My pc isn't performing how it should!

Stearsy · 3 Nov 2006 at 22:47

Ok im just using fear as an example, but my pc really dosent run how it should graphically. My friends computer isnt the greatest but it's still pretty decent, his results were slighltly below me for fear. But when he runs everything on high settings with max graphics he gets an average of maybe 80fps and everything runs lovely.

When i play fear and i run tests with everything on max i get an average of 20fps and a minimum of like 10fps (we both run at 1280 x 1024). Basically it runs like crap and it's the same with all the other games i play. For example i play warcraft quite a lot and i get a max of 30fps and get a lot of lag when in raids and when i have such a expensive and high quality graphics card i kind of expect my games to run perfectly.

I'm not quite sure what to try and wonder why my pc seems to never run anything above 30-40fps... I want to play the games i buy smoothly, and the lab tells me they will run perfectly and then i am dissapointed

Spec:
Geforce 7900GT 256mb
Amd 64 3200+
2Gb corsair ram (2 x 1gb)
Nforce 4 mobo

I have the latest drivers for both motherboard and graphics card and so have no clue what else to try other than a format which may not change anything and takes a long time.

Help would be really appreciated.

Jokester · 3 Nov 2006 at 22:52

Yeah something not right there, WoW should positively fly along with that spec. Guess you've installed MB drivers as that would be my first port of call. Able to give a CPU-Z screenie?

Jokester

Stearsy · 3 Nov 2006 at 22:58

There we go.

Secret_Window · 3 Nov 2006 at 22:59

Yeah that does seem weird. I remember my old rig kinda doing the same thing, I seem to recall.

Stearsy · 3 Nov 2006 at 23:19

What did you do to resolve your problem?

wiggy · 3 Nov 2006 at 23:33

I remember my X800 getting a min of 25fps, so yours should fly! Have you ran 3dmark06 to see what score your getting?

Stearsy · 3 Nov 2006 at 23:35

I've done one before but i'll do a fresh new one in a min and post it.

wiggy · 3 Nov 2006 at 23:45

Yeah post it, coz there are plentiful of experts on ere. But not me!

Stearsy · 4 Nov 2006 at 00:48

Thats the result, i think thats fairly low compared to most pc's with that spec.

Again any help would be appreciated.

P.S when i compare it to systems with a simlar spec (there are 122) i come 117 which isnt too good (based on futuremark site)

wiggy · 4 Nov 2006 at 00:59

Does seem low for your spec, not too different to mine and i get 5200. Have you tried running driver cleaner? Have you set the 3d settings to performance in the nv panel?
Anyone else with suggestions?

Tute · 4 Nov 2006 at 01:03

Check you're not running with huge levels of AA and/or AF turned on in your display settings.

It's normally a good way to kill performance.

Zogger · 4 Nov 2006 at 02:44

SM2/3 scores seem a bit low.
got 2048 SM2 / 1974 SM3 @ stock on this card, although I believe it's clocked higher than the nvidia spec by default.

edit: I will say when I upgraded my drivers once it lowered my performance significantly. Downgraded them and then upgraded them again about a week later and performance was much better. Might be worth properly cleaning your drivers off and then reinstalling.

Stearsy · 4 Nov 2006 at 12:58

Ok I've ran the test after uninstalling graphics drivers, and then reinstalling old ones and then new ones again and had some slight improvements:

I still think that should be higer, for example someone said they could get about 5200 - any ideas guys, running dry on ideas now..

testa12 · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:05

Stearsy said:
Ok I've ran the test after uninstalling graphics drivers, and then reinstalling old ones and then new ones again

Why reinstall the old ones, then the new? Why not just uninstall and then reinstall the new (forget the old ones)?

You considered reloading the PC?

Stearsy · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:06

Thats a fear test on medium.. its crap.. and when i run it on maximum the settings are a little better.. but hardly anything. it makes no sense..

Stearsy · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:07

testa12 said:
Why reinstall the old ones, then the new? Why not just uninstall and then reinstall the new (forget the old ones)?

You considered reloading the PC?

Because someone said they had done that before (on forums) and so i tried that.

testa12 · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:09

I thought the idea being you uninstall your current, possibly dodgy graphics drivers (use driver cleaner). Reboot your computer and reinstall the latest drivers - as someone else said, ensure there are no custom AA or AF settings applied etc.

Sorry, just notice you already have the latest driver

But still a complete uninstall/reinstall cant hurt if you havent tried that already

Think AMD also have a CPU driver for Xp -dunno if that will help much though

Zogger · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:18

yeh, my post was suggesting that you uninstall the current drivers. Remove the dlls as described in the forceware tweakguide (http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_4.html) and reinstall. No idea how it made the difference it did but the difference was huge. May be a different issue in your case of course.

Stearsy · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:42

Ok i dont think its anything to do with the drivers. I followed every point to that tweak guide, uninstalled all old drivers + gfx drivers, installed new cpu drivers, run 3d mark 06 again and got 3902. No improvements at all.

Any other ideas? Really appreciating your ideas guys btw

HangTime · 4 Nov 2006 at 16:54

Your 3dmark06 score isn't that bad, but something definitely isn't right with FEAR. Remember that a lot of people use 3dmark/ORB for bragging rights, their scores are all on heavily overclocked/tweaked systems, running low quality driver settings and all kinds of other nonsense.

As mentioned previously chipset drivers might be a good place to start. Download the latest Nforce4 drivers from here: http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/standalone/6.86/6.86_nforce_win2kxp_international_whql.exe