Faster Video Cards, Slower Performance

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1andrew

Junior Member
Jul 28, 2011
7
0
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I. Processor/CPU:AMD Sempron Processor 2800+


II. Current Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600


III. Display Resolution: 1440 x 900


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification: RAIDMAX 500W Newish


V. Case Specifications: N/A


Purchase Details:

I. Budget
N/A


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?
N/A

III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?
N/A

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?
N/A

V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?
I want to play League of Legends.

VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?
I wasn't, but now I'm going to look into it.

Additional Notes

A friend recently upgraded his desktop, and I wanted to use his old computer to play League of Legends. The NVIDIA GeForce 6600 gives a a good 25 fps, but I get a few lag spikes during games at inopportune times (i.e. a big team fights). I have some newer video cards, including a XFX Radeon HD 6570 and a Sapphire HD 2900 Pro. I tried these cards in my computer, and the performance dropped considerably. The 6570 got near 0 fps and the 2900 Pro got 10 to 15 fps. Can anyone enlighten me on why an older slower video card would perform better than newer faster video cards?
 
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borisvodofsky

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2010
3,606
0
0
What you are experiencing is known as Severe CPU Bottleneck.

AMD Sempron is the equivalent of an already crappy CPU with it's head cut off.

Basically the CPU is not fast enough to supply the necessary calculations to the graphics card.

the 6570 is essentially too powerful to be utilized by the Sempron.

That said, you shouldn't be getting 0 fps, this may be indicative of a system installation that is bogged down by bloatware/malware/spyware/ virus.
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
0
yeah you have a cpu that is not remotely suitable to playing modern games. basically your 8 year old cpu is just as much a limitation as your old 6600 gpu. and I am guessing that pc does not have enough system ram either. really there is nothing you can do without buying a modern pc.
 
AnandThenMan

AnandThenMan

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2004
3,991
627
126
Still rockin the Sempr0n, damn. Your system has reached the end of the line as far as being a viable upgrade platform.
 
AnandThenMan

AnandThenMan

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2004
3,991
627
126
That's true actually. Could be a socket AM2 Sempron, so that gives you some decent enough choices. But I thought the 2800+ moniker was on socket A.
 
SonicIce

SonicIce

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
4,771
0
76
AnandThenMan said:
That's true actually. Could be a socket AM2 Sempron, so that gives you some decent enough choices. But I thought the 2800+ moniker was on socket A.
Click to expand...

could be socket 754 or AM2, both of which are K8-based. since i think HD 6570 is only PCIe then prolly AM2 since I don't think there was ever a 754 chipset with PCIe support
 
Last edited:
AtenRa

AtenRa

Lifer
Feb 2, 2009
14,003
3,362
136
1andrew said:
[

A friend recently upgraded his desktop, and I wanted to use his old computer to play League of Legends. The NVIDIA GeForce 6600 gives a a good 25 fps, but I get a few lag spikes during games at inopportune times (i.e. a big team fights). I have some newer video cards, including a XFX Radeon HD 6570 and a Sapphire HD 2900 Pro. I tried these cards in my computer, and the performance dropped considerably. The 6570 got near 0 fps and the 2900 Pro got 10 to 15 fps. Can anyone enlighten me on why an older slower video card would perform better than newer faster video cards?
Click to expand...

Im sorry if this will sound stupid but did you install AMD drivers for the HD6570 and the HD2900 Pro or did you let the Windows standard GPU driver ??

It seams to me very strange that you get 0 fps with the HD6570 even with a Sempron.
 
H

hdfxst

Senior member
May 13, 2009
851
3
81
It's a software/driver issue,yes your cpu is a severe bottleneck but if it provided 25 fps with the 6600 then you should get at least that with the other cards
 
1

1andrew

Junior Member
Jul 28, 2011
7
0
0
Wow, thank you for all the feedback.

I agree that the CPU/RAM creates a severe bottleneck, but I found it fishy that my performance would drop with a faster card. I installed the latest drivers from the AMD website, but is there a way to verify that I am using the AMD drivers and not the built-in drivers?

I also tried an NVIDIA 9800 GT, and I got an average of 30 fps with a range of 25 to 40 fps. This furthers my suspicion that the AMD drivers aren't working correctly. I'll play around with it tonight, and I'll let you know my result ASAP.

I also should mention that I am running a fresh install of Windows XP Pro. The motherboard is an ECS 761GX-M754 v3.0. It has a 754 socket and PCIe. As for RAM, I have 1GB of DDR400. I know this computer is a dinosaur, but it is good test system (i.e. experimenting with overclocking) because I am not overly concerned about breaking it.
 
toyota

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
0
bottom line is that old pc with a single core and just 1gb of ram is not going to play modern games anyway. no matter what gpu that you put in there, your gaming experience is going to suck.
 
lopri

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,327
708
126
I had a similar experience once before (it was a long ago) on Windows Vista. Ended up re-installing the OS to fix it.
 
birthdaymonkey

birthdaymonkey

Golden Member
Oct 4, 2010
1,176
3
81
Socket 754 and DDR1. It's not even worth upgrading. If you have $150 to spare, you can get a motherboard, CPU, and memory that would allow you to play your game quite comfortably.
 
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borisvodofsky

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2010
3,606
0
0
1andrew said:
Wow, thank you for all the feedback.

I agree that the CPU/RAM creates a severe bottleneck, but I found it fishy that my performance would drop with a faster card. I installed the latest drivers from the AMD website, but is there a way to verify that I am using the AMD drivers and not the built-in drivers?

I also tried an NVIDIA 9800 GT, and I got an average of 30 fps with a range of 25 to 40 fps. This furthers my suspicion that the AMD drivers aren't working correctly. I'll play around with it tonight, and I'll let you know my result ASAP.

I also should mention that I am running a fresh install of Windows XP Pro. The motherboard is an ECS 761GX-M754 v3.0. It has a 754 socket and PCIe. As for RAM, I have 1GB of DDR400. I know this computer is a dinosaur, but it is good test system (i.e. experimenting with overclocking) because I am not overly concerned about breaking it.
Click to expand...

SH1t.. ummm.

This is the fastest CPU you can upgrade to. But I wouldn't do it, because I don't think your motherboard can overclock too high, the 754 boards did not overclock as well as the later 939 :(

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-...-PC-/110649462880?pt=CPUs&hash=item19c338d060
 
SonicIce

SonicIce

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
4,771
0
76
borisvodofsky said:
SH1t.. ummm.

This is the fastest CPU you can upgrade to. But I wouldn't do it, because I don't think your motherboard can overclock too high, the 754 boards did not overclock as well as the later 939 :(

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-...-PC-/110649462880?pt=CPUs&hash=item19c338d060
Click to expand...

how clever. never thought of using a donor CPU to put an IHS on a mobile 754. still, $65 is a bit steep for all it is. if it was a little less i would consider upgrading my old comp to that
 
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borisvodofsky

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2010
3,606
0
0
SonicIce said:
how clever. never thought of using a donor CPU to put an IHS on a mobile 754. still, $65 is a bit steep for all it is. if it was a little less i would consider upgrading my old comp to that
Click to expand...

Make an offer to the seller for $45. THEN , you low ball him for $30 :D
 
1

1andrew

Junior Member
Jul 28, 2011
7
0
0
birthdaymonkey said:
Socket 754 and DDR1. It's not even worth upgrading. If you have $150 to spare, you can get a motherboard, CPU, and memory that would allow you to play your game quite comfortably.
Click to expand...

My plan is to see what I can build from spare parts.

Don Karnage said:
You need a whole new build bro
Click to expand...

This computer plays League of Legends decently, and it's the most demanding game I play. It plays AoE II and Starcraft without a hitch :)
 
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