I think something's up with my PC. Terrible graphics performance.

InsiderGamer

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Sep 4, 2005
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I think something is up with my PC.

I always hear of how current mid-high end PC's are capable of running recent-ish games at high widescreen resolutions, an adequate level of AA/AF at great framerates. We're talking games like Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, etc.

But my PC for the oddest reason never comes close despite it being fairly recent. Mass Effect, even on 800x600 on the lowest possible texture settings runs around 20-30 FPS, with dips/stutters in between, Team Fortress 2 (even on the famed Source engine) runs OK at 1280x1024 with no AA and medium-high textures middles between 20-50/60 FPS.

And though I know Crysis is supposed to be a system wrecker, I recently picked up Crysis: Warhead and again, even on the lowest settings (we're talking 800x600 again, lowest possible texture settings, no AA, etc.) it probably runs at 10-20 FPS.

It seems the more advanced the engine, the more terrible the game runs.

My system isn't *that* terrible, is it?

CPU: AMD X2 4400+ (2.2 Ghz, Dual-Core)
GPU: Geforce GTX 260 (before the revision)
RAM: 2 GB OCZ PC400
HDD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II
PSU: 535W Enermax All-in-One, ideally outputting 18A on each of its 2 12V rails.

(No extraneous components sucking up power. Just your basic DVD drive and all-in-one floppy drive. Also, all drivers for video/sound/CPU are updated to their most recent versions.)

I'd really love to play Mass Effect, as I just picked it up, but I'm currently running that game at 1024x768, no AA/AF, textures set to medium and probably getting anywhere between 15-30 FPS, with stutters in between. Otherwise, nothing is out of the ordinary with the PC, ie. playing videos, exploring files. I do notice however, that even my laptop PC is sometimes quicker to load websites/applications in general, but I don't figure that a major concern.

I had posted this elsewhere as well, but I'd appreciate any and all ideas on this. Thank-you.
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
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Originally posted by: InsiderGamer
I always hear of how current mid-high end PC's are capable of running recent-ish games at high widescreen resolutions, an adequate level of AA/AF at great framerates.
When their mid-high end video cards aren't CPU bottlenecked, yes.
 

vj8usa

Senior member
Dec 19, 2005
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Do you have another PSU you could try in this system? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that 40A on the 12V rail was recommended for the GTX260, but maybe I'm thinking GTX280. I remember when I used my 4850 with my old PSU, TF2 would run fine (it doesn't need much GPU power at all, very CPU limited), but Crysis ran like crap (10 FPS on medium settings, or something along those lines).

edit: to the people above me who posted saying his CPU's the reason, shouldn't he be getting WAY more than 10-20 FPS in Crysis, even with an X2 4400+? My old 3700+ (single core) got higher framerates than that.
 

InsiderGamer

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Sep 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: videogames101
Your CPU is choking your system.

Alot.

(Try OCing)
I hear you. But I've heard from all sorts of people running similar setups to mine (ie. CPU choke with a same-ish GPU) are getting much better performance than I. We're talking like, much higher framerates with large widescreen resolutions with AA and AF.

2.2 Ghz, Dual-Core, I understand is not fantastic, and I definitely see that it is a major chokepoint for my system. However, I'm not sure it would slow my system down to this point. Maybe someone can verify for me.

I've tried OC'ing the CPU slightly to see if there would be any discernable performance increase (added 100-200 Mhz on stock) and I didn't notice a thing. Numbers were all the same.
 

InsiderGamer

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Sep 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: vj8usa
I don't think your CPU's the problem.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6182806/p-6.html

That's the original Crysis, which should perform like Warhead - an FX-60 clocked at 2GHz is getting 30ish FPS at medium settings with an 8800GTX. My money's still on the power supply being the culprit.
Thanks vj8. Really appreciate the support so far. I think it is the PSU as well, as the GTX 260 and HDD are brand new. Unless it's something crazy like the mobo/CPU or some voltage issue therein (and I have installed the newest BIOS, drivers for all devices, new OS install, etc.), nothing else could do it.

Is this Corsair VX 550W w/ 120mm Fan PSU any good? It outputs 41A on its single 12V rail.
 

InsiderGamer

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Sep 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: yh125d
PSU definitely isnt the problem, your CPU is definitely behind the times. Either overclock it a bit (2.5-2.6 should be easily attainable) or, what I would do, pick up one of these two
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103249
As mentioned, I have OC'ed my CPU on stock cooling about 100-200 Mhz, and I have noticed no discernable difference. FPS stays the same.

As for those links, I believe both CPU's require Socket AM2. I'm still on the older Socket 939, and would also require a new mobo. I mean, if that's the problem, you gotta spend money anyway, but from my OC experience, I'm not sure it'll make a difference.

EDIT: And while more RAM is always better, won't that just (in general) only decrease load times and things of this nature? Faster RAM might result in faster FPS.
 

WaitingForNehalem

Platinum Member
Aug 24, 2008
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That's not normal. My Pentium 4/X850XT ran TF2 with no problems maxed. Your PSU could not be giving enough power to the GPU causing it to lower clock speeds. Your PSU maxes out to 34A. On the box of my GTX 260 Core 216 it recommends a minimum of 36A.
 

InsiderGamer

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Sep 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
That's not normal. My Pentium 4/X850XT ran TF2 with no problems maxed. Your PSU could not be giving enough power to the GPU causing it to lower clock speeds. Your PSU maxes out to 34A. On the box of my GTX 260 Core 216 it recommends a minimum of 36A.
Yeah, I think you and vj8usa are right on the money.

Gonna grab that Corsair 550W PSU, with 41A on the single 12V rail. I'll let you guys know.
 

sgrinavi

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2007
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Before I spent any money I would use GPUZ to verify that my GTX is in the 16x PCIE slot and that the bus is running at 16x.

I'm just sayin
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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Since it's an old system, it could be infections from adware, trojans, a virus, etc. or just a collection of arrogant apps like QuickTime that decide you need a system tray process running 24/7.

You hard drive could be about to die, and stuttering from read / write retries.
 

emilyek

Senior member
Mar 1, 2005
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It's surely your processor, if we're talking Mass Effect.

It's CPU hungry; it's the first game to use all of both cores that I've seen.
 

krnmastersgt

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2008
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A lot of things could be bottlenecking in this situation I suppose but since you say it's stuttering, I'm more inclined to go with the PSU idea or what sgrinavi suggested, your mobo might not be letting your GTX260 running the way it wants.
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
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Originally posted by: videogames101
Your CPU is choking your system.

Alot.




(Try OCing)

Actually, I think it is his RAM if he is in Vista. I can run those programs fine with my 4200+ X2 at 2.2GHz and only a HD3850. I don't have any of the issues he mentions with Mass Effect at 1280x1024 with 4x AA.
 

Quiksilver

Diamond Member
Jul 3, 2005
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Get another 2GB of RAM.
Overclock that CPU a bit. should be able to get 2.4 - 2.5Ghz out of it.

If it was a PSU issue his whole system would be crashing and rebooting.
 

vj8usa

Senior member
Dec 19, 2005
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Originally posted by: Quiksilver
If it was a PSU issue his whole system would be crashing and rebooting.

That's what I always thought happened with PSU problems until I upgraded to a 4850 and my old 450W PSU was just a bit too weak for it. GPU intensive games like Crysis ran at low framerates, but the system was completely stable insofar as it never crashed/rebooted.

sgrinavi's suggestion is a good one; I hadn't thought of that possibility. You might also want to run Rivatuner or something similar to monitor your GPU usage and see how high it gets when you're running something like Crysis. When my PSU was holding back my 4850, GPU usage was very low.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
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Before you spend any cash, you should at least try to pinpoint the area of the problem. In your first post, you mention poor performance at relatively low resolutions, most likely because you assume the issue is with the video card. You should run the same games at higher resolutions/settings to see if there is a difference. If the performance is roughly same, the issue is most likely due to a CPU or system issue. If it drops, it's most likely a video card issue which would mean it could be power, video card, or driver related.
 

CoinOperatedBoy

Golden Member
Dec 11, 2008
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Another vote here for verifying whether or not the card is running as PCIe x16. My 8800GTS had horrible performance after I overclocked my system a bit; turned out it was running as PCIe x1. I hadn't manually locked my PCIe frequency at 100MHz. You may need to do that, or even increase the PCIe voltage. If your PSU can't supply what the card needs, it's a safe bet that you should buy something beefier.
 

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Originally posted by: InsiderGamer
Originally posted by: yh125d
PSU definitely isnt the problem, your CPU is definitely behind the times. Either overclock it a bit (2.5-2.6 should be easily attainable) or, what I would do, pick up one of these two
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103249
As mentioned, I have OC'ed my CPU on stock cooling about 100-200 Mhz, and I have noticed no discernable difference. FPS stays the same.

As for those links, I believe both CPU's require Socket AM2. I'm still on the older Socket 939, and would also require a new mobo. I mean, if that's the problem, you gotta spend money anyway, but from my OC experience, I'm not sure it'll make a difference.

EDIT: And while more RAM is always better, won't that just (in general) only decrease load times and things of this nature? Faster RAM might result in faster FPS.

No, more ram doesn't just decrease load times. And no, faster ram doesn't mean faster FPS (necessarily, at least. Upgrading ram amount is pretty much always going to be alot more benefit than faster ram, especially on Vista)

I still doubt its your PSU. I ran the rig in my sig with tons of fans and junk of a 2yr old FSP 400w just fine

And I didn't notice you were still on 939. In that case, now would be a pretty good time to upgrade to a mid range C2D or Phenom rig
 

InsiderGamer

Member
Sep 4, 2005
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OK. Let's find out. I ran CPU-Z and Speedfan (to check the PSU). The image of my results can be found HERE.

Seems like the PCI-E is running at 16x as far as I can tell. I can't understand the Speedfan result though. Can anyone help?
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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Do a clean install of the drivers, or just reformat your computer. When your system is idling, what is it's CPU utilization?
 

InsiderGamer

Member
Sep 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Do a clean install of the drivers, or just reformat your computer. When your system is idling, what is it's CPU utilization?
The system has been reformatted already with the newest drivers for all components, including all BIOS updates.

CPU utilization when idle is 0-2%.