WTF Happened to my EAH3870 TOP?

[Thundordan]

I've had my Asus EAH 3870 TOP for a few months now.

I recently ran a 3dMark06 test and the score was surprisingly low. Namely 7120 and 7011 (2 separate default tests, GPU was at full speed, 851MHz).

Back when I bought it, the same 3dMark test, with defaults, gave me the following scores:

11187

10760

10920

11853

12551

12598

(I was playing with the settings trying to get a better score)

WTF? The recorded 3dmark06 score for this card is around 11000 3d marks..

I can't remember if I've changed anything the past months (but I've checked the Catalyst Control Center and GPU-Z and there's nothing wrong with the stats or settings). Also, I've assembled and had a few computers so far, so I would spot any obvious problems..

The temperature never goes past 47 C in full load and I have not overclocked it.

I am running Vista x64, latest ATI drivers (tried replacing the drivers)

Please offer sugestions, I have no clue of what could have happened. :C

 

[Ghosthud1]

have you clogged up your OS? usally overtime your OS does take its toll and lowers performance

 

[tinytomlogan]

Aye ghosty is right, its windows bogged down with crappola.

 

[Thundordan]

Hmm, crapola, you say.

That is most definately true since I haven't UN-done anything to my windows for the past like 7 months I've had it installed. I've been meaning to revert to XP but was lazy.

I noticed I am also getting that "Video driver has stopped working and has recovered" message while playing games. (The VGA stops working and restarts)

At first I thought it's heat but the card should work fine at 60C and mine never gets to 50.

I've googled around and saw that people blaimed this on Vista saying it doesn't happen on XP.

I'm gonna have to clean my C:\ up. Had no idea windows can actually lower your 3dMark score that way..

 

[f0x.]

Yes mate, agreed with what tom and the lads where saying, if you are going to go back to xp, install and update the OS to SP3, then use something to make a image of your pc, then you can wipe it every couple of months, keep it running smooth

Think the longest ive ever went without a format is 4 months, and thats because i lost my backup dvds xD

Also, why revert to xp? You have a DX10 graphics card, they usually run better under vista due to better driver support, and you can run games in DX10 in xp without using a hack, i would stick with vista mate

 

[Ham]

You say 'when you first got it', does that mean that you were running XP and have switch to vista in that time frame? Probably not, but if so vista isn't as good for 06 so that would have effected it.

 

[Thundordan]

Yeah, I was thinking about going back to XP to make sure I don't get the VGA error. But I will try a clean Vista install before I take such a harsh decision

Okay, thanks mates! The problem was definately not hardware-related (PSU is fine, other stats are correct). I'll come back if this doesn't fix the problem.

EDIT

You say 'when you first got it', does that mean that you were running XP and have switch to vista in that time frame? Probably not, but if so vista isn't as good for 06 so that would have effected it.

No. I had vista all the time.

 

[f0x.]

Okay, thanks mates! The problem was definately not hardware-related (PSU is fine, other stats are correct). I'll come back if this doesn't fix the problem.

Good Luck to ya mate

 

[Thundordan]

Good Luck to ya mate

Well, I didn't get too far, unfortunately.

I've installed both XP x32 and Vista x64. XP gives me a 3dmark06 score of 10660 (which is a tad low but decent) And on the same bloody machine, booted with Vista Ultimate, it gives me 6-7 k.

One thing I've noticed was that my VGA driver CD from Asus (eah3870 TOP is made by asus) popps up a few more windows during the driver installation in XP (and takes longer) as opposed to Vista where it only bothers to install the Catalyst and then the found new hardware bubble automatically installs my card somehow from thin air.

Now I've completely removed the drivers from vista and reinstalled 4 times and no change. Same routine. In Return to Proxycon my framerate is 11-42fps in Vista and 22-59fps in XP.

I would really hate it if I was forced to play dx10 games on XP..



EDIT: The GPU Usage is 99% both in XP and Vista, the clock is the same and fine, but there's a huge drop in FPS in Vista. WHY?

(It goes from 3% in idle to 99% during 3dmark)