I have a strange issue that I'm having a difficult time resolving. I built my system years ago, and upgraded it recently. And now I'm having issues with 3DMark03 testing and World of Warcraft. My graphics cards settings and in-game video settings match the old specs.
The "before" specs:
- AMD AthlonXP 2800+
- GeForce 6800 GT
- 1 GB RAM
The "after" specs:
- AMD AthlonXP 3000+
- GeForce 6800 GT (no change)
- 1.75 GB RAM (replaced a 256 MB stick with a 1 GB stick)
Motherboard (no change): Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
The upgraded system has a new hard drive with Windows XP SP2 installed fresh and updated. The old hard drive is slaved and set to drive F: so I can retrieve old data as necessary. In addition to SP2, I installed the latest nVidia ForceWare drivers, and the latest mobo drivers for my system.
On my old system, my average 3DMark03 (which I've kept using for consistency) test score was around 10,500. The new specs produced a comparitively less impressive score of about 7300. I later learned that I was underclocking my CPU and my AGP aperture size was too low, and when I fixed that up my score rose back to about 10,700. Things were good for a while and WoW ran fairly smoothly.
Last night, before bed, I found WoW to be choppy. To describe what I mean: the game ran fine for 1-4 second bursts, and in-between those bursts, for about a second or so, the frame rate dropped in half. It happens in heavily populated areas or in barren fields, whether or not my character is moving. I log out, run a 3DMark03 test, and get an abyssmal 6603 score. I noticed the test was exhibiting the same symptoms as WoW: momentary choppiness. I did a quick CPU-Z test to ensure my CPU multiplier hadn't dropped, and it is still at 12.5x where I left it. Unfortunately, I hadn't the time to check the BIOS settings, as I needed sleep. I'm typing this from work this morning.
I did check my CPU and GPU temps, though. My CPU runs about 48C under load, and my GPU about 65C, again under load, both well within acceptable levels for the respective temps. (Yes, I know that the CPU is a bit hotter than most techs like to see, but an AthlonXP can survive that temp under load. GeForce 6800 GTs run pretty hot, too). These are cooler than my old setup, which worked fine.
I will recheck the AGP aperture and other BIOS settings this evening, but I suspect they are going to be the same. If so, I'm not sure what else to check. Please advise, and thanks in advance!
The "before" specs:
- AMD AthlonXP 2800+
- GeForce 6800 GT
- 1 GB RAM
The "after" specs:
- AMD AthlonXP 3000+
- GeForce 6800 GT (no change)
- 1.75 GB RAM (replaced a 256 MB stick with a 1 GB stick)
Motherboard (no change): Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
The upgraded system has a new hard drive with Windows XP SP2 installed fresh and updated. The old hard drive is slaved and set to drive F: so I can retrieve old data as necessary. In addition to SP2, I installed the latest nVidia ForceWare drivers, and the latest mobo drivers for my system.
On my old system, my average 3DMark03 (which I've kept using for consistency) test score was around 10,500. The new specs produced a comparitively less impressive score of about 7300. I later learned that I was underclocking my CPU and my AGP aperture size was too low, and when I fixed that up my score rose back to about 10,700. Things were good for a while and WoW ran fairly smoothly.
Last night, before bed, I found WoW to be choppy. To describe what I mean: the game ran fine for 1-4 second bursts, and in-between those bursts, for about a second or so, the frame rate dropped in half. It happens in heavily populated areas or in barren fields, whether or not my character is moving. I log out, run a 3DMark03 test, and get an abyssmal 6603 score. I noticed the test was exhibiting the same symptoms as WoW: momentary choppiness. I did a quick CPU-Z test to ensure my CPU multiplier hadn't dropped, and it is still at 12.5x where I left it. Unfortunately, I hadn't the time to check the BIOS settings, as I needed sleep. I'm typing this from work this morning.
I did check my CPU and GPU temps, though. My CPU runs about 48C under load, and my GPU about 65C, again under load, both well within acceptable levels for the respective temps. (Yes, I know that the CPU is a bit hotter than most techs like to see, but an AthlonXP can survive that temp under load. GeForce 6800 GTs run pretty hot, too). These are cooler than my old setup, which worked fine.
I will recheck the AGP aperture and other BIOS settings this evening, but I suspect they are going to be the same. If so, I'm not sure what else to check. Please advise, and thanks in advance!