Bad Gaming Performance With Gaming Setup.

Dassaric · Jan 17, 2014

Hi! I built a gaming PC, and the performance seems to not be on par with what I was expecting.
Maybe I was expecting too much, or I was right in thinking of getting that performance.

Specs pulled from Speccy.

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.10GHz
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
6.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ECS P67H2-A3 (CPU 1)
Graphics
Acer P205H (1600x900@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (ATI AIB)
Storage
149GB Seagate ST3160815AS (SATA)
298GB Hitachi HDT721032SLA380 (SATA)
Optical Drives
MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0000
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH40F
Audio
Plantronics GameCom

Honestly, I was expecting the ability to play on Max, with little to no issues.

Games;
TES:Skyrim : High/Ultra, no AA, or AF (even without those, I still have this problem)
Not Modded (except unofficial patch)
Avg FPS: 40
Max FPS: 60
Lowest : 30
The times my frames drop are in big cities, but also, small towns set around in the world, like Riverwood. The game also some horrendous stuttering, would seem to be a CPU issue, but I may not be right about that.

Guild Wars 2: Medium/high, no AA.
Avg FPS: 30
Max FPS: 60 (very rare)
Lowest : 15 (also rare, I normally see it go to 20's)
Hm, I don't know what's up with this game, everywhere is almost a problem with me. When controlling camera (EX: Turning it around to see behind character) there is a noticable drop in frames, also, in certain area you can feel the game begin to stutter.

Vindictus: Medium/high, no AA or AF, low Physics.
The frames aren't too bad with this game, I just seem to notice bad stutter in certain areas.

Just Cause 2: Max settings
Avg FPS: 49
Max FPS: 60
Lowest : 20
I wouldn't expect this game to have issues with my specs.

Saint's Row 3: High/Max
Avg FPS: 39
Max FPS: 60 (rare)
Lowest : 30
This game suffers from the horrible disease of "The Stutters" I can't seem to figure it out.

A lot of games I noticed have been stuttering...

Any help on why I am suffering from stuttering and frame drops would be appreciated! Best graphics and performance would be preferred! Also, upgrading is not something I can do at this moment, and would have to happen in the far away future... Q.Q

TANKS!

oOSlushyOo · Jan 18, 2014

6GBs of RAM is rather low in my opinion. You may be experiencing bottle-necking due to this. That graphics card should play saints row damn near flawlessly. You may try your hand at overclocking your graphics card, you could squeeze some decent FPS going this route (although I still believe it may be a limited RAM issue).

You are also running in single channel mode with your memory...dual channel it by running another stick of RAM. THIS could be your weakest link.

rdc85 · Jan 18, 2014

this is silly question but are the monitor connected to VGA rather than connected to cpu (mobo backplate)?

are u using newest driver?

and can u try remove the ram so it became 4 gb but with dual channel running ? see if it worsen or improve.?
can u try monitoring the gpu&cpu (hdd & ram also) usage during gameplay..

resource manager on win7 have a graph can be used for monitoring cpu mem hdd.. (but u will need gpu-z/etc for vga usage)

Dassaric · Jan 18, 2014

Hm, I didn't think that my ram would cause that much of an impact on performance.

Dassaric · Jan 18, 2014

Sorry for the bump, but this is now my ram. Better or worse?

RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (7-7-7-20)

rdc85 · Jan 18, 2014

worse or not can only be tells by trying it on games, go ahead and see if there an improvement?

now your ram has tighter timing and lower speed in theories it will be equal (but u gain dual-channel improvement)..

Dassaric · Jan 18, 2014

There was not much of an increase, Slight but not really noticeable.

lmaonade200 · Jan 18, 2014

some of the issues are with the games, almost everyone gets stuttering with Skyrim because your computer has to unpack the BSA files in the folders WHILE the game is going on, which is a dumb configuration by Bethesda, all the data is compressed into BSA files normally, which explains the extremely small space this game takes up for a game of this caliber, and when you're playing the game it unpacks files in real-time as needed, most standard hard drives can't keep up so stuttering happens.

Guild Wars 2 is an unoptimized mess of code, it's still using DX9 (like Skyrim) and the engine is a modified engine used in GW1, a lot of it's code is outdated and makes for a terrible experience in heavy areas like towns (yes I do play and know first hand, my computer is a good bit stronger than yours and i STILL get this issue)

your RAM is indeed pretty slow though, it might be that it's not caching system data fast enough while playing these games, might be time for an upgrade if you are fine with spending money
Edit: didn't see that you changed it, with dual channel configuration it should have drastically improved if it were a RAM bottleneck/issue, doesn't seem like it. Hell might just be problems with the games honestly, I have 2 out of 4 of those and they both have the same issues with me too, I've never played just cause or saint's row but it just might be the game.

Dassaric · Jan 18, 2014

lmaonade200 :

some of the issues are with the games, almost everyone gets stuttering with Skyrim because your computer has to unpack the BSA files in the folders WHILE the game is going on, which is a dumb configuration by Bethesda, all the data is compressed into BSA files normally, which explains the extremely small space this game takes up for a game of this caliber, and when you're playing the game it unpacks files in real-time as needed, most standard hard drives can't keep up so stuttering happens.

Guild Wars 2 is an unoptimized mess of code, it's still using DX9 (like Skyrim) and the engine is a modified engine used in GW1, a lot of it's code is outdated and makes for a terrible experience in heavy areas like towns (yes I do play and know first hand, my computer is a good bit stronger than yours and i STILL get this issue)

your RAM is indeed pretty slow though, it might be that it's not caching system data fast enough while playing these games, might be time for an upgrade if you are fine with spending money
Edit: didn't see that you changed it, with dual channel configuration it should have drastically improved if it were a RAM bottleneck/issue, doesn't seem like it. Hell might just be problems with the games honestly, I have 2 out of 4 of those and they both have the same issues with me too, I've never played just cause or saint's row but it just might be the game.

I guess that explains guild wars, and Skyrim. I tested the games again, and I didn't see much of a increase in frames. Performance is pretty much the same. Thanks though.

simon12 · Jan 19, 2014

There is certainly something running not right my PC with a similar slightly weaker spec plays Skyrim on Ultra @ 2560x1440 with no lag or stutter. I am guessing your RAM is running in single channel as you have 3 x 2Gb sticks, try removing one so its 2 x 2Gb in dual channel and see if it makes a difference. Also check you temps while gaming with HWMonitor or similar to check nothing is overheating.

Dassaric · Jan 19, 2014

So the things I have tried; replaced my RAM, and I have overclocked my GPU (ended up BSOD my PC so I changed it back)... :/ Still nothing seems to be helping frame rate.. I tested more games like Borderlands 2 and the frame rate drop in that game is very bad, becomes unplayable. Should I just save up money and upgrade my CPU and GPU or is there a fix? :C

lmaonade200 · Jan 19, 2014

the thing is, you shouldn't have to spend money to upgrade :| your rig hardware-wise should be able to handle all this, do you have any overheating issues? I noticed that wasn't touched on in the discussion

Dassaric · Jan 19, 2014

No, I wouldn't think it would be an over heating problem, I just ran Heaven Benchmark, and I got

Avg FPS:
32.6
Score:
821
Min FPS:
16.9
Max FPS:
78.0

And I stayed around 72 degrees Celsius, overheating?

lmaonade200 · Jan 19, 2014

nope 72 degrees is pretty frosty for such a demanding benchmark actually

that range of frames per second is crazy huge though. Do you have a friend you can borrow a set of fast RAM from? like 1600Mhz or something, if not don't buy a kit, I'm just thinking that it might be a bit better with faster RAM that can store data at a faster rate.

Also, have you tried running these programs from both hard drives? Also, if you have an external hard drive or can borrow one you should try running these games and programs off of that too, just going down the checklist of different parts

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

lmaonade200 :

No one has RAM or and External hard drive I could borrow, and I run games off of all my hard drives.

rdc85 · Jan 20, 2014

-deleted-

it's wrong benchmark..

rdc85 · Jan 20, 2014

Can u check your cpu and motherboard (power circuit) temperature? your vga temp is fine but how about your mobo & cpu temp...

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

rdc85 :

During a Heaven Benchmark, may not be too accurate though. :/

lmaonade200 · Jan 20, 2014

should be accurate, HWmonitor has a bug with the TMPIN1 readout, for most people it's at like 128C exactly or some other figure.

your system is running fine though it looks like, not sure why you're stuttering so hard

rdc85 · Jan 20, 2014

can u open the side panel on your case, using desk fan try blowing air directly to the processor and mother board..
try re-run the test... see if there improvement..

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

rdc85 :

At this moment in time I don't have a desk fan available for use, I will have to test it later when I can get one.

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

lmaonade200 :

I'm not sure either, could it be bad drivers, or virus'? I honestly don't know what the deal is and I've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. :c

lmaonade200 · Jan 20, 2014

hmm odd, I don't think I've suggested those things yet, scan your computer for viruses and wipe clean then reinstall your graphic drivers, that may do something

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

lmaonade200 :

Alright, will do. I will post results when I am done.

Dassaric · Jan 20, 2014

Alright, so if anything after uninstalling my graphics drivers, frames have seemed to decrease (without updated the drivers from stock) :/ And all malware has been cleared out.

Bad Gaming Performance With Gaming Setup.

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