Under-performance during gaming

[chopstickz]

Having just built a new sysytem im finding that performance during gaming is sluggish. The FPs seems to be much lower than i would expect to be getting from the spec. In some games it performs worse than my old system. In FEAR the graohics test run comes up with an average FPS of 23 with a low of 7. this is on mid-high settings but does not make much difference between high settings and mid settings. 3D mark2005 comes up with a score of 3350, i don;t lnow wether this is normal for a machine with this hardware. Just Cause also runs badly despite my system meeting the recommended spec.

I have tried reinstalling new graphics, sound, and mobo drivers to no avail. I have tried different resolutions but i usually run it with 1024x768.

Spec:
Athlon 3500+ 64
Abit KN9S
1GB OCZ PC5400 RAM (single channel)
BFG 7600 GT 256MB
160GB SATA Maxtor HDD

Im at a complete loss so any help will be gratefully recieved. thanks.

[chrisg22]

Having just built a new sysytem im finding that performance during gaming is sluggish. The FPs seems to be much lower than i would expect to be getting from the spec. In some games it performs worse than my old system. In FEAR the graohics test run comes up with an average FPS of 23 with a low of 7. this is on mid-high settings but does not make much difference between high settings and mid settings. 3D mark2005 comes up with a score of 3350, i don;t lnow wether this is normal for a machine with this hardware. Just Cause also runs badly despite my system meeting the recommended spec.

I have tried reinstalling new graphics, sound, and mobo drivers to no avail. I have tried different resolutions but i usually run it with 1024x768.

Spec:
Athlon 3500+ 64
Abit KN9S
1GB OCZ PC5400 RAM (single channel)
BFG 7600 GT 256MB
160GB SATA Maxtor HDD

Im at a complete loss so any help will be gratefully recieved. thanks.

Recommended specs are usually the bar minimum you can run a game on, so minimum would be everything on low with a low res, i.e. 800x600.

FEAR is a very demanding game and I'm sure others would agree that it needs a pretty nice machine to run it on medium-high settings.

[kalniel]

How does the rig run in games like Quake 4, HL2, Far Cry? Those would be a better match for the specs I think.

[chopstickz]

Because ive just built it ive not installed everything. Ill go and install HL2 and try it.

[kalniel]

Cool - let us know how you get on. I would expect with those specs pretty long loading times and a little bit of stuttering during loading, but in general it should be very smooth

[notsobig]

Your 3dmark05 score is too low for 7600GT. It should be around 6500 mark(default setting).

[chopstickz]

Exactly and i have no idea why. Drivers are correct and current, settings are set to application controlled. Im pretty sure the hardware is installed right. I was wondering if i had missed something in that respect or needed to change some bios settings.

[Mithrandir]

Your PC should be able to run the games smoothly on mid-high settings even FEAR. I ran the demo on my machine on high settings and it runs smooth (with occasional stutter in very intense sections)

If you built the system and its on a clean install I would have a look at the bios settings.
I can't really tell you for sure, but maybe you need to check the ram settings, etc.

Which OS are you using?

[chopstickz]

Im using win XP Home. Ive been playing FEAR on mid-high settings now with no problem with an occasional stutter but 3D mark is still coming up with a low score. It also reported that my VGA clock speed and memory speed on the 7600GT was 0MHz, which i assume is because it cant get a reading. Not sure how my RAM should be set up though.

[ukengineer]

get a dual channel 1gb memory kit, set pagefile min and max to the same, 1gb ram iirc windows says 1536mb pagefile size, if possible, put the pagefile on a different hdd, on a different controller.

I run all my games on max settings without a stutter, worst one was COD2, but getting 1gb instead of 512mb kit changed all this.

check my system specs also, i run a athlon 3200+, and my pc beats most turnkey systems, even beats my mates x800 on pcie, with 1gb ram, but his runs on single channel, he runs an athlon 3400+ 64bit.

[notsobig]

Im using win XP Home. Ive been playing FEAR on mid-high settings now with no problem with an occasional stutter but 3D mark is still coming up with a low score. It also reported that my VGA clock speed and memory speed on the 7600GT was 0MHz, which i assume is because it cant get a reading. Not sure how my RAM should be set up though.

That's very wierd. Does anyone around you have working pci-e card so that you can borrow and test it on your system? I think either mobo or graphic card has a problem and needs to be replaced, but without another card you can't tell which.

[ukengineer]

do you have all latest drivers for motherboard and graphics card? get a proper utility also to see card speeds, Rivatuner very good.

[chopstickz]

Ok well ill try and get hold of someones card to test. The though had occured to be but obviously its not easy. Ill get rivaturner too. As for the RAM ill try everyhting i can but if all else fails i could get a dual channel kit (2x512s right?). I can't see the level of performance in certain games and 3D mark being that low becuase im using single channel. and yes i have the latest drivers for gfx and mobo. It couldn't be anything to do with the Athlon 'Cool'n Quiet' thingy could it? although i have tried uninstalling that to no avail. Task manager also reports around 40% CPU usage while idle.

[chopstickz]

Should a screen appear before the POST screen with graphics card info on it? becuase all i get is a "no video signal" from my monitor then the POST comes up.

Im thinking of getting a 7600GT from PC world to test it then taking it back

[chopstickz]

Tried a different 7600GT and got the same 3D mark score. No idea what to do. Could it be the CPU? Got a CPU score of 1701 in 3D mark.

[notsobig]

You got the same score with another card so GC should be ok. I would probably replace motherboard if I were you. Is it still under warranty? Also does your motherboard officially support your ram? It could be your chipset having communication problem with your HQ memory hence has to do more job resulting in a low score. BTW, which process taking up 40% CPU power? That sounds a bit wierd but I usually run 3dmark03/05 while priming to check stability of my overclock and surprisingly the score isn't that much far off from the normal score, so I don't think cpu power have significant effect on the overall score as far as 3dmark score is concerned. At least your 7600GT should score much more than 3350, even if your cpu is at full load. So I don't think it's your problem. BTW, which PSU do you have and do you have any peripheral connected to your PC? I think the performance difference between single channnel and dual channel is within 10 percent, depending on which application you're running.