Holy Heater, Batman!

52C is not high.

yeah no problems there with your gpu temps why did you RMA it?

Hmm...then I do not know the source of my issue.

I just bought an new 520w PSU with triple +12v rails @18A. The vid card is essentially brand new. The memory has checked out with both memtest86 and windows mem diagnostic.

An ISP issue maybe? It just seems that after the slowdowns occur, that even after I close the game, when attempting to use any other programs (non-internet) that they open slowly, and Windows runs considerably slower. Maybe hard drive issue? I have a 250gb WD Caviar. I have about 30gb of free space left on it. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it.

It was the AX model that EVGA had issues with. You might remember EVGA basically released a bunch of defective models around the time when the 7800GTX's were the hot commodity. Mine was one of the bad ones, causing errors during bootup, so EVGA asked me to RMA it. I got the new on about 3 weeks ago.

If a game slows down and becomes choppy that is due to lack of system memory, maybe a memory leak such as in the initial release of Oblivion. A modern system requires at least 2 gig of memory, I'm guessing you have just 1 gig.

Maybe there is a background process taking CPU cycles, try disabling Services that can be safely turned off. Maybe signing off from the game server DOES leave unwanted processes running.

And yes, hard drive access needs to be unfettered for loading areas and textures when changing scenery. Choppiness can be due to too little space, lack of defragging, and access by other processes.

These three things do NOT cause choppy gameplay
(I) overheated GPU or video memory, that just causes artifacts and crashes.
(2) System memory problems. It's Run or Crash, there is no in-between with intensive functions such as games that may just "slow down" things.
(3) Power supply - nothing to do with system speed in any way.

I agree, though "modern systems" don't require at least 2 GB of memory, it is simply the new norm.

I would imagine it is a memory leak or background processes taking resources, your HDD is fairly full so chances are there is some spyware on it. Google CleanUp! and download and run it every few days. When your PC is clean it should take only a half a second to run, it is a great program.

Yes, you are correct. I have 1gb of Ram. How would I go about finding leaks?

As far as the HDD, I think that is the actual culprit. I recently download some huge files and this right around when it all started happening. I'll have to burn some DVD's and cleanup the HDD or purchase a second drive.

Comme Ci, Comme Ca. On my P4 Oblivion wouldn't run at 1600X1200 with 1 gig, it was just a series of still frames. It was also jerky at 1280X960. With 2 gigs it was as smooth as silk at 1600 X 1200. The 2 gig memory was subsequently migrated to the Conroe. Likewise video rendering etc. runs faster with 2 gigs than with 1. So intensive applications do benefit from more than 1 gig. The "norm" is required, it seems. :?

The computer I'm on now, a P3-600, is pretty clunky with 256 megs. It was fine with 512 before one Sdram stick failed. Again 256 was acceptable for a P3 in 1999, but newer applications require more resources.

Well, I'm not playing an resource hog like Oblivion. I'm playing America's Army and it's graphics are sorely dated. I mean, I was able to play it smoothly with a 512mb system. I'm also only playing at 1024x768.

It's pretty easy to check memory usage. Run Task Manager in a second monitor attached to your card, with the game on the primary monitor, and check ongoing memory usage and CPU utilization. You can also monitor temperatures. The video card must be set for separate refresh rates etc. not Spanning. The performance hit on the gaming having two separate monitors is quite small.

With Oblivion at 1600 X 1200 in 1 gig I was down to 50 megs free, not good!