Performance issue

[Lyon85]

My new system is:

Core 2 Duo E6300
HIS ATI X1900XT
2GB Geil PC6400
DS4 mobo


Ive just got everything set up, so I haven't started overclocking the Conroe yet, or updated the BIOS. However, I was interested to see what performance was like in game at this stage. So I fire up Quake 4, everything seems decent, a couple of jumpy bits for some reason but that didn't bother me too much. Black and White 2 was great, but then I installed FEAR. I know this game is demanding but hell, at some points it dropped lower than my AMD 64 3200+, 6800GS! I ran the performance test, full settings (No soft shadows) at 1680x1050, it dipped as low as 18fps and as high as 86. Is this normal for a Conroe before an overclock? More noticeable though, was the slowdown in the opening intro sequence. Where Fettles scream wakes up the clone soldiers, it dropped so low it was scary. I wasn't running fraps but it seriously looked like 10fps. I'm not too worried, cause performance in the other two games was fine, I would just like to know if this is normal or not though?

I'm downloading 3Dmark06 right now, to see what IL get before I start overclocking.

Also, is there a way to update my DS4 BIOS through windows? I don't have a floppy drive so I cant do it through the BIOS (I assume that's how you typically update the BIOS?)

 

[Lyon85]

Cheers guys, we'l see whats going on when I get my 3dmark score. Remember though, this conroe is still only at 1.86ghz. I would imagine there would be a hefty performance increase at 3ghz+

 

[Lyon85]

Please post full specs in ** sig.

Have you installed all the correct and up-to-date drivers? It does sound like something is wrong tbh. AA and AF on?

Im new to ATI, but as far as I can tell ive just updated to the newest drivers. Where do you check driver version?

4xAA 8xAF, I really dont think that would knock a X1900XT down to 10FPS though.

Oh, just got my 3Dmark06 scores. 4934. After I OC my CPU and give the GPU room to breathe im sure things will pick up, even so that score isn't terrible right?

 

[Lyon85]

Yeah, there deffinatly should be no problem running AA and AF, my old AMD 3200+ Nvidia 6800GS could handle that.

Check your bios settings, disable c1e (enhanced halt state), disable speedstep, and any other junk that may slow your pc down.
Try without antivirus if you have one, and check for any problem with windows (spyware, borked background apps, virus, etc...)
Also do you have at leats sp1 on windows? i dont think windows suppported multithreading (or dual core) on on the 1st release...

Il give that a go, cheers. I'm on SP1, which deffinatly does

You can use the "@Bios" software that you got with your DS4 to update the Bios from Windows. It's a bit sketchy, no instructions or anything, just download the latest bios and run it thru @bios. I updated my DS3 to F4 with it.

Thanks. I thought it would be easy enough, but how the hell does it work? I download the BIOS, I get a zip which conatins three files. What do I do with them? Ive tried clicking update new BIOS and none of those files work, I also tried the entire zip. I just get "Could not load ROM image from BIN file. Maybe BIN file size not match."
Where is the BIN then, I see no such file!

[EDIT] And when I try Update from the Internet, I get as far as chosing the F3 BIOS, and then get a "The parameter is incorrect"

 

[Lyon85]

That didn't work either, but I have it fixed. Someone on another forum was having the same problem. Its pretty strange, I didn't use the version of @BIOS that came with on the CD, I thought it would be better to use an updated version from the website. It seem's no other version (and I tried 3) will actually flash the BIOS without an error! So I installed the one on the CD, updated from the internet and I was on my way to a better BIOS.

Now, if I could figure out what the hell is wrong with my performance