Lag When I Zoom in on Some Areas (9800GTX)

9800GTX with 174.74 drivers, worked fine with 7900GS/174.74

from Sins Forums
I don't understand this one. I just stepped up from an 8800GTS 512 to a new 9800GTX and for some reason I'm getting bad lag when I zoom in on some areas. It's usually in one specific area, like I can zoom in on a more crowded, but slightly different area and have perfect FPS. I'm talking drastic changes, as in going from straight 60 down to 2 or 3 FPS. I'm using the official release of the 174.74 drivers for my 9800GTX and while I was waiting for my step up I was using an old 7900GS with the BETA version of the same drivers with absolutely no problem. My 8800GTS worked fine, my 7900GS even worked fine, but my 9800GTX can't? I'm using the same settings across the board, but I was using 2x AA for the 7900GS compared to 4x AA for the 8800GTS and 9800GTX. Any help would be appreciated!

Full Specs:
DFI Infinity 975X
e6600 Core 2 Duo @ 3.4gHz (378x9) [1.3v] ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Heatsink
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (4GBPQ) Running DDR2 756 at 4-4-4-12 [2v]
eVGA e-GeForce 9800GTX 512MB GDDR3 [795/1965/1160MHz]
2x WD 160gb 7200RPM SATA in RAID-0 [105MB/s]
Corsair HX Series 520HX PSU [12.14v +12v Rail]
technical
4,928 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
yeah it sounds really strange... im using a 8800GTX with the same specs more or less, and it runs fine with no lag.

Maybe its a driver issuse? :NOTSURE:
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
That's what I was thinking. I was also playing Civ 4 earlier today and got a BUNCH of 2-3 second hangs and times when half of the screen would dissapear then repear a few seconds later. Then it would get worse and eventually I'd have a big glob of artifacts in the upper right of my screen. I'm not sure if all of this is driver related or not, as I haven't gotten the OC on this card straightened out yet. I got a really bad overclocker, it's barely stable at those speeds.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I also got a few crashes in Crysis and the Firefly benchmark in 3DMark06 always results in a BSOD telling me that the Nvidia driver crashed before the scene even starts. I'm hoping for another new BETA or something on guru3d so I can see what happens. I'll try lowering the clocks even more tomorrow.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Can you run Sins or other games at stock speed, without problems i mean?
If not, then id say wait for another driver, since i dont believe under clocking from stock speeds will help.

I had lots of problems with the 8800GTX when it just came out, as the drivers were not working correctly. So i suspect the same for all the newest hardware (:(

Btw, is it a SLI motherboard you have? If you do, make sure its put in the first slot (closest to the CPU). Because i had millions of BSOD's when i put it in the second slot.

Hope you get it working tho, as that card is bad ass :D
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
So far I'm not so sure if this card is even semi-bad ass! :NOTSURE: But yeah, tomorrow I'm going to try stock speeds and see what happens. The card isn't an SLI board but it has the two PCIx16 slots and it's in the one I've always used. I don't think that's the problem, but thanks for the suggestion.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
So far I'm not so sure if this card is even semi-bad ass!
End of quote

i believe it will once the drivers gets better :)
I just hope it runs dx10 better then mine, as almost all dx10 games gives me a driver have failed and tries to recover, then the screen flickers a few times and then BSOD.

but thanks for the suggestion.
End of quote

your welcome :) ive been through the same thing, so i know your pain..

you tried other drivers? theres a new 174.85 beta driver available on guru3d.com
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I hate to add more variables to your problem... but do you think it has anything to do with the 520 watt power supply you're running?

Also do you have a program that monitors your GPU temperature?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I don't believe the 520W is the problem, these Corsairs are built like beasts and can handle up to and including the rated 520W with 52 amps (double what Nvidia recommends). Measuring with a multimeter I have 12.08v on the +12v and the card's core is reading 1.29-1.3v (both measurements at load), right where it should be. I don't think the PSU is the problem. As for temps, they are fine until it reaches 60C and some problem with the drivers kicks the fan down to default (~40% speed). Then the temps go up to about 75C. Still acceptable, but I'd much rather have 60C! This thread explains it. Those 174.85 drivers are Vista, but today there are some 174.93 out so I will try those.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Well it looks like 174.93 fixed the problem! I think it may have been the effect of Targeting Uplink coming from one of my Akkan battle cruisers. It makes little cross-hair symbols fly around units and buildings that are affected and I remember seeing them whenever there was a problem. It could have been those, but I'm not sure. It doesn't matter anymore anyways. Thanks Multianna for getting me to check guru3d this morning! :D
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Your welcome, happy that you got it working :D