1 FPS with GPU??

I have just finished building my new system and I'm getting frustrated with the graphics. I have tried playing portal and it freezes every 5 seconds (looks great when working though). I just tried the 3dMark benchmark test and never got above 1 FPS! My temps are all <50C. My Power supply is 550W. Any ideas??



Mainboard : MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD K9AG Neo2-Digital
Chipset : AMD RS690/RS690M
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ @ 3000 MHz
Physical Memory : 4096 MB (2 x 2048 DDR2-SDRAM )
Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Monitor Type : LG Electronics W1952 - 19 inches
Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Operating System : Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate Professional 6.00.6001 Service Pack 1
DirectX : Version 10

Did you get the latest drivers for you video card and other devices?

well, first of all, the 8500 isn't such a great card. having said that, go into the nvidia control panel/advanced/program settings/+global, and make sure the settings for most things are set to global or set to application controlled. Down where it says multi display mixed.... select single display option. see if this helps any. And down where it says how many pre-rendered frames... try 3 and don't set to zero or 1.

Yes I removed the ATI graphics, yes my current drivers are up to date. By freezing I mean screen freezes, audio loops and 5 to 20 seconds later, the issue resolves until the next time (usually in another 5 to 30 seconds). Changing the settings swifty suggested has made a noticeable difference, but maybe only improved the play to 30 seconds between lags.

I have a 200mm fan in the side of the case and 120mm in front and back. Playing in a window with temps displayed show nothing above 50C. The only other thing that consistently happens is that CPU 1 is at 100% load and CPU 2 is at like 3%. From what I understand the Source engine doesn't support multiple cores, but does this mean that my GPU isn't handling (can't handle) enough of the graphics load??