HI John,I am using the 6.13.10.6166 driver ,open GL,and direct 3D main settings max quality,AA 4X,anisotropic filtering 8X,Texture and mipmap all the way to the right,vertical sync to application preference.My system is a P4 2.8Asus motherboardP4B533ECreative Audigy professional sound card120G HDnever had any problem with the card except when using the dash 7 it crashes back to the desk top.CK to see if your power supply has enough juice for this card also i am not using any tweaks.good luck

Bert,Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post :)I have a 430W PSU, should be providing enough juice for the system. I'm using the 6.13.10.6193 drivers, set the same settings for the display as you mentioned and I'm still getting stutters etcI also have an Audigy soundcard, P4B533 and a CPU running a 2.85Ghz.Maybe I got a dud card?

Sorry John, but apart from the suggestions I've made earlier, and the other suggestions made here, I can't think of anything else...except maybe flashing the BIOS of your motherboard with the newest version. There have been issues with some AGP 8x motherboards that have been fixed with a new BIOS...Good luck, Martijn

Thanks Martijn, but it is using the latest BIOS, and doesn't have 8x AGP, so I can't see that being the problem. Might RA my card

I also reistalled XP then SP1 on formatted drive. No problem. The card was ok on the old and latest drivers. Running 1280x1024x32 on main monitor and 1024x768x32 on secondary. My settings are:DIRECT 3DWait for vert sync enabledCompressed texture enabledW biffer support enabledZ buffer 16:24Dithering method: use error diffusionAntisotropic filtering x16Smoothvision: QualityAnti aliasing: Application preference.MONITOR70 HertzI am using quite old VIA AGP chipset drivers - did not want to risk a change (410)Approaching simflyers EDDF at night in PIC767 with all settings maxed, upgraded terrain mesh, Full project AI (Lufthansa etc)starts around 14 FPS and drops to around 7. New CPU needed...Howard

Thanks for the suggestions :)Have tried a few, seems they don't want to work for me. Ah well, you get that. I'll deciding on waiting for new drivers or swapping back to Nvidia :-lol

I thought you would have patiently waited for the NV30 John :-hahBill

John,I would suggest that you head over to www.rage3d.com. Then go to the 9700 tech support forum and type "stutter" into the search engine. There are around 72 threads there at the moment where users have been able to find various solutions to the problem. But first up you might like to try disabling the Firewire device on your Audigy, as I know that has resolved the stuttering for more than one user. And I assume you have tried disabling AGP texturing in Directx?

hehe no Bill, it was meant to be a fill in :-hahThanks for the tip Jon, I have been reading the threads there for a while now, my eyes are going square :-lolI'll have another read tomorrow.Thanks for the suggestions :)

John,Try this:Open start menu,choose run,Type dxdiag.exe and try disabling hardware acceleration in the sound tabBert

"hehe no Bill, it was meant to be a fill in"Seriously John I have been closely monitoring this Radeon 9700 card, read countless amounts of reviews on it and appears to be King of the castle at the moment. Believe me I am very tempted on this baby and I am off to the States in December for a couple of weeks and should the NV30 not be released to retail before then I will be seriously considering buying one of those Radeons......so go and get your one working the way it is supposed to , show us what she can do :-lolBill :-wave

Bert, again thanks for the suggestion, but it's a no go :(Good luck Bill! I have seen a mixed bag, lot of users who have them and have no problems, and a large number that have them and do have problems.

Sounds like ATI hasn't done much in the way of upgrades since the 7500 which I just recently attempted to install. I had the same trouble with it. It appeared to install ok until I ran a few graphics-intense apps like FS2002. It immediately locked up solid. I tried installing new drivers, wiping all traces of the previous video systems first and only succeeded in hosing my DirectX with the new ATI drivers. I finally got it repaired and proceeded to put my old Elsa Erazor X back in because it WORKS, which is something I've NEVER had an ATI board do without seriously involved troubleshooting. All this talk about "reformatting your hard drive" and "reinstalling your OS" are pure bs. WHY SHOULD THIS BE NECESSARY??? Short answer - it is not! The customer should not tolerate this crap. If ATI can not or will not make a video board with the correct bug-free drivers why the hell should I buy it? I will NOT buy another ATI product, ever. I've had these problems too many times. Enough is enough. I'll gladly pay twice the cost for a video board which actually works the first time it's installed and does not crash my entire system.

I seriously doubt its all the drivers. My guess is that it's experiencing a lot of hardware confilcts. I've seen similar things with my 8500LE. It was originally for my brother, he experienced really poor performance, lots of hard boots and high operating temps. I asked him to let me try it in my system to see if he had a bad board. The thing ran like a dream in my system, the only major difference between his and mine was the motherboard. I'm now happy 8500LE user and he's playing quite happily with my old GF3Ti200. If you can't get your 9700 to work and have another system to test it in then I suggest you try it, if it doesnt work there either see if they'll send you a replacement. A lot of ppl send theirs back for a new 9700 and that did the job. If that doesn't work, try to get your money back and go with what you know will work in your system.

I tend to go with hardware conflict too.I might strip all my PCI cards and try some other things before writing it off.