Problems with my 9700 Pro

[Clarentavious]

I just got a Tyan 9700 Pro. I thought it would be a good replacement for my Leadtek 4200 with 128MB. So far I have noticed a few problems that appear to be visual artifacts or image quality issues. I just installed the latest Catalyst 3.7 drivers

First, some of my fonts have changed..... Like here on Tom's and other forums - this is not something I requested or wanted. I have not been able to fix this. Is this a normal change comparing a 9700 Pro to a 4200?

Secondly, I've noticed some shimmering effects while playing Battlefield 1942 (the upper left hand corner of my screen sometimes appears to be blinking very rapidly). The fonts have also been changed in game to poor looking fonts - I am not happy about this...... Also the image quality of the menus has degraded and looks more blurry.

Then when I loaded up Deus Ex, I've noticed some visual artifacts. It simply seems from changing out my cards.

Further more my potential refresh rates have been lowered.....

I've tried adjusting my Windows scheme fonts (I am using 98 SE), and my internet explorer fonts (I am using IE 5.5). I have high image quality options set under the Direct 3D menu. Anybody have any ideas? Or is the 9700's so well claimed performance come at the price of image quality loss and compatibility?

 

[ufo_warviper]

New graphics cards are NEVER supposed to change up the FONTS. The only device that ever changed Fonts were very very old printers. THis ended when True Font Technology became a reality with Windows 3.11

If anything, a Radeon 9700, (or even an 8500LE for that matter) should actually have better image quality than your Ti4200 card) I personally think your card is faulty and would get an RMA. Not even Nvidia would make a chip with the probs you described. Does anybody know anything about Tyan Radeon boards. I thought they only manufactured mobos from the last that I remembered.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[ufo_warviper]

P.S.: Speaking of the 8500LE having better image quality than the Ti4200, the Radeon 9700 Pro should offer the best image quality that can be found on the market. THis image quality should be the same on ALL Radeon 9500, 9600, 9700, & 9800 cards. Their quality and DX9 performance is FAR superior than Nvidia's FX line. If your prob is not on the PCB, then it could be one of those extremely rare chip manufacturer flaws. I'd RMA the card, and see if the next one does the same. IF all the TYan boards are like this, then just go with Saphire, Hercules, or "Built by ATi".

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[Clarentavious]

I've been able to "solve" a few of the "problems".

Since the text in 1942 is part of the screen itself, it could be looking different due to the new image display compared to my Geforce card.

I also fixed an image distortion problem by changing the pixel alignment under the compatibility menu in Direct3D

Deus Ex will only run in OpenGL Direct3D is impossible with my current card.

When playing Operation Flashpoint, I've noticed the machine gun fire on tanks sometimes seems to duplicate itself on screen.

Also, it seems after running any game, when I exit, all of my screens mimimize and maximum much slower, and the animation appears jerky and unsmooth.

Maybe I have a perfectly good card and some of the issues are just differences compared to a 4200, I don't know.

The Tyan cards got good ratings. They come with a whole heat sink on the front of the board that covers the RAM, and an attached heat sink on the back. Also they are the only vendor to include hardware monitoring.

http://www.tyan.com/products/html/g9700pro.html

I am going to run some test on other games and see what I come up with

 

[ufo_warviper]

I just remembered something. Nvidia is notorious for leaving parts of the old drivers still lying around on the system when New Graphics cards are installed from other companies. These old parts of the drivers can very easily conflict with your new card. Try downloading Detonator Destroyer and/or Detonator R.I.P from <A HREF="http://www.guru3d.com" target="_new">http://www.guru3d.com</A>

But before you run the software, unisntall your ATi drivers first, and run on the Windows standard drivers just to be on the safe side. Once the detonator is compeltely removed form the system, It should be safe to reinstall the latest catlyst drivers from ATi & DX9 drivers from Microsoft. Give that a try & tell us what happens, ok dude?

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[mrface]

i was gonna say that to. make sure you get rid of all of the nvidia drivers and crap left behind.

-={Cowardly, Big Time.}=-
-={Apostalic Alcoholic.}=-

 

[Clarentavious]

I've run Ghost Recon and Thief 2 now. I've haven't noticed any artifacts in them, this is a good sign.

There's another issue I've run into, I can't adjust my overlay controls, everything is grayed out. A solution anyone?

I am guessing my card is ok, and some of the visual issues are just differences between the Radeon 9x and Geforce 4x TI series

I still have yet to play Civilization 3, and some of my other favored games. I'll see what happens.

I bought the 9700 Pro because all of the benchmarks indicate it gets great frame rates - and it doesn't suffer from problems (like crazy cooling devices and ultra loud noise) of very high clock speeds that the Geforce FX series has. Also from my reading the advantages of pixel shading and other good design from ATI have been pointed out.

However I still think the image quality is an issue. Last night I was playing the Day of Defeat mod for Half Life under OpenGL, and I noticed the anti-aliasing isn't of as good quality even on 6x, then my GF 4 was on 4x

Perhaps there is a slight drawback in image quality and compatibility. One thing I'm happy about, smoke like effects in games no longer cause my framerate to hit the floor. I bought it mainly because of the performance, so I'm going to just keep running tests and see what my results turn up as.

 

[ufo_warviper]

Did try the Detonator R.I.P or Detonator Destroyer yet? Ask phial, daveperment, & others. They can all attest that to the <b><i><font color=red>FACT</b></i></font color=red> that ATi's latest offerings' image quality is superior to Nvidia's image quality on its FX boards. This has always been the case with Nvida & ATi ever since the GeForce2 & the original Radeon were around. If your Radeon 9700 is not fster, and looks worse than your Ti4200, there is something <i>definitely</i> wrong. ATi skimped with nothing on this chip, period.


P.S.: OMG! I'm a DoD fan too! I love the Enfield & Karabiner 98 riflemen. I'll always be partial to the one shot kill advantage.


Edited: Whoops sorry I left the BOLD option on. I wasn't even upset LOL :lol:
My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by UFO_WARVIPER on 09/10/03 07:07 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[coolsquirtle]

UFO seriously BREATHE~~~ calm down~~~~~~~~~~~~

Proud Owner the Block Heater
120% nVidia Fanboy
PROUD OWNER OF THE GEFORCE FX 5900ULTRA <-- I wish this was me
I'd get a nVidia GeForce FX 5900Ultra... if THEY WOULD CHANGE THAT #()#@ HSF

 

[Toester]

hey, just use the driver cleaner........it does exactly that,here:<A HREF="http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25536" target="_new">http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25536</A>

<font color=purple> We can't all be heros,someone has to stand on the sidewalk and clap!!

 

[Clarentavious]

Ok, these are the issues I can comfirm

1. Deus Ex will not run in Direct3D, only OpenGL (with Direct3D, I get terrible artifacts and the game crashes eventually)

2. The duplicating machinegun fire artifact in Operation Flashpoint

3. Unsmooth animations with minimizing and maximizing windows.

Does this mean I have one of those rare chip manufacturing problems? Or are these normal features of the 9700 Pro? Also noted, I cannot adjust my overlay controls.

It does seem to offer better performance with some applications than my overclocked 4200. However from benchmarks it seems I have to increase the anisotropic filtering to get the image quality level of my 4200, which results in significant performance drop.

From looking at screen shots though, the anti-aliasing of my 9700 Pro seems to be better than my 4200

 

[ufo_warviper]

Oh CoolSquirtle, I didn't realize that I had forgotten to turn bold off. That really messed up my post, I wasnt even upset then LOL! :lol:

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[ufo_warviper]

Dude try the Driver erasing programs we suggested. That may very well be the solution to your prob. Plz give it a try or at least confirm that your going to try it before posting more about the symptoms. If that doesn't work then we'll have to move on to further suggestions. But since you indicated your switching brands, giving the driver erasing programs a chance is all we ask for. Just click on the links and download the progs, and if this doesn't help the situation after a thorough test,then report back here. There is not much we can do for you until we have knowledge of whether parts of the old drivers are still remenant. Once you use the driver erasing programs we can confirm that for sure the old Nvidia drivers aren't hampering you.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[Clarentavious]

Oh, sorry I forgot to mention, I reformatted my harddrive, so any Nvidia nasty files were wiped out, along with everything else.

Something else comes to mind. Do you think I might need a stronger power supply because the 9700 Pro uses the additional power wire? I have a 400 watt Antec smart fan model, but then I have pretty powerful system (SiS 745 motherboard, Athlon XP 1800+, 512MB low latency at 266, 40 gig 7200 RPM WD harddrive, SB Live! X-Gamer, my high speed burner and DVD drive, and some extra cooling fans which I am sure consume some juice).

 

[Makaveli]

First check for bios updates for your motherboard, then chipset drivers. Also uninstall any videocard tweaking programs and there setting. Except for the Tyan software that came with your card. Also check SmartGart in the driver tab so see what settings are on and off.

A 400 Watt Powersluppy by antec is good enough. Also Try putting the Radeon on its own molex connector and not sharing with any IDE devices.

 

[Clarentavious]

See there that may be a problem, because I have it connected with my harddrive.

You see, I only have 2 main cables, because I cut the 3rd one off because I have so little space inside my case, and everything is so cluttered.

My first cable goes to my CD drives and my floppy. Then I have the other running to my harddrive, my card, and my cooling fans.

Do you think it needs to be on its on wire?

 

[Willamette_sucks]

Holy crap dude, I'm not sure if you're bsing us, or theres been a change in settings, or if you have a hardware problem.. but ATI has BETTER image quality than nVidia cards (GF4/GFFX etc.) and especially BETTER ANTI-ALIASING. 4xAA on ATI cards looks significantly better than 4xAA on nVidia cards.

First make sure all your games are at MAX detail, and at whatever res. you want to run them at or what your system or monitor can handle. 1024x768 is a good + popular one, and at this res you can usually enable 6xAA and 16x Quality Aniso in most current games.

In the ATI control panel, under d3d and open gl, make sure the texture quality bars are at max, put AA on 6x and Aniso on 16x and 'quality', make sure the box that says "application preference" is NOT checked. Always use custom settings dude, don't just pick something called "quality" whether it be in a game or in the control panel.

And what refresh rate are you running? You said the display looked flickery with BF1942?

In the ATI control panel go to "Displays" then click on monitor, and under refresh rate override, make it 75/85hz (whatever your monitor can handle at the resolution you play games at).

I'm sorry, but there are no minuses when switching to ATI, you should be seeing only positive changes.

"Mice eat cheese." - Modest Mouse

"Every Day is the Right Day." -Pink Floyd

 

[Clarentavious]

I know my stuff technically. I have a ViewSonic P75f+ , I run at 1024x768, I keep my refresh rate at 75

I have adjusted all of my settings, and ran tests using 3D Mark 2000, to see what various framerates I get.

I haven't experienced any problems in any other games. What I would like to see is if someone who has a 9700 Pro, can duplicate the artifacts I am experiencing with their machine, that way I will know the problem is not with my card.

 

[Clarentavious]

I'll be awaiting answers. I only have a 30 day return warranty from techonweb, so if my card is bad I have to act fast. But people are getting tired of me returning defective products, so I don't want to send it back unless I know for sure something is wrong. Tyan has a 3 year warranty thankfully, but I think the return with them would be more difficult

 

[jiffy]

Yeah, I wouldn’t let anything slide either and would RMA the board if it wasn’t 100%.

Does the card pass under Direct 3D testing? It doesn’t sound good to me, but to be sure it would be nice to start swapping parts or try the card in another system, if you have that luxury? Have any friends that can test the card, or maybe take it to a shop to have it tested, maybe ask to see it working. Or RMA

 

[phial]

They can all attest that to the </font color=red><i>FACT</font color=red>[ii] that ATi's latest offerings' image quality is superior to Nvidia's image quality on its FX boards

LOEL

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<A HREF="http://www.teenirc.net/chat/tomshardware.html" target="_new"> come to THGC chat~ NOW. dont make me get up ffs @#@$</A>

 

[phial]

im not saying that your saying un-truths, its just your ENTHUSIASM has just struck me as completly hilarious in a good way =)

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<A HREF="http://www.teenirc.net/chat/tomshardware.html" target="_new"> come to THGC chat~ NOW. dont make me get up ffs @#@$</A>

 

[Clarentavious]

I recall a couple of days ago that AGP texture acceleration was an available option in the DirectX diagnostic tool under the display tab. Now it is grayed out. So this evening I called techonweb and ordered a replacement

I certainly hope the card I have now (I have to get it ready to ship when I get the RMA number) is bad, otherwise I'd have to say I am disappointed with the 9700 Pro considering all of the positive reviews it has gotten. But let's hope the current card I have is bad