Hi guys,I got a Radeon 9800 Pro to replace my Gainward Ti 4200 card and while I wasn't really expecting a huge boost, I actually got no improvement at all and instead a system very prone to crashing and freezing (which I now believe was due to overclocking my CPU from 2,4 to 2,66).However, the other day all the sudden I had great performance and ran FS9 in 1600x1200x32 with most sliders to the right and AA on. From outside view, in rainy and foggy weather, I had about 60-70 fps with the Cessna Amphibian. I ran a 3DMark 03 test and when checking my results against other machines of the same specs in the online database I was in the absolute top!Then the next day, my computer was a hog again. I ran the test again and the videocard showed the same performance, but the scores for my CPU was halved. I had done nothing inbetween so I'm very curious what might have happened. I have no programs running in the background except for Microsoft Messenger (no anti-virus, firewall etc) and the task manager shows no suspicious programs (97% free CPU when not running FS9). I've checked the performance immediately after startup as well after some uptime.Anybody got suggestions what to do or what the cause might be?ThanksKristerPIV 2,4 (CPU temperature about 50 degrees Celsius)1 GB PC2700 RAMIBM GPX 60 GB 7200 RPM in ATA-100 mode300 W power supplyHercules Radeon 9800 Pro with 3.7 drivers, 1600x1200x32Hitachi CM828 21" CRT and NEC 1520 15" TFTSoundblaster Live cardCH products Yoke USB and Pro PedalsXP Pro (not patched with SP1)

Well your sure your system is not getting to hot in the case... I do know that P4 performance drops if they get hot (well they just slow down) maybe your system might have the CPU spike in heat then cpu slows down and then maybe that could cause a system crash???Well Im just guesing since I cant test this on my system (damn intel MB)

That would be my guess. Make sure all your fans are working.

This from Intel:"The Thermal Monitor feature helps control the processor temperature by activating the Thermal Control Circuit (TCC) when the processor silicon reaches its maximum operating temperature. The TCC reduces processor power consumption by modulating (starting and stopping) the internal processor core clocks. The Thermal Monitor feature must be enabled for the processor to be operating within specifications. The temperature at which Thermal Monitor activates the thermal control circuit is not user configurable and is not software visible... When the Thermal Monitor feature is enabled, and a high temperature situation exists (i.e., TCC is active), the clocks will be modulated by alternately turning the clocks off and on at a duty cycle specific to the processor (typically 30

overclocking = asking for problems.Your CPU is overheating and the machine compensates by reducing its speed to prevent it from melting down.Let's just hope your experiments have not done permanent damage, as is quite possible when you overclock.

I think you should look to upgrade your PSU to atleast a 400 Watt version. These Radeons suck a fair bit of power. A fresh install of windows would also help. You need to ensure all traces of prior nVidia drivers have been removed.I'd also suggest you remove your heatsink, remove the heatpad on the base and use some decent cooling paste such as Artic Silver. The Intel heatsinks are very good, but with those stock heatpads they're not able to cool your CPU as well as they can.

Thanks for the suggestion guys!It turned out the lowly performance was due to the overclocking program from Hercules. I dind't have to overclock the videocard, just install the program to get the bad performance! When I checked Hercules site they did recommend (not stating it as a must though) using SP1 which I haven't got installed since I've read about some issues with it.So away with the overclocking program from Hercules and I now have good performance again in FS9! :): I'm still puzzled though because my highest scores with 3dmark03 I got WITH the overclocking program installed and according to the report I had normal CPU performance too. But now immediately when I install it again my CPU performance drops. And returns when I uninstall it - not just exit the program. Go figure The wonderful world of computers! :) Anyway, appreciate your help!/KristerJT, haven't seen you in the chat forum for a while! :)

Now that you got the card performing, is there a big difference between the 9800 and the Ti4200?? I posted about doing this upgrade a few days ago, and was wondering now that someone has done the exact upgrade what/where the increases have been.Thanks!Chris

Chris,I can't give you exact numbers but generally I have (of course) higher fps and it stays consistently high. With the other card I could have good fps but that would drop drastically every now and then.The Gainward 4200 card is a good card, but the problem for me was that if I enabled AA in the FS9 it was totally unflyable in clouds and if I enabled it in the windows settings, the sim would crash.With the Radeon 9800 card I enable AA in the windows settings and there is no fps hit even when flying through clouds or rain. And it looks darn good running in 1600x1200x32! :)I must admit also that I had Halflife 2 in mind when I ordered the 9800! I don't think that the 4200 will be quite enough then!/Krister