Low graphics performance in Vista

I recently installed vista on my system and encountered a significant reduction in FPS in all games, despite having updated my graphics and sound drivers. The system specs are as below:

Motherboard: MSI Neo2 865G,
CPU: P4C 2.8GHz HT on,
RAM: 1.5GB (2x 256 + 2x 512, 400Mhz), 4xFSB @ 800Mhz,
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium,
Main HDD: Wester Digital 120GB 7200rpm ATA,
GFX: nVidia GeForce 7800GS 256MB, Detonator 100.65, 2 monitors - primary LCD DVI + secondary CRT Analogue,
Sound: Creative Audigy 2, Drivers from May 2007.

Despite my best efforts, the fps in games such as counter-strike (v 1.6 via steam, not source!) is ~40, dropping frequently to 20 @ 1024x768, whereas in XP it used to be steady at 70fps. Similarly EA BFME2 stutters so much it's nigh on unplayble, independently of the graphics settings I choose (v. low to high), whereas I could run it smoothly with high graphics in XP.

From what I have seen on the net, there are two school of thoughts on this type of problem: that the vista drivers are immature, or that the user has somehow misconfigured their system (since some people report better performance on vista than XP).

I am a little frustrated as to what to do to correct the situation. For the meanwhile I have set up an XP boot on a second HDD, so I can play games at good fps, whilst I try to sort out this problem on vista. What do you think could be causing the problem. Is the processor the cause - as processor usage has a tendency to get higher than it used to in XP? Is it to do with hyperthreading? Is this related to the directsound emulation that vista uses in contrast to the model XP uses? Is it a multimonitor problem? (I reverted to single monitor mode with no significant improvement). Are there better performance nVidia beta drivers out there?

Any help with the problem would be appreciated.

Rich.

Isn't Vista horrile on a P4 2.8Ghz? I installed it on a 3.0 GHzwith 2 GB memory and it was a pain in the ass.

I think the source of the problem may be a hardware failure, since I experienced an increasing frequency of freezes that would render the computer unusable when I was on XP - part of the reason I changed to vista, since I had to reinstall anyway. Now, the freezing has only happened once, but the computer feels sluggish in general. The CPU usage is 90% on just dragging a window around and the hard disks can hardly be heard working since they work so intermittently.

The motherboard is the prime suspect, since the old PSU failed only recently and was replaced, but maybe it was replaced a little too late.

Motherboard-dependent or hardware-sensitive software such has nvTune and CPUZ have produced some spectacular system crashes (freezing + a protracted horrible sound).

I'll replace the motherboard and processor and see what happens.

Thanks for the suggestions, ikjadoon. I've already experimented with the profiles to exhaustion - they make no difference - the computer lags as much at full graphics settings as at low graphics settings.

I know what you mean. I thought it might have been a memory problem, but I tested that thoroughly and the memory is 100% functional.

As far as I know processor malfunctions are much easier to spot - the computer doesn't make it more than a few seconds into boot.

Other hardware problems I would expect to affect their respective functions, but since sound is fine and 3d graphics appears to be normal and running a 3d game doesn't increase the chances of failure, there isn't really much else it could be.

The hard drives are all SMART OK and have 0 bad sectors.

I'd already tried 101.41 to no avail.

A change on the motherboard and processor appears to have fixed things - the system feels spritely - just installing some games, I expect they'll be ok.

If you're running legit, you will be receiving a major performance increasing bugfix from microsoft, and you should download todays updated driver for vista.

I just went from 20-30 fps outside, to 30-60, just like that with a driver update.
All source games are bugged without microsofts compat patch wich was released four weeks ago.

Dont know for sure about old CS, but.. You know there's CS:S now right?
You're running a 7800GS with a game that maxes out in software mode on a 1ghz p3 dude.

Great, I'm glad it is working!

~Ibrahim~