Recommendations: ATI X800 GTO? ATI X800XT

that's odd, ever single time i try to turn on AGP write and restart my computer it turns off.

While AGP write off or on really isn't a big deal, it could be indication of older/incompatible SiS GART drivers.

I'd go through the steps for a *clean* install, but ensuring to get the latest SiS GART driver (1.21 or 1.22 I believe) prior. I'd do the following:
1) Download, but don't install the full Cat 6.9 + CCC bundle and have it handy (desktop for example)
2) Download, install, but DONT RUN- Driver Cleaner Pro (www.drivercleaner.net).
3) Download, but don't install SiS GART AGP driver from http://www.sis.com/download/. Just click Windows XP, AGP (GART), then AGP (GART) driver. Download and leave handy.

Now, go into Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs and uninstall each of the following you may have, but don't reboot when prompted. Just keep on going until the last uninstall. Don't worry about any of these you may or may not have, just do in this order what you DO have:
Ray Adams ATI Tray Tools
GuidePlus+
ATI Remote Wonder
ATI Multimedia Center
ATI DVD Decoder
AVIVO Codecs
ATI Parental Controls and Encoder
ATI Control Panel
ATI Catalyst Control Center
ATI Display Drivers (click Select All, then ok.. then no to reboot)
ATI Software Uninstall Utility

After this, you may now restart the computer... BUT, restart in Safe Mode (press F8 after POST tests and select Safe Mode). Pick Administrator.

Now, navigate to C:, Program Files, Driver Cleaner Pro (or wherever you have installed this) and run it as administrator. Pick multiple cleaning filters and select ALL ATI entries. Then start the cleaner.

Once it completes, go ahead and reboot in Normal Mode as per usual.

Now-
1) Install the SiS AGP Gart drivers, reboot.
2) Install Cat V6.9 drivers plus CCC. Reboot.
3) Hit www.microsoft.com/directx. Click the "Get latest version of DirectX" link and download the web installer. Let it run it's course.
4) Reboot once more, even if it does not ask you to.
5) On this reboot, launch the CCC and visit the SmartGART tab. See if you have AGP writes/reads enabled. Don't try to force anything- just note the settings.

It would also be useful to see if you're getting the 3d preview to work at this stage as well.

From here, we can help you install the multimedia stuff, tools/tweakers and the like.

Yeah Still no 3d preview, and every now and then i try to change settings in cs:source some things turn neon purpleish :T

I think you should try the card in another PC if u can. If it gives the same problems, then I think an RMA is in order.

Before I even try to RMA I'm going to format my computer and reinstall everything. This will be the last thing I try..if that doesn't work then i'm definitely going to RMA it.

BTW: Hey sharkfood did you see the attachment of the CPU-Z dump i did? just wondering if my ram is using its full potential

check out my screen shot. happens after i change settings in cs source...but when i restart cs source it goes back to normal.

You're CPU-Z output looks GREAT for your memory. Although the HTML dump would give us more information if you can use that other button and zip/attach.

It appears your memory is running at the full 200mhz speed, but as it's a 133mhz CPU host speed, the ratio is more important (i.e. a higher memory to cpu ratio/divider) for best performance. I'm assuming since it's an Asus BIOS, it's picking the best ratio... but the other dump/html of CPU-Z would confirm that.

The purple stuff is not normal by any stretch of the imagination. I'm also unsure if a total re-install is warranted as these are problems typical of newer AGP cards and SiS chipset motherboards. Did you follow all steps in the above post, to the letter, and in order? If so, we should have a clean install... but if problems persist after all those steps (verbatim), I'm leaning with Rage that it sounds like a bad card.

lol i benched 330 points on 3dmark 06
i run some of the things i get like 15 fps

That actually sounds about right given your system. Do yourself a favor and toss 3dmark as it's designed for X2/SLI rigs and even brings those to their knees.

What games are you having problems with? And what are you using to measure them? I'd also be interested what settings you are using.

I'd first start with getting SiSoft Sandra and running it's memory bandwidth tests. This will pin-point how efficient your chipset/motherboard is running. I'd then try the Video Stress Test in Counter Strike:Source and provide what settings you have it set to (resolution + advanced settings).

The 3DMark Test. I run the tests..with settings up at 1280x1024 with trillinear settings..actually billinear or 2x doesn't make a difference the fps stay around the same..around 15fps >_< I'm going over to my friend's house who has a nice build on his computer see if it works perfect on his..if it does then it is my computer..if not i'l request a RMA

There is your problem right there. 3dmark06 is really, really tough work for even SLI rigs, as mentioned previously.

It's also very lopsided in it's comparisons as it penalizes some things, then ignores others (that is should be rewarding). CPU score also greatly impacts the overall score, which is arguably a better thing for gamers, but this difference went without much fanfare compared to prior versions (which seemed to leverage GPU/3d card moreso than cpu in the overall score).

As an example, a X800XT here can score 450 on a T-Bird/Athlon here.. yet the same X800XT on a dual-channel, dual-core Pentium-D system with DDR2-800 will score 2300+ in 3dmark06. Same videocard!

Again, correct. Toss 3dmark06 as it's measuring a lot of things unrelated to your X800XT.

If he has a fire-breathing dragon for a PC as far as cpu/memory performance, you can expect to see a ~1500+ variance with the same card, as shown above.

What's more important is what was in the previous reply- getting your system, cpu, memory in-tune and performing to the extent a 533mhz bus P4 Northwood can. While it's already semi-crippled with single-channel, it's likely even moreso if you're not getting the full memory ratio or bandwidth single-channel can offer. SiS chipsets are notoriously bad for their need of tuning/mods to get decent power from them. It just takes work though.

Thanks for the reply again sharkfood. Alright I'm going to my buddies house to test out the card for defects and things like 3d preview not showing up...
About my system and cpu.. what can i do to make it more efficient and not bottle-neck the f*ck of out the x800 xt =)
i'm going to reformat soon so it is good timing also taking out my old school maxtor 120 gig hdd and throwing in a 200 gig 8mb cache maxtor hdd
give me some options or things i can do to stabilize or make my system perform to its full possible capacity still wish u lived in Vancouver BC

Good deal. I'd expect the artifacting and purple-neon stuff to be gone on his system, else it may be a bum card.

As far as the 3d preview goes- it's a pretty common problem for a lot of folks with various solutions. Many an ATI card has been plagued with this yet performed perfectly in games (so people just disable it hehe).

Hit www.guru3d.com and their downloads section. Grab SiSoft Sandra. It's an excellent system benchmark. You can bench your CPU arithmetic functions, and memory bandwidth (it has tests for these) and report your results. From there, we can possibly help out with tuning.

Excellent. I'd imagine if you do a clean/full install, and provided you don't have a bum card, you're preview and purple thingie will go away (that is if your pal's PC doesn't exhibit the same.. but I'm betting it wont if he has a different. non-SiS system).

On the Maxtor 200gig... I've bought a LOT of these DiamondMax 200gig drives. Be sure formatted capacity is >185GIG. Many of their SATA and ATA133/100 models require you to use their cd software to get the full capacity, else you can only get 135-145 gig out of them. Don't ask me why, but 8 out of 10 new Maxtor's I've bought in the past 60 days report to the BIOS and Windows funky... have to partition them on the bootable CD that comes with them to get the full 200gig... else XP/BIOS will show them as 138gig or so.

So hmm..first off when I put my maxtor on boot from the cd it came with so it can format the full 200GIB and enable it? is that what u mean? >_< yeah i was reading reviews for it..but i got it on labour day in canada for a good price i couldn't turn down..otherwise i would've gotten a seagate 200GB

Nah, just boot off your normal XP setup disk.. and when it wants you to select/create a partition, look there to see how much space it will allow.

If it's 138-145gig, then you'll need to hit reset... pop in the Maxtor tool cd and partition it there.. THEN re-run the XP install and SELECT from the partitions you made previously from the Maxtor tools.

I'd always prefer normal, standard partitions over any special/custom partitioning tool usage... but in the case of SOME Maxtor's, they just have some funky proprietary thing that wont allow them to show all their space to the BIOS or Windows XP setup.

They are great drives though. I've setup several 200-250 gig Maxtor Diamondmax drives. While many needed the pain/special partitioning method using their cd software, they still remained FAST (135-150mb burst rates in HD Tach) and work flawlessly once partitioned that way.

hey is it good to partition my hard drive into just one big C drive? or should i kinda split 50 50 70 type of thing?

You'll find dozens of approaches to partitioning your drive space. Everyone has their own ideas of how to divide/organize their drives.

The one thing to keep in mind is fragmentation. Drives that do not get written/read to much are best to keep on their own partition so that way they aren't impacted by constant file deletes, creates and updates. For this reason, most people divide their applications from their system by creating partitions for these.

I do similarly. I usually create a C: partition big enough for My Documents, OS and various Documents And Settings folders for changing data for user(s) files.. then make a mammoth partition (D for games and applications to be installed. This way, I schedule defrag once a week for C: (browser cache and data that changes frequently), and maybe once a month for D: (game patches and the few games that still save to their game directory).

I just did similar for my GF's PC. She got a new 200 gig Maxtor Diamondmax. I made hers roughly 60 (C + 140 (D: for games/apps) and created scheduled tasks from above for defrag. It works well.

Alright, I've done a clean install and followed your instructions as directed. The 3d preview still isn't working. You've mentioned before that other people had this kind of problem. Some sort of compatibility issue? Anyway AGP write is OFF by default..Fast write is ON. Regarding the 3d Preview are you sure it isn't because the card could be faulty or retarded in anyway? Thanks again.
BTW: This new hdd I've installed is awesome. DiamondMax Buffer Size 8MB seek time 9ms 7200RPM.