Gaming, graphics help

[Unit1Evangelion]

I just recently built my system and have been trying to test the waters and see how the few games I own run and look. Problem is I don't have really that many games that I can test and the ones I do run on DirectX 9.0c. As for instance F.E.A.R. on max graphics, which my computer should run np, is running all choppy. I lowered the graphics all the way down to med and off on a few selections that I would think would help the video but nothing seems to work.

I have the latest vid driver 8.7 catalyst and Vista is up to date on all updates.

Also in bios, I tired changing the latency on my ram which read 5-5-5-18 to match my ram which is 5-4-4-12. When windows loaded, I was getting some serious lag so I changed it back. Anyone know why it would do this?

Computer Specs:
Gigabyte P45 DS3L mobo
Intel 2 Duo E8400
Mushkin DDR2 800
Asus ATI HD 4870
CM 650W
Vista 64bit

 

[Webbterfuge]

try uninstalling the 8.7 driver and rollback to the previous version. Also I remember reading somewhere that bioshock or some game would mess up the DX9 or 10 because it would load DX 9 and remove DX10 or something along those lines. Not too sure but you could look into that. hope that helps a little bit

 

[wanderer27]

Not sure if Vista has this, but do you have "Enable write combing" checked?