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Is my system performing properly?

NYNY2244

Member
I just got a Geforce 8600 GT card last week and while it's a big improvement over what I was using before, I still have this feeling I should be getting better performance.

At the moment, I'm running the card with the following configuration:

Athlon 64 3600 X2 AM2 (brisbane)
1 GB Kingston PC5300 DDR2 (dual channel)
Biostar Geforce 6100 AM2
Fortron 400 Watt PSU
Windows XP Pro SP 2

In Counterstrike Source, when I run the stress test I can't seem to get anything higher than 115 FPS no matter what video settings I use. I've been reading around and it seems people with systems lower spec than mine can get way higher frame rates somehow. During actual gameplay, I get small dips in frame rate every so often which isn't too bad except on maps like Assault and Militia where it can go down to 20-30 FPS at times.

I also tried the HL 2 Lost Coast demo which gave me about 73 FPS with usually 45 FPS during actual gameplay.

I just formatted/reinstalled yesterday, I've also tried different sets of drivers and the fixes for dual core CPUs from microsoft and AMD. I'm thinking the problem either lies in my CPU or lack of RAM since the frame rates seem to be about the same no matter what video quality settings I use. Is my CPU bottlenecking my video card? I figured CS Source would have no problem staying at 60 FPS at all times with such a system even with the HDR stuff, but I don't know. 1 Gig of ram also seemed to be more than enough to me, but considering how cheap the stuff is now, I'll more than likely get some more soon anyway.

I'm just not sure if I should be expecting better performance or if I should just give up and accept this is the best I'm getting. I'd like to at least be able to run CS Source at constant 60 FPS without any frame rate drops at all if possible
 
Run a benchmark like 3dmark...that will help.

But from just what you said it sounds like you are running at the speed you should. Can you see 2 processors active in task manager?
 
what resolution are you running at? and what if anything is running when you game (ie firewall, antivirus, antispyware, web browser...)
 
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