X2 3800+ Problems

[Miguel]

Hi Guys,

Hope that someone can help me. On friday I bought a new computer and everything seems to work great, but when I start Max, it comes up pretty fast. The problem is when it actuallly opens, it freeezes and I have to wait a couple of minutes for it to start working. If I open the task manager in this moment, I can see that both cores are working 100%, and they stay like that, I mean with Max open and doing nothing else (no rendering or anything else) the processor is still at 100%. The moment I close Max, the cores inmediately go down to 10% approx.

I rendered the cornelltest benchmark that percydaman uploaded to the forum, and the rendertime was 6:40.

What do you think? is something wrong with my computer? or the task manager is giving false info?

CPU: Athlon X2 3800+
Mobo Gigabyte GA-K8NF9 Ultra
Video: XFX 7800 GT
Ram: OCZ Platinum Edition (1024)

I ordered 2 gigas of ram, but the other module was defective, so I'm waiting for the new kit to arrive.

Thanks a lot for your help

Miguel.

[jow]

Make sure you update your bios for the newer one that supports X2's,check gigabyte website or run your @bios software.
Also get the AMD X2 driver for windows-
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (exe) 1.2.2.2
from here-
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13118,00.html

try that and see if that works any better...

[Miguel]

Well, now I know what is wrong, seems to be a problem with the graphiscs driver. I was using open gl in max, changed it to direct 3d and everything was fine. Then I uninstaled the nvidia driver and opened max, everything was fine again. When the nvida driver was reinstalled the problem showed up again.

the funny thing is that even if the task manager say that both cores are at 100%, it doesn't affect render times.

Any ideas?, should I have been better with an ati card?

[Miguel]

here is a guy withe the same problem, just search for 3d studio max in the page.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/grou...r/369008395731

[jow]

cant see that the graphics card is going to make any difference,im using an nvidia card.
have you done what i suggested,especially the bios update?

[Miguel]

Jow,

I did the things that you suggested, but the problem is still there. I will have to work in direct3D, at least until the problem can be solved.

thanks for your help

[percydaman]

i basically have same issue. not running X2 though. I just frankly put up with it.

[Da_elf]

yeah. same here

[jow]

Oh well worth a try.
I use direct3D myself,only cos i was on the understanding that openGL doesnt work as well on max when using a gaming card.Never tried it on my new machines,guess this is what happens then.....
You could always try a softmod,then you could use the maxtreme driver.

[Miguel]

Well I'm almost sure that is a driver prob, as I said before the prob disapears when not using the forceware drivers.

Jow, the video card is pci express, I tought that they cant be softmoded to quadro, or is it posible now?

[DaForce]

The new nvidia drivers are now multithreaded, but so far it appears that it causes more problems that good.

Try downloading the older drivers, 78.05 for instance and see if the problem still exists.

I have seen this over on cgtalk.

<edit>
You cannot softmod a 7800

[Miguel]

Thanks Daforce.

And about the softmod, well is a shame, isn't it?

[DaForce]

np let me know if it works for you.

Yeah its kinda of a shame, but the different isnt that noticable IMO, only under certain circumstances. Plus the 7800 performs great in the viewport anyway.. so it doesnt phase me much.
But still it would be good to have I guess

[Miguel]

Ok, problem solved!!!, just instaled the 78.05 driver and is working fine!!.

Thanks a lot for your input guys.

Would you mind if I ask a couple of qustions???

How more faster is a quadro card compared to its gaming counterpart in max viewports?
What does it mean that the new drivers are multithreaded?
Do you thing that with the new optimizations http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27456 the ati cards will run better in max? It was a hard decision between the 7800 GT and a X1800XL
And finally, any advice in overcloking the X2 3800+? I am totaly new in this area, so any help for newbies would be good.

Sorry about so many questions, but it seem to me like you have a lot of answers

Miguel

I forgot the last question, I rendered percy´s benchmark, now it takes 10 seconds less, but vray reports my processor running at 1529mhz, any ideas???

[DaForce]

great!! Im glad it worked out for you.

Im not 100% about the quadro/gaming card comparision, but from what i have seen, its a HUGE price premium for little to no difference except for a few circumstances.

It means the new drivers can now make use of both processors where as before they couldnt, although i imagine it would only offer slight performance improvements as pretty much all games are not multithreaded.

As for the ATI/Nvidia openGL comparision, its not really possible to say without seeing some benchmarks, all we can do at the moment is speculate and we know where that leads us.

There is an x2 overclocking thread if you do a little search, i cant quite remember who much info is in there, but its a start and if you need more that is the place to post.

Vray trys to guess the processors mhz and it isnt always right. So i wouldnt worry about it too much. If want to make sure that your proc is running as it should there are many programs out there that can tell you its current mhz. CPUz for instance.