Just built new computer - very bad performance in games

[Sav]

Hey guys,

I just built a new machine and figured I'd get really nice FPS in games and performance when unrarring things. Here are my specs

Windows Vista
Gigabyte DS3 V3.3
2 GB of Ram @ 400 4-4-4-12
500 GB Seagate 7200.10
E6400 @ 3.2 (8x400)
eVGA 8800 GTS 320 MB pre-oced

I am having odd problems such as:
- Really slow unraring
- Computer will not return from Vista sleep mode
- REALLY low fps in DoD: Source and World of Warcraft - I am playing on 1680x1050 (I have a Dell WFP 2007 so this is max res). I heard that all I would need is the 320 mb model because I couldnt game any higher in 1920. The FPS are horrible in these games though, around 20 in DoD: Source and 40-50 in WoW. I just figured I'd hit way higher scores due to these games being so old.
- Under video card adapter details it says this
Total Available Memory: 1023
Dedicated Video Memory: 256
System Video Memory: 0
Shared System Memory: 767

I have 320 MB on my video card, shouldnt it say that under dedicated video memory? Could I have a bad chip on my card? This performance just seems way off for this system. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated .

 

[MegaVovaN]

First thing that comes to mind: Drivers.

Play with various drivers for video card, I heard there are issues with drivers for 8800 under vista?
About unraring, that doesn't tell much. RAR archives can be big and complex, maybe RAR program is raw (not working well) - try some other benchmark.

EDIT: try running some benchmark suite, like PCmark or whatever there is nowadays - and see what it says.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
First thing that comes to mind: Drivers.

Play with various drivers for video card, I heard there are issues with drivers for 8800 under vista?
About unraring, that doesn't tell much. RAR archives can be big and complex, maybe RAR program is raw (not working well) - try some other benchmark.

EDIT: try running some benchmark suite, like PCmark or whatever there is nowadays - and see what it says.

NVIDIA has, from what I've heard, really crappy Vista drivers right now. You might dig around and see if there is a newer (or older!) build, or a beta driver that might improve things.

Bad performance in other things (by 'unraring' I assume you mean decompressing WinRAR archive files) could indicate driver problems with the motherboard, or something that is not configured properly (like your hard drive is not in DMA mode or something).

I have 320 MB on my video card, shouldnt it say that under dedicated video memory?

I would think so. Again, it could be an issue with the current NVIDIA drivers.

 

[XMan]

Gotta be drivers. I've got essentially the same system, except with XP, and it runs like a scalded dog.

Just out of curiousity, what sort of power supply do you have?

 

[Sav]

thanks for the help guys, I have an Enhance 500 watt (http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH). Another problem I've had is just for fun I tried to put my FSB at anything besides 400 and the system blue screens on vista boot up, also no matter what FSB I put the ram above 424 FSB it only shows up in boot up as 424, could my ram be a problem?

Yeah, I am having bad WinRar problems. Really, since I built nothing but problems with this comp, but I guess that's the price you get when you go the new OS route :/, just didnt want to buy XP Pro with this comp when Vista was there already, felt like I'd be buying backwards hehe.

Xman does your video card show you have 320 MB of ram under dedicated video memory?


Thanks again guys!

 

[Sav]

Just did some research and found this on NVidia's Known Problems Forum:

-On resume from hibernate or sleep, the monitor only shows black but the computer is powered on. This can be worked around by completely turning off your computer and then restarting it.
-With Aero enabled, video playback in Windows Media Center video playback stutters in window mode. This does not occur with Aero disabled or in Fullscreen mode
-World of Warcraft has low framerates.

Explains a ton, I still have some problems with my CPU if winrar isn't working well though .

 

[Agentbolt]

What framerates do you get if you reset the BIOS to optimized defaults? If your framerates go up I know what your problem is, get back to us

 

[XMan]

Sav, where are you seeing the memory thing? If I go into display properties, under adapter, it says 320 MB. Vista may be different from XP PRo.

I'll write down my OC settings and post them for you, I'm running completely stable at 3.2.

What HS/fan are you using? I'm using a Zalman 9700 and get low-50s with Core Temp .95

My OC settings are -

(In the MIT page)

Robust Graphics - Auto
CPU - 8X
CPU Host Enabled
CPU Freq 400
PCIe 100
CIA2 Disabled
Sys Mem Multi 2.0
High Speed Mem Option 1
System Voltage Manual
DDR2 +.1
PCIe +.1
FSB +.1
(G)MCH +.1
CPU 1.375

 

[Sav]

AgentBolt - I'll try that soon

Xman - Thanks, I have almost all the same settings except I have:
nothing on PCIe voltage, and +.3 to DDR

I am using an arctic cooler 7 pro, my fan speed doesn't work on my bios so I had to turn it and have CPU fan running full blast. Temps are about 20C idle and 35 under load. The noise is very loud from it though, does your CPU Fan control work? I have bios F10 and it turns a little and then stops so I just disabled bios fan control.

On the video card front mine says 256 in that same place . I dunno why as it should say 320 like yours does.

Here's a picture
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/1360/screenshotuy5.jpg

 

[Kirby64]

Sorry to say this, the issue is Vista, not your setup

YARNTCV(Yet Another Reason Not To Choose Vista)

EDIT: And by Vista, I mean poorly supported drivers under Vista, etc.

 

[Mogadon]

YARNTCVY (Yet Another Reason Not To Choose Vista Yet) ... .

 

[Agentbolt]

I'm willing to bet his PCI-E link width went down to 1X when he OCed the CPU, and when he switches to optimized defaults his performance is gonna increase quite a bit.

 

[Cheezeit]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
I'm willing to bet his PCI-E link width went down to 1X when he OCed the CPU, and when he switches to optimized defaults his performance is gonna increase quite a bit.

I think he had these problems at stock speeds as well. It's vista, his exact problems are on the Nvidia forums.

 

[Ichigo]

Originally posted by: Kirby64
Sorry to say this, the issue is Vista, not your setup

YARNTCV(Yet Another Reason Not To Choose Vista)

EDIT: And by Vista, I mean poorly supported drivers under Vista, etc.

Be fair. At least point out it's a problem between Vista and his 8800. Many other people are doing fine with Vista, even games.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Sav
Hey guys,

I just built a new machine and figured I'd get really nice FPS in games and performance when unrarring things. Here are my specs

Windows Vista
Gigabyte DS3 V3.3
2 GB of Ram @ 400 4-4-4-12
500 GB Seagate 7200.10
E6400 @ 3.2 (8x400)
eVGA 8800 GTS 320 MB pre-oced

I am having odd problems such as:
- Really slow unraring
- Computer will not return from Vista sleep mode
- REALLY low fps in DoD: Source and World of Warcraft - I am playing on 1680x1050 (I have a Dell WFP 2007 so this is max res). I heard that all I would need is the 320 mb model because I couldnt game any higher in 1920. The FPS are horrible in these games though, around 20 in DoD: Source and 40-50 in WoW. I just figured I'd hit way higher scores due to these games being so old.
- Under video card adapter details it says this
Total Available Memory: 1023
Dedicated Video Memory: 256
System Video Memory: 0
Shared System Memory: 767

I have 320 MB on my video card, shouldnt it say that under dedicated video memory? Could I have a bad chip on my card? This performance just seems way off for this system. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated .

Seeral things....no matter what anybody says VISTA is not the gamers best friend!!!
Lower your monitors resolution....just a thought.....

 

[crimson117]

Here's a $115 upgrade to make your system run a lot better. I wish I was joking

 

[Sav]

Hey Guys, I just ran 3DMark 06 and I scored a 10,130 running my GTS @ 630 / 975

my problem seems to be my CPU, I was BARELY hitting 1 FPS during that CPU test. My CPU score is 2677.. isn't that a bit low?

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.849 FPS

CPU2 - Red Valley 1.35 FPS

ah, after googling scores I guess it's not abnormal, I apologize about this post. Just got real worried when 3DMark was suggesting I upgrade my processor to processor valued at $140 when I clicked "systems similar to yours"... I guess it's just bugged on the site.

 

[bob4432]

if you are saying your cpu is the issue running a c2d @ 3.2GHz i think you are wrong and don't listen to what some benchmark says. that said, i would assume it is vista - i will not upgrade until i am forced by a piece of software i need that only runs on vista - adobe made me move to xp or else i would still be running on win2kpro.

when you say you having issues with rarring, how much time and how long is it taking to do what you are doing? give as much information as possible as to what type of data, how large, what compression settings you are using and and i will try to re-create the setup here and can tell you what i get, as your rig should beat mine pretty good unless it is a hdd i/o issue, then who knows.

you can pm me the info if you want as i am currently using winrar 3.61 and run my x2 3800 @ 2.3GHz, looks like you should be running 3.70 beta 5 for the best vista support

 

[hugekebab]

Answer: Vista sucks my hairy nadgers.

Just go back to XP, it'll solve all your problems.

 

[Sav]

I wish I could go back to XP, but when I built the comp I bought Vista instead of XP to futureproof as best I could.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Sav
I wish I could go back to XP, but when I built the comp I bought Vista instead of XP to futureproof as best I could.

does ms still offer that money back guarantee they did many years ago? i remember buying a version of flight sim and i had more than the specs need, and the game ran like a$$. i called them up, sent in the game and got my $$ back

 

[Sav]

I doubt it lol, thing is, Vista runs great by itself. It's the fact that no one is making any effort at all to release drivers / software for it promptly... even though it's been RTM forever. You'd figure upgrade this late after releases and everyone would have released vista versions of their stuff... but it's hardly anyone.

 

[tatteredpotato]

NVidia has been advertising that they have the only DX10 GPU on the market, yet they have failed to release any sort of drivers that deliver acceptable performance under Vista. They better have some drivers ready for when R600 launches.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Check the motherboard forum. These things have a tendency to switch to 1x PCIE mode. I think BIOS and driver updates fix that.