Graphics card fps drop then return to normal...

[Ciraxis]

Hello all ive recently bought a Radeon X1950 PRO 512mb AGP card to replace my geforce 6800 GT, now when i had the 6800 GT i was experiencing multicoloured stripes suddenly appearing on my screen when i was gaming which forced me to reset the PC. I was thinking of getting a new card anyway so i thought ah when i buy the new card this dodgy artifacting wont happen thought it was some sort of temperature issue.

Now i bought the x1950 pro and thought it was going to be like a breath of fresh air, and it partially is, apart from the fact that in World of Warcraft for example the framerate is steady at 70fps then every 5 mins or so it PLUMMETS to around 15fps and goes all jerky this also happens more often in newer heavier games like Supreme commander, ive heard this can be because of temperature but this card is brand new and i monitored the temp and it was well within safe specified limits, now im a bit worried because ive got a brand new card and still problems are happening, could it be the AGP bus itself that is dying or a power issue? i need some expert help on this because i have no idea what to do next.

Here are my system specs:

mobo: gigabyte 8IG1000MK
Cpu : P4 prescott 3.0ghz
RAM: corsair TWINX pro PC3200 DDR400

 

[Ciraxis]

the idle temp is 45 centigrade and goes up to around 60-70 when gaming so thats not the problem also my PSU is 450W

 

[Xazax310]

The one thing i really can say is,

A fresh install of windows.

usually when i have a problem like that nothing works best then a whole format.

Sure it takes time but usually solve all ur problems. If not then u know its something Hardware wise.

 

[AimHighCdn]

Hi Ciraxis,
I have a Sapphire X1950 PRO 512mb AGP, this card is very fussy about power, power supplies that is... try this site

http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown2.html

I know it says for Cross-fire, but AGP version needs minimum 450 watts, according to the side of the box... BS if you ask me. I had an Antec 430 watt PSU, it wasn't good it enough. I went out and purchased Game X Stream 700W and everything is fine now.

My symptoms ranged from my Sony G400 CRT monitor going dim during gameplay to outright crashing to desktop It's a good card I play everything 1024 X 768 and all detail to Very high all games.

 

[TonyStark]

As far as power consumption is concerned, the x1950PRO only pulls about 6 Amps at peak 3D, which equates to around 72 Watts of power from the 12V rail.

A PSU with 30Amps on the 12V Rail is more than enough for this card, hell, I've seen people are run a 8800GTX on 30A.

In my opinion your problem is either heat related, or software related. Maybe windows update, or a virus scanner, or some other program (maybe spyware) are running in the background.

 

[Scougs]

You fail to mention how much RAM you have. It doesn't matter how fast it is if you don't have enough. Since you upgraded the video card you might be using higher quality textures in the games. Higher quality textures need more RAM. If you don't have enough, you will cache to the hard drive which will cause temporary slowdowns like those you describe.

 

[TheUncle]

I had a very similar issue in a system I built a while back while playing WoW. On my video cards, (i was running SLi 7600gt's), I had zalman coolers, and i knew temperature wasn't an issue. My best idea would be the power supply, as I upgraded the power supply and that issue went away. It could also be cooling however, so don't rule that out. If you have a spare PSU bigger than the one you've got, i suggest trying it out.

 

[Ciraxis]

yeah i had 2 gig sry forgot to put that in when i typed the ram type haha, anyway ive sorted it now i downloaded driver cleaner and that sorted it, even though i followed instuctions before how to remove some nvidia drivers from system32 folder, was still some i missed that the drivercleaner got, ty for the replies

 

[Ciraxis]

Also about Supreme commander performance, quite nuts its optimized for dual core systems because the AI is cpu intensive, i read also that usually getting a beasty g card usually allows u to max out settings if u have enough ram to support it, id have thought 3.0ghz like in recommeded specs would easily be enough, but that unit limit is crazy how it can push ur system until it chokes, havent seen many games that do that or that are coded to utilise multiple threads. like oblivion and crysis are graphcis card hungry beasts but sup com is a different kind of beast in the fact that it relies on cpu power for the non graphical yet ample elements of the game.

 

[Ciraxis]

also medieval total war is very heavy on the g card it runs beautifully now, but sup com even at LOWEST settings with highest unit cap still bogs down my system, proof enough really, hope not too many games go in this direction because im going to need a serious overhaul if thats the case