Just built PC performs worse than my 10 year old machine.

Valiforia · May 5, 2015

Greetings, so i've come across a problem that quite frankly seems impossible. After many months of saving i finally had enough to have my brand new sparkling PC, ready to play my games on higher details and higher FPS.

Or so i thought, I have found that, even using the same settings as my 10 year old machine, this new PC is performing in the complete opposite way i expected.

My old rig was:

AMD Anthlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.0ghz
4GB DDR2-667 RAM
Nvidia Geforce GT 240
OCZ ModXstream 500w

My new rig consists of:

i3-4150 Haswell 22nm 3.5ghz
4GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 1.5v
MSI Z97 PC-Mate motherboard
Sapphire Radeon HD 6870
OCZ Modxstream 500w

Both using windows 8.1 64 bit

I have installed drivers to the radeon using AMD's website, and used the MSI CD that came with the motherboard for chipset and all that good stuff.

I have also checked temperatures and i idle at around 20-24*C

For a quick idea of what my situation is like i'll use World of Warcraft as my example.

Old Rig:

1080p Medium/Low settings : 46-58 fps

New rig:

1080p Medium/Low settings: 12-17fps

If anyone could shed some light on this distressing matter it would be greatly appreciated as i feel my money has been wasted, which wasn't easy for me to save.

James Mason · May 5, 2015

Mmm, have you gotten all your windows updates yet?

The drivers that come on the CD are always kind of out of date, go to MSI's website to get the current ones, or download their Live Update utility and it will do the work for you.

And have you restarted your computer yet, and uhh, you didn't like, plug the video cable into the motherboard as opposed to the video card did you?

Valiforia · May 5, 2015

James Mason :

I haven't done any windows updates, and the MSI website was a bit confusing at times to navigate or is poorly documented. I've had a couple of restarts now and still to no avail. HDMI is plugged into the GPU and the system runs fine from a web browsing point of view, It will play Dead Island Riptide fine, but Reign of Kings crashes the system and WoW as i mentioned runs at about 15 fps unless i stare at the floor then i have 97 fps

James Mason · May 5, 2015

Mobo drivers: http://us.msi.com/support/mb/Z97_PC_Mate.html#down-driver&Win8.1 64

Did you re-install windows or just reuse the old hard drive as is?

Hmm, if you go to Start > Search > "msconfig" does it look any different than this?

Valiforia · May 5, 2015

James Mason :

Checked my driver versions to the websites drivers and they match up so it appears i'm up to date.

My MS config is identical to the one you have linked. i re-used my hard drive but ran the windows set up and did a format/clean install of windows.

As a pointer note, the 6870 was a second hand purchase and i'm about to clean my drivers and install my old 5770 to see if the card is defective.

smorizio · May 5, 2015

on the mb bios main screen check that your running the 4.8 bios for that mb. if not download it to a usb stick and use the mb updater to update the bios. also check what version of directx is running,
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/179113/
may have to install it so that the older dirx9 files are there for the older games.

Valiforia · May 5, 2015

Update, I changed my graphics card to my previous card i had for a few months the ATI HD 5770 and the game runs on medium 1080p at 60fps with no issues whatsoever so either: My power supply is not enough which i feel is unlikely as i've seen i5 builds using it with r9 280x's, or the card i got was defective perhaps?

Valiforia · May 5, 2015

Update 2: False positives, everything is running slightly worse or no change at all, WoW dropped down to 20 fps again moment i started moving my character about.

I feel i should not be getting this performance when my 10 year old rig out performed. I may just get a refund and find a new hobby as this has been far too distressing.

smorizio · May 5, 2015

in wow see if your settings are set to high for that older video card. the higher the video res the more video ram is needed. to do 1080 you need a min of a 2g video card. also try turning off 4aa and other eye candy see if the speed goes up for you.

gamerk316 · May 6, 2015

PSU maybe? Only other thing I can think of, is are you using the AMD GPU, or is the PC for some reason using the ingegrated Intel one?

Valiforia · May 6, 2015

Smorizio, I never bother with AA as 1080p usually hides most of the jaggies and my eyesight isn't the best so i don't notice it. I've found with wow i can have DX11 Ultra settings at 30fps aslong as i have the view distance set to minimal, any higher view distance and it just tanks out completely, which is interesting as my friend has played with the same processor and a GTX 460 with full ultra. Bear in mind aswell it's even worse performance on the same settings my 10 year old machine was running fine on.

Gamerk316 i was thinking the PSU but i've seen people running 560ti + i5 4690k builds on the PSU and seem to be doing fine. I may attempt a bios update incase this motherboard isn't detecting haswell refresh possibly but i doubt this is the case.

James Mason · May 6, 2015

It's possible it's the PSU, it's also possible you got a bad second hand video card.
So at "full load" it's possible your system is using upwards of 430Ws and if your PSU really is as old as your old system, it may not be delivering it's full power.
You've tested the old video card still works, it may be time to replace the PSU.

Valiforia · May 6, 2015

James Mason :

I think you're right, it's down to the PSU or the graphics card. I did some tests on a CPU hard game (Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition) and found it running 1080p 60 fps flawlessly with no issues whatsoever, failing to understand why view distance is an issue now when it wasn't on the old computer even with testing both graphics cards. Power also baffles me because i assume an i3 with it's 22nm would be less power hungry than an old 90nm AMD processor. These are things to relfect on i guess and money is very tight so i dont have many options. Thanks for your replies

James Mason · May 6, 2015

Valiforia :

James Mason :

I think you're right, it's down to the PSU or the graphics card. I did some tests on a CPU hard game (Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition) and found it running 1080p 60 fps flawlessly with no issues whatsoever, failing to understand why view distance is an issue now when it wasn't on the old computer even with testing both graphics cards. Power also baffles me because i assume an i3 with it's 22nm would be less power hungry than an old 90nm AMD processor. These are things to relfect on i guess and money is very tight so i dont have many options. Thanks for your replies

Right, it's not the CPU, it's the GPU's power draw that's the problem. Your GPU has like twice the power draw of your old GPU, and that's nearling your PSU's limit, which drops with age.

Valiforia · May 6, 2015

James Mason :

Valiforia :

Right, it's not the CPU, it's the GPU's power draw that's the problem. Your GPU has like twice the power draw of your old GPU, and that's nearling your PSU's limit, which drops with age.

Ahh so PSU Power draw diminishes with age? This is new to me, it has been used since around 2010-11 so could it diminish after that amount of time of near constant use? I'll look into seeing if i can loan a friends PSU temporarily to test the situation, Thank you.

gamerk316 · May 7, 2015

Yeah, it's starting to sound like the PSU is at fault here.

Valiforia · May 19, 2015

Apologies for Necro, I've been unsuccessful in loaning a PSU to do some tests, instead i decided to download MSI Afterburner to monitor usages and whatnot and came across an interesting pattern in 3 games i tested.

Dead Island Riptide:1080p Max settings Vsync on
CPU1: 34%~
CPU2: 75%~
CPU3 + 4: 20%~
GPU: 99% 405MB/1024MB

World of Warcraft: Ultra settings, Vsync on, everything else enabled
All CPU: 30%~
GPU: 99% 864MB/1024MB

Note: 50fps with view distance on Low, 10 fps with View distance on ultra

Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition: DsFix running. 1080p 60fps Vsync on
All CPU: 26%~
GPU: 83% 203MB/1024MB

Notes: With World of Warcraft, on an old 10 year system with the same PSU and a HD 5770 i could do ultra view distance with minimal fps hit.
Dead Island Riptide randomly has spikes to 40 fps which even out after a second of movement

gamerk316 · May 19, 2015

Looks like PSU still; odds are, the GPU isn't getting enough power, and is downclocking to keep from shutting off. No reason GPU usage should be quite that high, especially in WOW.

Just built PC performs worse than my 10 year old machine.

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Reputable

Titan

Glorious

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Titan

Reputable

Glorious

Reputable

Glorious

Share this page