Low FPS on games with a GTX 275... what's wrong?

[Digitwizard]

Hi all, I joined the forums with the hope I could get some assistance with something that's been annoying me.

I bought an XFX GTX 275 896 Mb about 3 months ago to replace my old 9800gtx+ (it fried). I installed it with a fresh Windows 7 installation, and after running some games, I noticed I wasn't getting the performance I expected. On the Half Life 2 Lost Coast benchmark, with everything maxxed, I got 78 fps. Far Cry 2 benchmark, everything maxed (but vsync) got me around 30 fps. I swapped the gtx 275 for an 8600gt I had around and in the same Lost Coast benchmark I got around 70 fps, just around 8 fps less! When playing in general I get the feeling my rig isn't performing as well as it should.

Here are my system specs:
Nvidia XFX 275gtx 896mb
AMD Phenom 9500 quad core processor
Cooler Master 650w power supply
MA785GM-US2H Gigabyte motherboard
500 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA II hard drive
3072mb Ram DDR2 667 MHZ (PC2-5300) dual channel memory (two 1024 Mb and two 512 Mb)
Windows 7 Ultimate

I play at 1680 x 1050 resolution and have the latest Nvidia WHQL drivers (197.45 right now). Please, help me, I have done everything, OS reinstallation, tweaking, etc and I still havent found a solution. Thanks in advance!

 

[Patrick Wolf]

You've only really told us you got an 8 fps between the 8600gt and 275 on Lost Coast. What about FC2? Other games?

 

[mfenn]

Lost Coast may be CPU limited on an original Phenom @ 1680x1050.

EDIT: Judging by Bench, you are also probably CPU limited in FC2. An original Phenom @ 2.2GHz is dog slow.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Lost Coast may be CPU limited on an original Phenom @ 1680x1050.

Yeah that, and your memory configuration looks suspect. Best to opt for 2 sticks of 2GB at a faster speed.

 

[toyota]

well a Phenom 1 9500 cpu is actually a pretty slow cpu. in games that dont use more than 2 cores it would easily get beaten by even a mid range modern dual cores. even in games that use more than 2 cores, most decent dual core cpus will match and in many cases beat it there too. using that poky 2.2 Phenom with a gtx275 at 1680 you probably are getting no more than 60-70% of what that card is capable of.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

It's also possible the TLB fix is enabled, which is going to further reduce your CPU performance, especially in games. And the two games you mentioned are on the side of CPU-limited.

The numbers you are reporting do look a bit worse than they should be with your setup.

 

[toyota]

It's also possible the TLB fix is enabled, which is going to further reduce your CPU performance, especially in games. And the two games you mentioned are on the side of CPU-limited.

The numbers you are reporting do look a bit worse than they should be with your setup.

yeah thats a very good possibility

 

[BFG10K]

Did you install the chipset drivers and AMD's processor drivers?

 

[Digitwizard]

Thank you all for the fast replies. Yes, I was thinking the same, being suspicious about the processor. I think I'll replace it with a Phenom II 965 Black Edition, and let you know the results! Thanks again