MSI NX8800GTS FPS Drop

[kapgun]

I have a problem. I run Windows XP and when I play games and a lot of particle affects go off my fps drops to around 5fps and it stays there and I have to quit the game and restart the game. But this seems to happen a lot. Ive tried....

A) I OC my video card and Ive tried it on the stock timings.. same either way.
B) New graphic drivers... no luck, tried 3 different drivers.
C) Tried lower graphics settings on the video game, no luck still happens.

This is my computer newly built a few weeks ago. At first this did not happen, it did not start till recently about a week ago. I only play 1 video game(Age of Conan) so I am not sure if this happens with other games.

Any suggestions on something else I can try?

Thank you very much for any opinions or tips.

MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB, CE, CSA, UL, FCC

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

MSI P45 Neo3-FR LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

 

[shadowthor]

What do you mean by particles? Do you see dots?

 

[kapgun]

I mean particles like a lot of people cast spells all at once..... I get no graphic distortion or anything I just get a decrease in FPS to around 5 and then it stays there.

I read in another thread about someone play WoW and it was their sutom UI.. so I attempting now to go back to the standard UI and see if it still happens. I dont see how it could be the UI but ill give it a try.

 

[cliffro]

My setup is similar to yours except i run Vista, I noticed a particle slowdown today playing Project Torque(Settings maxed)
It dipped low enough for me to notice but it never got to 5fps . I took particles from High to the next setting down and it stopped doing it.

P.S. E3110 is the Xeon version of the E8400

 

[kapgun]

Still haven't figured it out... my core temp is 40 and my vid card temp is 40 when this happens. Ive tried using stock timings on my vid card to no avail.

Even though my core temp is 40 on my processor is it possible that it being over clocked could make this happen?

 

[dagger]

I use the exact same MSI card, oced to 780mhz. Haven't had any particle related problems. It's normal for fps to drop when there's a lot of particles on screen, but it shouldn't be nearly as low as 5fps.

Might be the game itself being quirky. Try to stress the card and see what happens.
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

 

[kapgun]

I have 3D Mark and I get a score around 15000.

 

[billin30]

Get RivaTuner and use the tool that graphs yer clock speeds and fan settings and all that. See if for some reason it is cutting your speeds in half. This just happened to me, but in an SLI setup.

What you need to do is attempt to do the overclock and when the screen comes up asking to reboot or...whatever else it is...do the reboot and it should hopefully reset the stock settings, then you can overclock again from there.

Still don't know what caused this. My only guess is a drop in power due to me adding a power sucking fan to my case. Then for some reason it could only power it up that far. I removed the fan and then noticed the lower clock speeds.

Give it a try and hopefully it works