What's the limiting factor here?

[DAnDan]

Recently I've been noticing something rather weird in certain games. Basically my FPS is below its normal, and below what I would like, but my system is not at 100% load.

For example in WoW in **** (for anyone that plays) my fps drops to around 40, but my CPU and GPU are both between 40-60% usage.

So I guess I'm right in saying that something else must be causing this?

My system is;

E4500
Gigabyte P35 DS3L Mobo
ATI 3870XT (512mb)
2Gb Giel ULL Ram @ 900Mhz 4-5-5-15 (I think)

Screen is at 1400*900

I'm thinking it may be RAM limiting me, is there any way I could test the amount of RAM usage?

Thanks all.

 

[pingwing]

Task manager maybe? so alt+tab out to see whats going on in it?

 

[Teaf]

It won't be the RAM (100% sure of that). I'd be looking at either:

(a) Old OS install that is bogged down
(b) Background process stealing cycles
(c) Drivers
(d) Throttling due to heat