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General slow performance...

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Project86

Golden Member
My brother has a machine that he has used for a few years, mild internet browsing/gaming mostly. Specs (as far as I can remember):

XP 2600+, stock HSF
A7N8X-deluxe ?
512mb generic PC2700
several PATA HDs, totalling maybe 300GB
Generic 350w PSU
9800pro with VGA silencer
several year old Samsung 17" LCD

He was trying to play CS on dial up, with the expected results. So then he got a good cable connection. Still crappy framerates. Then I replaced his GeForce MX with the 9800pro. Still not much of an improvement.

The problem is that I live about 100 miles away from him, and haven't had time to go try and fix it. I'm trying to get all the possible ideas I can before I make it up there. I had him defrag, clean all the old Nvidia drivers, get the newest ATI drivers, reinstall CS, no luck. I guess the next thing would be a complete reformat. I had him install MBM, temps are decent. I don't know what else the problem could be. Any ideas? I figure this system should be able to do 1024X768 at medium or high settings and still get a good framerate.

The only other thing I can think of is that his monitor is just too old and crappy? It was one of the 1st LCD's I saw anyone buy, ever... so maybe the drivers aren't very good? I don't have much experience there, I'm a CRT person...
 
Originally posted by: Project86
My brother has a machine that he has used for a few years, mild internet browsing/gaming mostly. Specs (as far as I can remember):

XP 2600+, stock HSF
A7N8X-deluxe ?
512mb generic PC2700
several PATA HDs, totalling maybe 300GB
Generic 350w PSU
9800pro with VGA silencer
several year old Samsung 17" LCD

He was trying to play CS on dial up, with the expected results. So then he got a good cable connection. Still crappy framerates. Then I replaced his GeForce MX with the 9800pro. Still not much of an improvement.

The problem is that I live about 100 miles away from him, and haven't had time to go try and fix it. I'm trying to get all the possible ideas I can before I make it up there. I had him defrag, clean all the old Nvidia drivers, get the newest ATI drivers, reinstall CS, no luck. I guess the next thing would be a complete reformat. I had him install MBM, temps are decent. I don't know what else the problem could be. Any ideas? I figure this system should be able to do 1024X768 at medium or high settings and still get a good framerate.

The only other thing I can think of is that his monitor is just too old and crappy? It was one of the 1st LCD's I saw anyone buy, ever... so maybe the drivers aren't very good? I don't have much experience there, I'm a CRT person...
Click to expand...


I know alot of people who have a similar setup and are able to play CS(1.6 that is...that is what your talking bout right?) at 1024x768 with all eye candy turned on...anyways tell him to back up his files and etc and reformat computer...what OC does he run?...i doubt its the monitor I still use an 8 year old 17" CRT with my setup and play games like bf2 and cs:source fine...if any hardware upgrades it would be another stick of 512MB
 
Yeah I think he runs 1.6. I don't think he has any OC at all, and his FSB with that chip is 166. I'm gonna tell him to try a fresh format/ install before I go any further, he could probably use it anyway.
 
Originally posted by: Project86
Yeah I think he runs 1.6. I don't think he has any OC at all, and his FSB with that chip is 166. I'm gonna tell him to try a fresh format/ install before I go any further, he could probably use it anyway.
Click to expand...

lol sorry i meant to say OS not OC
 
Although I doubt you are pushing the limits of that PSU, you might check to see what the 12V rail reads if you simulate a load on it. You do have serval HDDs as well as a 9800pro. Is there even a name on that generic PSU? You might be fluctuating the 12V rail upon load (even if you are not pushing the 350W). Generic PSUs tend to have weak 12V rails meaning that if you put a load on it, it might fall to 11.4V instead of staying right near 12.0V. This will cause a decrease in performace if not crashing of the computer.
 
I don't remember the name of his PSU... but I was under the impression that it either works, or it doesn't. I can see getting random lockups or BSOD's from the crappy PSU, but not just lower frame rates with steady performance (the computer never crashes, ever.) That doesn't seem like something an inadequate PSU could do. Maybe I'm wrong.

I've convinced him to just do a complete reformat and reinstall on his main system drive, so we'll see if and when he gets a chance to do that.
 
Seems to me that another stick of 512 would help quite a bit. That may or may not be a part of the core problem, but it will certainly help regardless.

Isn't RAM still cheap these days? I haven't had to buy any in about a year.
 
Originally posted by: Project86
I don't remember the name of his PSU... but I was under the impression that it either works, or it doesn't. I can see getting random lockups or BSOD's from the crappy PSU, but not just lower frame rates with steady performance (the computer never crashes, ever.) That doesn't seem like something an inadequate PSU could do. Maybe I'm wrong.

I've convinced him to just do a complete reformat and reinstall on his main system drive, so we'll see if and when he gets a chance to do that.
Click to expand...

Actually, the GPU is very dependent on the voltage it is getting from the PSU. You will actually start to loose frames in games if the GPU is being deprived of adequate power. A good PSU (typically Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, ....there are several others) will hold the 12V rail when it is taxed. Ex. when gaiming, you are using the CPU, potentially the DVD drive, the GPU is runinng at max, the sound card, etc.... A more generic PSU can't hold the 12V rail at 12V, instead it will start to fall under load and performance will start to suffer (same thing can happen if the PSU is overheating, although that typically leads to a crash and restart) and you will begin to notice dropped frames. You can also have a bad PSU that just cuases the system to crash because the 12V rail completely dies and causes a reboot. There is only so much of a drop in the 12V rail that the system can handle.
 
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