CPU Bottleneck?

[PieIsAwesome]

Update: Switched to an IP35-E, overclocked CPU to 3.0 ghz (275x11) without touching voltage, runs stable, tested with orthos. Ram is 1:1.

Problem remains. D=

CS:S, TF2 etc still drop to around 30 when the action heats up.

Tested PSU under load with multimeter, tried the Windows XP dual core fix thing, no luck. What could be wrong?

Everything else, PSU, ram, HDD, optical drive, is same as before.

Oldness:
Running an e2200 at stock with an ECS board I got from Fry's. Videocard is 1800xt 256 MB and ram is 2x1GB ddr2-667 HP/Micron.

FEAR combat doesn't seem to run so great. If I set the settings to high (no soft shadows) at 1280x960 with 4xaa and 16xAF I get sever FPS drops. There are areas where it plays very smoothly, and areas where it drops really low. If I drop the resolution to 1024x768 and keep the rest of the settings the same, I still get the FPS drops. I used to have a 1900xt+3800x2 setup and I remember the performance not being any better. I understand that I'm running a dated card, but this is a dated game.
I planned to do the volt mod/OC for this CPU, but I'm not sure what sort of performance increase I will actually get in games.

 

[Andrew1990]

Well the E2xxx series really shines when overclocked. At their stock speed, they are fine but may be a little slow. Try overclocking that E2200.


Also, hello my fellow Illinois resident.......

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Avast. I'll probably take this problem to my grave.

I'm from kaleefornia though.

 

[myocardia]

You're complaining about framerates, when using a 3+ year old video card that only has 256MB of VRAM? My old X1900XT is considerably faster than your 1800XT, yet my framerates roughly doubled when I upgraded to an 8800GT. You were GPU-bound before you overclocked your processor, that's why overclocking it didn't help.

 

[imported_Woody]

Oh wow! There's nothing wrong with your system. This is an old problem that has been plaguing people running FEAR and some other games with certain components since the game's release. I have the same problems on both my computers shown in my signature below and completely different systems than yours.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9740960-7.html

http://forums.vgames.com/threa...33244&start=0&tstart=0

By the way, none of the solutions listed in the second link discussion worked for me. I've seen this slowdowns in a couple other games including Portal and TF2. Didn't have the problems in CSS but that doesn't mean anything because I stopped playing that game by the time I started using these systems.

You wouldn't believe the time I've spent trying to solve this issue....I've just moved on. My latest theories are to do with the graphics card and drivers and temperatures because I was able to reduce the problem in Portal on my laptop by raising my laptop off the table and blowing air across the bottom.

My suggestion if you want to keep playing these games is brute force....build a computer that's so powerful the slowdowns won't bother you. In your case, get yourself a hot new high end video card like the HD4850/4870 or a 9800GTX and put all this behind you.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Woody
Oh wow! There's nothing wrong with your system. This is an old problem that has been plaguing people running FEAR and some other games with certain components since the game's release. I have the same problems on both my computers shown in my signature below and completely different systems than yours.

That's strange, I've had FEAR almost since the day it was released, and I've never heard of nor seen this problem. Then again, I don't use USB mice or keyboards, except with a PS/2 adapter. Thanks for the links, Woody.

 

[imported_Woody]

Well that's the thing, it affects some users and not others over a wide variety of systems. No one has ever really figured out exactly what causes it as far as I know. The solutions listed don't work for everyone.