Digital output is killing me

[GJSNeptune]

This whole time I thought it was hardware or software interfering with something that was causing gameplay to appear jerky, even though in the past games have run smoothly with the right (low) settings.

Turns out the strain stems from running my monitor via the digital port. It wasn't even dual monitors. I ran it analog and though grainy and unbearable, FEAR Combat ran quite smoothly without dropping mouse response.

Employing a Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO unlocked to 16 pipes, is there anything I can do to boost or improve it in some way so it doesn't cripple games? Why is its digital port so strenuous to run instead of analog? It's not even a bad card. AGP, sure, but it's a great card, right?

[WarEagleAU]

Its a great card but it may be because its apg. I have an x800GTO2 unlocked to 16 pipes and Im using the DVI port (digital) and that thing runs smooth and beautiful. Im not too sure what you could do to make it run smoother to be honest. I dont think you have any cooling issues or anything like that. It might be a rev issue if its one of the first boards or it could be that its more poweful on analog than digital.


EDIT: Although, I did have issues with it yesterday due to the refresh rate. Perhaps lower it if its at 75Hz or maybe try increasing it? I know I had to lower mine to 60hz even though the max supported is 75. It seems the card couldnt push 75Hz at 1440x900resolution. Perhaps this might help?

[GJSNeptune]

Does RAM affect it at all? Or would using DDR2 533 instead of my DDR400 help in any way?

Stupid AGP.

[WarEagleAU]

I dont think it does. Im using 2GB of GSkill DDR400 memory. It doesnt seem to hurt my performance at all. At least it doesnt on my system. However, if you can use DDR2 memory, Id say why not go a little higher.

I wish I could be of more help, but I havent tried the AGP card unlocked yet to know.

[GJSNeptune]

Honestly I haven't really noticed any difference with the four unlocked pipes. Probably doesn't matter on the more intense games. Certainly hasn't made a dent in 3DMark03 scores.

[x800professor]

Honestly I haven't really noticed any difference with the four unlocked pipes. Probably doesn't matter on the more intense games. Certainly hasn't made a dent in 3DMark03 scores.

I had the same exact card you do, unlocked and all, and it worked just fine with a slow, single core athlon XP. Maybe it has something to do with that motherboard? I had mine hooked up to my 1680x1050, 20.1" Sceptre X20 gamer via DVI and all was fine.

[GJSNeptune]

Damn. If it's the motherboard, then it was also the NF7-S v2.

Who knows then. I'm running at 1280x1024 and games at 1024x768.

:(