Worse performance with upgraded system?

[fustercluck]

Recently upgraded from a Socket 754 3000+ a64 newcastle to a socket 939 A64 Opteron 146. Tried out some of my usual games today (like Serious Sam 2 for instance) and the peformance was obviously a good deal worse than it used to be, everything much slower and choppier. I'm not too surprised by this as this kind of thing happens all the time to me with computer stuff, but shouldn't a 939 146 opty outperform a 3000+ newcastle? Neither are (or were) overclocked. I will overclock the opty pretty soon, but i'd like to figure this out first. I imagine the performance isn't just to do with games.

 

[quackerww]

did you update your bios?

 

[fustercluck]

Not yet...i don't have a floppy drive installed, but would it really make much of a difference?

 

[imported_rod]

may do, if the BIOS doesn't properly suppot that CPU.

Also, are things such as screen resolution the same as they used to be? That can change performance alot.

RoD

 

[fustercluck]

Originally posted by: rod
Also, are things such as screen resolution the same as they used to be? That can change performance alot.

RoD

Yeah.

Guess i'll try and update the bios tomarry and see what happens. Though windows and CPU-Z both detect it correctly as an Opteron 146 (Venus), so it doesn't seem like it can't identify it.

 

[fustercluck]

Is it essential to format and reinstall XP after installing a new CPU/Mobo? That's the word i seem to be getting, i'd really rather not do it though, but, like i said the performance is worse than before.

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: jacktackle
Is it essential to format and reinstall XP after installing a new CPU/Mobo? That's the word i seem to be getting, i'd really rather not do it though, but, like i said the performance is worse than before.

- OMG! - Yes! - Yes it is essential!

You might try not formatting and "repair"-install XP.

 

[GamerExpress]

I would just start fresh with a clean install of XP, in the process make sure that you have the latest BIOS installed for you MOBO. I think you will then see a performance increase.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: jacktackle

Guess i'll try and update the bios tomarry and see what happens. Though windows and CPU-Z both detect it correctly as an Opteron 146 (Venus), so it doesn't seem like it can't identify it.

The Opterons are San Diego's not Venice.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Vee

Originally posted by: jacktackle
Is it essential to format and reinstall XP after installing a new CPU/Mobo? That's the word i seem to be getting, i'd really rather not do it though, but, like i said the performance is worse than before.

- OMG! - Yes! - Yes it is essential!

You might try not formatting and "repair"-install XP.

Not true at all... I often don't format/re-install. It's always worth doing first just to see if it will work OK, and if there are probs, format then. I find 75% of the time I get away with a perfect running system with no format. Afterall, going from nVidia based mainboard to another, is not a big deal at all. I'd never format for that.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: jacktackle

Guess i'll try and update the bios tomarry and see what happens. Though windows and CPU-Z both detect it correctly as an Opteron 146 (Venus), so it doesn't seem like it can't identify it.

The Opterons are San Diego's not Venice.

V e n u s. That is correct as well, Opteron 146 uses Venus core

And if you want to make your computer rematch your hardware, look at my sig.

 

[fustercluck]

Might try the repair install, would that be almost as good as just freshly installing XP? Not sure if i should format or not. Someone told me "The registry (among many other things) from your S754 setup has mixed with that of your new registry from the S939 hardware." - Is that true?

I just want to get my system running at full potential (at stock speeds) without a whole lot of hassle. Should i just format the drive with windows on it after moving all my files over to a diff drive?

 

[ribbon13]

http://tinyurl.com/7wyzf

 

[fustercluck]

bumparoo, might do this today if someone confirms repairing XP and formatting is absolutely the right thing to do.

 

[Some1ne]

Is it essential to format and reinstall XP after installing a new CPU/Mobo?

No, no, a thousand times no! You do not need to do this at all, and given that formatting and reinstalling XP is a highly painful process that wipes out all your settings and installed software, I do not recommend at all, except as a very last resort.

When you install a new CPU/mainboard, what you should do, prior to disconnecting the old hardware, is uninstall your chipset, CPU and other drivers that are associated with the hardware your are removing. You then install the new hardware, boot to Windows, and install the drivers that go with the new hardware. My guess is that you skipped the first step of uninstalling drivers, but then got lucky in the Windows was still able to boot and function (and this would likely explain your performance issues as well). I suggest going through and uninstalling your system chipset and other drivers (might as well do video and audio as well whiloe you're at it), reboot the system, and then install the correct system drivers for your new mainboard, as well as audio/video/etc. drivers.

 

[fustercluck]

My mobo was broken so i couldn't load into Windows and uninstall anything at first. I decided to just buy another Mobo/CPU so i could get my computer up and running. Then i proceeded ot uninstall any old mobo drivers or chipsets or whatver, and installed ones for my current setup. So, since i already did that (maybe not as good as i could have) i might actually need to reinstall or repair (more likely) XP. I will not format unless i have to, which would seem unlikely.

 

[ribbon13]

How many times do i have to tell you, if you want windows to reset ALL drivers use sysprep and not the repair console?

 

[fustercluck]

I don't think Sysprep is what i want to do, it doesn't sound like it anyways. It restores XP to how it was when it was first installed or something like that? Maybe you could explain it to me better, it's kinda confusing. Why do that instead of trying to repair though? Does sysprep mess with any of my currently installed stuff?

I was just going to try and repair XP a few minutes ago but the windows setup (from the XP SP2 CD) kept erroring on the blue screen. Something like "PCI.sys has encountered an error" or some BS like that, so i might not be able to repair or reinstall

 

[ribbon13]

You've installed windows before right? You know when right after you get done with the console part of the windows install, it reboots and takes you to that GUI part called "Let's take a few minutes to setup your computer"? It takes you back to that point Your user profile and programs registry settings should remain intact.

 

[fustercluck]

Well i went ahead and tried Sysprep, and uninstalled my chipset/video/audio drivers with driver cleaner (in safe mode), rebooted and reinstalled all of those.

The good news is nothing is totally funked up, not yet anyways. The performance is better as well, but not by much, it's still worse than my old CPU/Mobo. At least it's better though...

Also i get this error everytime i boot up now, no idea what it is (copy and paste in your browser): http://www.freewebs.com/fustercluck/CLIerror.gif

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: jacktackle
Also i get this error everytime i boot up now, no idea what it is (copy and paste in your browser): http://www.freewebs.com/fustercluck/CLIerror.gif

That's part of ATi's Catalyst Control Center, and it need's the Microsoft .NET framework.

In windows update its an optional software component. Or you can just get it here.

I also suggest you update your video drives to the latest non-CCC version if you want the most performance.

Drivers page

 

[fustercluck]

Ah, ok thanks.

So my performance is still strug-a-ling, anything else i should try besides freshly installing XP and formatting?

 

[ribbon13]

You sysprepped?
You installed Catalyst 5.11?
You installed nForce 6.7?

You give the BIOS settings a thorough inspecting? I know some boards will default to really low settings for stability ie DDR333 CAS3 MA-2T things like that.

 

[ribbon13]

Oh, congrats on 1000 posts

 

[fustercluck]

Thanks for noticing

Yeah i sysprep'D, Installed 5.11 cats - at least i think so... they show up in add/remove programs but not in the display properties as they usually do, like there's no way to change opengl/d3d quality, there should be, maybe a restart will do it, otherwise i'll just try installing them again. Also installed the latest Nforce 3 drivers.