My new eVGA 7600gt CO running slower than I thought it would

[AhrenBa]

Hey Guys,

I just got the eVGA 7600gt CO and put it in my Dell 4700 with 512MB of RAM, 2.8ghz P4, and a 80GB SATA hard drive.

When I am playing AOE3, I have the graphics options on the highest they can be, and I am only getting a top of 34fps and sometimes it dips down to like 19-21fps. Is this normal?

I also ran the Aquamark3 test and got a score of 55,801, is that normal? When I was running the test, the fps counter in the bottom barely got above 40fps.

This card is 580/1500mhz and has 256MB of RAM.

Also, in Civilization 4, I am only getting 44fps with max settings.

What do you guys think?

 

[angry_ducky]

Try running 3DMark05. What does it score?

 

[asdasd123123]

You definitely don't have enough ram.

 

[AhrenBa]

For some reason everytime I try to run 3dmark, it runs through, and then has an error at then end, saying that 3dmark cannot find something. I will try to reinstall it and post back later.

Do any of you guys have an idea to why my frames are pretty low?

 

[angry_ducky]

Do any of you guys have an idea to why my frames are pretty low?

Here's what I could think of:

1) Your computer is a Dell. Which means that there's probably a lot of crap software that's clogging your hard drive. With this crap software comes a lot of unnecessary background processes which suck up your RAM and CPU cycles.

Solve this by reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows (you DID order the Windows CD, right?)

2) Your HDD is fragmented.

Solve this by going to: Start, Programs, Accessories, system tools, and finally, disk defragmenter.

3) If your CPU has a 533MHz bus, then it is probably bottlenecking the grahpics card.

The only way you can solve this is by buying a faster CPU.

4) You don't have enough RAM.

Buy another 512MB stick. If you have 2x256MB, then buy a 1GB matched kit of 512s.

 

[DaBigHurt]

Well that sounds about right. 7600GT is a very nice good card for the money, but not nearly as powerful as the 78 or 79, its 128-bit memory interface & 12 pipes / 12 shader processors (Which are all less than the 6800Ultra BTW) are handicaps. 44FPS with MAX settings is a very respectable performance. Plus you have a Dell with 512MB. The 7600GT its a midrange card that performs like a champ, but nothing more. Don't expect miracles from it.

PS: I myself own a 7600GT and I couldn't be happier. But I don't expect it to last me much longer. Specially with BF 2142 coming soon. .

EDIT: What resolution are you playing at?

 

[AhrenBa]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I appreciate it.

1) Your computer is a Dell. Which means that there's probably a lot of crap software that's clogging your hard drive. With this crap software comes a lot of unnecessary background processes which suck up your RAM and CPU cycles.

Solve this by reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows (you DID order the Windows CD, right?)

I have uninstalled all that stuff that the Dells came with, so I don't think that is the problem. When I bought my Dell, they didn't give me an option to get the disc.

2) Your HDD is fragmented.

Solve this by going to: Start, Programs, Accessories, system tools, and finally, disk defragmenter.

I defragment about once a week. So hopefully that is not the prob

3) If your CPU has a 533MHz bus, then it is probably bottlenecking the grahpics card.

The only way you can solve this is by buying a faster CPU.

My processor has an 800mhz FSB, would that be ok?

4) You don't have enough RAM.

That very well might be the problem. However, AOEIII only requires 256mb RAM.

I really appreciate your suggestions though. Thanks for your time.

 

[Heyyou27]

Hey Guys,

I just got the eVGA 7600gt CO and put it in my Dell 4700 with 512MB of RAM, 2.8ghz P4, and a 80GB SATA hard drive.

When I am playing AOE3, I have the graphics options on the highest they can be, and I am only getting a top of 34fps and sometimes it dips down to like 19-21fps. Is this normal?

I also ran the Aquamark3 test and got a score of 55,801, is that normal? When I was running the test, the fps counter in the bottom barely got above 40fps.

This card is 580/1500mhz and has 256MB of RAM.

Also, in Civilization 4, I am only getting 44fps with max settings.

What do you guys think?

You should get more RAM, but Age of Empires III on the maximum will NOT be playable on a 7600GT. You'll need an X1900XT to play it at the maximum comfortably.

 

[angry_ducky]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I appreciate it.

1) Your computer is a Dell. Which means that there's probably a lot of crap software that's clogging your hard drive. With this crap software comes a lot of unnecessary background processes which suck up your RAM and CPU cycles.

Solve this by reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows (you DID order the Windows CD, right?)

I have uninstalled all that stuff that the Dells came with, so I don't think that is the problem. When I bought my Dell, they didn't give me an option to get the disc.

2) Your HDD is fragmented.

Solve this by going to: Start, Programs, Accessories, system tools, and finally, disk defragmenter.

I defragment about once a week. So hopefully that is not the prob

3) If your CPU has a 533MHz bus, then it is probably bottlenecking the grahpics card.

The only way you can solve this is by buying a faster CPU.

My processor has an 800mhz FSB, would that be ok?

4) You don't have enough RAM.

That very well might be the problem. However, AOEIII only requires 256mb RAM.

I really appreciate your suggestions though. Thanks for your time.

Perhaps you should try calling Dell and asking them to send you a Windows CD. Reformatting/reinstalling Windows rules out the possibility of a software problem.

I thought of one more possibility: Did you uninstall the drivers from the old video card?

 

[caamsa]

Got to www.pcpitstop.com and run their free test. Do the full test. This will at least give you a base report as to how your computer is running and some ways to improve performance. You might have spyware, a virus, programs running in the back ground. Etc. the list is endless as to different things that can slow your computer down. One good thing is pcpitstop will not put any malicous software on you computer I have been using their site for years and have found it very helpful. One thing you can do it add more memory to your computer> a gig of memory would be nice. Also do you have the latest drives for you video card? Also you might need to lower the settings a little to get better performance. Good luck :!:

 

[AhrenBa]

EDIT:[/i] What resolution are you playing at?

I am only playing at 1024x768.

Yes, I have the latest nVidia drivers, so I don't think that is the problem.

One thing I need to make sure of is: This isn't an acutal physical problem with my graphics card, correct? I don't need to return it or anything, correct?

Also, thanks for the link to the pcpitstop test, I will run it and post back the results.

So, the general consensus is that I need to add more RAM, correct?

Can someone explain to me how a bottleneck (in my case) actually happens? Thanks

 

[DaBigHurt]

EDIT:[/i] What resolution are you playing at?

I am only playing at 1024x768.

Yes, I have the latest nVidia drivers, so I don't think that is the problem.

One thing I need to make sure of is: This isn't an acutal physical problem with my graphics card, correct? I don't need to return it or anything, correct?

Also, thanks for the link to the pcpitstop test, I will run it and post back the results.

So, the general consensus is that I need to add more RAM, correct?

Can someone explain to me how a bottleneck (in my case) actually happens? Thanks

Ok look, I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ With 1GB of RAM & a 7600GT & my score in aquamark 3 is about 56,000 with FSAA 4X & AF4X @ 1024X768 so dont be ashamed of your scores.

No, your card is fine, unless your games are crashing and your seeing artifacts, whcih I doubt because you wouldve mentioned it.

A system bottlneck can be any of the major components used in gaming that is "holding" the other 2 behind, or 2 that are holding one behind; for example, if you have a 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM & a 7900GTX, the CPU can only feed the video card what it can, holding the Graphics card behind. Then the CPU becomes your bottleneck. In your case I really doubt that either your CPU or your 7600GT is holding your scores back, I would think the best bet is to get more RAM, some games use more than 512MB of RAM all in itself; Which leaves your background applications including your virus protection hungry for resources.
Check your computer for Adware/malicious software; scan your computer for viruses, and make sure you dont have any programs running in the background while your playing your games. But like I said, your scores arent bad at all.

 

[AhrenBa]

EDIT:[/i] What resolution are you playing at?

I am only playing at 1024x768.

Yes, I have the latest nVidia drivers, so I don't think that is the problem.

One thing I need to make sure of is: This isn't an acutal physical problem with my graphics card, correct? I don't need to return it or anything, correct?

Also, thanks for the link to the pcpitstop test, I will run it and post back the results.

So, the general consensus is that I need to add more RAM, correct?

Can someone explain to me how a bottleneck (in my case) actually happens? Thanks

Ok look, I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ With 1GB of RAM & a 7600GT & my score in aquamark 3 is about 56,000 with FSAA 4X & AF4X @ 1024X768 so dont be ashamed of your scores.

No, your card is fine, unless your games are crashing and your seeing artifacts, whcih I doubt because you wouldve mentioned it.

A system bottlneck can be any of the major components used in gaming that is "holding" the other 2 behind, or 2 that are holding one behind; for example, if you have a 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM & a 7900GTX, the CPU can only feed the video card what it can, holding the Graphics card behind. Then the CPU becomes your bottleneck. In your case I really doubt that either your CPU or your 7600GT is holding your scores back, I would think the best bet is to get more RAM, some games use more than 512MB of RAM all in itself; Which leaves your background applications including your virus protection hungry for resources.
Check your computer for Adware/malicious software; scan your computer for viruses, and make sure you dont have any programs running in the background while your playing your games. But like I said, your scores arent bad at all.

K, I just ran 3dMark05 and my score pretty much sucks. I got 4786! I should be getting at least like 6200. Do you think adding some RAM will up this score? Thanks

 

[GeneticWeapon]

I should be getting at least like 6200.

Not on that system, and not on default settings. If you overclocked your card to the gills, and put your control panel settings to "high performance"....you might get a score that high.

 

[AhrenBa]

I should be getting at least like 6200.

Not on that system, and not on default settings. If you overclocked your card to the gills, and put your control panel settings to "high performance"....you might get a score that high.

Woops, lol, I meant to say with an ideal system I should be getting around 6200. My bad! So do you think I should upgrade my RAM big time? How much do you think that'll add to the score?

 

[BrockSampson]

When it comes to games like BF2 I heard that you actually benefit from having 2GBs of ram, which is amazing that the game can utilize those resources. But really, as a game programmer myself I know how fast you can can eat up all of your system resources and with windows taking a huge chunk out of that to begin with, having more is always better. With that said 512mb of RAM just isnt enough for a gaming rig. If you were interested in future proofing your system, and giving you the piece of mind that you will never have a lack of ram you could just upgrade to 2 X 1GB of ram in dual channel mode. But thats ideal. I can promise you that having another 512 stick of ram will give you a noticeable performance increase and give your system lots of breathing room.

Right now I am on my work laptop and it has 1GB. I am running two instances of firefox , antivir in the background and the windows task manager and I only have 616.344MB free of the 1GB on my system. But, at the same time I am limiting the need to access my page file. The more system memory the less your system overflows to the page file.

So to sum this all up, get more ram, you wont regret it, things will be faster.

 

[jp_zer0]

didn't fry already? that 250W no-name PSU is bound to give you problems.

(that's where the smell is coming from)

 

[angry_ducky]

How much do you think that'll add to the score?

Not as much as reformatting your HDD and reinstalling Windows. With your system, 1GB of RAM, and a clean copy of XP, you should score at least 5,500. You'll be amazed at how much more responsive the computer is when running a clean copy of XP. Here's an example with my computer (when it was an HP):

Pre-format:
3DMark05: 1,300-ish

Post-format:
3DMark05: 2,265

The only thing that changed was a HDD reformat and Windows reinstall. The video card was overclocked to the same speeds.

IMO, you should call Dell and bug them to send you a Windows disc. You bought a computer, you own a Windows license; you should have a disc. If your computer has 2x256MB RAM, then pull them and replace them with 2x512. If it has 1x512MB, then buy another 512.

 

[AhrenBa]

How much do you think that'll add to the score?

Not as much as reformatting your HDD and reinstalling Windows. With your system, 1GB of RAM, and a clean copy of XP, you should score at least 5,500. You'll be amazed at how much more responsive the computer is when running a clean copy of XP. Here's an example with my computer (when it was an HP):

Pre-format:
3DMark05: 1,300-ish

Post-format:
3DMark05: 2,265

The only thing that changed was a HDD reformat and Windows reinstall. The video card was overclocked to the same speeds.

IMO, you should call Dell and bug them to send you a Windows disc. You bought a computer, you own a Windows license; you should have a disc. If your computer has 2x256MB RAM, then pull them and replace them with 2x512. If it has 1x512MB, then buy another 512.

Cool, thanks for the advice. I will try and get the discs, although one potential problem is that my warranty is up so hopefully they'll still give me the discs. Thanks for the advice.

 

[AhrenBa]

K, I just tried to get Dell to send me the discs, but man, they refuse to since my warranty is up. WOW! That makes me mad. Dell seriously refuses to do any small favor for someone who's warranty is up.

The only thing I have, is when I bought my PC, I used the included option in the start menu to create a "restore disc". I believe this will reinstall the OS, becuase it calls upon the partition stored on the hard drive with the OS files. However, this will probably put all the dell crap back on there. Will this work? Is there another way? Thanks