Stuttering 6600GT

[paparazi]

Is wasn't until after I used an Aopen Aeulos 6600GT on a recent build and experienced this for myself, did i realise so many others were having similar problems.

A steady stutter, at the rate of around 5/6 jumps per second, in game but very noticeable in 3Dbenchmark 2001SE and 2003 nature sections even though frames are at 30 plus, as bad in several others but completely abscent in half the tests.
This stuttering also badly effects benchmark scores: only around 9,400 points in 2001SE and 4,450 in 2003.

I thought this might be a one off but it Seems stuttering with the 6600GT and some 6800's has been reported by many users.

System:
Asus A7N8X-E
Barton XP2.8
2x 512mb Kingston Value PC2700
6600GT
550watt Qtech PSU
120gb Maxtor Plus9
DVDRW
DVD

Tried**
Differant ram (Known good 256 HyperX PC3200)
Differant PSU (known good 450watt EyeT)
Differant HDD (known good 80gb Maxtor)
Differant CPU (known good XP2.4)

3 clean installs of XP with SP2 (bare install with just all drivers and 3D benchmarks)
3 differant Nvidia drivers incl: beta
Tried altering swap file and AGP apperture sizes as well as several other specific recommendations for this card (without seeing any improvements)
One user cured his by sunstantially "underclocking" the GPU core and that can't be right.
It doesn't appear to be heat related (the fault can be instantanious but seems specific to task ie: only stutters with certain scenes)

So was just wondering if anyone had any comments?
I have been recommending this card but it seems maybe it has too many issues for too many users??

Martin











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[paparazi]

Really interested in any other experiences with this card!

As a post script: I swapped the 6600GT for a so called, lesser performing Sapphire Radeon 9800PRO (I just could not risk the chance that all 6600GT's would be the same in this PC)

Cured! no stutter! over 16,500 in 2001SE and nearly 7,000 in 2003.

Still would appreciate comments on this card as I am likely to be asked for one again very soon and although this is the first issue I've had with a 6600GT, it would be nice to know just how common these problems are.

Martin

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[dakota81]

With my XFX 6600GT, I tried it out & got 12,900 with 2001SE, similar computer, XP3000+ 333fsb w/ 512meg HyperX, SiS748 chipset. There's some stuttering in 2001SE, especially with the bump mapping stuff. Aquamark3 runs great (except for the massive overdraw scene where the fps drops to ~15). But regardless, there is no stuttering in any video playback or gameplay that I have come across. Tried out here on some DirectX8 games, and an OpenGL game - all perfectly smooth. Overall I found this such an improvement in supported features over the 9800, especially with compatibility with older games (back when the newest 3d cards were Voodoo2 & Riva/TNT cards).

So do you see stuttering in programs outside of those benchmarking software?

The only issue I have with this card is a bug in the playback hardware accelleration with certain mpeg-1 video files. Here's a screen shot I took a while back - the video frame should be all orange:

http://secure.lcrcomputer.com/adam/bad.jpg

 

[paparazi]

dakota81
Thanks
I appreciate your feedback.
Although not as bad in game (definate random stuttering in HL2)
I think, that the benchmark scores were a dead givaway, there is just no way that I should be getting just 4,400 in 2003 with this card and virgin setup.

I was tempted just to leave the card in the PC and see how the customer (in this case a relative) got on, but like I said, clealy gaming performance was just not up to par, infact only marginally better than the old 9600pro I removed but with added stuttering.

You know how it is! when you build as many machines as we do, you just know when something isn't right! and with this 6600GT in the nature scenes of 2001SE frame rates were down in the very low 30's, in stark contrast to the 9800pro that is kicking out over 100fsp in the same test.

I thought of course that there was another hardware issue but as you can see I changed everything bar the motherboard and now the 9800pro is fitted it is steaming in comparrison.

Software/driver conflict, again everything tested with on a bare minimal install and with the latest drivers (even beta's)

The one thing I should have done but just didn't have access to another PC at the time, was to fit the card in another machine to test the compatibility theory.

I guess then, I must have just got a rogue card and as we didn't have another one in stock to try,this seems much more likely than 6600/6800's having widespread issues.
Martin

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[cdogg]

From the sound of it, the Aopen card is the culprit. I've used MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus 6600 and 6800's ranging from the LE to the GT. I've never witnessed a problem, though I didn't individually benchmark each system. The ones that I did, however, turned out respectable numbers.

Next time you speak to the guy, have him contact Aopen about getting a replacement. It could have been a bad or corrupted die-cast of the GPU. Also make sure he didn't go and mess with the video settings in the BIOS (set them back to the defaults).

~cdogg
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[paparazi]

cdogg
Thanx for your valued comments.

The 6600GT had to go! I replaced it with a Radeon 9800Pro, We didn't have another 6600 on the shelf and the customer was becoming impatient.
Although the 9800Pro is a slower card, in this machine it is/was benching more than 50% quicker than the 6600GT!!
No stuttering! wayhay!

Ahhh well, another one to put down to experience lol

Computers!! who would have em? lol
Martin

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[IBACFII]

Hey I have a XFX 6600GT and here is something that I noticed.
First installed it and it was very very slow. I had a 440Ti I think and I was having slower Performance with the 6600GT. I uninstalled all of the drivers and then on a clean install downloaded the drivers and heres the kicker the nvidia tuner. After installing the drivers still no dice. then started to tune it with the n force what ever and immediately noticed a HUGE gain in performance. I mean now there was a very very large gain in performance. I would tie this to what I saw in a drastic increase in the AGP bus speed I cann't remember the numbers but it was huge.
Let me know if this works..

IBACFII

 

[addy]

One thing you need to check with 6600GT's and 6800GT's is that you don't have fast writes enabled in your motherboard BIOS.

I know quite a few people who have had issues with this.