GAH! Where are my missing Framerates?

[Black0ps]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I recently purchased and built a new system. I'm a World of Warcrack player and I wanted to be able to enjoy the new flying mounts at 70, so I wanted a system that I could push out the draw distances and crank up the detail. I recently purchased a new system and while its nice, and still runs better than my previous system, I'm kind of disappointed with the over all end results.

Previous System:
P4 3.2 HT
Abit IC7 Mobo
1GB Memory
40GB IDE WD HD
ATI Sapphire X800XL AGP
Windows XP SP2

With medium to low settings for detail and distance, I was running 15-22 FPS in game running it at 1280x1024.

New System:
e6300 Core 2 Duo
ECS 945P-A Mobo
2Gb of Dual Channel PC6400 (800Mhz)
250GB WD SATA HD
PNY 8800 GTS PCI-E
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

I cranked the settings all the way up. Full detail, full draw distance, and it looks pretty good, but.......I'm still only getting 20-26 FPS in 1680x1050. In the crowded cities it drops down into the high teens.

I was really expecting a lot more. Most of the benchmarks I review for a card of this capability is running fast FPS games at 1600x1200 with 8x AA and getting huge frame rates. I can't imagine WoW is that demanding graphics wise.

Now, I'm not totally dumb, but I'm not an expert either, and I haven't had a chance to mess with too many settings just yet (I set it up last night), but is there a voice of experience out there that can point me in the right direction? Just want to figure out if its a Hardware issue, a setup issue, or a chair to keyboard interface configuration problem. Or....was I simply expecting too much?

**One thing of note. I'm not sure how it will impact it. The Mobo is a ATI crossfire capable board. Would that have a negative impact on running the Nvidia chipset video card?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ajfink]

Do you have the latest drivers? A lot of Vista graphics issues are just now being sorted out.

edit - what did you do with your old system? :twisted:

 

[Black0ps]

Yeah, I didn't use any of the drivers CD's that came with any of the hardware. I downloaded the latest drivers from all the manufacturers websites.

I had heard that Nvidia had pretty crappy Vista drivers, but even from the article I read here, even though its not up to par with what it could be, the performance still wasn't horrible.

__________________________________________________________

My old system I passed down to my son.

 

[fredgiblet]

nVidia is still working on their Vista drivers, give it a month or so and they will probably have shiny new drivers that work well.

 

[ripper998]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I recently purchased and built a new system. I'm a World of Warcrack player and I wanted to be able to enjoy the new flying mounts at 70, so I wanted a system that I could push out the draw distances and crank up the detail. I recently purchased a new system and while its nice, and still runs better than my previous system, I'm kind of disappointed with the over all end results.

Previous System:
P4 3.2 HT
Abit IC7 Mobo
1GB Memory
40GB IDE WD HD
ATI Sapphire X800XL AGP
Windows XP SP2

With medium to low settings for detail and distance, I was running 15-22 FPS in game running it at 1280x1024.

New System:
e6300 Core 2 Duo
ECS 945P-A Mobo
2Gb of Dual Channel PC6400 (800Mhz)
250GB WD SATA HD
PNY 8800 GTS PCI-E
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

I cranked the settings all the way up. Full detail, full draw distance, and it looks pretty good, but.......I'm still only getting 20-26 FPS in 1680x1050. In the crowded cities it drops down into the high teens.

I was really expecting a lot more. Most of the benchmarks I review for a card of this capability is running fast FPS games at 1600x1200 with 8x AA and getting huge frame rates. I can't imagine WoW is that demanding graphics wise.

Now, I'm not totally dumb, but I'm not an expert either, and I haven't had a chance to mess with too many settings just yet (I set it up last night), but is there a voice of experience out there that can point me in the right direction? Just want to figure out if its a Hardware issue, a setup issue, or a chair to keyboard interface configuration problem. Or....was I simply expecting too much?

**One thing of note. I'm not sure how it will impact it. The Mobo is a ATI crossfire capable board. Would that have a negative impact on running the Nvidia chipset video card?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

you went from 1280 x 1024 low to medium settings

to

1680 x 1050 with high settings

and are getting slightly faaster FPS then before....and your complaining??

Try reducing your resolution and settings to what you were at before and see the difference in speed.

 

[Black0ps]

you went from 1280 x 1024 low to medium settings

to

1680 x 1050 with high settings

and are getting slightly faaster FPS then before....and your complaining??

Try reducing your resolution and settings to what you were at before and see the difference in speed.

Yeah, as absurd as it sounds, I am, and this is why. I equate this to having a Mustang GT, upgrading to a Porsche 911T and only going 2 tenths faster in the quarter mile. Sure its faster, but its not as fast as a Porsche should be.

Plus, based on my reading and evaluation of the VGA charts here, the 8800GTS is cranking out 101 FPS on Half-Life 2 set to 1600x1200 4x AA, and 8x AF with 32 bit color. Its getting 101 FPS maxed out on a twitch shooter like Halflife and I can't get 50-60 Frames on WoW? Yeah that bothers me. And to be honest, I bet if I dropped the settings all the way to low, I'd be surprised to see over 60 FPS even then.

I should be able to run FEAR or Half-Life with similar results at 1680x1050, and I doubt I can. In fact the widescreen resolution which is actually 156,000 pixels less than 1600x1200, is gonna cut that frame rate by 3/4ths? That's a hard pill for me to swallow.

I wasn't expecting 100+ FPS with max settings, but I was expecting significantly more than 20-25. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out, is this normal for other people with this setup? If not, what is my issue? Is it bad hardware? Are there settings I need to check, is it a driver problem (ie: Does ATI have this problem on Vista), etc...