My Bottleneck and a Potential Upgrade?

[dbdynsty25]

Guys,

I am aware that you guys are a lot more knowledgeable about bottlenecks than I am. Right now I've got a 3.0 gig (800 fsb, 512 cache) P4, 1 Gig of Geil 3200DDR, a Gigabyte GA-81K1100 (875p) board, and a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card. I'm also running the SATA Raptor at 10,000rpm.

I'm having problems with ALL EA Sports games. Tiger Woods, NBA Live, MVP Baseball etc. I cannot play these games at normal resolutions (1024x768) with the graphics cranked up. I can play most games fairly well and I understand that there is a bottleneck somewhere...most likely in my graphics card. I play games on the computer fairly regularly. Doom 3 ran decent on my machine but there was definitely issues at 1024x768 in Ultra mode. I've really got one main question.

Is it really worth the 400 dollar upgrade to move up to a 6800GT (obviously overclocking from there)? I don't want to spend 400 bucks really but if I'm going to notice a HUGE improvement I might just do it. I want something that's going to last me two years approx.

Just looking for a little direction as I'm kind of frustrated with the performance of the EA Sports games on my system. I run a lot of games (IL2-Sturmovik, Pro Evo Soccer etc.) really nice, it's just a few games that get me and I just don't want to go drop that kind of cash if it's not going to be a HUGE improvement over my current config. Thanks in advance.

 

[dbdynsty25]

BTW, I just realized something. Does the refresh rate effect framerate in most instances?

I remember doing a fresh install of XP last night. Playing a game of NHL 2005 and it was smooth as silk. I changed my refresh rate from 75 to 85 because of some flickering I see on my desktop with my monitor. Then I played some more NHL and it was stuttering. Now, I'm not 100% sure I changed the refresh rate before the 2nd game...I just know that I played the first flawlessly and then the framerate went down from that point forward.

Not sure if the refresh rate will effect it like that.

 

[Fern]

Well, I don't play any EA games. But I think somethings besides a $400 vid card upgrade is the problem. I've got a 9800pro, which should only be about 10% or so faster than the 9700pro. I can Play Far Cry and Doom 3 at high settings w/o much problem (Doom 3 stutters when changing levels though).

The rest of your rig is comparable or better too.

Look somewhere else than a $400 upgrade. (ex. patches, new drivers or game settings, even defrag)

 

[dbdynsty25]

Thanks for the reply. I'm kind of thinking the same thing. The drive is only a month old and I just formatted so a defrag isn't going to help much. I'm thinking there might be some issue with my motherboard, but I can't say that for sure. I also think it could have something to do with my refresh rate on the monitor, although I'm not sure that it effects gameplay like that.

There aren't any patches to speak of for the new NHL game and I've got the latest ATI Drivers. I'm just a little lost here as to why I see such a problem in EA games while others have none at all.

 

[kylebisme]

Turning your refresh rate up would only help, so it isn't that. However, something is clearly wrong with your setup. Are you sure you have the latest motherboard drivers installed?

 

[dbdynsty25]

No I am not sure that my mobo drivers are up to date. I'm actually just using the originals that came with the board. Guess I should check into that.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: dbdynsty25
No I am not sure that my mobo drivers are up to date. I'm actually just using the originals that came with the board. Guess I should check into that.

Yep!

 

[Marsumane]

Yes update to the latest drivers. Im going w/ that for ur prob

 

[BFG10K]

I cannot play these games at normal resolutions (1024x768) with the graphics cranked up.

If your performance gets better when you lower the resolution your GPU is the bottleneck and you need to upgrade it.

Does the refresh rate effect framerate in most instances?

It does if you enable vsync and that's why you should disable it.

 

[dbdynsty25]

Really BFG?

The framerate does not improve with lowered resolutions that's why I'm thinking it's a motherboard problem possibly. I'm leaning towards that. I'll pick up a different mobo on the way home tonight and futz around with the old one (vsync and whatnot) and see what happens.

I'll have to check on the Vsync when I get home. If you have to "enable" it then it's not, because I don't remember enabling it.

 

[dbdynsty25]

Well, it's looking like it was the motherboard. I picked up an 865PE board (MSI Neo2 Platinum) and it is flawless at 1600x1200 full detail. WTF? I guess there was some issue with my old 875p board. I lived with that for a year...I can't believe I didn't swap them out earlier. Sheesh. I'll let you guys know if anything changes when I install a few more games.

Thanks again for everything!

 

[BFG10K]

The framerate does not improve with lowered resolutions that's why I'm thinking it's a motherboard problem possibly.

Then it's your CPU/platform that's too slow and/or you have vsync enabled.

 

[dbdynsty25]

Like I said...I went from an 875p board down to an 865PE board and it fixed the problem. I have no idea why, but it worked!!!!!!!

Thanks.