New build, having problems

[Lunkwill_Fook]

So, just put together my new system. I'll list the components and then state the problem after.

Athlon 4400+ AM2 Brisbane
2 GB OCZ Vista Upgrade DDR-800 (1 gb x 2)
Antec Sonata II case with Smartpower 2.0 450 ps
120 GB WD hard disk, IDE
300 GB Maxtor HD, IDE
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
PNY 7600 GT
Two LCD monitors (Acer 19" and BENQ 20" widescreen) using extend desktop both through DVI connections

Here's the problem:

Certain games I'm running to test it out start skipping as a play. Not immediately but, say, about 10 minutes into playing. Everything just gets really jumpy and altering graphic settings has no effect (I tried lowering to the minimum resolution and it did the same thing). I ran a temperature monitor on the CPU and it never got hotter than 30 C and I ran a voltage monitor on the PS and didn't see any fluctuations. Any ideas? I'm REALLY hoping it's not the CPU because I bought it long enough ago that it's out of warranty (OEM). THanks!

 

[Solariscs]

I don't think its the CPU it might be the graphics card or the motherboard.

 

[Lunkwill_Fook]

Well, the video card should be okay. It migrated from my old system and has never been a problem. Any way I could tell if it's the motherboard? Is there something I should look for like voltage levels or something?

 

[Solariscs]

yeah, in the bios you can see Voltage levels. However, just because the card worked, doesn't mean it does now . hopefully someone else will come by here with more info.

 

[jitpublisher]

Going out on a limb here, but did you install the AMD dual core optimizer?
I think it is supposed to fix a time stamp issue with some games. Supposed to take care of some issues ranging from running too fast, to stuttering or lagging gameplay. May not have anything to do with it all, but worth a shot if you didn't install it.

 

[Lunkwill_Fook]

Now that's a thought. Is that available online?

 

[San Pedro]

Try updating your bios for your mobo. Do you have something running in the background such as an anti-virus program? Download the lastest drivers for your hardware.

Try running a really CPU intensive program, such as transcoding a video file, to find out how the PC performs when the CPU usage is at 100%.
Good luck!

 

[leo2kp]

What games are you playing, and how much video memory do you have? Oblivion will use over 300mb of video. If your card is only 256mb, then the rest is thrown in to your system RAM which will significantly reduce frame-rates.

 

[jitpublisher]

Yeah, just Google "AMD Dual Core Optimizer". It's on the AMD website.
Very small program to download, quick to install.

 

[Lunkwill_Fook]

Just as an update, it WAS the AMD Dual Core Optimizer program that was the issue. Just ran that and all the games that were stuttery are running fine which is a great relief because software is always cheaper to fix than hardware. Now if I can only fix this problem with the sound card utilities.....