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Bad Gaming Performance With Gaming Setup.

Tags:
  • Video Games
  • Gaming
  • PC gaming
  • Stuttering
  • Performance
  • Issues
Last response: in Video Games
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January 17, 2014 8:59:08 PM

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!

More about : bad gaming performance gaming setup

January 17, 2014 9:32:38 PM

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.
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January 17, 2014 9:43:07 PM

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)
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January 17, 2014 10:07:54 PM

Hm, I didn't think that my ram would cause that much of an impact on performance.
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January 17, 2014 11:03:01 PM

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


RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (7-7-7-20)
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January 17, 2014 11:18:49 PM

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)..
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January 17, 2014 11:42:05 PM

There was not much of an increase, Slight but not really noticeable.
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a b 4 Gaming
January 18, 2014 12:32:58 AM

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.
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January 18, 2014 8:10:57 PM

lmaonade200 said:
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.

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a b 4 Gaming
January 19, 2014 5:23:45 AM

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.
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January 19, 2014 6:56:48 PM

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
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a b 4 Gaming
January 19, 2014 7:19:40 PM

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
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January 19, 2014 8:33:37 PM

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?
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a b 4 Gaming
January 19, 2014 8:45:01 PM

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
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January 19, 2014 9:00:35 PM

lmaonade200 said:
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


No one has RAM or and External hard drive I could borrow, and I run games off of all my hard drives.
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January 19, 2014 11:31:30 PM

-deleted-

it's wrong benchmark..
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January 19, 2014 11:33:33 PM

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

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January 19, 2014 11:58:52 PM

rdc85 said:
Can u check your cpu and motherboard (power circuit) temperature? your vga temp is fine but how about your mobo & cpu temp...





During a Heaven Benchmark, may not be too accurate though. :/ 
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a b 4 Gaming
January 20, 2014 12:31:33 AM

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
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January 20, 2014 12:35:12 AM

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..
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January 20, 2014 12:40:43 AM

rdc85 said:
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..


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.
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January 20, 2014 12:42:49 AM

lmaonade200 said:
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


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
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a b 4 Gaming
January 20, 2014 10:50:18 AM

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
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January 20, 2014 11:01:09 AM

lmaonade200 said:
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


Alright, will do. I will post results when I am done.
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January 20, 2014 4:53:31 PM

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.
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a b 4 Gaming
January 20, 2014 5:36:28 PM

download and install a fresh copy of the latest VGA drivers and see if that gets rid of the frame problems
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a b 4 Gaming
January 20, 2014 5:45:05 PM

What are the GPU temps in HWMonitor. Also check the graphics card is installed in the top slot as the other one only runs at 4X not 16X.
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January 21, 2014 4:10:22 PM

simon12 said:
What are the GPU temps in HWMonitor. Also check the graphics card is installed in the top slot as the other one only runs at 4X not 16X.


The temps are around 62-72 degrees Celsius. And The card is in the right slot.
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January 21, 2014 4:11:14 PM

lmaonade200 said:
download and install a fresh copy of the latest VGA drivers and see if that gets rid of the frame problems


Alright so I installed the latest, and the frames went back to 'normal' (the way they were before)
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