heh strange. And I decided to give up. I will sell that gx2 to someone else.

Thanks all for support.

blibbax

You don't need 64 bit Vista fir the card, you just need that if you want to use it with more than 2gb of RAM.

Also, an 8 pin connector and a 6+2 pin connector are the same thing.

Persevere! That's a great card, and you may make a loss by selling it.

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winco44

Well..I need to buy completely new computer. And I am not going to do it now. I saw in shop Geforce 9600 GT 512 MB. That card needs 400 W PSU and one 6 pin conector. I returned new (800W PSU) back to shop. I have 375 W with 1 6 pin conector. I know it will be only small improvement but I need solution just fot one year. I don't play so much graphicaly intensive games, just got into COD 4 a bit, but I don't give a shit. 9600 will be ok for some time. Luckyli I found my lost datas on computer so I am happy.

blibbax

Oh well, the 9600GT is a strong card and will be fine for cod4. Enjoy, and don't forget to let us know when you start on your new PC!

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Tipstaff

I just wanted to point out that the card doesn't actually "need" 400 watts itself, rather that the recommendations on the box point to the "overall" requirements of the system to have a 400 watt PSU so that when the card draws more power it won't cause your system to crap out.

In the case of the 9600GT, under load (gaming/3d processing) the card can pull as much as 200 watts, and around 120 watts in idle or with regular use. If you don't have a lot in your system, or you have a system that has components that don't draw a lot of power, you should be fine even if the PSU doesn't meet the minimum recommended specs. In your case you probably have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 processor that's running at 2GHZ (although it sounds like something is mis-reading the clockrate, probably because Intels EIST has clocked the CPU down a bit) which pulls about 65watts on it's own (max), and with the other parts in your system you are probably hitting around 300 - 350 watts when the system is under load with that card, and around 220 - 250 watts (or even less) when you're not gaming. So, in my opinion, I'd say you're fine with that PSU.

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blibbax

This is all good stuff, but just to correct you on the 9600Gt power requirements - that card will never exceed 150W, even quite heavily overclocked. A good working figure for load at stock speeds would be about 120W.

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CDsDontBurn

actually, tipstaff is closer to being correct. here's a link

NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB G94 TestedPower Consumption Tests :: TweakTown

and another one. this one has slightly different results, but it still shows that Tipstaff's numbers are closer to correct than what you stated blibblax

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...t,1780-18.html

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blibbax

Those are figures for the entire test system. I believe Tipstaff was stating 200W+ for just the graphics cards, which is impossible as the 9600GT can only draw 75W through the board and 75W through the connector.

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CDsDontBurn

no. if the card were to draw only 75w of power, it would NOT need a 6pin PCI-E power adapter as the motherboard itself would be able to provide sufficient power for the card. the PCI-E bus of all motherboards provide a maximum of 75w for a video card.

the card does draw approximately 210w under load.

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blibbax

I am not saying that the card draws only 75W, I'm saying that it can't draw more than 150W - the maximum for PCI-E slot plus PCI-E connector.

Nvidia themselves (though biased) suggest a power consumtpion of 95W for car only according to this article. The graph is whole system pwer consumption.
Power Consumption - Review Tom's Hardware : Nvidia's GeForce 9600 GT Tested

This PSU calculator suggests about 88W for 9600GT only.
eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts

There's also the new 9600GT green, which through only a die shrink and a mild underclock negates the need for a pci-e connecotr altogether, presumably thus lowering pwer consumption below 75W.
techPowerUp! News :: Gigabyte Readies Passive-Cooled GeForce 9600 GT Green Edition Accelerator

This article also claims, under the SLI heading, that a 9600GT will abut 86W.
Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT | Multi-GPU graphics | Graphics cards | Labs Tests | Custom PC

The thing to remember with power consumption tests in almost all reviews is that they test only peak power for the entire system.

We've gone a bit off topic here, but is is relevent to the 9800GX2. People often overestimate how powerful a PSU they need, possibly due to the fact that many can't produce anything like their claimed power. However, a good PSU of low wattage, say a Corsair 450W, would power a PC with a 9800GX2.

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Tipstaff

I have to say that blibbax is on the right track. The card would be limited to 150watts if that's all it pulls from the 2 areas: PCIE slot, and PCIE power connector. Also, given that power testers show what the overall drain of the system is at, what you're saying makes sense, but one would assume that those doing the tests would have a baseline of what their system does without a part, and are able to ascertain what the difference in power requirements are when they put another part in. That way they can tell you, specifically, this part pulls that much power.

That aside, I've read other reviews that gave similar scores, and they have specifically specified that their totals were "overall" totals. So, here's to blibbax for correcting me on this.

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winco44

Hi guys.

Ok I didn't buy 9600 GT. I had for the same price 9800 GT with 512 MB DDR3. I must say I was ...nervous before buy but I did it. I was not nervous about power consuption (if 375 W wil be enough). I was not nervous about Nvidia and compatibility of it products generaly.

I WAS NERVOUS ABOUT DELL PRODUCT(mainly MB). I am sorry to say it. I downloaded manual from DELL site (after entering TAG code etc) I found some information. One of the information was that my PCI-E is 1.1. I 've been trying to find spec of motherboard. UNLUCKY. What I know I have short PCI-E 1 x (I got soundlaster X-fi so I am going to try it). And I have PCI-E 16 x but only 1.1. I don't know any other spec of my motherboard. Just only it has Intel chipset I upgraded.

I payed 1050 euros exactly 2 years ago for that crap. I think market value of this product was maybe....max 500 euro. Another 500 euro I payed to the company. I bought from DELL because I moved to Ireland and I was new here, so didn't have technical backround here (like in my hometown) and list of component suppliers. Nevermind, that time it was reasonable solution for me. But I over-payed a lot.

Back to my new graphics.

G-Force 9800 GT PNY , 512 MB DDR3 RAM.

Everything was perfect. Just after instalation I had blurred stripes on my LCD when I was on 640 x 480. After instalation Nvidia drivers they disapeared.

COD4 - with max effects, 1650 x 1080, 60 FPS constantly...measured in-game ( you need to allow console and write /cg_drawfps 1)

F.E.A.R 2 - same output.

I will buy crisis finaly and I will try it to compare.

But I must say I've been speculating too much and wanted to exceed my motherboard. I still have that GX2 beast (even if connectors are bit loose) and we plan to buy another one computer with SLI and 1000 W PSU and PCI 2.0.

Final resolution is. FOR DIMENSION 9200/XPS 420 without any change 9800 GT is decent solution. Don't try to put there 9800 GTX+. You will need to upgrade your PSU and you will risk incompatibility with your MB.

Last thing is that I found my deleted photos and datas. I had already folder windows.old and after another vista instalation I got another windows.old000. but I though windows.old is newer one and 000 is older one. My mistake.

Have a nice eastern. thank you all.