Slower performance on better comp... need diagnostic tools...

[dlikhten]

I have 2 identical computers.
1 has a core 2 duo
1 has a core 2 quad
both have the nvidia 8800 GTS
2bg ram

same specs other than processor.

I built the duo first, worked fine, games work fine.

I built the quad and swapped hard drives to test it out. Note same exact specs except the processor and the fact that the quad's motherboard has 8 instead of 4 usb ports... same model.

However when running any game, i get significantly lower frame rates. I cannot understand why. Are there any diagnostic tools I can use on both to try to pinpoint the differences.

Once again, I took out the hdd of the duo and put it in the quad, without changing any settings performance dropped significantly.

Anyone got any clue?

BTW Running Windows XP x64

Just to give a good comparison:
Bioshock worked flawlessly on max settings with core 2 duo
Same settings with quad
5fps.

 

[dlikhten]

Bump

 

[rayzor]

i believe this may be some kind of driver issue. The fact that you switched the hard drive to another motherboard could mean that incompatible drivers are still loaded on the hard drive and aren't communicating properly with the mobo in the quad core rig.

What I'd hope is that this problem would go away when you installed a fresh copy of an os on the quad rig.

 

[dlikhten]

Interesting...
I do find it strange though since both motherboards are the same model. I am going to do some hardware swapping tonight in hopes that I can weed this problem out: If the duo performs same with the quad's video card then it is the quad's drivers, otherwise probably the video card.

There WAS one interesting thing that happened. When I first booted up, it gave me a notification that it found some PCI somethingorother... I tried add hardware but it does not "find" this anymore... Maybe it was a controller? I will try uninstalling and re-installing my mobo drivers.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Without a fresh windows install or at minimum a repair there is no way to get the system 100% with a different board. What models are your cpus? Q6600, and e6600? If one is faster then the other that will play a big part in speed. Example: e6750 will run faster then q6600 unless the app takes advantage of the extra cores efficiently.

 

[folius]

Its your FSB on the processors. A higher FSB clock gives better framerates in games than more cores. Most games out right now dont even fully utilize 2 cores, let alone 4. So a core2duo with 1333fsb would and is better for gaming than a quad with 1066fsb.

Look at the benchies on most sites, it will tell the same story.


On the other hand, if your doing more than gaming, the quadcore is better. Video rendering, graphics, anything that requires a large amount of processing power rather than video/memory power, you will see the advantage go to the quad core.

 

[night_wolf_in]

umm, i know that swapping harddrives without uninstalling all the drivers n **** then putting it in other pc will cause problems. BUT i dont know what is the issue with same hardware except cpu. my advice is, try fresh installation. n it should solve the problem.

wanna test ur system.

memtest86+ to test ur ram.
primer95 is used to test stability of cpu (not speed of processing).
so im not sure.

 

[rayzor]

folius, cache alone shouldn't cause this much of a discrepancy.

also, despite the fact that the motherboards are the same there may be differences in driver installations based on the differences between your processors.

As night wolf said, a fresh os installation should solve your problems.

 

[evongugg]

The new hard drive may not be as fast as the old one.
You can run benchmarks or consult Tom's charts.

 

[dlikhten]

evongugg i think you didn't quite understand... i am using the same hard drive, not same model, the same physical piece.

As for the comment about same mobo model, I never quite knew that same mobos can have these slight variations that can cause havoc...

The FSB was running at 800mhz on duo, 1066mhz on quad.
E4400 vs Q6600
Though that makes a lot of sense what you guys were saying about FSB.

I will try the following:
1) Try swapping video cards, if everything works this could indicate hardware failure.
2) Try re-installing mobo drivers
3) Re-install windows

If 1 works as expected that at least I know it's a software issue (im hoping for that at this point )

Thanks a lot for the advice. I will let you know tomorrow what my results are.

 

[Kari]

and make sure your temps are fine. If the heatsink on the quad isnt seated properly it can cause high temps and the cpu will throttle down to prevent overheating, and that will kill your framerates in such a demanding game.

 

[dlikhten]

ok so initial test:
I ran 3dmark 2005 i ran it with the new video card then swapped it out for the old one so that I am testing ONLY the video card NOT anything else. (no other variables here)
With new video card: 5600 score
With old video card: 12000 score

So obviously something is going on in hardware here...
I noticed the video card fan may have been slightly jammed and thus may have forced the vcard to throttle to lower speeds. i will swap back and re-test i feel this is hardware issue.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Did you clean out the drivers before switching or did you just overlap them?

 

[jitpublisher]

You cannot simply swap a hard drive with XP installed back and forth between 2 computers, even if they technically are identical. You MUST reinstall the OS on the new system. It may appear to work, but it won't work RIGHT.

Where do people come up with all these idiotic ideas and then wonder why things don't work correctly?

 

[valis]

i think i have it.

you have swapped hard drives, which means your OS is identical, yes?

that means that windows doesn't have the right processor installed, might be the thing that's giving you problems. go into device manager, look under computer, and look at what is there. that driver doesn't always automatically change depending on what cpu it sees. for example, when i installed my 3.2 northwood w/ht into my system a few years ago, nothing changed in windows, meaning it still only saw one processor and didn't show the hyperthreading, UNTIL i removed that ACPI component, and selected the ACPI multiprocessor version.

you may have to do the same thing.

put the drive on the quad, go into device manager, remove that component, and reinstall and see if it gives you other options. however, if there is one that works on quad and doesn't work on dual you may have issues putting the drive back on dual.

Valis

 

[dlikhten]

I did nothing other than take one card out and put another card in.

It appears that a fan jam was to blame. The drivers or vcard or even mobo must have throttled it so that hardware did not break (thank you good foresightfull developers).

Kinda sucks when you find a problem you been banging ur head against and realize that it has been 100% your fault!

 

[dlikhten]

i think i have it.

you have swapped hard drives, which means your OS is identical, yes?

that means that windows doesn't have the right processor installed, might be the thing that's giving you problems. go into device manager, look under computer, and look at what is there. that driver doesn't always automatically change depending on what cpu it sees. for example, when i installed my 3.2 northwood w/ht into my system a few years ago, nothing changed in windows, meaning it still only saw one processor and didn't show the hyperthreading, UNTIL i removed that ACPI component, and selected the ACPI multiprocessor version.

you may have to do the same thing.

put the drive on the quad, go into device manager, remove that component, and reinstall and see if it gives you other options. however, if there is one that works on quad and doesn't work on dual you may have issues putting the drive back on dual.

Valis

No, processors switched.

It was hardware issue. The 8800 has a heat sink fan that is different than a case fan in shape. The SATA wire connects RIGHT by that fan causing the wire to touch the head of the fan, this either caused it to spin slow or not spin. There was no clicking sound since none of the blades were touched. The fan is also not that amazing to begin with.

I tied the wires away from the vcard.

Lesson: First rule out hardware issue before software issues. Hardware issue can at times be easier to rule out. I am glad i had 2 vcards since if I didn't have to pop the case back open i don't know if i would have found this. Heh secure wires when you connect everything