6600GT issues, anyone else?

First off, my system:

- Athlon XP 3000+
- MSI K7N2 Delta-L
- 1 GB Geil DDR400
- Leadtek GF 6600GT
- 450W Enermax PSU
- XP Corp. SP1

Apparently a lot of people are having issues with the 6600GT AGP cards, mainly crashes, freezes, missing textures in games, etc. Since I installed my new Leadtek GF 6600GT about a week ago, I've felt like something "wasn't right" with it, which is when I started looking around online and finding people with similar issues... In my particular case, here's what I'd noticed:

- (Windows) Like a good user, I always uninstall old nVidia drivers and boot into safe mode before installing new versions. When I did that this time with the 6600GT, everything was *really* slow... The screen would visibly refresh while trying to scroll in Explorer, and the cursor would pause every few seconds while moving around the screen. I don't think I ever had this problem with the Ti4200 (though maybe I'm just imagning this).
- (Far Cry) Very dark player and object models, everything else like walls is glaringly bright and oversaturated
- (HL2) Was missing some textures, now seems fine
- (Tribes 1) Stuttery and unplayable
- (Tribes: Vengeance) Flickers and texture flashes every now and then

Most people seem to attribute these problems (and crashes, for those who have that problem too) to bad drivers and are holding out for the next certified release. Others say it's bad memory on the cards or bad cards in general, but I find it hard to believe that so many different manufacturers would be having similar problems.

The nagging feeling led me to run Aquamark 3 so I could compare to others' systems. I tried it with the 67.03 and 71.20(beta) drivers, with these results:

(67.03 drivers)
GFX - 5,931
CPU - 2,983
-----------------
Overall - 27,768

(71.20b drivers)
GFX - 4,674
CPU - 7,582
-----------------
Overall - 35,664

Now, I asked around on the nVidia boards and people with similar systems (CPU, same card, and amount of memory) seemed to have scores anywhere from 35,000 to 55,000! I'm curious... why do I have such a low score with the 67.03 drivers? The low CPU score is especially bothersome. But then the results are so radically different with the beta drivers...

One last thing: in the nVidia section under Display Properties, it lists the card's bus as PCIx0... Call me crazy, but shouldn't that be AGP?

To summarize:
1) Anyone else having problems with a 6600GT? (Textures, crashes, etc.)
2) How about Aquamark scores? They still seem awfully low for the system...
3) Why is it marked as PCIx0?

Thanks,
m19

 

When installing new drivers over old ones you need to completly remove them and NOT overwrite them. Use Driver Cleaner 3.3 (google it) and have the Nv display drivers ready to install on ur desktop.

Some bios things you can do is set voltage to 1.6(this at least applies to 6800gt); make sure primary video card is AGP; and make sure aperture isnt beyond 128mb.

 

Forgot to mention (and Edit time ran out...) that this is an AGP 6600GT, not PCIe.

Yep, I clean them out completely. I know for a fact that primary is set to AGP and aperture is at 128 (the BIOS lists 128 has the highest, anyway). Not sure about voltage though, I'll check that out...

m19

 

what about mobo drivers/bios? is your memory FSB set correctly (manually not auto)?

 

Just changed the voltage to 1.6; it was set to 1.5 before. Oh and I was wrong about the aperture, it can go up to 512 but yes, I had it set to 128.

The BIOS is recent (from 8/04), and FSB is set at 200 (manually, yep). Both memory and the processor are reading as they should.

m19

 

Is this an old windows install? Reinstall wxp?

 

Fresh install as of about a month ago, new enough that I don't want to do it all over again...

m19

 

I looked up PCIx0 and found that that's what Windows calls AGP, so no problems there. I guess my main concerns now are:

1) Why some games are having these small glitches (textures flickering, etc.)
2) Why my Aquamark3 scores are lower than other comprable systems

I don't particularly care about getting a "high score" in AM3, I just want to make sure my system's performing how it should...

m19

 

flickering/tearing ussally means that the card is a bit hot; run riva tuner and check out temp readings

 

The card itself idles between 39-40' C but never gets hotter than 50' C. At hte moment (after playing some Tribes) motherboard/CPU temps are 35'/45' C, respectively. As you can see, there's apparently an explanation for everything except why it's acting up... It SEEMS normal, but there are still these things wrong with it. Maybe it is just a driver issue?

As a sidenote, I ran 3Dmark2k3 for kicks and ended up with a score of 6458. For anyone who's familiar with the program, how do you think that rates with my system?

Just trying to exhaust all available "what could be wrong"s...

m19

 

If my AM3 and 3Dm2k3 scores are ok, I guess the only real issue then are the flickering textures within games-- hopefully that'll be solved with newer drivers. I just wish there was a more substantial way to qualify how well the card (and system in general) is doing. I'm also going to look up some CPU tests tonight because that first AM3 CPU score of ~2,000 has me worried.

m19

 

usually, flickering in games are the cause of poor drivers. if it had bad memory, i feel you would have problems all the time, not just in games.

 

What about the fact that, after uninstalling drivers and booting into safemode to install new ones, everything's horridly slow? I mean, obviously I know it's not going to be a speed demon at 640x480 and no drivers installed, but it seems like with this card the redraw is painfully obvious and everything takes three times longer.

*shrug* Maybe I'm just making something out of nothing, but that seemed odd, especially compared to other cards I've had that seemed ok during the safemode pre-install.

m19

 

I may be completely wrong, but seems to me that bad memory will cause alot more than slow downs. but you are right. even with vga drivers in safe mode, the normal graphics shouldn't be as slow as you are describing.

 

I guess if nothing else I'll check tonight and make sure all the physical aspects are ok: reseat the card, double-check the molex is plugged in properly, etc. I'm running out of ideas.

m19

 

Its the AGP conflict thats causing the problems, I had the same with my 6800GT, cant remember what I did to sure it but im sure I found it on www.futuremark.com communities.

Will have a look and post if I find it.

 

If you can find some info, that'd be appreciated. I'm curious though, you say the AGP conflict as if it's something particular; did I mention something along those lines that set off your lightbulb? I'm just wondering because I'm interested in what conflict it is you mean.

m19

 

you by chance don't have a pci card in the slot directly next to the agp card, do you?

 

Nope. There's a PCI card two slots beneath it and then another two slots beneath that one.

On a whim, I also rearranged all the molex dongles inside the case so the card is more or less by itself:

STRAND 1
- 6600GT
- Case fan

STRAND 2
- HDD1
- HDD2
- CPU heatsink/fan

STRAND 3
- CD-ROM
- CD-RW
-Case fan

No noticeable results; I get the same score in AM3 and everything is pretty much running the same. I'm beginning to think it really is just driver issues, considering the AM3 score jumped so much from 67.03 to 71.20.

m19

 

I remembered

You need to reload your motherboard drivers, its a weird Nvidia thing.

Once you do you should see that the card properties change to AGP and your scores will climb.

Let me know if im right.

 

Yes this did

 

That's what I'm not understanding... I don't have motherboard drivers. Do you mean reload the BIOS?

Yes this did... what?

/confused

m19

 

Huh! I've been having this same discussion on the nVidia boards as well and someone clarified that they are in fact actual drivers. I'm so used to having VIA boards and the 4-in-1 file that I forgot they might have the same thing for other boards, just under a different name.

In any case, I couldn't find my board's driver disc so I grabbed the ones off MSI's site and just installed them. I haven't actually tested anything yet, but under Display now it lists the bus as AGP 8X. Yay! I'm going to run Aquamark now and see how it goes...

Thanks for the suggestion.
m19

 

Ok! Tested with the new moterhboard drivers installed. Using a GFX/CPU/Overall notation, here's the history...

67.03 drivers:
5,931 / 2,983 / 27,768

71.20 (beta) drivers:
4,836 / 7,816 / 36,900

71.20 drivers + re-installed motherboard drivers
6,663 / 6,725 / 44,421

I'm still not exactly sure why I'm getting a difference of several thousand between each variation of the test, but at least the overall number is going up. =P Still hoping for some better video drivers down the road.

m19

 

Glad it helps

http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=552322593

Use the above to compare my score its not far off of yours.

Must get me them beta drivers and have another go.

Look down in benchmarks for the rest of the Aquamark results.