Is the problem my CPU or my HD?

[katharinelk]

I recently upgraded my GPU from a vanilla nvidia 6800 to an ati x1950pro. I am able to run my games at much higher settings now, which is great, but I've encountered a problem in ridiculously long load times at game and/or instance startups. I am also experiencing occasional hiccups during gameplay.

I am wondering if the bottleneck here is my CPU and/or my HD. Here's my setup:

ASUS A8Vdeluxe socket 939 mobo
Athlon 64 3800+ CPU
2gb RAM
sapphire x1950pro GPU
maxtor 120gb ide HD (7200rpm,8mb cache)

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kat

 

[Grimmy]

When you increase the details of games, it may take longer to load all the textures into memory. So that may not be helped much.

I'd adjust the paging file manually so windows doesn't keep resizing it.

Defrag the hard drive should also help load times as well.

Making sure you have the latest drivers for sound and video should perhaps fix other things that you may not be aware of.

Other then that I don't know what else to say. Perhaps telling everyone your PSU specs may also help. Not sure what power requirements the x1950 pro needs.

 

[geofelt]

Try using the performance monitor to identify the problem.
If the cpu utilization is over 65%, then the cpu is weak.
If the hard drive is 65% busy, then it is the weak part.
If the hard page fault rate is over 2/second, then additional memory will help.

Look at the task manager to see if there is something else running that you don't expect.

Also, run a few different spyware scan programs, no single program seems to catch them all.

---good luck---

 

[katharinelk]

Thanks for the responses.

I should have mentioned that when I installed the x1950pro, I also upgraded the PSU to 550w, with more than enough amps on the +12v rails. I also had already run 2 spyware programs, cleaned out files that load on startup, and defragged the hard drive; none of these had helped.

To geofelt, what performance monitor are you speaking of? The one that is included with task manager? I tried looking at that while running a game, and sure enough, during those icky long loads the cpu usage was at 100%.

Interestingly, though, when I was running this monitor with no games, and no other apps running, the CPU usage continuously alternated between 0 and 70% usage. This is not normal is it?

Thanks!

Kat

 

[Computer_Lots]

No it's not. Your CPU util should not go above 5% if you're just idle. A virus scan can cause it to spike for a while but not eternally. Check the Task Manager, click on Processes, Click CPU twice to sort by highest CPU utilization. System Idle Process should be the first in the list. at 99% If anything else jumps up there, then that is the problem program. Also, It could be a compatability issue with the Nvidia and ATI drivers. Make sure you uninstall the old Nvidia drivers.

 

[geofelt]

I do not know if you are vista or xp, but each has a performance monitor. It is easiest to have them active if you have a second display, or if you can run the game in a smaller window. If not, I think there is a logging function to let you see the results later.

It would seem that you found the first answer which is a cpu problem. If there is something else going on which is necessary or important , then a dual core cpu might be helpful.

 

[katharinelk]

I found the program, a network monitor that was causing the cpu usage fluctuation, and disabled it....thanks for the info, computer_lots!

I agree, geofelt, I think the problem is the cpu. So, does anyone have any advice as to which cpu I should purchase? Bear in mind, I have an ancient AMD socket 939 mobo. Also, I'd prefer to spend less than 100 bucks.

Thanks!!