BFG 7800 frame rate drop

[PwrGetter00]

It's a very confusing problem that I'm having so I'll try to be very clear on what has happened and what's going on.

First off, I'll explain what I do before the problem happens.

I'll boot up a game (example, Lineage II). The game load's up just fine, I get a nice steady framerate of 50-60 frames per second. Now, the game is a MMO so there are massive area's constantly loading, but once I leave a certain area in the game, and it loads up a new area, the framerates will drop down to 10 frames per second and stay that way even when the area is loaded.

I'll then exit the game, and when I'm moving my mouse cursor around, it is very choppy and not fluid at all. Is my video card not getting enough juice? I only ask this because it seems that my frames drop and the video becomes VERY choppy once the video card is under a lot of stress. I also guess it MAY be a power issue, because in the past day or two, my PC has shut itself off without me choosing it to do so.

Any ideas on what the problem may be?

Here's my setup.

Windows XP SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 @ 2.4GHz
Corsair PC3200 2.0GB ram
Latest Nvidia video/chipset drivers (tried older versions as well)
BFG Geforce 7800GT.

 

[imported_Crusader]

If you think its a power issue, I'd install Motherboard Monitor and log your voltages..

My first suggestions would be to format your machine. That will knock out any software issues.

My main thought was HDD space.. are you running a newer hard drive and how much free space do you have? Of course, formatting would serve dual purposes in knocking out any software issues, but also free up a lot of space.

It sounds like a hardware issue to me of some sort though. But formatting is always a good start. An individual part might be failing, causing the immediate shutdown.

My guess would be its either the power or the motherboard.

 

[Ichigo]

I say it's the 7800GT. For all you know it could be overheating, throttling the card back, and then shutting off after it gets too hot. Just a possibility Crusader missed.