A mates problem with gfx card

[SkeeterUK]

Got this mate, he has a oldish system but running vista. Anyhow he is havbing problems running games as in their slow.

He mentioned to me that in dxdiag its showing as

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6800 GS
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00C0&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A2
Display Memory: 392 MB
Dedicated Memory: 120 MB
Shared Memory: 271 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic Non-PnP Monitor
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll
Driver Version: 7.15.0010.9746 (English)

The shared memory. What is causing this. Is it a vista thing or a gfx card thing or bios thingy. I thought it might have been one of them onboard things but its not.

This is what cpu-z shows as well.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/8017/untitledmg7.jpg

Am i right in thinking his HTT is too low, and his ram fsb is too slow. I mean hardware wise, can you up the HTT to 1000 and the ram fsb to 200mhz ddr400. He is using 3 slots i think for ram 2x 512mb and 1x 256mb.

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Slightly off topic. He wants to upgrade his comp to play games better, he has abotu £150 quid, what would you guys recommend to upgrade. I personally would say cpu and ram and mb as gfx card should be ok if playing medium details and 1024x res.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

1) cpu is at 1.488v i think even for newcastle core it may be above stock, and no point for that if he not overclocking.

2) HTT speed is 800mhz which is fine on the older a64 range. there may be an option in the bios to increase the link speed but its not going to make a night and day difference. with ram running in single channel mode too there is no real need for more bandwidth between memory and cpu beyond the speed of the ram.

3) ram speed is deffo on a silly divider running at 100mhz, simple change in bios will set the ram speed to its 200mhz stock, and as cpuz shows at 200mhz the ram should be set to timings of 3-3-3, and only tighter if attempting to get more speed in which case the ram will be "overclocked" (pushed beyond its listed specifications)

4) also while he is at it tell him to get the new revision 1006 bios for that mobo too.


5) since he uses socket 754 don;t worry about cpuz showing single channel mode on the ram since thats all s754 supports.

6) shared memory info seems to be a vista related bug, make sure you have latest drivers for all your hardware.