New build has terrible graphical performance

[spengos]

Been having fun and games trying to put my new system together. After sending the graphics card back for being faulty(dead) I received another one but I'm now having performance problems. Don't know if it's graphics related or something else.

I've got an XFX HD 5850 and I'm running the latest Catalyst 10.7 drivers for Win 7 64-bit. Downloaded from AMD website.

Basically I'm getting incredibly bad performance in games. Everything I play has single figure framerate. Tried lotro and Starcraft 2 and both are pretty much unplayable.

I downloaded and ran the 3DMark06 benchmark and here's the result:

The GPU test was almost as low as the CPU! Never getting above single figures.

There's obviously something seriously wrong but I don't know what. I'm hoping it's something really stupid that I've missed.

One thing I noticed but don't know if its relevant. When I look at my gfx card in device manager it's just listed as 5800 series and not the exact model. Is it supposed to be like that?

Any ideas?

EDIT:

Spec of new rig:

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5
Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

 

[spengos]

@Mr Krugga: Yep, both plugged in

@Jokester: Yep. AMD chipset 3.0.782.0 apparently

 

[spengos]

Just installed and ran CPU-Z and I think I've found the problem, just not sure how to fix it.

My GPU clock is running at 157MHz and the Memory clock is 300MHz. Why on earth would it be set to this and how do I change it to what it should be?

 

[spengos]

I installed the ati chipset drivers that came with the mobo. Then installed the ati catalyst 10.7 drivers for the video card.

I've been using Driver Sweeper in between reinstalls to keep things tidy.

Still running very slow.

 

[spengos]

I've checked the clock speeds while in a game and they do indeed rise up to the default speeds. However, the performance is still really bad.

I've installed Fraps just to see what the framerate is doing in-game and it's all over the place. Most of the time it jumps between 15 and 40 fps on just medium/low settings, but every couple of seconds it will dive to single figure fps. The movement is very choppy and just unplayable.

As i said above, the 3DMark06 benchmark barely runs. Single figure fps in the GPU test.

Other than try a total reinstall I dunno what else to do.

Can someone just confirm the order in which I need to install chipset and graphics drivers?
Also, where is the best place to get drivers? Manufactures websites or places like Guru3D?

 

[spengos]

is it a old install of windows from your old motherboard ?

if so try a fresh install

Nope, it's a new Windows install.

I'm going to try a new install tonight as I'm all out of ideas. I'm hoping the chipset drivers and video drivers have installed a bit funny and all my reinstall attempts are making it worse. So hopefully a fresh install will sort things out.

 

[spengos]

Sorry for the double post... Do you guys think this might be a bios thing? Would updating the bios help? I assumed that a brand new mobo would ship with the latest bios update but maybe I'm wrong?
If this is a possibility then i'll try this before a reinstall of Windows.

 

[spengos]

I've seen a couple of thread similar to this and each time it turned out that the OP had managed to force-on a high-level quality option such as 32xAA at driver level and then forget about it.

How would I go about finding out if it is that? Isn't there a factory reset or something?

 

[spengos]

The latest bios for the crosshair IV is 905, I Bought my board from oc nearly 2 weeks ago but still had to flash the newest bios.

Hmm interesting. Mine is also nearly 2 weeks old. So were you experiencing similar problems to me too, before a bios update?

 

[spengos]

Ok, quick update.

First I tried to update the bios, and successfully upgraded to the latest version(905). Did some testing afterwards but this seems to have made no difference at all.

Within the last couple of hours I've reinstalled Windows 7. The only things I have done are install the network card driver and USB driver from the CD that came with the motherboard. Then I downloaded the chipset drivers from the Asus website for the motherboard, and then I also installed the new ATI Catalyst 10.7 drivers from Guru3D's website.

This is all I've done, nothing else.

I then ran both 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 and the scores were 3488 and 2580 respectively.

I dont know what to do next. I've built many PC's over the years bt none have given me so much grief. I can't help thinking I'm missing something really obvious... unless I have a piece of dodgy hardware.

/sigh

 

[spengos]

Thanks for the reply guys. I'll try to answer everyone:

@RobertN: No overclocking done at all so far. Its a brand new system all new components running at stock.

@Buckster: Yes pretty sure its the rght slot. It's in the top slot which is a dedicated x16 pcie slot. Its the one they recommend int he manual for best performance.

@Marvin: Yes the CPU and GPU fans are going strong. I've re-seated the CPU and made sure its sitting right. No idea about motherboard features though. In the bios theres some fan control/monitor features bt I haven't touched them.

@Buckster: What is CPU throttling and why would it be happening?
I've checked the CPU and mobo temps and they're fine. Very stable with nothing over 40' other than the Northbridge which is at 45'.

@Muel: As mentioned the temps seem fine. The system in general doesn't seem stressed at all other than the rubbish performance. Haven't tried memtest yet but will do.

@mame: I installed realtemp but I get an error when i run it saying it doesn't support my processor...


Something I have noticed is this problem spreads futher than just during gaming. I tried a few videos, avi files and even YouTube vids are very choppy and have poor framerates. Even doing general stuff like scrolling up and down a web page can be laggy.

I just installed Dragon Age as a test of an offline game. Only having tried lotro and SC2 before. Dragon Age was terrible. The cut-scenes were down to 1 or 2 fps. The actual gameplay was just as bad. I even tried taking the settings right down to lowest but it was the same.

Dont know if it helps but I've uploaded some CPU-Z screens:

 

[spengos]

Ok, so I installed GPU-Z and Coretemp and took some readings while in idle and also during stress testing.

I also installed CineBench and have some results from that too. The below GPU result from CineBench was by far the best score I could get. It was odd because I ran the GPU test about 5 times, 3 times I was getting between 10 and 16 fps, but then I had two results in a row of 25-30 fps. I seem to get this same fluctuation in games too.

Another thing I tried was putting my old 8800GTX in and trying that. It produced the exact same problem as the 5850. Windows 7 only installed the Microsoft stock 8800GTX driver(dirty, I know) plus I didn't remove the ATI Catalyst drivers, but this should be enough to tell that it probably isn't the graphics card, although thats not 100% I guess.

Another reason I'm starting to think its not the gfx card is in games the sound is also affected. In Dragon Age I noticed parts of the voice overs were repeated and distorted. They seemed to happen in sync with lagging/choppiness of the framerate.

I also tried MemTest and that came back with no errors and passed no probs. So I guess we can rule out memory.

A couple of posts said check the PCIE frequency but I can't seem to find it in the BIOS, let alone change it. I guess we can't rule out gfx card until this is confirmed?

GPU-Z in idle:

GPU-Z under stress:

CoreTemp idle:

CineBench during the GPU test:

CineBench during the CPU test:

 

[spengos]

I've got a samsung 22" monitor. Running at max res which is 1650x1050(or whatever the exact number is).

I just been watching the GPU load while playing dragon age. It hovers around 30% so it isn't under much stress.

I'm currently reinstalling windows again. But I've got my 8800gtx installed which will get picked up by win7 automatically. I'm not going to install anything, no other drivers or chipset and then run a bench test.

Btw: I haven't been doing any windows updates at all, this wouldn't affect anything would it?

 

[spengos]

Ok, so I just finished yet another clean Windows 7 install. As mentioned this time I've started with my faithful old 8800GTX installed instead of the 5850.

Once Windows had started up for the first time I installed no drivers or any software of any kind. Windows had installed its own driver for the 8800. Looking in Device Manager there were 3 things not installed. The USB controller, Ethernet adapter and an unknown device.

So first thing I want to do is run a benchmark, so I install 3DMark05, from a USB drive as not connected to Internet yet. First time I run 3DMark its fine! getting some nice high fps. Everything is much smoother than before and no dips in performance. So everything seems fine at this stage and more like the performance I'd expect.

Next I decide to try a game. Install Dragon Age and when finished run it in default settings but in windowed mode. The game starts out fine. Loads quickly, cut-scenes at the start run perfectly and the sound is also fine. However, after a couple of minutes all of a sudden it gets choppy and laggy again. Huge dips in framerate and sound is choppy again too.

So I quit out and start up 3DMark05 again. Just like it was before I rebuilt back to single figure framerate and it dips up and down. Also, each test takes ages to load compared to when I ran it first time. Was about 2 seconds to load the first test, now its about 30 secs.

So what now?

 

[spengos]

It's definitely not heat related. If I hover my hand round the board I can't feel any heat at all. In fact its very cool. Also, the motherboard has temperature status LEDs dotted around near the main components. There's a little green LED next to the CPU, NB, SB and DRAM, which just means temperature normal.

I just did another new Windows install but this time with the 5850 back in. I did the same as before and didn't install anything other than the Catalyst driver so I could do benchmarking. I ran the CineBench and the result was really low for GPU. Around 5fps. The 3DMark05 result was also still crappy. So I think when it worked briefly on the last install it may have been a fluke.

I also tried using the PSU from my old rig. Its only a Corsair modular 520w. A little weak maybe but managed to run everything. Exactly the same outcome though. Didnt make any difference. So I don't think its PSU related, at least not the hardware.


So far, things I know that aren't causing the problem:
Graphics Card - OK
Memory - Ok
CPU - OK
PSU - OK
Temperature - OK

So that leaves me with:
Motherboard
Hard disk
Windows Drivers
Configuration issue

My next test might be to try installing on another hard disk. I've got a few laying around I could use. I'm not convinced it will be a disk issue but I need to rule it out. I did a test a minute ago by running an video(AVI) from a USB drive and that gave me the same choppy/laggy performance.

EDIT: I did try to disable the sound a while ago. I disabled the onboard sound card in the BIOS. It didn't make any difference, so I don't think the issue is sound either. Any ideas what would affect video output and also sound like this?

 

[spengos]

just looked and cinebench 11.5 on your rig should be getting about 3.9 for the cpu score might possibly also suggest a dodgy core go into cinebench click file click advanced benchmark then run the single core benchmark and see what score you get it should be around 1 quarter your original score.

Have you ever used prime 95 before if so you could run it and see if one of the cores is copleting slower than the other which would show a failing or flagging core.


Maybe you should say were your located as there are plenty of helpful peeps on the forum who might be willing to help you

I tried the single core test and it came up as 0.98pts(3.09pts). I ran a multicore test again and it came up as 3.05.
So the CPU seems fine. Still might be a little lower than average but surely not enough to be causing such drasticly low GPU benchmarks?

I tried the GPU test again on CineBench and got just under 4fps!

Is it possible that a Windows driver is causing the problem? Another thought I had was a resource conflict. Although does this still happen with todays hardware?

I'm starting to get frustrated now. If I can't narrow it down to a single factor then there's not much I can do. My gut feeling is the motherboard is faulty and as a last resort I guess I could send that back and hope OC find something wrong with it too.

My location is High Wycombe by the way.

 

[spengos]

well next then

check all motherboard voltages in bios
check CPU is seated properly (in fact re-seat everything)

How do i know the mobo voltages are correct?

I've checked and re-seated the CPU numerous times. Seems fine. I basically started from scratch this morning and completely rebuilt everything.

Is it possible the GPU isn't getting the power/voltage it needs? Can this be modified somehow do you know?

 

[spengos]

Here's mine:

3DMark 06
GPU Score 6916
CPU Score 2365

Most parts of the Canyon Flight GPU test were way up over 100fps but would dip violently down to 1 or even 0 fps in places. Didn't seem to dip on the more demanding parts of the test, it just dips regularly almost like it's pulsing or something.

It's like its trying to perform but keeps getting pulled back, if that makes sense? While watching all these benchmarks the framerates just dip up and down drasticlly.

The only one I've tried that gives half decent results is FurMark. I seem to get pretty good results in that. Plus I noticed while it's running my GPU is around 100% usage, whereas CineBench barely registers, if at all. Almost like the GPU isn't being used to render at all.

 

[spengos]

Ok, I've been running the test for 10 mins... I've got 4 Worker Windows open, and I'm guessing these represent each CPU thread/core?

The first three Worker Windows have been finishing tests at pretty much the same time(within a couple seconds), however the last window Worker#4 is stuck on test 1. What does this mean? A dodgy core?

 

[spengos]

I don't know if they're assigned to each core individually, but just to make sure you can set the core affinity via task manager by clicking on the task and choosing "set affinity".

Yes, all CPU cores are selected under the Prime95 process.

It also specifies each core at the top of each worker window.

If that 4th core is dead then it all makes perfect sense. Explains the -25% cinebench result and probably explains why the CPU > GPU performance sucks.