Please help me figure out my graphics card problem.

I have a 9700M GT in my Acer 8930G (T9400, 4GB DDR3 etc) and I am getting 5600-700 in 3dmark06.

This is on par and sometimes worse than the 9600M GT GDDR3 in various notebooks. I have the latest drivers installed (correctly), high performance on and everything is right. But I cant push the score higher than 6000.

RivaTuner is suggested for overclocking, but I can see no option for changing clocks in the program. I click the icon that is supposed to direct me to the clocks, but instead only find an option for fans.

Please help me, I'm wondering why the 9700M GT isn't performing that well.

 

1920*1080 is quite a high resolution to play mate...

 

There is a good possibility your card is performing poorly because you pumped up the resolution too high (1920x1080).

Reducing the resolution to 1440x... or 1280x800 should do the trick.

The 9700m GT is a mid-range card with 128 bit bus.
Identical architechture as the 9600m GT, different clocks.
The 9700m GTS (I think that's the proper name) on the other hand has a 256 bit bus and would probably be able to cope better with the resolution you are using.

As I said, reduce the resolution in games and you will be fine.

 

^ yep, lower down your resolution, you will get better result.

 

Anyways 1920x1080 is indeed *very* high resolution to play on, even with the high-end gpu what you've got.
Maybe you need to update BIOS? Also to overclock with RivaTuner, do this : click on the lower tab where it says Forceware detected "Customize" - click on "System settings" and tick the box "Enable driver-level overclocking". (It may ask to reboot)

Later when you're done don't forget to tick the StartUp box, that's it.

 

As I said in my earlier post, the 9700m GT is not a high-end gpu (however, it is still decent for latest games as are many other mid-range gpu's) because it has a 128 bit bus and an identical architecture to 9600m GT, except the clocks are higher.

Even if it were a high end gpu (or to be precise 9700m GTS which is 256bit), there is again a possibility it would have issues with such high resolutions because games are demanding and laptop gpu's are not in the same range as their desktop cousins ... plus if I'm not mistaken, even the 9700m GTS is considered an entry high-end card while the 9700m GT is essentially the 'king' of mid-range cards.
Reducing the resolution should do the trick in enhancing the FPS.

Overclocking the card ... while certainly an option, I don't think is necessary (at least for now)
And if it would be done, the best bet would be to go with modifying the bios of the gpu for the 9xxx series, as I'm not sure if RivaTuner and other sowftware reads those card correctly.

One more thing ... if you are dwelling into overcloking territory, cooling is essential.
Monitor the temperatures and look into the possibility of first undervolting both the cpu and the gpu in order to decrease their temperature emissions at stock settings.
Although, should you proceed with the undervolt, I don't know if overclocking the card (or the cpu for that matter) will also require higher/stock/undervolted voltages.
So thread carefully, and make sure you have a backup of your card's original bios (on stock settings) which can be loaded at startup via usb in case something goes wrong.

 

Yep, got HWMonitor Pro and Rainmeter for that.


Actually WUXGA+ is actually fully playable at Very High in Cod5. Sometimes drops fps but overall 20 fps average which is fine but not enough for first ps. Dont know what i was complaining about regarding games, ill edit my OP.

 

I'm not going to say 9700m gt is not a gaming card, but it is not a high end gaming card due to its 128bit bus, I doubt it would pull 8000 points in 3dmark06 without some serious OC

 

I edited some posts.

Thank you

 

T 3dMark hose scores aren't necessarily reflecting on the card's performance in games.

It also depends on how high resolution are you running the 3dMark06.
If you are running it on the highest resolution, then your scores will be affected.
If you run it in lower resolutions (like the ones I suggested), your overall score will likely improve (although they also could remain the same).

At the same time, there's a good possibility the drivers themselves are to blame.
People have been experiencing issues with laptop2go drivers and sometimes, older version of the drivers was the one that worked best for many.

You can try lowering the resolution to the ones I suggested in my first post, and/or download older drivers to see if they will help out.

 

yea the 128bit bus limits that card at higher resolutions, try to stay below 1440x900, or the equivalent at that aspect ratio.

 

I never said the 9700M GT was a high end card, I just wanted to know why it was underperforming. I already knew the 128bit limited it.

Can't wait for tomorow, my cooling pad is arriving in the mail. Ill apply some overclocks when that arrives.

 

ok rivatuner sucks for theses new cards use nvidia system tools 6.03 here is a link http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.03.html it works much better for overclocking and the get ati tool to check for artifacts heres a link for that http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATi-Tool-0.27-b2-download-725.html

 

thanks for that.

I just overclocked my GPU, all clocks up by about 50 - 100. Temps were stable, highest was 82C, now idle at 32. (GPU)

I ran 3dmark06, and I got 5500! ***.

Why is it so low? This is worse than 9600M scores.

 

It is probably because you are running 3dMark in high resolution.

 

nope. the standard res (1280 * 1024) is used

EDIT: also, on laptopvideo2go, all the drivers mention 9600M, 9500M, 9800M but are always missing 9700M. Can I safely assume they work with my card?

 

Anyone?

 

As long as you use the modded INF, it should work.

 

Thats a decent score for your system 1280 x 1024. With the right drivers and oc you should be able to push it over 6000.

General advice:
Update everything(vista), try a few different drivers ie. 180\174\169 just to see the difference in performance, set nvidia control panel to performance(which basically just turns AA and AF related settings off), stay plugged in to ac and set your power plan to performance or off.

 

quit posting 3dmark scores and test games...

 

Sure. Call of Duty 5 Beta ; 1600 by 900 4xAA All Maxed, 20fps average
1920 by 1080 0xAA All Maxed, 25fps average
1366 * 768 4xAA All Maxed 28fps average

UT3DEMO: 1600 * 900 4xAA All Maxed 25-28fps average

 

Sorry, but your gpu is performing properly. See the link below. Your pushing the AA and resolution to far for a gpu only using a 128 bit bandwith.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=282100

 

You should definitely see a difference if you lower the resolution.