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7600GT Bottleknecking with my P4?

cmscam

cmscam

cmscam

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Joined
24 Oct 2006
Posts
108
Hello guys.

I was wondering if any one could please help me.

It's kind of long winded but I hope to cover everything.

Here are my system specs before I go explaining :

Intel Pentium 4 Prescott - 2.9Ghz
1GB Ram
160GB HDD
500W PSU - Only a very very cheap PSU, was told by some one at overclockers that this was the source of my problems.

I currently have a 6600GT graphics card, and with the gameS I play like WoW and CSS, the FPS doesn't change between low and high settings.

Example - I can play CSS with about 30 - 50FPS on low settings, when I knock settings up to high, I'll be getting the same FPS... Which I think is very weird.... As the settings are higher and I'm getting the same FPS !! The same thing happens for WoW !

Some one over in the PC Games section said that this sounds like a bottle kneck... But I'm flipping sure a 6600GT wouldn't bottlekneck with my CPU.

Ok, so I got my 7600GT yesterday, ran it with the 500W psu... I try CSS and I get the same FPS as my 6600GT.... And the same thing happens with the low and high settings!

Do you guys think the 7600GT is a bottlekneck or do I need a more better quality PSU?

I really want to play with the 7600GT and get higher frames. :(

Thanks.

I might have missed something out, please ask me if you need to know anything more!
 
You mean is the CPU bottlenecking your 7600GT? Possibly, but you can get around it by upping the settings, increasing resolution or overclocking your CPU
 
Sorry guys I'm in a bit of a rush, I don't think I made my self clear.

Obviously, I upgraded to a 7600GT as I want to play games on higher settings and get higher FPS.... Now when I tried the 7600GT yesterday CSS got me an average of about 40FPS, which is the same as my 6600GT...

I thought maybe my CPU wasn't good enough...

Would you say I need to buy a better quality CPU.... Or what else can I do. :S

I really want to keep the 7600GT ! But it's just acting the same as my 6600GT :(
 
Is that P4 a 533Mhz buss? 512K on chip memory?

What speed is the Ram 333/400 or higher.

Overclocking? Even small amounts of overclock will help framerate

Right what motherboard have you got.

Also post all PSU make and spec info, what current (Amps) each voltage rail is capable of delivering.

I also had 6600GT (nice card) and ran CS:source pretty well. I had most stuff at max and achieved an average of 70fps in the stress test.

Download 3-dMark03/05 from majorgeeks.com under their benchmark section. run and post scores.

Id fps does not change between low and high settings, then maybe clock speed is not changing to support 3D, this could be a symptom of PSU or graphics card heat.

If you open nvidia control panel, and look for temerature, what does the card temp indicate?
 
Mitch007 said:
Is that P4 a 533Mhz buss? 512K on chip memory?

What speed is the Ram 333/400 or higher.

Overclocking? Even small amounts of overclock will help framerate

Right what motherboard have you got.

Also post all PSU make and spec info, what current (Amps) each voltage rail is capable of delivering.

I also had 6600GT (nice card) and ran CS:source pretty well. I had most stuff at max and achieved an average of 70fps in the stress test.

Download 3-dMark03/05 from majorgeeks.com under their benchmark section. run and post scores.

Id fps does not change between low and high settings, then maybe clock speed is not changing to support 3D, this could be a symptom of PSU or graphics card heat.

If you open nvidia control panel, and look for temerature, what does the card temp indicate?
Click to expand...

Ok I'm looking in CPU-Z for all these details :

My CPU has 2MB Cache.

Bus speed - 199.5Mhz
Rated FSB - 798.0MHz

I have no idea what speed the ram is, alls I know that it's OcUK value or something. Sorry :(

The 6600GT was overclocked, I reset all clocks on it though.

The motherboard I have is an Asus - P5S800-VM

In 3dmark03 I get about 8K marks with the 6600GT.

My temp settings for the 6600GT are around 64 Degrees.

EDIT : The PSU I have no idea what the specs of it are, all's I know is that it's 500W... The guy in overclockers said that I'm lucky if it had 15A.

Thanks.

But the main thing I wanted to get straight was why is the 7600GT fps the same as the 6600GT fps... When the 7600GT is more stronger!
 
Last edited:
When a game is "CPU bound" this means it'll run at pretty much the same FPS regardless of which graphics card you use at those particular settings.
When it is "GPU bound" its the opposite, the better the graphics card the higher the frame rate.

They are more likely to be CPU bound at low resolutions and detail, as the CPU cannot keep up with the graphics card.

Try comparing them at 1280x1024 with anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned up high.
 
Papa Lazarou said:
When a game is "CPU bound" this means it'll run at pretty much the same FPS regardless of which graphics card you use at those particular settings.
When it is "GPU bound" its the opposite, the better the graphics card the higher the frame rate.

They are more likely to be CPU bound at low resolutions and detail, as the CPU cannot keep up with the graphics card.

Try comparing them at 1280x1024 with anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned up high.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this mate. :)

As you can see I don't know too much about this stuff... But I'm still going to get a different PSU tomorrow... I got recommend this one : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-SK

So when I've fitted the PSU I'm going to compare them both like you said, and hopefully I'll come up with a final verdict.

I just want to play some WoW and CSS with smooth frame rates. :p
 
cmscam said:
Thanks for this mate. :)

As you can see I don't know too much about this stuff... But I'm still going to get a different PSU tomorrow... I got recommend this one : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-SK

So when I've fitted the PSU I'm going to compare them both like you said, and hopefully I'll come up with a final verdict.

I just want to play some WoW and CSS with smooth frame rates. :p
Click to expand...

No prob :) Hopefully that PSU's a good 'un as I've just bought one to go in my brothers PC. FSP are a good brand though, and I'd put money on it being superior to a no-name budget PSU.
 
Papa Lazarou said:
No prob :) Hopefully that PSU's a good 'un as I've just bought one to go in my brothers PC. FSP are a good brand though, and I'd put money on it being superior to a no-name budget PSU.
Click to expand...

Yeah... The 500W one I have is a cheap rubbishy thing. The name of it is X - Power or something lol. Huge mistake buying it.

I just hope the one I buy tomorrow will fix my problem with the 7600GT.
 
Hi, I just googled your motherboard and found out that it has sis 661fx chipset, so make sure you have the latest sis agp drivers installed.
Have you tried to run dxdiag.exe to make sure your agp slot is operating correctly? I once had an sis chipset and it kept turning off agp and reverting to pci mode. Ran games like a pig when it did that. :(
 
darren.head said:
Hi, I just googled your motherboard and found out that it has sis 661fx chipset, so make sure you have the latest sis agp drivers installed.
Have you tried to run dxdiag.exe to make sure your agp slot is operating correctly? I once had an sis chipset and it kept turning off agp and reverting to pci mode. Ran games like a pig when it did that. :(
Click to expand...

Hello there.

I hope this is a possible solution ! Please please please could you tell me where to get the 661FX agp drivers??

Thanks!
 
just for reference, in case you get lol on the chip-set, i'm running SIS, and always have since my first home build, my CPU is a 3.2 1MB cache.

I'd say no bottle neck with the CPU, and any memory overclock is good if you can push it a little.

I'm guessing the 7600GT is AGP, if so same as mine. Did you install the drivers that came on the disk with the card. And the disk also had SIS chip-set driver updates on it.. try those.

I'm also running 1280x1024 in all games with no problem (again just in case there are any other concerns regarding your CPU/Mem set-up)

The additional power lead connectring to the graphics card, make sure there is no other device (disk CD/DVD drive) connected, i.e. it has it's own dedicated filtered feed.

8K for the 6600GT at stock and your CPU at stok seems ok, overclocked 10% with a bit of CPU O/C would get you close to 9.5K
what does the 7600GT bench at? stock clocks should 11K ish i guess.

What temp you got for the 7600GT, the 64C for the 6600GT is a tad high for idle.

So PSU, assuming you got it connected to the card looks like the culpret, but i here so many people upgrading this piece of hardware with no sucess.

Another good resource site is the nvidia nzone forum, lots of good help there especially for 6600GT related issues such as low FPS.

Keep us posted....on progress
 
Mitch007 said:
just for reference, in case you get lol on the chip-set, i'm running SIS, and always have since my first home build, my CPU is a 3.2 1MB cache.

I'd say no bottle neck with the CPU, and any memory overclock is good if you can push it a little.

I'm guessing the 7600GT is AGP, if so same as mine. Did you install the drivers that came on the disk with the card. And the disk also had SIS chip-set driver updates on it.. try those.

I'm also running 1280x1024 in all games with no problem (again just in case there are any other concerns regarding your CPU/Mem set-up)

The additional power lead connectring to the graphics card, make sure there is no other device (disk CD/DVD drive) connected, i.e. it has it's own dedicated filtered feed.

8K for the 6600GT at stock and your CPU at stok seems ok, overclocked 10% with a bit of CPU O/C would get you close to 9.5K
what does the 7600GT bench at? stock clocks should 11K ish i guess.

What temp you got for the 7600GT, the 64C for the 6600GT is a tad high for idle.

So PSU, assuming you got it connected to the card looks like the culpret, but i here so many people upgrading this piece of hardware with no sucess.

Another good resource site is the nvidia nzone forum, lots of good help there especially for 6600GT related issues such as low FPS.

Keep us posted....on progress
Click to expand...

Thanks for this mate, I will look back at this thread tommorow when I get my new PSU.

I'm going to do everything you said, I'll install the drivers on the disk and I'll also make sure the molex has it's own dedicated cable.

Also I'll bench it tommorow with 3DMARK03.

Thanks once again.
 
No problems, hop we get you sorted. I just hope that CPU is the cause. From my end, noy a lot else wrong with the rig.
 
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