9800 GTX (bottleneck?) Help plz.

[Cymus]

Here are my system specs: Am2 Athlon X2 4200 Dual Core @ 2.2 Ghz stock, 2 gb Corsair XMS2 Series ddr2 @ 800 mhz (6400), xfx 9800 GTX graphics card @ 675 - 2200 - 1688 (stock). M2n4 Sli Motherboard, 450 Watt PSU(don't know brand but I bought it from newegg for $50 back in Oct 06).

Ok I was reading some figures about the newer high end games such as Crysis, I have read that the 9800 GTX would run Crysis on High settings no problem. My default settings are all medium, not high... My concern would be is there something wrong with my graphics card or does my processor hold back my graphics card THAT much? On Call of Duty 4 I get 60 FPS (synced) with everything on AA, A- Filtering all the way up,and maxed out @ 1280x1024 resolution(my monitor's max) That seems pretty good to me, is that pretty normal? On crysis my default was 1024x768, everything medium settings besides Game Effects Quality(high), Water Quality(high) and Volumetric Effects Quality. I get a low fps of about 13, average around 20-25 and high of 60. I'm running Crysis in 64 Bit Windows XP Service Pack 2, Direct X 9. The benchmarks say the 9800 gtx should run crysis at high with at least 30 fps... So My best guess is that my CPU is bottlenecking my GPU. Some input on this would be awesome, i will take any tweaking tips, etc with open arms. I'm just really wanting to play Crysis at really nice settings... I have not tested any other games besides the two, and those two are the main ones I play right now. Also another thing to add, in Call of Duty 2, I get 60 solid fps on all max, etc the same I got for Call of duty 4, is this an error or are the two games that much alike? Are there any commands, etc I can type in to get better performance in Crysis with the same specs?

 

[jitpublisher]

I don't know who told you that a single 9800GTX is going to run Crysis well with everything on high, it's not going to happen no matter what you do.
But it can be made to be enjoyable. Just tweak some of the settings down.
Things like water, and AA/AF ESPECIALLY if you have these on high -will really kill your frame rates.

Your processor is showing it's age. Yes, a 4200 X2 at only 2,2 ghz is not going to power your 9800 to it's full potential. See if you can overclock to around 2.6-2.8 or so, and think about upgrading it soon.

Download Rivatuner. Your 9800GTX will overclock pretty well. That will help also. Bump the core speed up to around 750, leave the shader clock synced to the core clock. Don't change the memory clock from stock.

But remember even then, an Intel Quad core at 3.5Ghz and 2 9800GTX's in SLI will still struggle somewhat in Crysis with everything on high.

 

[radium69]

I don't know who told you that a single 9800GTX is going to run Crysis well with everything on high, it's not going to happen no matter what you do.
But it can be made to be enjoyable. Just tweak some of the settings down.
Things like water, and AA/AF ESPECIALLY if you have these on high -will really kill your frame rates.

Your processor is showing it's age. Yes, a 4200 X2 at only 2,2 ghz is not going to power your 9800 to it's full potential. See if you can overclock to around 2.6-2.8 or so, and think about upgrading it soon.

Download Rivatuner. Your 9800GTX will overclock pretty well. That will help also. Bump the core speed up to around 750, leave the shader clock synced to the core clock. Don't change the memory clock from stock.

But remember even then, an Intel Quad core at 3.5Ghz and 2 9800GTX's in SLI will still struggle somewhat in Crysis with everything on high.

On high? What are you on about? My 8800GTS does 35fps average with a Q6600 @2,4ghz 1680x1050
My mate his 8800GT with a X2 5000+ has it also on high, and gets a good frame rate 35+ @ 1280x1024 he can even put 2xaa and still keep running 30fps average.

I would deffinetly save money and wait for a big upgrade, you could get some more lifetime if you put a x2 5000+ in it and clock it a little bit higher. That will boost your scores with a steady framerate increase.

 

[billin30]

For COD4, the max you are going to get with sync on is 60 fps. When you sync, it caps the fps so you get a more constant display. The same is true for Bioshock. I don't know about any other games. Taking the sync off will allow you to get higher fps' in some instances, but I have found its better just to leave it synced. I didn't see any noticable difference at higher fps'. I am getting my second vid card today for SLI (2x 8800GTS 512) and am wondering if the fps cap with two vid cards is higher when you have sync enabled.

As for your issue, just overclock your components and suck every bit of performance you can out of them. RivaTuner will do the trick for the vid card, but I don't know how to OC AMD processors. Just search on the internet for a walkthrough, thats what I did for my Q6600.

 

[swifty_morgan]

A friend of mine has the 9800gtx high end board. It too won't play crysis on high @ 12-10 or 16-10. 1024x768 for that machine. One thing that you and him have in common is the 2gigs of memory. Crysis is demanding in that respect.

I have a 4400 939 chip with 2gig of ocz platinum and running a 6800gts 640 card. I can play crysis on high with that card at 16-10. Personally I think the 9800gtx is a false bill of goods. But in my friends shop, where he builds custom computers, there are a couple of machines that will play crysis on high at 12-10 on high with an 8800gt.

I've learned that some configurations are better than others even though they are built similarly. Strange "hardware' world we live in.

Make tweeks like one of the other posters have mentioned and sooner or later you'll find a spot where you can get the game to play well and look good.

Buy a couple of more gigs of memory for that machine. if it's a 32bit machine it will only see about 3.42gig but that's better than 2.

 

[jitpublisher]

On high? What are you on about? My 8800GTS does 35fps average with a Q6600 @2,4ghz 1680x1050
My mate his 8800GT with a X2 5000+ has it also on high, and gets a good frame rate 35+ @ 1280x1024 he can even put 2xaa and still keep running 30fps average.

I would deffinetly save money and wait for a big upgrade, you could get some more lifetime if you put a x2 5000+ in it and clock it a little bit higher. That will boost your scores with a steady framerate increase.

You should really go back and actually read the OP's original POST.
The OP has a 4200X2, not a q6600. No one cares right now that you are averaging 35FPS with your Q6600 and GTS. Big whoop de do. I can play Crysis fine with my 4600X2 @ 2.8 and GTS/G92 @ 775 core, but not at the settings the OP is trying to run. Tell your buddy to turn AA/AF all the way up as the OP said he is doing and see what happens.

 

[lameness]

The cpu will be a bottleneck, I used to have the 4200x2 @ 2.6ghz and 8800gt. I recently upgraded to q6600 @ 3.2 but kept my card for a few weeks....in crysis especially i noticed a big difference.....between 5-30 fps extra.

The 9800gtx should be good for all settings high (1280x1024) with no filters. In fact at that resolution i think you could go to very high on certain things (ie water/ textures ...not shaders). My advice is to either upgrade, or OC your cpu. With a decent cooler (arctic cooler 64) you should be able to get 2.6 ghz without any trouble....

 

[rubix_1011]

Play a different game...Crysis is really only good to say "wow...that looks cool' and be done with it. I found I got bored really fast with that game and just gave up on it. Supreme Commander and COD4 are much more enjoyable...even UT3 beats out Crysis in the fun factor...if that really tells you anything.

Point being: $1000's of hardware and the game still doesn't play well at higher resolutions and AA/AF. Not one system cuts it like butter...even tri/quad SLI. You have to stop and ask yourself 'how much money is worth it to play one game at high levels, when I can play all others maxxed out for much less?'

 

[Vertigon]

Your 9800GTX isn't your problem, not even at very high setting at that res and all you need to do to know if your cpu is bottling is to run cpu-z.

 

[rubix_1011]

^ Exactly, Vertigon. I have a Q6600 @ 4.0 w/ 9800GTX and I can't play it with everything on high. I set it to 12x10 just to get good frame rates and then tinker with the other settings. Yeah, it would be nice, but it is like the Doom3 of yesteryear...nothing simply plays it the way it has been designed to be played.

Visuals are stunning, yes, but you only get a slideshow when you do...

 

[flyin15sec]

You should be able to OC that processor to 2.4Ghz easy. And with a little more work maybe even 2.6-2.8ghz.

If you're not into Overclocking, Newegg is selling 3.0ghz 5800+Brisbane, lower wattage requirement than the 6000+ CPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103274

Your board is an older board, so you may have to update your BIOS.

 

[cow_moo]

yes its a botleneck get a 6000+ or better it will help
I have an E8400+a 9800Gtx and it runs everyhing I throw at it even with AA/AF

 

[invisik]

my system can max it out in dx10 everything very high, vsync enabled, 1680x1050, no aa i avg 30fps. heres my setup

intel core 2 quad q6600 @3.0ghz
msi p6n diamond (X-FI sound)
4gig of OCZ oc 900mhz
Nvidia 9800gx2 @ 715/1100
Lite-On Blue-ray
500gb x1
80gb x1
Antec 500 Earthwatt
Window vista
Ultimate 32-bit
22" lcd acer monitor
Logitech X-540 5.1 Speaker System

when i had the 9800gtx before i was able to play everything on high and some stuff on very high getting a good 25-27fps. so leaving every thing on high was very playable.

 

[the last resort]

i have a 6000+ and a 7600GT, and let me tell you, the video card is the bottleneck. in NFS ProStreet demo, I cant break 30FPS at 1280x1024, with everything very low or off. The CPU isn't even running full power.

 

[Cymus]

I set everything to High on Crysis and whilst playing I got an average of no less than 15 fps and no more than 40 fps, i got a decent 20-25 fps with everything on high, 1024x768 no filters. The game played decent enough to enjoy I suppose and when i turned shaders down to medium it just made the game look worse with no performance increase, so I left it on high. Any more tips for me or is 9800 gtx 20-25 fps average decent for my set up? Thanks so far for all of your replies, it was greatly appreciated.

 

[Wisecracker]

If your power supply is at 70% efficiency you are maxed out (450w X .70 = 315w) - if it is 80% you have a little headroom (450w X .80 = 360w)

Because of AMD's ram dividers your memory is running at 733MHz (2200MHz / 6 = 366MHz X 2 = 733MHz)

Drop your HTT to X4 and increase your cpu freq to 218MHz. Your cpu will be running at 2.4GHz and your memory will be at DDR2 800MHz.

 

[pete4r]

you could try everything on high except shadows and water reflections etc, those 2 normally the killer of the graphics cards to handle, because they moves all the time, and the graphics card spends most of its powers to calculate those movements and forgetting all about the rest.

so try everything else on high and maybe low for shadow and water

hope this helps