XFX Force Geforce 9800 GT Frame Rate Issues

Hi, I'm hoping that there's someone that can help me out a bit here. I recently needed to change my video card from my gforce 8600 because the chip overheated and burned out (the fan ceased working). I replaced it with an XFX Force 9800 gt. Now i'm getting utterly terrible frame rates in games (World of Warcraft). Everything i'm reading seems to point to the PSU not supplying enough power to the card. I'm also seeing suggestions to make sure that a 6-pin PCI-e connector is plugged into the card. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a PCI-e plug on this card. The card is a PCI-e x16 card and it is in the proper slot, of course. On my older card i was getting 50-60 fps nearly constant. Now it's down to 12-30 fps.

I'm running on a 550w PSU. Would upgrading the PSU help me out?

Any help would be brilliant.

Thanks.

There should have been something like this supplied in the box with your card.
http://www.power-on.com/images/product/accessories/drivetopciexpress.jpg

Also, what PSU are you using. That should have at least one of these 6 Pin PCI-E connectors.

Oh, no, i'm familiar with the Y-adaptor, but the card itself has no slot to plug in the supplemental PCI-e power cord. Supposedly this card is designed to pull all of its power from the motherboard.

That's strange. I have the XFX 9800GT and it has one of those 6 Pin PCI-E connectors. Could you please link me to a product description of your card?

Also, what PSU are you using and what are your system specs?

One last thing, just wondering, have you updated the drivers?

CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHZ

4gb DDR2 RAM

160gb HDD

PSU is less than i thought (d'oh) ePower EP-450XP-C1G 450w

The forum won't allow me to post the link for the video card because the thread isn't long enough. The specific product number is PVT98GYNF3. There are 3 versions of the 9800 512mb, two of which have the PCI-e slot.

Thank you for attempting to help so far, btw.

Edit: Yes, the drivers are updated to the most recent version.

Just checked your card. The PSU should be supplying enough power 'coz the card requires a 400W supply.

Have you checked the temperatures while running the card?

The card is running at about 55c during tests.

Ok, it seems I listed the wrong product number. The correct one is PVT98GYDLH. When I looked up the card though, it's showing that it has a plug for the PCI-E supplemental power, when this card doesn't. Now I'm very much confused.

You're absolutely sure that the card does not have a PCI-E connector on the inside? That's really confusing...

100% certain. On the manufacturer's site, the images at the top show the PVT98GYDLH with no connector at the top, but when you click the product description below, it shows it with one.

is this you card? (it is the product code you put)

it should have a 6 pin power plug in

Try going to safe mode and uninstall drivers and run driver sweeper from www.guru3d.com and reboot.

Then install latest nvidia WHQL, let us know!

That's the product code listed on the card. The card looks identical to that one, save for the PCI-E plug at the top right. There-in lies my confusion. No where is it listed on the box that it requires the supplemental power either, so it's not a case of it being placed in the wrong box or anything like that.

As to the drive sweeper, I'll try that as soon as i get home (posting from work at the moment).

Thank you all for your help thus far. This is a really frustrating problem.

assuming you are using 190.XX drivers - make sure that 'Ambient occlusion' is turned off in your nvidia settings. This kills performance. I've seen cases where installing drivers will enable it by default and vice versa.

make sure its turned off and retest your performance

well i would just rma the card if its missing the power plug because its not going to perform right until you do.

Hope that works, but that's what the card looks like, save that it has the black metal rail along the top. The box is identical though.

Sorry for the double post, but would turning on "Let the application decide" change this at all?

Ok, I tried the driver cleaner to no avail. I don't see the ambient occlusion option in the nvida control panel however. I am however looking at the box of the card and it says that it requires a minimum of 550w on the PSU.

I believe the AO setting is for Vista/Windows7 only (i.e DX10 or higher). Im assuming you are running Windows XP?

not really sure what else it could be. Have you tried other games?

WoW I'm suprised this hasnt been figured out yet. You're worried about fps with this new card, and its suppose to be better than your old card. A motherboard can only supply X ammount of watts to any card. This is why the power cords need to be used. I'm almost positive that you purchased a low power version of your card(or the card you originally wanted). The card you have is made for mild video playback and general use. Its not really a gaming card. Next time make sure that you buy a card that has a way to draw power from the psu directly.