New vid card, poobungier performance. Kind of.

rodekill · Fri 11/07/2003 21:23:18

I got one of these fancy pantsy Radeon 9500 pro blah blah mega super duper whoopdi poop cards.
Anyways, it's fast. I'm pretty sure.
Let me cut to the chase.
I run a game, and I get amazing fps, for about four seconds. After four seconds, the fps drop to about 1-4 for a second or two, and then they shoot back up again, rinse, repeat. Basically I'm getting these little burps of stuttering while I play, which is annoying beyond belief.
This happens on new games, and old games. All games. I love 3d.
I've updated my drivers, cleaned my registry, etc.
Please help me because I hate everything in the world.
Thank you.

BOYD1981 · Fri 11/07/2003 21:26:34

how powerful is your PSU and how many fans do you have in your case?
when i installed a GeForce4 in my pc i only had a 230watt PSU and everything ran like crap, so i got a 450w PSU and everything continued to run like crap but it had more power, but it's a low end GF4 mx440, i didn't notice improvements when i replaced the PSU though, so give it a try if you have a weak one...

Miez · Fri 11/07/2003 21:54:19

What motherboard do you have, Rode?

rodekill · Fri 11/07/2003 23:47:54

It's an Asus P3V4X. I've already upgraded the bios.

Hobbes · Sat 12/07/2003 00:06:11

Now I don't know too much about it... but could it be a problem with the AGP slot?

E.g. if the card is 8x AGP and your motherboard can only handle 4x AGP, that could be the problem...

Adamski · Sat 12/07/2003 00:10:06

I think the general solution to this problem has been to do a complete reformat and re-install of Windows. Either that or send your card back to get a non-faulty one

evilspacefart · Sat 12/07/2003 02:11:42

Boyd's right on with the power supply and fans. I had that same prob. Make sure you're getting enough power to that thing - a card like that can suck a lot of power and generate a LOT of heat. Try running it with the case open.
Try it on another computer - if it doesn't work on another one, chances are you got a bad card. Stuttering is usually a sign of hardware issues - it's unlikely that a driver's causing it, but you never know.

Make sure there's nothing that's touching the case on the inside... it can be drawing power away. (this happened to me also)
I've used an 8x card on a 4x agp and it worked fine.
Don't forget to call ATI for help.

rodekill · Sat 12/07/2003 07:45:04

Well, I took the card out, meaning to take it back to the store (the tech guy from the card manufacturer told me it was probably defective), but the store was closed. A few hours later I put it back in, left the cover off, and lo and behold, it's running perfectly. I'm assuming it was the heat. Man, that's insane.
Thanks everyone.

DGMacphee · Sat 12/07/2003 07:54:35

I've posted this before and I'll post it once again, but:

Miez · Sat 12/07/2003 10:11:40

Quote from: rodekill on Sat 12/07/2003 07:45:04
Well, I took the card out, meaning to take it back to the store (the tech guy from the card manufacturer told me it was probably defective), but the store was closed. A few hours later I put it back in, left the cover off, and lo and behold, it's running perfectly. I'm assuming it was the heat. Man, that's insane.
Thanks everyone.

Get yourself an extra case fan, that should keep your system running.

Hobbes · Sat 12/07/2003 14:14:33

*seconds Miez*

Glad to hear your system is working again, though!