Bad FPS in nearly all games with decent hardware

[skulltac]

I have a pretty decent rig but all of my games seem to be lacking. A game that I got recently that was supposed to run good was the Witcher. Whenever there are multiple people on screen or I'm looking over a large distance my FPS will start dropping noticeably. Even when playing Team Fortress 2 if there are a bunch of people on screen my FPS will start to drop. Something else weird is that WoW seems to run fine, except for big cities but I figured I would get a bad FPS in places like those. Here are my specs.

GPU: ATI HIS 6870 (overclocked)
CPU: AMD Athlon II x3 455 3.3GH/z
RAM: Crucial 4gb 1333 DDR3 (Don't know the exact model)
MB: Biostar A770E3
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

I don't know what to do. Could it be possible that my GPU isn't in the slot all of the way or something? Also my hard drive was taken from my old HP computer from 2007. Could that be causing the problem? Any help would be great. If you guys need anymore info I will gladly tell you anything.

 

[bobsanchez]

Is it stuttering, or are you sure its just bad frame rates?

 

[skulltac]

I'm sure it's just bad FPS.

Also something I forgot to mention in my first post is that Just Cause 2 seems to run great also. I don't understand how Just Cause 2 can run really good. But then TF2 bogs down with more than 10 people on my screen. I have tried reformatting my HD and that didn't work so yeah.

 

[Herr_Koos]

Power supply make and model? How are you temperatures looking?

 

[deicidechaos]

hmm could be you GPU not getting sufficient power, That can cause drops in frame rates and cause the screen the "shatter".

Do you happen to know what frames you are actually getting?

Do you play with Vsync enabled?

 

[skulltac]

Well in TF2 with several people on the screen in a large area my FPS drops to about 40-50. In the Witcher runs smooth but only when looking at a wall. If I look into an open area than it drops to 30 and sometimes below.

And no I don't play with v-sync except for on World of Warcraft because for some reason I like it better that way.

 

[jordan009]

40-50 isn't laggy at all... What are you talking about? /:

 

[skulltac]

Well it's supposed to be well above 100 and it's very irritating when I have a computer that's supposed to play that game great and it's only getting there. Also it's not just that game that it's effecting it's almost all of my other games so I would like to play them the way my PC is supposed to.

 

[skulltac]

Power supply make and model? How are you temperatures looking?

I forgot to answer this.

my PSU is an Zephyr 750 watt.
And my temps all seem normal.

Also the Witcher isn't at 40 - 50 it's like below 30 so yeah I wunna get this problem fixed.

 

[whatsup1396]

30 isn't bad either

 

[skulltac]

30 isn't bad either

Ok really... Why would I just sit here and let my computer not run like it's supposed to. I spent the money that I made for a reason and I would like my stuff to work. If you're just gonna post *** like that then just don't post anything at all.

 

[The Halo Don]

I say it's your CPU holding you back.

 

[skulltac]

Well I do know that my CPU isn't the greatest but my friend has a Athlon CPU that is very similar to mine and he runs the game fine.

 

[Herr_Koos]

I forgot to answer this.

my PSU is an Zephyr 750 watt.
And my temps all seem normal.

Never heard of them before. Anyone here have experience with the brand?

 

[deicidechaos]

If you belive that your PC isnt running as it should, have look around at some bench marks for yoru 6870. Sure the PCs used for the testing wont be the same, but it will still give you an indication on how the card is running with other people systems. You may find that it's just how the card performs.

 

[skulltac]

Well people told me that the 6870 should preform flawlessly in the Witcher and TF2. Like Above 60 fps constantly. So I would've thought it was just my card not performing right but people told me otherwise.

 

[Herr_Koos]

Time to dig out the system monitor tools.

CPU-Z
GPU-Z
CPUID HWMonitor

Keep these running in the background while you game. Specifically look for max temperatures, clock speeds, and utilization. Verify that each component ramps up to its rated clock speed and that peak temperatures are under control.

 

[kashifme21]

What res and AA are you playing at?

6870 shouldnt have any problems running TF2 and witcher @ 60fps 1920*1080.

Try to keep the AA below 8x as that can bog any system down. Specially systems with 1gb of video ram. As this setting can make your system hit its Vram limit, causing it to choke.

 

[Rocking_Star101]

You shouldn't get any 'laggy looks' with 30 FPS, 'laggy looks' only start when the FPS is below 10-15. Try Herr_Koos's tools.
I think the problem might be with compatibility or possibly some problem with the Graphic Card's drivers ( maybe try reinstalling the drivers or try to check if there's any update for them )?
Also, you may want to try to get a better hard disk ( Although that shouldn't matter much, since the HD speeds hasn't changed much over the past decade, unless you take into consideration the new SSD HD's )
As a Last Resort, you can try formatting the computer ( deleting everything & starting fresh ), but only as a Last Resort ( & make sure to have everything backed up, Save Games & stuff, on an External Hard Disk ).
I think that's all my knowledge can come up with ( until more diagnosis I guess )

 

[Xador]

Well people told me that the 6870 should preform flawlessly in the Witcher and TF2. Like Above 60 fps constantly. So I would've thought it was just my card not performing right but people told me otherwise.

I think it might be your HDD or RAM. Is your HDD trashed? Are you running alot of programs in the background while you're playing?

 

[skulltac]

I am barley running anything in the background but I do think it could be my HDD. I've had it for a really long time and I'm sure I could use a new one. Could that be causing my games to go so slowly.

 

[ross_mitchell]

What version of catalyst are you running

 

[skulltac]

11.8 I think. It's the beta/preview version thing.

 

[deicidechaos]

11.8 I think. It's the beta/preview version thing.

Could be cause its a beta driver...roll back or, grab the last previous full driver, and give it a go. Let us know what happens.

 

[Rocking_Star101]

Yes, I agree. Beta/preview versions are usually unstable & have a lot of bugs. Roll-back or download the latest stable version ( non-beta / non-preview version ). That should fix the problem
( btw, you can roll-back the driver using 'Device Manager' )