New Video Card...WORSE benchmark scores..WTF!?

[EJC]

Ok, so I just put in a new Nvidia 6200 video card to replace my old Nvidia 5600 card. Yes, I know the 6200 isn't the best card you can buy, but it will work with my 250W power source. I bought it just to see how it will affect my system....gonna return it in a couple of days regardless.

Everything is running fine, drivers installed, running the default settings on the card.

So I go to run 3dMark03 expecting a score of 6000+ since systems that are similiar to mine are scoring around that. I run it and come up with a score of 2100!!! That's 400 points LOWER than what I was getting with my old 5600 card.

WTF!!!???

Is it b/c I've reached the limits with my AMD XP2800+ processor? (512 MB RAM) or are some settings wrong?

I've noticed that when I run 3dMark that it recognizes the Nvidia6200 driver, but it says "Generic VGA" for my GPU chip set. Is there something I need to change in order to get it to say Nvidia 6200 for my chip set?

 

[schnarkle]

did you download the latest drivers from nvidia?

 

[dustin_c1]

The 6200 is the low end of that generation.

While it is in the same generation as the 6600 and 6800, it is a low-end card. It's not really a gaming card.

I would try out the latest drivers, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the 6200 is just not as powerful as your 5600.

This naming ******** is not new for Nvidia (or ATI for that matter). When the GeForce 4 generation came out, they introduced a Geforce 4 MX card. It was based on the Geforce 4 generation's technology, but was crippled in many respects (the MX was the designation for the crippled cards). It was outperformed by all Geforce 3 cards and even some Geforce 2 cards yet it carried the Geforce 4 label. They sold those cards cheap, yet more expensive than cards that clearly outperformed them. They ended up selling about a bajillion of them on the Geforce 4 name.

 

[wherzwaldo]

Get an ATI.

 

[TexasOwnzYou]

damn, that's bad!
i get 10k+ with a 6800 (pipes unlocked).

2100 is real bad and could be improved. try installing some non nvidia drivers from guru3d.com (i personally use forceware drivers and they've given me much better scores than the stock ones). disable firewall/antivirus etc when running the benchmark.

before installing new drivers, uninstall the old ones, then boot into safe mode and run 'driver cleaner' (also avaliable at guru3d.com).

good luck!

 

[EJC]

I've been downloading the newest Nvidia drivers with my 5600 card and they work great.

When I uninstalled the drivers to put in the new card, then reinstalled the newest Nvidia drivers with the new card, my computer gave me an error saying that it didn't recognize my hardware. My computer is 2 years old so I figure alot of issues may have to do with that.

However, the drivers that came with the card in the box worked fine...they just produced those low benchmark scores (2100)....taking this POS 6200 back today. Probably gonna try out the 5700LE or VE and see what happens.

I'll find something that works better then order it off of Newegg when prices fall again.

 

[HKemhorns]

Which version did you get?

www.extremetech.com

If it's the TurboCache version, it's a turd.