Lag in games although PC mets minimum requirments

oh c'mon you always helped me in this forum is this question to hard or what? i really neeed your help guys oh and p.s i close all the tasks so that nothing consumes ram or cpu thats for sure thanks anyway.

well maybe if you listed your specs you might get some help

ups sorry what was i thinking.. so sorry (blush)

MB: asus p5b mx
CPU: pentium e2140 1.92Ghz O.C.
GPU: nvidia gt220 1gb O.C. 600Mhz Core
Ram 1.5Gb ddr2 667Mhz
H.D.D. maxtor 160Gb 7200Rpm

A GT220 won't run games well, it is a low end card. You need a better graphics card to play games. Your CPU is also weak and you need more RAM, 4 GB minimum.

Sorry!

well yes i know its a crapy pc bu look at those games system req's it meets the recommended so why do i still get lags?

because you dont meet minimum recommended. a gts 220 isnt greater than a 6800gt/7800gt/9500gt the 95gt being the stronger card here but only just the 220 comes in at around the old 6600le level of about 6 years ago and doesnt meet minimum on most any current game. honestly if you want minimum settings today your looking at 9800gt but that cpu will be to much for your cpu. which seriously needs to be over clocked to 2.4ghz or better...
just because you think its minimum spec doesnt make it so.

http://www.videogamer.com/pc/test_drive_unlimited/syste... req's of TDU

http://compactiongames.about.com/od/gameindex/p/gtasa_s... req's of GTA San Andreas

http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=45332&tab=sysreqs Req's of NSFU2

seriously its hard to believe that my gt220 can't play these games.

Prof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js8zQexVpFQ heres Bf3 on my card and here's Crysis 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkx0CDMtwj0
and they both are less or more playable

and you are saying that i cant play Tdu , Gta san andreas etc. cuz of my gpu ? oh c'mon you can do better...

oh and p.s i run dirt 2 on medium with 30+ Fps no problem ... AA x8

We have told you why you can't play, if you are not happy with the answer try elsewhere. You will get the same response though.

Your GT220 is not good enough for gaming

look i am happy with this forum and this community but you have to understand me that i just don't believe.thats its cuz of the gpu becuz san andreas is an old game nsfu2 is an old game that don't require that much power and still lags(not even talking about tdu).and when i play dirt 2 or cod 5 and dont get any lag so if you can't help me fine ill find another forum but please don't talk nonsense like ''gt 220 is bad for gaming thats why your gta san andreas of nsfu2 lags'' im not stupid i know that its not it...

I suggest you try these few links...

Can you run it?
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx

CPU Hierarchy - June
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32466-5.html

Graphics Crad Hierarchy - May
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32442-7.html

ok i tried these links and system requirments lab shows i can run it (all of those games i mentioned) and that is exactingly what i said.. from the very beginning of the tread. (facepalm)

Even if your GPU is adequate for those old games, I wouldn't be surprised if you are running out of RAM, leading to poor performance. 1.5GB is quite low, especially if you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7. Keep task manager open in the background and leave it on the performance tab, open up one of your games, then alt tab out to check the task manager. If your RAM usage is at 100% while playing, you are running out of RAM, and that is probably causing poor performance. In that case, you'll have to either get more RAM, or try to close other processes to free up more.

Another possibility with a system that old is that you are overheating, and your hardware is throttling back to protect itself from damage. Download HWMonitor and run it in the background while playing, then post your CPU and GPU temperatures. If either are too high, that will cause performance problems. You may have to get a compressed air duster, and clean out dust from the computer's air intakes and fans that have built up over the years.

Joris you need a whole new PC. I can do you a favor and go to your house and throw your pc out the window.

one word No.

thank god nfirst person that isnt bullshiting me but all that you said i have allready checked cpu temps doesnt go over 60C that the cooler turns on max and it goes down the gpu doesnt go over 55C although its overclocked ram usage is about 50-70% soo it cant be it i think (think) but now that you mentioned i remembered that about 2 moths ago my cpu was overheating like hell becuz of old thermal paste and it was one point were it reached 85C (atleast thats what aida64 and speedfan said) but the pc itself didn't shutdown so perhaps that has an effect but then it leads to a question why dont newer games like dirt 2 dont lag?

thats actually not a horrible idea to just start fresh with nicer pc that comes over the minimum requirements to play your games and it could be cheaper and easier than finding older parts for thats pc and you said you were OCing so you could really be over heating and it wouldent hurt to know your pc temps every now and again and you could rule the temps out if they are low and move on to other problems

well i was thinking of buying a new mobo but agian i dont have the money besides didnt i just mentioned that it doesnt go over 60 C ?  

So to be clear, is it when you start the game you see the drop in frame rate or is it when you are halfway through playing the game you notice the drop in frame rate?

I would have to agree with some people in saying that a better GPU will certainly help.

Try restarting you computer. I think, as mentioned above that you might be filling your memory up. A restart will help this but not fix it, as when your memory is full it pages to the hard drive which is a lot slower hence the drop in frame rate.
I would try and stick some more memory in there to see if it help.
Older games ran off XP which used less resources than win7 or vista. Older games can sometimes struggle on vista and 7 so this could be your problem.

i hear of people task killing explorer.exe in windows7 after opining a game to get it to run correctly have done this my self with no problems but if you kill explorer.exe you have to keep cmd open to shutdown after wards or reopen explorer.exe

So you ask for advice, we give it, you are not happy with hearing the truth = we are bull shitting you?

GT220 is no good for gaming, no amount of disbelief will change that.

no its just hard to believe that its gpu i know its not a good gpu but its not a radeon x1350 or nvidia 4 series mx.

p.s before buying this card i tried it on much powerfull pc i7 2600k 8gb ddr3 memory and it all went smoothly i was even able to run and play games like crysis 2 on medium 40fps+ or nfs the run medium-high 30 fps stable(thats the limit)

its from the begining of the game its possible to play most of them but it sucks that i met the requirments and cant run it on normal settings

i will definitely try that thank you

use cmd to taskkill explorer.exe and just to let you know your icons will diaper till you restart or reopen it through cmd because there is no start menu or task bar

yes i know.

If setting the games at the lowest possible in game settings makes them run better, then it's a GPU issue. If it doesn't help, it's either your slow CPU or lack of RAM. Or both.

you are still not reading what im saying the hardware IS powerful enough for games that i mentioned.. please read the entire post before posting.

turning off explorer doesnt help

Min spec doesn't mean "the min needed to play on normal settings" (that would be the recommended spec)

Min spec means "the min needed to play the game at an acceptable frame rate and without regular crashes" So that means everything turned down as far as possible. Acceptable framerate is generally 20-30 fps on average.

Also remember that min spec is really just a best guess. There are so many computer configurations that you can have CPUs/GPUs that are roughly equal to each other on paper but when put into the SPECIFIC situation of a given game's SPECIFIC engine that one does fine while the other does not. This can also be said for GPUs and the games, and it can even be said for various combinations. It's not an exact science. So it doesn't surprise me that you say some games run okay while others do not, although they all have about the same min spec.

When you run at min spec you have to understand you're going to have hit and miss depending on how a game scales and its specific demands. And you really are RIGHT at min spec and fading fast.

I did read all the posts. Your system barely scrapes by in the games that it "runs fine". Obviously there's something in these other games that is causing them to be a slide show - like, oh I don't know, they are more demanding on certain resources?

I proposed a simple freaking test. Why don't you just try it and see what happens? Everyone in this thread is telling you the same thing, if you don't care to listen then that's your own fault. Ignorance is not bliss. SOMETHING in your PC is causing the games to not run smoothly. Is it the GPU, the CPU, or the RAM? Or all of them? There's nothing magical that will cause them to run better, the only thing you can do is find the weak point and upgrade it.

I had a GT 220 paired with an i7 860 and 6GB of RAM and games like GTA IV, BC2, Crysis were playable although I could obviously not max them out. The problem is probably with your low RAM and/or weak CPU (I'm leaning towards you not having enough RAM).

ok look the cpu is more than enough for etc gta san andreas the ram is more than enough the gpu is more than enough so whats the weak point then?

Okay, let's presume (for a second) it's NOT your computer. Here are some other possibilities.

Have you googled "San Andreas PC lag"? Because I have, and it seems it's not an unusual problem. Sometimes the game itself is at fault.

Another potential issue is an old game on new hardware or a new operating system. The PC port is from 2005/early '06. If you're using Win 7 it was tested for WinXP. Not 7. Could be an issue.

The age of the game could also be an issue relating to your drivers. This port is 6-7 years old now. You are using a GPU that is 2-3 years YOUNGER, with drivers that are 2-3 years YOUNGER and were NEVER tested with the game. This CAN cause problems!

An example of how OLDER software paired with NEWER hardware and its drivers can cause problems is the Thief game. There is a fog setting in the game that has NO driver support past... 2005. The game uses this fog setting but driver support for it was discontinued years ago. You want to play the old game and have it at its best? Ironically, you need to use an old computer with old drivers and an old GPU, because a new one won't do the job.

In any of these cases, what can you do? Well, frankly, a fat lot of nothing.

(Although I seriously think at least some more RAM might help you. 1.5GB is nothing, even for XP)

I think the weak point is your brain!

Seriously, how much advice are you going to discard?

OK, because you obviously know more about computers than we do, why don't you go solver your problem yourself.

OK, now on a serious note. The answer given to you might not be the answer you wanted but it is the correct answer. Your PC is NOT up to scratch. Fact. Something or possibly somethings in your computer need an upgrade.

i have had this work before but its probably not the same problem i would seriously consider a new rig or up grade

ok then should i give you the bank account number to send money to?

im not building you a computer and that seems to be the main problem outdated hardware so if you cant afford a new rig then dont play games that lag and that was an answer to the question why are my games lagging old hardware like it or not that seems to be the problem sorry  

Better go buy games from gog.com! Lots of good old games that you can easily run.

but the games that im playing or outdated to so whats the problem?

il better go download them  

I am going to take a guess at the problem so here it is. The minimum system requirements are when the game was released, since then whatever OS you are running has had many updates since then which use more system resources on to of this I would guess you may have other things running in the background. You could try reinstalling windows and turning off updates and the games may run OK. I remember when Win XP came out it would run acceptably with 256Mb RAM but now with all its updates and service packs it runs painfully slowly with under 1Gb RAM.

or perhaps windows 7 is not very competible with those games...

any ways ill soon add more ram and see the results i hope it works..

RAM should help. I'd also suggest, if you don't have one, getting a decent CPU cooler and trying to get that CPU over 2ghz.

my mb is not good enough for that doesnt go over 1.92ghz

how many cores dose the cpu have because a single core at 1.92 is pretty good and ram should help alot are you going for 2GB or more than that

its a dual core