# Upgrade from X1600pro to XFX 6800GS XXX



## P4-630 (Mar 20, 2006)

Hello, 

I have had an X1600pro, the high quality graphics from an ATi card are in a simple word: perfect, no other words 
But however I needed some higher framerates to play games as NFSMW, the x1600pro can run it on high settings in game + AA 2x and  AS 2x  with once in the 20 seconds a skipped frame...

Since the overclock margin is very little on a x1600pro, and other ram did not boost my system and so I decided to sell my pci-e x1600 and I bought a brandnew XFX 6800GS XXX (which was almost double the price of an x1600..)

With this I expected an huuge boost in gaming performance ofcourse! 

But after installing the card and updated with the newest drivers I'm dissapointed..NFSMW skipped (stuttered) more frames then with the x1600!! (same quality settings), also with high quality settings or with low quality and high performance settings it runs the same, NOT smooth  

I found some solutions specific for NFSMW running on a mobo with dual core or HT processor, I had to set the "affinity" to only "cpu0" in the task manager from "speed.exe" and that should do the trick....But not for me :shadedshu 

And with farcry there are blocky shadows, with gta san andreas the colors look "low quality"  when actually set on high (I see stripes, not fluent colors what i had with the x1600) the only thing what is better now is the frame rate , gaming performance in far cry and in san andreas, but the overall graphic quality sucks! 

I expect the graphic quality to be at least as the x1600, the xfx 6800 gs XXX and the x1600 both have the same amount of pipes and shaders, the only thing why the XFX is faster is because of the very high clock rates: DDR3 Memory Clock at 1.1GHz and core 485MHz .

But the x1600 outperformes the XFX 6800GS when running NFSMW.

My mobo chipset is ati radeon xpress 200, but does that mean that you only can put ati cards in it for best performance?

Does anyone know what the problem here is?

I also have it posted on the xfx forum, but i did not get any reply (yet).

Thanks in advance for any reply and help


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## bruins004 (Mar 20, 2006)

It could be a few things.

1. Did you disable the onboard graphics?
2. Did you delete all of the drivers from the ATI card?
3. Did you install all of the new drivers for the Nvidia card?
4. Your PSU might not be enough...What is it and how many Amps are on the 12v line?


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## P4-630 (Mar 20, 2006)

Thanks for reply,


I just used Driver Cleaner Pro 1.5 to clean up all ati drivers, restarted the computer and checked the BIOS, I don't have any option to disable any onboard graphics in my BIOS. The ati driver clean-up did not help, the problems are still there.. 

My PSU is 350W, I thought that the pc would crash when running a game if the PSU is not heavy enough.

I have connected the "Y" cable as described in the installation manual that came with the card.

Yes I guess that I have installed all Nvidia drivers, including WDM video capture 
(universal) which does not work correct "this device cannot start. (Code 10)" , but i dont think that thats the problem.

Any other suggestions?


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## P4-630 (Mar 20, 2006)

bruins004 said:
			
		

> It could be a few things.
> 4. Your PSU might not be enough...What is it and how many Amps are on the 12v line?



I just opened the case , I thought I had an 350W PSU, but on a sticker it says "DC output: 300W" ...


It is a noiseless FSP Group PSU

My pc never crashes.


*System hanged 1 time with NFSMW when I overclocked my new Nvidia card. When I set the clocks at default or just overclock a bit, no need to shutdown the pc.


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## bruins004 (Mar 20, 2006)

That could be the problem.  Nvidia recomends at least a 350W PSU.  Also, I suggest that you get a good one for future upgrades.


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## P4-630 (Mar 20, 2006)

I just under clocked my card to see if it could get better, it looks if it is a little better when I set the card at about 2/3 from the default clock speeds. So you really think that is the problem. But as i said earlier, my pc never crashes, even when the card was overclocked above defaults.


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## bruins004 (Mar 20, 2006)

P4 you should post this question in the general hardware area.  It will get more responses.  But when a PSU is inadequate it doesnt always just shut down.  It sometimes just doesnt have enough power to supply to the whole computer so it powers what it can.


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## zekrahminator (Mar 21, 2006)

yeah exactly...and did you remember to install the latest Nvidia forceware?  Otherwise go out and buy yourself a $40 thermaltake "purepower"...lots of power low cost.


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## egras (Mar 23, 2006)

My humble opinion, You will never see the same quality graphics with Nvidea as you will ATI.
I have been Nvidea for years and just installed X1600 pro and what a difference! Ati for me is a better choice.

By the way what did you overclock your x1600pro to?

Thanks


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## P4-630 (Mar 24, 2006)

This is the first time that I own a Nvidia, I always had ATi, I'm dissapointed in Nvidia's image quality on the other hand, Nvidia (XFX) cards have higher stock clockspeeds then ATi, I had choosen to try Nvidia because I expected more performance, but thereby I did not expect to loose graphic quality!!

I prefer overall image quality, but I don't want to loose performance either!
This card outperforms an x1600 easily with the framerates, but ATi means quality graphics and smooth shadows with no jagged images on high settings.
Can anyone show me a screenshot on highest quality with ATi card from the games FarCry and GTA San Andreas? I wouold like to compare it with mine. 
Thank you! 

Nvidia 6800GS XFX XXX
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1772&cid=3&pg=5

My 3dMark scores:
3dMark 05 5594

Wished my previous Sapphire Radeon x1600pro could make that, then I did not buy this Nvidia card.. 

Returning my XFX 6800GS XXX for an Powercolor XL?.. 
I don't know yet.

Why can't I just get the image quality of ATi and the gaming performance of Nvidia?
At a reasonable price ofcourse...
Maybe ATi and Nvidia should join forces together..


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## egras (Mar 24, 2006)

I tend to prefer graphics quality to framerate mostly.
I personally dont know of a card which is good in both aspects.

Again P4630....what did you have your x1600 pro overclocked to please. Curious as to your settings please!

Thanks


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## P4-630 (Mar 25, 2006)

egras said:
			
		

> I tend to prefer graphics quality to framerate mostly.
> I personally dont know of a card which is good in both aspects.
> 
> Again P4630....what did you have your x1600 pro overclocked to please. Curious as to your settings please!
> ...



The max stable settings without artifacts were:
 mem 432 and core 648, this way your FPS with the atitool fuzzy cube is about 20 FPS higher when overclocked.

It does not give you a very big boost, with benchmarling you gain 100-200 points in 3dmark 2005

The PCI-E x1600pro is absolutely NOT a good overclocking card.

*Just try it, if you get weird colors on your screen when overclocking the memory higher than 436 or the core higher than 650, just restart your pc and default settings are back.

You can't clock higher than that with an sapphire PCI-E x1600pro


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## egras (Mar 25, 2006)

Thanks!
I will give it a try.
For some reason my ati tool does not want to seem to figure out max mem and core.


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## P4-630 (Mar 25, 2006)

egras said:
			
		

> Thanks!
> I will give it a try.
> For some reason my ati tool does not want to seem to figure out max mem and core.



You may have to "unlock" first in Catalyst control center before you can change any clock speed.


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