help me please what is wrong with my system??

[S|!m90]

hey guys im new to the forums thought someone could help me out

just purchased an xfx 6800GT about a week ago and struggling for performance on many games particularly hl2 and cs:source and bf2

my computer specs are:

Intel P4 northwood 3ghz overclock @ 3.2
xfx 6800GT agp 408/1100
1gb pc2700 sd-ram
350w q-tec
Intel 865PE chipset-dell dimesion 4600 mobo^^


ive been told tht the psu is bad which i am replacing soon just thought if some one could tell me if this would help and if not what would.

I have all the latest chipset drivers and the latest bios for my system and i have the 84.21 drivers for my card(recommended by xfx)
oh and my score on 3d mark 2001 SE are 15000
thanks guys.
slim

 

[rxmac]

Yes it might be a good idea to ditch the qtec asap, this might help if the pc is shutting down or crashing due to low / unstable power rails.

Other than that it sounds like you have checked the obvious things ie drivers, what exactly is happening? Low fps? What res you running?

 

[S|!m90]

well im running around 100fps (everything on low) in stress test on cs:s and ingame i have to set everything on low to reach 50fps which is...poor shall i say.

running on 1024x768 screen refresh rate 85 ( tried all resolutions and refresh rates and doesnt help)
im hoping it is not my mobo

Yes it might be a good idea to ditch the qtec asap, this might help if the pc is shutting down or crashing due to low / unstable power rails.

yeh i do get the occasional instability and system crashes but surely tht can't cause low fps and one of my m8s has tested this card in his system and he got 120fps with most settings on high:O

what would you recommend to be a good quality and cheap psu- if there is such a thing
i am basically getting the same fps as on my previous card geforce 6200 agp

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Think of your sysytem as a car, if you put bad fuel in it wont run well. A good power supply is a must

 

[Mitch007]

Yeh, change the PSU, the card may be holding back the clocks to 2D default as a result of low input power.

Rivatuner application will allow you to monitor clock speeds on the card, may be worth a look.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I would'nt even switch your machine on again till you replace the PSU, as your risking BOOM everytime you flick the switch, then its bye, bye everything, Mobo, Ram, CPU ........... as it will take everything with it.

Welcome to the forums btw.

 

[easyrider]

I would'nt even switch your machine on again till you replace the PSU, as your risking BOOM everytime you flick the switch, then its bye, bye everything, Mobo, Ram, CPU ........... as it will take everything with it.

Welcome to the forums btw.

Talk about scaring the poor chap!

 

[S|!m90]

thanks for the help guys really appreciate it i dont suppose any1 can recommend a good quality psu for under £50

Yeh, change the PSU, the card may be holding back the clocks to 2D default as a result of low input power.

Rivatuner application will allow you to monitor clock speeds on the card, may be worth a look.

surely being in 2d wouldnt make a difference as the faq advices to set the 3d and 2d clocks to be the same which i have done??

EDIT: i have tried this and the clocks seem to be working at the settings at which i have set them according to the monitor.

 

[snowdog]

thanks for the help guys really appreciate it i dont suppose any1 can recommend a good quality psu for under £50

Any 400 ish watt psu from Seasonic/enermax/etc... (any decent brand) will do.


About ** problems, do you have the 256 mb or 128 mb version of the card, if you have 128 mb thats the problem in battlefield 2, i couldnt play it maxed till i had a card with 256 mb vram, reduce texture size to 2nd one from best and leave rest maxed, and retry.
2gb of ram helps, but isnt needed in bf2, but it will increase performance too.


to others: I ve had a q-tec and changing psu didnt improve performance, although it helped stability a lot, im not aware of anything like clocked down card when udnerpowered, would cause pc to reboot/bsod/freeze long before that.

 

[S|!m90]

About ** problems, do you have the 256 mb or 128 mb version of the card, if you have 128 mb thats the problem in battlefield 2, i couldnt play it maxed till i had a card with 256 mb vram, reduce texture size to 2nd one from best and leave rest maxed, and retry.
2gb of ram helps, but isnt needed in bf2, but it will increase performance too.

i have the 256mb type of card and i have already tried this already but thanks for replying

if what you say is true about the psu then can you suggest what is wrong as i have been told then once you go past 1gb the fps performance is very small if not none at all.

 

[snowdog]

i have the 256mb type of card and i have already tried this already but thanks for replying

if what you say is true about the psu then can you suggest what is wrong as i have been told then once you go past 1gb the fps performance is very small if not none at all.

I dunno tbh, ill post my specs most of it is similair to yours, works ok maxed now on my pc, bf2 i mean, you can perhaps check my specs and see if theres a big diff between mine and yours:

P4 630 @ 4.1 ghz prescott 2mb.
Asus p5ld2
6800gs 256 mb
1 gb of ddr-2 533 cas 4 (single channel)
akasa powerplus 550w

Only thing really bad about your pc is psu, but i never heard about psu reducing performance,
your cpu shouldnt make much of a difference compared to mine, northwoods are even better as scotts, 6800 gs is a 6800 clocked a bit higher (about equal performance to gt) so i doubt its that, ram speed doesnt affect fps as far as im aware of, so after checking all the hardware i think its a software problem tbh.
Try different drivers for your gfx card, also perhaps try doing virus&spyware scan, try different chipset drivers, recheck bios settings, etc...

 

[S|!m90]

I dunno tbh, ill post my specs most of it is similair to yours, works ok maxed now on my pc, bf2 i mean, you can perhaps check my specs and see if theres a big diff between mine and yours:

P4 630 @ 4.1 ghz prescott 2mb.
Asus p5ld2
6800gs 256 mb
1 gb of ddr-2 533 cas 4 (single channel)
akasa powerplus 550w

Only thing really bad about your pc is psu, but i never heard about psu reducing performance,
your cpu shouldnt make much of a difference compared to mine, northwoods are even better as scotts, 6800 gs is a 6800 clocked a bit higher (about equal performance to gt) so i doubt its that, ram speed doesnt affect fps as far as im aware of, so after checking all the hardware i think its a software problem tbh.
Try different drivers for your gfx card, also perhaps try doing virus&spyware scan, try different chipset drivers, recheck bios settings, etc...

lol virus scan i just formatted my pc around 5 days ago and a have windows and norton firewalls and antivirus i doubt im infected although ill check and i have tried many drivers such as the ones which came with the card (64 something i think not sure) and 84.21 (my current one) and 66.93 problem with this bios is that you cant really configure anything anyway i have my agp aperture size to 128mb and all settings are normal havent a clue tbh. Hmmm your ram is faster than mine but i doubt that will be the problem the only other big difference is the mobo if i cant get it fixed ill have to think about replacing it maybe.

OMG my bad just realised the cpu in my faster machine is a northwood this one is a prescott will that make a big difference help guys???

 

[snowdog]

lol virus scan i just formatted my pc around 5 days ago and a have windows and norton firewalls and antivirus i doubt im infected although ill check and i have tried many drivers such as the ones which came with the card (64 something i think not sure) and 84.21 (my current one) and 66.93 problem with this bios is that you cant really configure anything anyway i have my agp aperture size to 128mb and all settings are normal havent a clue tbh. Hmmm your ram is faster than mine but i doubt that will be the problem the only other big difference is the mobo if i cant get it fixed ill have to think about replacing it maybe.

OMG my bad just realised the cpu in my faster machine is a northwood this one is a prescott will that make a big difference help guys???

Nah scots are generally worse as norths, for gamign anyhow, try 91.xx drivers or 89.xx for gfx.
91.31 drivers give best performance on my machiene, although it has a bug (black screen after shutting down game each one of five times approx.) its the best performing driver ive used for my 6800gs.

 

[S|!m90]

meh those drivers didn't help although it has some nice functions with it so thanks for that i guess i should be looking to improving my system from now on ive already ordered a 485w enermax and i'll let you all know if it improves anything


thanks anyway guys.

 

[S|!m90]

put my ram in dual mode after looking on google and runs better getting 20fps more in the video stress test on css after some more bios tweaks.

 

[S|!m90]

hey guys just fitted my 400w enermax liberty and system stability has improved as well as loading times however im struggling to overclock my cpu and want to know how to fix this i have been using cpucool as my bios forbids me to overclock when i do overclock my system restarts straight after, i have been told it is something to do with my vcore or ram timings i dont know which, my bios also doesnt allow me to change these settings or look at them could some one help me.

my ram timings are

2.5, 3 ,3 ,7 hope this helps.

and btw i realise tht this post is in the wrong place but i thought it would be easier to post here as my computer specs are in this thread too.