Help with slow PC!

xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Hi There, If anyone can help I would really appreciate it.

here are my specs.
Windows XP Professional
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
512megs DDR 400 Ram
A8V Deluxe Asus motherboard
Diabloic Minotaur PC case with 2 extra cooling fans.
ATi Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR AGP
Sata Raid HD 111gig Western Digital

Now my problem is that no game whatsoever runs fast. With my specs I should at least be able to run most games at 1024/768 resolution with almost everything turned on high. However with games like dungeon siege II and half life 2 and doom 3 and bard's tale etc... I get super crapy frame rates even at lower resolutions. In Dungeon siege II I get about 115 fps until I move then it drops to 15fps. What the heck is wrong with my pc.

I can't run a game without huge lag and crapy frame rates. I have the lastest omega drivers installed for my Ati Radeon card as well as the latest windows updates and direct x. I have no other programs running in the background except for norton antivirus and all of its crap.

Does anyone know of any tweaks I could perform or any programs that may help speed up my computer.

Thanks for your time.
Xenogear

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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject: Re: Help with slow PC!

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

^^^^ what he said........and........

You really need 1gb of RAM for gaming these days. 512mb just doesn't cut it anymore. I would suggest another 512mb matching stick, so you can run dual-channel. That'll give you the FPS boost you're looking for.
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

I have tried disabling Norton and still no great improvement.

No I have never tried a benchmarking application.

Should I try a specific one and post my results?

(would 512 more megs of ram make that big of a difference) I never really noticed a great improvement from 256 to 512. I have two sticks of 256.

smith.p.sean · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:09 pm Post subject:

no, it shouldnt make too to big of a difference, you would notice quicker speeds but that doesnt account for slow performance, are you shure you have the latest video card drivers for ur vid card and they are installed correctly. Also, a good benchmark is 3dmark03 and 3dmark05. Google for them, download each or one, run them adn post back with your results. if they dont look right u can run sisandra benchmark on the cpu and different items and we can find out whats slowin ya down. Also, does everything on the computer run slowly, or just games. Try scanning for spyware with spybot seek and destroy and adaware second edition.

Yoshida · UberTweaker Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 1219

did you check if your motherboard is recognizing your cpu accordingly?

Fitz Goran · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Posts: 53

Have you installed the lastest VIA 4-in-1 drivers?

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Read up...............

^^^^^ up there.

The most likely problem is the lack of RAM. Most people miss that in the benchie reports.......people who are getting 30+ FPS at his spec'ed resolution and detail level are running 1gb of RAM............twice as much as he has.

Check your settings in Doom3 and HL2, particularly. Your machine doesn't have the beef to run them at high-everything........very few do. I would back off some of the detail settings, running at one step below the highest.

The three games mentioned (D3, HL2, DS2) also all share one characteristic........they're CPU hogs. All three use CPU rendering for the sound, rather than EAX or whatever........so all that positional sound is being processed by the CPU..........and the RAM.

By all means, make sure you have the latest drivers for everything. But, you won't hit the FPS you want without doubling your RAM to 1gb. Guaranteed.
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Well here are my specs with 3dmark05

Game Tests 3dmark score 4861
gt1 return to proxycon 21.7
gt2 firefly forest 14.7
canyon flight 23.0

Cpu tests cpu score 3925
cpu test 1 2.0
cpu test 2 3.3

feature tests
fill rate - single texturing n/a
fill rate - mult texturing n/a
pixel shader n/a
vertex shader simple n/a
vertex shader complex n/a

batch size tests all n/a

Any ideas?

Yes i'm sure those are the lastest drivers.

Pretty sure I have the lastest via 4 in 1 drivers as well.

Yes my comp does recognize my cpu speed and type.

xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Also to answer another question posted above my computer only seems to run slow when i run games. However, I have a feeling its not running quite as fast as an amd 3500+ should. My last cpu an amd 2100+ ran almost as fast with windows xp applications and movies etc...

[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:40 pm Post subject:

also make sure that your agp bus is set to 8x and you have an agp aperature of 128. These should be found in the bios. For the agp bus it can also be found using one of the 3dmark programs. This seems related to that. And also check that you have the latest 4 in 1's and that they are installed properly. Via chipsets are touchy about that kinda thing.

And just for grins what kind of PSU do you have? What wattage and what are your voltages like?
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

My agp aperature size was set at 32meg so i switched it to 128. There is a 256 meg option since my card is 256 should i change it to that?

Also my psu is a 400W i also have a 120mm exhaust fan and an intake hole with intake filter for the cpu to allow a more direct source of air for better cooling.

How do i check which via drivers i have installed?

Sally · UberTweaker Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1158 Location: WA

keep the AGP aperature set at 128. That seems to be the magic number for most cards. You can always try benchmarking it both ways if you are curious, but chances are 128 will be your best bet.

Also, what brand PSU do you have?

Version 4.49P3 2003/10/22update seems to be the most current on the ASUS website. ( http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx and search for a8v Deluxe )
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Using the stock CasEdge 400W PSU that comes in the Diabolic series

ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

hmmm...i dont know that would hold up, but getting yourself a goodquality PSU would definitely improve your stability.....voltage rails are VERY important, as droops can causes errors......soemthing like Antec, enermax, PC power and cooling, and YES FTR, ill say tagan, just for you. (inside joke)

and dont forget about that agp bus.....
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Actually It turns out I do have 1 gig of ram. hehe I guess I have two sticks of 512 not 2 sticks of 256. I didn't bother checking because I thought I knew.

So now we can rule out that the ram is slowing my pc down.

Anyone have any other ideas or tweaking solutions?

[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:13 am Post subject:

TH at this point in time it might be a good choice to drop Antec from the list of PSUs as they are having some troubles. But one to add would be Seasonic.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:51 am Post subject:

Xeno, Ihave found part of your problem. The psu that you currently have only has 16 amps available on the +12v rail. That is the max rating for a rail that runs your cpu and video card along with all of your fans. Not to mention the other draws on that rail. The A64 requires a psu with at least 18 amps on the +12v line. This could be a big part of your problem.
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I tweaked and it tweaked back! So I Tweaked some more!

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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

hmm ok I'll look into getting a new psu.
You really think thats the part of the problem I'm experiencing?

ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

Wow...good to know weaz...thanks.

Yes it can by all means contribute to your errors.....PSU is a widely overlooked piece of hardware...its very important you have stable voltage going to your hardware.
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

I think there is more at work here than just a few amps on my psu.

I just tried running a few games and dungeon siege II I cannot play with high frame rates even on the lowests settings possible.
Same with doom 3. The only way it runs at 60fps is if absolutely everything is on the lowest setting.

ANyone have any ideas. Is my cpu faulty or graphics card?
I would prefer not to have to buy anything new because I just paid my tuition and books for this year and i'm pretty broke.

I can't stand this anymore the only things that run fine are internet explorer and winamp.

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Actually, a few amps is a HUGE difference. Even half an amp too little can cause problems. As your CPU and GPU start working harder, they start drawing more power, as much as they need, up to their limits. If your PSU can't give the amps the chips need, they'll peter out before they hit full speed. The juice just isn't there. Remember, you're running 2 amps low already for the CPU, the X800 isn't exactly sipping at the power, AND you're running a RAID array. All of that comes off the 12v rail that's already underpowered.

Also, uninstall Norton.......disabling it doesn't shut it off completely, only the parts that you're "allowed" to see. It's still working in the background. Most of us here recommend AVG AntiVirus.......small, works great, doesn't hog your system, and it's free. Can't beat that!

It really doesn't sound like a problem with the major components, just a low power supply and some hoggy software.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:10 pm Post subject:

the reason your cpu and video card are having troubles is the under powered PSU. There are other people having worst trouble than what you are having with the same case and PSU. And some are having worst problems than what you are experiencing. So save yourself some trouble and go and get a quality psu and the other troubles will clear up.
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I tweaked and it tweaked back! So I Tweaked some more!

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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

I have to agree here. Everything else seems to be in order.....reseating the hardware wont do anything based on its still actually WORKING, youre just not getting the right speed on things.....

Out of all the hardware you have, the PSU is really the only "low quality" item you have.....hence its logically the first thing you should replace.....

Wait a minute.....did you uninstall all the previous drivers you attempted to load....conflicting drivers can cause issues like this too....
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xenogear · TweakNOOB Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Ya I used driver cleaner pro to get rid of all my ati drivers just incase windows update updated them.

Ok I'll just try replacing the psu.

Anyone know of the best psu for my needs without breaking the bank?
Something fairly quiet I hate loud fans.

Thanks,