8800 GTX woes...

[windybut]

I have just bought a new PC and I am having probles with UT2004. While playing UT2004 I notice a severe slow down while playing it. The game is set to max details and running at 1920x1200 and I get about 200 fps using the default bots for level and no mutators. As an example if I play BR-Bifrost no matter which base I enter the game stutters very badly when you go in the door and again when you go up the slope to the bombing ring. I have tried to fix this by turning off SLI and I even removed one of my cards but I still got this stuttering. I even reinstalled the game from scratch again and applying the latest patch but it still does this.

I use Windows XP Pro which is fully updated online and I have the latest motherboard and soundcard drivers too.

While in the process of trying to solve these problems I tried my old ATI X1800XT card in my new PC and I had no problems at all. So I have no idea what’s going on. Does the game have some problems with the new cards or is there a driver problem I dno't know about?

I ran 3D Mark 2006 and I got a score of 14172 and all the graphics card tests went smoothly even thought 3D Mark does not use all the CPU's cores and does not use SLi either.

If anyone can help me with this problem I would be gratefull.
WindyBut

PS I also play NFS Carbon, Serious Sam II and Oblivion. They all play fine and I too play these at 1920 x 1200.

[windybut]

Try to mimic what the 3Dmark does! Use 1 CPU and no SLi or just try to set that process UT2004.exe affinity to 1 cpu then go from there.

Thanks for trying to help but as I said I have already turned off Sli in an attempt to fix this problem. As I have installed my old slower X1800XT card and had no problems then I think its a driver issue or the game does not like the new graphics cards. I am hoping for a driver issue so it can be fixed.

So I dont believe that I need to restrict how many CPUs UT2004 uses. But thanks again.

WindyBut

[windybut]

Sorry mate..

I did not say to turn off SLi I said set affinity to 1 CPU for that process and go from there!

Probably not the GPU but the core 2!

If you dont want to try that then why are you here asking for help?

Sorry mate I wasn't trying to argue over this SLi and I do need help. There is an option that you place in your boot.ini in Windows XP. The option is /ONECPU as the name says it all it only allows you to use one cpu core. I have tried that too but to no avail.

What I was getting at is I used my old slower graphics card(X1800XT) and the game ran without any problem. IE no sturring. Now when I tried this I hadnt used the /ONECPU so all 4 cores were in use and the game ran fine.

That is why I think that it is either the game hates 8800 cards or its a drivers problem. I was hoping that someone on here may be using a 8800 card and could tell me if this game runs ok or not. Or maybe I have over looked something to try. Your idea was a good one but I had tried that earlier on this week and I forgot to mention it.

Sorry abouth that and thank you for taking the time to respond to cry for help.

WindyBut

[windybut]

Well I had not tried that OpenGL before but I have now and the problem still occures. I also tried D3D9 too but that crashed the my PC.

I found modified drivers on www.guru3d.com and there version is 97.28 for my card so I am currently giving them a try. I am still testing but I think the new drivers have stopped the frame rate dropping to 10 so atleast thats a good thing. But UT2004 still has this stuttering.

I do play other games with out problems such as NSF Carbon, NFS Most Wanted and Serious Sam II. I play the NFS games at 1600x1200 and get 50-70 frames and I play Sam at 1920x1200 at 65 frames. There is no stuttering in those and other games play fine too. Actually I have been playing Robobliz which uses the new Unreal3 engine and that runs like a dream, althought the sound goes wrong sometimes but thats ok.

I am sorry if I am boring you going on like this but I thought I would let know that other games play fine in the hope it might help you to help me some how.

I do appreciate the effort and kindness you are showing me so thank you.
WindyBut.

[windybut]

Well the possible issues I see could be something about your OP system or hardware not supporting that card! And the Direct X 10 im not sure if that comes with the cards software as a supplimental download or what? I would think it not required as the XP will not support it.

I also see at the BFG site some possible issues in the "minimum system requirements" to run that BFG 8800GTX.

http://www.bfgtech.com/8800GTX_768_PCIe_wc.html

I see a couple areas like:

Internal or external PC water cooling system as a minimum requirement [for that card anyway] probably not yours!

Also making sure you got the supplemental 6 pin attached to the card or two 4 pin molex connectors [again for the BFG card] so im not sure what your plug set up is? With of course the 450 minimum PCI express PS with a combined 12v current rating at 30A or more! I would try to get the best PS I could because you need 750 to run SLi mode!
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Look at that site to see all that is minimum requirements to make sure you have that and then they say 97.02 drivers but if you know that those drivers are creating the trouble and you can find a beta fixed driver then i would try that!

Good luck. May be a power suppy issue which may or may not be adjusted in the voltage clocking if you have a utility for that or in the bios!

Also heres another site with alot of intersting stuff on the 8800GT:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Nvidia_GeFor...-32132889.html

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Thank for the info and as for the PSU I have an approved 750 watt psu with 4 pcie cables on it so its not that. I was using 97.02 drivers and they caused nothing but problems so a friend said last night that I should go to www.guru3d.com and get there 97.28 drivers as they fix the frame dropping problems.

Sure enough they do but UT2004 is the one I would like to fix now. if only I could stop that awful stuttering.

Anyhow thanks for all the good advice but I like you had already confirmed that the hardware was compatible before hand.

Thanks again
WindyBut

[windybut]

I think your right....

I think your right there so thanks again for taking the time and effort to help me out.

I appreciate all the advice you gave so thank you.
WinyBut

[Zoso Fan]

I think because the 8800 is so new theres going to be issues until Nvidia and/or UT2004 can access it or possibly come up with stable drivers for it with XP.

I would write to both tech supports Nvidia and UT2004 and explian your troubles but also provide all the info on your system specs and op system to them.

Might be that ultimately it will not work right until you install Vista and/or direct x 10!

Good luck, I can only do search on the web and I have seen others with the 8800GT are having studdering problems too so your not alone.

Yeah, this seems to happen everytime! Im waiting until vista is out for a month to build "teh uber machine"

[WidowMaker]

did you check nvnews.net or guru3d.com forums for help? there does seem to be issues with the 8800 drivers for some.

[windybut]

Thanks guys....

Yeah, this seems to happen everytime! Im waiting until vista is out for a month to build "teh uber machine"

I think waiting is up to you but I hope you don't suffer the problems with UT2004 as I do when get Vista.

Thanks for your reply.
Windybut

did you check nvnews.net or guru3d.com forums for help? there does seem to be issues with the 8800 drivers for some.

I have been to SLiZone Forums and NVidia Forums as well as here. So no I have not been to those 2 forums you recommend. So I guess I could try them too. I was hoping that some here had the same problem and had found a fix for it.

Thanks for your reply.
WindyBut

[windybut]

LOL two great minds think alike

Looks like these just came out today!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_97.44.html

LOL two great minds think alike. I spotted those too so I am getting them as we speak .

[windybut]

I didnt comment on..

Make sure you read the rest of my post if you dont know by now must uninstall the old drivers first then reboot the pc then install the new then reboot to be safe!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/driver_...ion_hints.html

I didnt comment on that part of your post but I am aware I have to remove the old drivers and reboot. As you can see for my first post this is NOT my first time that I have installed Nvidia drivers LOL.

Thanks again
WindyBut

[windybut]

97.44 drivers are on and I have played 3 games one after the other lastly I played Carbon and the frame rate seem fine now so that's a good thing but UT2004 still stutters

WindyBut

[Brian_the_King]

I had this problem once, with a much slower computer mind you. UT2004 would stutter, but it was the only game! I tried everything, as you have, until one day XP crashed. I couldn't get it working, and had to format and reinstall. When I installed UT2004 and launched it, it worked fine! I had totally uninstalled and reinstalled the game without avail, but for some reason reinstalling Windows fixed the problem.

So, if worst comes to worst, and you really have tried everything you can think, maybe reinstall Windows.

[windybut]

well I am glad..

I had this problem once, with a much slower computer mind you. UT2004 would stutter, but it was the only game! I tried everything, as you have, until one day XP crashed. I couldn't get it working, and had to format and reinstall. When I installed UT2004 and launched it, it worked fine! I had totally uninstalled and reinstalled the game without avail, but for some reason reinstalling Windows fixed the problem.

So, if worst comes to worst, and you really have tried everything you can think, maybe reinstall Windows.

well I am glad to here that re-installing windows fixed your probems I doubt that would help me though. That's because this is a new PC and I have already installed a fresh copy of windows you see.

Thanks for the reply.
WindyBut

[Brian_the_King]

I see, well sorry don't have any other ideas.