Please help me out this is my final try

[jampack714]

Hey guys, THANK YOU for taking a look. I've been scratching my head for a while with these problems I've been having.

I fell like my computer is under performing with the specs it has. Especially in cod4 and unreal tournament 3

3dmark06 score = 9100
- cod4 fps with "recommended settings" = 10-25 fps (unplayable)
- fifa08 runs on all high settings but hiccups when there are more players on the field
- unreal tournament 3 runs at 30-40 fps (close to unplayable online)
- company of heroes runs pretty well but also hiccups like fifa08
- counter strike source runs 100+ fps on max (the game I play the most at least it runs well)
- all of these games are running at 1280x1024

Now for my system specs:

Core 2 duo E6750 @ stock 2.66 (I've overclocked to 3.0 but didn't make much of a difference)
Radeon HD 4850
Msi 650i motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130082
Thermaltake 500w power supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153052
2GB crucial ballistix ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565
Seagate 160GB hd
Centurion 5 case
Arctic freezer 7 cpu cooler
Vista Ultimate 32 bit
No heat issues (this was the first thing I checked for)

What could be causing all these performance issues in games? I've cleaned my computer of all spyware/adware and have no viruses. The computer boots and runs very fast outside of gaming.

Is that 3dmark06 score accurate for my setup? I've seen in so many places people with less powerful specs than me run games at much higher resolutions and fps.

PLEASE PLEASE if you have any ideas PLEASE post them. I will be checking back every half hour and trying every suggestion.

Thanks!

 

[titaniumcloud]

Wow man, those COD4 and Unreal should be running better than that, but I don't know about the 3DMark scores. I have the same GPU and run COD4 at 1680 x 1050 around 60-70fps the last time I checked.

I know you said heat wasn't an issue. I applied that CCC profile fan tweak to get my 4850 running cooler, but I never tried gaming with it before I did that to see if heat would effect frame rates. The other thing that comes to mind might be the PSU 12v rails and how much juice your GPU is getting. I couldn't tell you if that would cause slower fps though. I'd think it would just crash if that was happening.

I'm still on XP, but I think the gaming performance on Vista isn't as bad as it used to be, at least not enough to make that big of a difference as you're seeing.

Hmm....what ATI drivers are you using?

 

[jampack714]

I'm using the new 8.7 drivers. These issues also occurred when I had a 8600gts but they were even worse. I installed these drivers the correct way using driver cleaner pro and safe mode etc.

It could be the power supply, but I hooked up my friend's and it didn't change the performance in cod4. What I ended up doing was using a special cod4 fps config and now it runs well over 100fps and not much eye candy is gone but it is noticeable. I should be able to run 70+ fps without an fps config. Could it be the motherboard causing the problems?

 

[titaniumcloud]

I don't think it could be the motherboard. It doesn't have PCI-e 2. as far as I can tell, but neither does mine. I wish I could be for more help. I know I had to tune some settings in CCC so a few games would work right, like turning on that Catalyst A.I., but seriously, I have no clue. I understand the slowdowns with the 8600gts, but it shouldn't happen here.

I went from an older 8800gts 320mb to this card, crossing my fingers that my move to ATI was a good one, and so far it is. I hope you get it working soon. Maybe someone else will have ideas.

Possibly post this in the graphics card thread, maybe more people will see it.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Have you tried seeing what your CPU temps are? As well as your GPU? Make sure your CPU is not throttling which would cause worse performance. Same with the GPU.

I would do this, run a game in window mode and use GPU-Z to see what your GPU is running at and CPU-Z to see what your CPU is running at. If the temps are fine the CPU should bumb to the max speed as should the GPU.

 

[jampack714]

My CPU goes down when not in gaming but during gaming its fine as well as my graphics card. The temps on my CPU are around 30C and my graphics card are 80C. Thanks for your posts so far but I need some new ideas!

 

[jimmysmitty]

I almost wounder if there is something wrong with your mobo causing info to go slowly.

Have you tried a reinstall of Windows? Maybe something there is causing the slow down.

 

[jampack714]

I have a feeling that the problem is the motherboard even though in past threads people have said that it can't be. I did find one forum where someone had a similar problem and it was fixed when he switched motherboards. The thing is I don't really have the money right now to go buy one but if I did, which is the best mobo for core 2 duo's with crossfire?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Any P35 mobo is creat. But for CrossFire its either a X38 or X48 mobo.

My personal opinion is CF is only good for 1920x1200+ res. Anything else below that only needs one GPU.

My fave mobo thus far is the P5K-E from Asus, thats because I have one and they are great fast and efficient.

 

[jampack714]

Do you think that if I called MSI and explained the problem they'd send me another motherboard?

Also, can anyone comment on my 3dmark 06 score of 9100? Is the reasonable with my specs?

Is there any test you can perform to check if your motherboard is working 100%?

 

[jimmysmitty]

If you just bought it you can request a RMA and since thats quite a old mobo maybe they will send you a newer one for replacement or you can see if they will trade for a better one.

BTW who did you buy the parts through?

Oh and no your 3DMark 06 score is way too low. I get 11K with my system stock (Q6600, HD2900Pro 1GB, 4GB DDR2 1066) and you have a much better system than I do. I would think you should get around 14K maybe more.

 

[jampack714]

I got the parts from newegg, can anyone else comment on my 3dmark06 scores?

 

[jampack714]

is 9100 3dmark06 normal for my setup?

 

[jimmysmitty]

What new parts did you get?