Hardware diagnosis, gaming problems

[darrensen]

Defrag is your friend.........It's hard to pin down tbh.

Let us know how you get on after that, then we'll help you pin point the problem. Whilst doing defrag might as well get the good old disk cleanup going as well. ( i always do )

[Splash]

I should say so!

[merlin2001]

i would possibly argue that the gfx cards' ram may still be a contributing factor. check the texture quality you are using in your games and if your going for v.high/top level - try setting it down a bit to see if that helps. If it's set at medium or similiar, then can't really see it being an issue on the games you've mentioned.

[piranha]

I think everyone gets some pausing in some games however good the setup. It can be reduced by having more memory, faster timings, better video card etc but some hesitation will always be present.

[Nobuo]

i would possibly argue that the gfx cards' ram may still be a contributing factor. check the texture quality you are using in your games and if your going for v.high/top level - try setting it down a bit to see if that helps. If it's set at medium or similiar, then can't really see it being an issue on the games you've mentioned.

Thanks for the input. I changed the graphics quality of Doom 3 from Ultra to Low, and saw only a very minor improvement (so minor, it could have well been a placebo effect) so I think it's safe to rule out the VRAM as a problem?

Following on from previous advice I defragmented my drive and again saw minor, if any improvement.

After monitoring my performance with perfmon I found that my RAM was at 90 - 100% throughout the entire time the game was open, does that point as strongly towards the RAM as I think it does? Or would a game make as much % use out of any amount of RAM? I think I'm gonna upgrade this area either way, actually.

Oh, and my HDD cache size is 8MB.

[Nat101]

Is your paging file on the 80Gb or 300Gb drive? If its on the 80Gb, move it to the 300Gb... (assuming yr 80Gb is your sys drive - d'oh)

[emul8]

Were you able to find out what hard drive it was?
Hope you sort it out Doom3 is a good game It would be a shame to spoil it with slow loading times.
The first time i played i set the dificulty to veteran and played in the dark with suround sound

[Main]

After monitoring my performance with perfmon I found that my RAM was at 90 - 100% throughout the entire time the game was open, does that point as strongly towards the RAM as I think it does? Or would a game make as much % use out of any amount of RAM? I think I'm gonna upgrade this area either way, actually.

Oh, and my HDD cache size is 8MB.

Interesting...
I usually see this kind of problem (pauses and jerky loading) when my system uses more than my 1Gb of RAM so it seems a little strange to me that you have it when you aren't using more memory than you have. I think it would still be worth you checking how much memory your background programs use prior to a gaming session and try freeing up additional memory by exiting some of them.

Also make sure you try cheechy's suggestion of removing your sound card - or at least checking for updated drivers - in fact do that for everything....

Another thing would be Catalyst Control Center - are you using it? When I used it it gave me no end of problems, now I use ATI drivers along with tray tools...

I'm suprised Far Cry has this problem though...that game ran fine on my old Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6Ghz Palomino) system with 768MB RAM, 9800pro 128MB and an 80Gb with 8mb cache system disc, and I've never found the game to be particularly demanding.

[Nobuo]

Were you able to find out what hard drive it was?

I DID, I've forgotten it now and can't look it up again ATM. It was 8MB of cache though.

I usually see this kind of problem (pauses and jerky loading) when my system uses more than my 1Gb of RAM so it seems a little strange to me that you have it when you aren't using more memory than you have.

Hmm, OK, I think. You should bear in mind I've never used perfmon before and wasn't too sure how to read it. I noticed that during these stutters the HDD is being accessed, that's caused by not having enough RAM isn't it? Does it show the same symptom when there's not enough VRAM?

Another thing would be Catalyst Control Center - are you using it? When I used it it gave me no end of problems, now I use ATI drivers along with tray tools...

I am using CCC, and you're right, it isn't very good. I use my PC as a media centre though, and ATM I'm using the profiles and hotkeys a hell of a lot to switch displays etc.. Do you know of another way of doing this without using CCC?

I'm suprised Far Cry has this problem though...that game ran fine on my old Athlon XP 1900+ (1.6Ghz Palomino) system with 768MB RAM, 9800pro 128MB and an 80Gb with 8mb cache system disc, and I've never found the game to be particularly demanding.

Yeah I know. The actual framerate never faulters even on the highest video settings, just when there's a door to open into a new area. Oh and another thing I need to ask, when I ask a game to autodetect the best graphics settings, it always sets them to the worst possible settings for everything, even though my rig is up to the task of the best possible settings. What's going on there? Are they picking up some sort of weak link? This happens on every game with the autodetect feature.