really poor frame rates in COD4 with Nvidia 8800gt

[prpilot]

I have a Pentium D running at 3.00 GHz with 3 Gig of ram. It's a stock Dell XPS 400 except for the additional RAM (Corsair XMS) and the BFG 8800 GT 512 OC I added 6 months ago. When I play Call of Duty 4, in either single or multiplayer, my frame rates drop as low as 6 FPS! The best I can get is about 30, and that's in a very small space with nothing to draw. And it really doesn't matter which resolution I set it to, from 640x480 all the way up to 1600 x 1280 the frame rates don't change very much...they're always below 10 during the helo insertion in chapter two, and between 8 and 12 in multiplayer. And I read where everyone else with this same card gets 90 FPS all the time. I have tried everything I can think of, including:

- Changing all the graphics options. Even at 1024 x 768 the frame rates are around 8-10. With shadows off, smoke edges off, and AA at 2 it;s still 10 FPS.
- Reinstalling both Nvidia drivers and COD4.
- Opening a support issue with Activision (They're NOT helpful. After 5 or 6 communications with them I get questions like "is your computer running lots of other programs?" and "Have you got the latest drivers?" Sheesh.
- Opening a support issue with BFG, who simply referred me to Activision after a brief test to see if the card was running correctly.
- changing all sorts of settings in the Nvidia control Panel, I can't even begin to list everything I've tried...

Is there anyone out there who has a new idea? My system is not overclocked in any way, never has been. It runs Crysis pretty well at max settings, though I suspect my frame rates of 12-18 at max settings are lower than what I should see as well.

Thanks in advance.

 

[50bmg]

full hardware specs might help. Especially the psu. The psu might not have the power or may be going out. That recently happend to me.

 

[fugben]

sounds like a processor / power supply problem

 

[Jim_L9]

Try running 3DMark06 and report back with the results.

 

[gamerk316]

Same build as my old PC, extactly, only with a 8800 instead of a 8600. At 1024/768, you should be able to run a high/medium mix at around 40 FPS most of the time, its not lack of decent hardware...

Might be lack of power, as posted above.?

 

[Noya]

Same build as my old PC, extactly, only with a 8800 instead of a 8600. At 1024/768, you should be able to run a high/medium mix at around 40 FPS most of the time, its not lack of decent hardware...

The 8800 is 10x better than an 8600. At 1024x768 he should have all settings maxed out with no major drop in frames (even with a Pentium D).

 

[camaross427]

that's weird i have a 8800gts 512 which is a bit faster than the 8800 but not alot maybe 10% and it runs cod4 maxed out at a constant 60-80fps.
Check drivers and stuff make sure you don't have many files open when playing make sure there is no virus scan going.

 

[jampack714]

i have the exact same problem with the specs in my sig and now even with a new 4850...my 3dmark06 score is in the 9100's

 

[dokk2]

and !!! is there even a 6 pin for the 8800, on the "hell's dell's machine,plus the op changed/added to the ram,, corsair,which may not even like/be compatible speedwise the installed ram,non,.:>)

 

[dokk2]

for what it's worth,,,i have found that one of the biggest PITA's in windoze is it's swapfile,if you let windoze manage it you will get a file on your primary partition that can be as large as the remaining space ,usually tho it is 1and 1/2 x your installed ram,,,but,,,here it comes,,,what usually happens over time is that it gets broken up into a shed load of little bits that are scattered all over the partition,this has a serious impact on system effectiveness/speed..
My personal solution has been to create a partition of <>4g into which i can put a swapfile of any size that i want and forget about the sucker,forever,,,thank you...:>)

 

[prpilot]

I agree with many of you, it sounds to me like it may be my power supply. TWhen I installed the 8800GT it said a minimum 500W power Supply was needed. The one that came with my dell is a 350, but I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't mention this before because I wanted to see what people would come up with on their own, and thanks to many of you who came up with the same conclusion I have now ordered a 650W Corsair with 52 amp capability. It should be here early next week. I will post the results here when I get it installed.

Thanks again to all who responded here!

 

[sabot00]

WOW im not suprised, thanks for wasting our time. But we're supposed to be nice so good luck.

 

[wh3resmycar]

turn off your vsync.