PC underperforming

Chris Pickering

Chris Pickering

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Remember that 'Bargain PC' everyone encouraged me to buy a while back? Well, I'm having problems...Posted this on another forum.

It's a Athlon 64 3400+, with a gig of RAM, and a GeForce FX5500 256Mb. Crap graphics card I know, but thats not the point. Basically with newer games, it seems to always auto detect the graphical setting to be pretty much as I'd expect. Even trying out the FEAR demo today, it seemed a tad low. But if I actually try and RUN a game at these high settings, it's jerking along at 2 or 3 frames a second. Same thing happened with the 3D Mark test. As soon as it got to that scene with the goblins, it dropped right down to somewhere between 3 and 8 frames per second.

So obviously things are detecting that I have a reasonably powerful PC, but the actual performance is bloody shocking! Any ideas as to why?

I'll be a bit ****ed if I need to get my money back and buy a brand new unit, purely because I got it as a bit of a bargain, and I've got so much stuff on here already. It'll teach me not to buy a HP PC in the future anyway.
 
Which game do you have problems with? I wouldn't take the PC back, as that still is a bargain for what you paid :)

Some of these may seem obvious, but its worth ironing out:
  • Definatly no spyware on the system? (MS Antispyware is fairly good)
  • Virus Checked?
  • DirectX 9c?
  • Latest NVidia Drivers (77.72)
  • Not much running in the background (close everything and make sure not much is in your system tray)
The FX5500 isn't a gaming beast, but I'd have thought it would be OK still. What are your AntiAliasing settings etc... like in the display properties?
 
what games does it really strugle with ? and what AA, AF and resolution do you have them at ?
 
i would suggest maybe getting a new graphics card as fear is very graphics demanding

but the demo is said to have a few bugs ...
 
Everythings fine virus/spyware wise. I like to keep a tight ship ;)

I had a similar problem with the Fahrenheit demo. Went for the options the PC set me,but as soon as the snow popped up in the opening move sequence everything slowed to a crawl! Thing is, actually 'in game' things run pretty smooth at that setting. FEAR's just running pathetically all over though!I have to knock the resolution and settings right to the bottom for a truly smooth ride on that particular demo.

I'm happy enough to actually go out and buy a new 3D card, but I dont want to go slot it in,only to find myself with the same problem because it's something else thats causing my trouble.

Just ran PerformanceTest and everything seems to be perfectly fine, running as expected, APART from the 3D card performance, which was truly shocking. Could it be dragging everything down so much?

Incidently, I've been playing Mafia today, at highest possible graphics settings, and it's smooth as silk. Even Half Life 2 ran very nicely indeed at fairly high settings.
 
I don't think its anything else then, which is good news, its just the graphics card isn't quite enough to handle some of the very latest games. See if the 3D Marks looks similar to other users with a FX5500 and same spec system, just to confirm :)
 
Upgrade your Graphics card and everything will run smoothly, It's the card thats holding your system back enormously Chris...Most of todays games and demo's require a directx 9.0 card and most are using model shader 2 or above, this is where your card falls over i'm afraid as you are still probably using shader 1.4 on an fx5500....This then means Frame rates fall to almost a snails pace as the card renders the Image slower than the frames can be put on your screen

Slot in a new decent card and problem solved....:D
 
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FEAR will run slow on your machine unfourtunatly, when i had my Geforce 5900XT in my machine the orges part ran kinda slow. so i suggest a new card, if you got the cash
 
Ya cant expect to play F.E.A.R. on an FX5500 really, that card is extrememly outdated by todays standard, you should be looking for a 9800Pro atleast or move upto a 6800GT. My comp cant handle F.E.A.R at its highest settings, thats an AMD64 3700+, 2 Gig of Ram (need to get me sig updated ;) )and a 6800GT!
 
for the highest settings you'll probably have to look for 2 6800gt's in sli ... or a 7800 !!
 
Oh I'm well aware of how crappy this 3D card is thats for sure! My only worry is WHY are the demo's of F.E.A.R and Fahrenheit giving me these reasonable graphical level settings automatically, but then running at such a poor frame rate? F.E.A.R really does resemble the original Doom to get it running at a decent pace!

I just wanted to make sure that the graphics card was the only problem I had before splashing out on something new.
 
Well, after a long conversation with hp (where they basically said, "we say it's running fine, so tough."),and a full system restore, everything's exactly the same.

According to someone at another forum, my 3D Mark score was roughly inkeeping with what to expect from my system. Just the 3D card is REALLY dragging everything down.
 
Chris Pickering said:
Just the 3D card is REALLY dragging everything down.
Click to expand...

Ya hit the nail on the head there, the old Geforce FX range was Nvidias worst time in the graphics card industry. When they released that range, they were already out dated because Direct X9 based games started to come thick and fast and the old Geforce range are not full Direct X9 compatible. The card you have is definatly not a gaming gfx card, if you slapped that card in one of the best spec'd machines out there it would give about the same performance as it does in your machine. Just splash out on a new card and have done with it ;).

Its a good time to pick up a good AGP graphics card at a rock bottom price seeing as most gamers are going PCI-E now. Just look around at something like an X800XT PE or a 6800GT, it will solve all your gaming greif :D.
 
Reefy said:
Its a good time to pick up a good AGP graphics card at a rock bottom price seeing as most gamers are going PCI-E now. Just look around at something like an X800XT PE or a 6800GT, it will solve all your gaming greif :D.
Click to expand...

I agree i got me new 6800GT (see sig) for £175 and thats including the delivery cost. (Next day delivery) I am in the process of selling me old 9800 for about 40 quid so i got a stonking deal imo. Especially when you see the clock speeds i am running, and i aint really pushing it yet! :thumb:

Check out overclockers.co.uk for the Leadtek sale, you better be f-ing quick though they cant have much stock left.
 
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