Whats Holding me back ?

Amps · 2 Feb 2006 at 00:56

Current system specs below

Opteron 2.8Ghz (can do 2.9 but throttling back to put that out the equation)
Geforce 7800Gt (stock)
2X 512mb of Ram diffrence brands running at 217mhz
Dfi Ultra D mobo
Hiper 580W Type R

The problem i am having is in games like need for speed most wanted the frame rate is fine say 50fps and then it will pause for a 1/4 of a second and then play and then pause it does this every 40 seconds or so which i think could be due to it having to draw new textures.

This also happens in quake 4.. games runs fine when threes lots of action but at some strange points it will do a similar pausing.

Do you think the low memory bandwidth could be the problem or possibly a psu issue?

It really is starting to bug me as for the game need for speed most wanted it doesn’t matter what i do it still does the jumping every 1/4 second. Even after lowing the graphics settings considerable .

Amps · 2 Feb 2006 at 09:04

I would agree with the ram statement until i used the program mem watcher it shows that my memory usage when playing nsmw is not going over 800Mb.

I will try moving the page file as i have a faster hd on this machine that doesnt contain the os.

Amps · 2 Feb 2006 at 09:14

I was uisng the latest drivers just changed to some beta ones 83.40 to try and rule out the drivers as an issue.

My inital thoughts where it was either something to do witht he graphics card possibly psu related or a memory problem.

What settings are you running n3x in nsfmw?

from a memory point of view i am running relativly decent timeings.

2.5 3 3 9 15

These timeings are memtest solid for over 24+ hours.
3d mark 05 gives me a score of about 8100
3d mark 03 17500~
3d mark 01 30500

Rincewind said:
ram out of sync with something. and what harddrive? that's my main problem at the mo....

i didnt think this was possible on an A64 system i was also under the impression that not being 1:1 on a 939 system makes no diffrence to performance , though i maybe wrong.

Amps · 2 Feb 2006 at 10:12

i am running

2XAA @ 1280X1024 with a lot of options turned of. And i have nvidia control panel set to quality.

Theres something not right here.

Amps · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:28

So what would anyone recomend trying.. i have tried running a single stick of ram with the same thing happening so i think its either the psu or the graphics card..

Amps · 4 Feb 2006 at 17:39

Just about to order 2Gb of ram.. but still the one thing thats stopping me doing it is that the memory usage acording to a couple of apps doesnt exceed 800Mb when playing NFSMW.

could it be that its leaving 200mb in reserve or windows that isnt letting it use all the ram.

I know i have non of these issues in games like Call of duty 2.

Amps · 6 Feb 2006 at 11:16

just bought 2Gb of G.skill Pc 4000 lets hope this works.

Amps · 6 Feb 2006 at 14:31

BruceLee said:
I had a problem similar to this with IL2, some system process kept using cpu time every 10 seconds. I reinstalled XP, did the trick.

I was wondering if it might be a problem with the install. If the memory doesnt work ill try a reinstall on a diffrent harddrive.

Games like Call of duty 2 dont have the problem they run perfectly but other games somtimes older games really stuter every 10 seconds or so. Need for speed Underground 2 , medal of honour (but not all the time just sometimes) for example.

The Extra bandwidth should help performance and i suppose 2gb will be used eventualy on this motherboard.

Ill report back with my findings when i get the memory.

Amps · 7 Feb 2006 at 12:31

I recieved the memory which doesnt run at PC4000speeds so it will have to go back.

As to that when run at the slower speed it doesnt solve my problem.

Anyone other ideas?

going to try a reinstall of windows when i have the time.

Amps · 7 Feb 2006 at 15:10

It wouldnt run 250FSB with everything set to auto

It didnt solve my problem either so theres no point having 2Gb of ram.

I suppose i am left with trying a reinstall of windows , possibly a new graphics card/psu.

Amps · 17 Feb 2006 at 16:24

Currently running the processor at 2.95Ghz and he graphics card mildly overclocked but even with nothing overclocked it still happens.

Processes i have tried closing everything down thats not needed by windows.

I have even tried disabling the sound card.

I have found out that the problem still occurs at 640*480 with everything to minimum.

I have ordered a multimeter to test my voltages , i think the next step could be replacing my motherboard or graphics card if the psu is fine.

I will also try reinstalling windows when i have time.