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Advice for an athlon 3000+ (goal: world of warcraft)

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Advice for an athlon 3000+ (goal: world of warcraft)

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kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 12:50:35 AM

Hi everyone, I have an athlon 3000+ with 1gig of ram and I want to get a decent video card to run WoW on it. I tried with an ATI 3850 HD but it seems the card might be powerfull for the PC. Even with no process running (no process is using the CPU in the task manager), the CPU is at constant 70% usage. Obviously performance are terrible because of this.

So, what do you suggest to use on that PC. The slot is for PCIE 16x. There's so many of them:
6600GT, 7200GS, 7300GS, EN8400GS, 8500GT, 8600GT?

edit: power supply is 380W


Message edited by kwijibo55 on 11-10-2008 at 12:58:52 AM
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Nik_I   11-10-2008 at 01:00:03 AM
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you should look into your cpu usage problem. fixing that would improve performance significantly.

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kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 01:02:14 AM
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Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. When I uninstall the video drivers CPU usage drop down to 1%. So it's caused by the graphic card. That's why I'm looking at lower end cards.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by kwijibo55 on 11-10-2008 at 01:03:06 AM
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Nik_I   11-10-2008 at 01:05:06 AM
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kwijibo55 wrote :

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. When I uninstall the video drivers CPU usage drop down to 1%. So it's caused by the graphic card. That's why I'm looking at lower end cards.



that's very odd. but i still think that its not the video card causing the problem. i don't see how installing drivers would result in idle cpu usage to be 70%.

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kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 01:10:32 AM
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No clue but I'm certain this is where it's coming from. I tried installing and uninstalling the video drivers many times and results are the same (1% with no drivers and around 70% with them). Other thing is the power supply is too low for that card and I don't want to replace everything.

edit: seems to be a common issue when the card is too powerfull for the CPU
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic81950.html
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=66641

Anyway back on the original topic, any advice for something to run WoW on that machine?


Message edited by kwijibo55 on 11-10-2008 at 01:19:23 AM
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frozenlead   11-10-2008 at 03:25:30 AM
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70% CPU usage on video drivers doesn't make any sense. I suggest you get a new set of drivers and/or different versions of them. Else, I would reinstall windows.

That first link doesn't say what CPU the person uses, so it's not valid on your issue.

For some reason, though, the newer PCI-e ported to AGP cards don't react well to a system that hasn't been established around it. In most of the PCs that I upgrade with these mega AGP cards, I am forced to reinstall windows - after that, everything runs smooth.

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bosshoss   11-10-2008 at 03:35:38 AM
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I had the same problem on an old ATHLON M2500+ system I had. Problem lied in the Catalyst Control Panel for me. I used driver sweep to rid the system (which included registry) of all ATI related software. Then I installed JUST the drivers. Worked like a charm.

And btw, that system should handle wow fairly decently. My old 6800gt with the 2500+ OC @ 2.8ghz could handle wow at max settings. Although with WoTLK they added new shaders that are giving my crossfire system hell.....

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kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 03:39:06 AM
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bosshoss wrote :

I had the same problem on an old ATHLON M2500+ system I had. Problem lied in the Catalyst Control Panel for me. I used driver sweep to rid the system (which included registry) of all ATI related software. Then I installed JUST the drivers. Worked like a charm.

And btw, that system should handle wow fairly decently. My old 6800gt with the 2500+ OC @ 2.8ghz could handle wow at max settings. Although with WoTLK they added new shaders that are giving my crossfire system hell.....



Ah, that might do the trick. I did try to install drivers only without Catalyst control panel but didn't try that driver sweep thing... I'll give it a try.

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megamanx00   11-10-2008 at 03:39:28 AM
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Don't know about that. I never had a problem like that with my 1950GT AGP on my Athlon 3000+. Unless that PSU is an Antec earth watts there is no way it's providing enough power for that Radeon 3850 so that right there should cause all sorts of problems. Also, don't install Catalyst Control Center since that's a big resource hog and will probably cause more problems on that system. The newest drivers are suppose to solve some of the problems for AGP cards, so make sure you have those, with the hotfix of course.

If you're going to swap out that card then go with a Radeon 2600XT AGP or a Radeon 3650 AGP.

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megamanx00   11-10-2008 at 03:45:36 AM
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1) I don't think your PSU is enough. If that card isn't getting enough power you get all sorts of problems. What kind is it exactly and how may AMPs on the 12v rail?

2) Don't use Catalyst Control Center. My old Athlon 3000+ with it's 1950GT has all sorts of problems with Catalyst Control center in just about all of it's iterations. Just use the drivers with the hot fix and use other tools to manage some of the finer details of the card.

3) If you're going to replace that video card get a 2600XT AGP or 3650 AGP. Since you will be mostly limited by your CPU it shouldn't be a significant drop in performance compared to what you should be getting if that 3850 was operating properly.

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jevon   11-10-2008 at 04:01:18 AM
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I used to play WoW on max settings with my 3000 and 850xt 256mb. I *almost* miss that rig!

I've never come across a situation where a graphics card was causing CPU useage to be stuck in high-gear. If doing a clean driver wipe and testing with different driver versions fails, as well as skipping CCC then the others advice about 2600 or 3650 are probably your best bets.

Good luck!

Reply to jevon
kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 04:04:24 AM
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megamanx00 wrote :

Don't know about that. I never had a problem like that with my 1950GT AGP on my Athlon 3000+. Unless that PSU is an Antec earth watts there is no way it's providing enough power for that Radeon 3850 so that right there should cause all sorts of problems. Also, don't install Catalyst Control Center since that's a big resource hog and will probably cause more problems on that system. The newest drivers are suppose to solve some of the problems for AGP cards, so make sure you have those, with the hotfix of course.

If you're going to swap out that card then go with a Radeon 2600XT AGP or a Radeon 3650 AGP.



Alright thanks, it's PCIE not AGP but still.

edit: if I read that correctly it says 22amps next to the 12V.


Message edited by kwijibo55 on 11-10-2008 at 04:09:18 AM
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Ares_   11-10-2008 at 04:10:44 AM
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A 8600GT/7600GT should do it. That should play WoW max and also be very low on power.

Reply to Ares_
njalterio   11-10-2008 at 04:39:24 AM
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On my old system....featuring a P4 at 2.8 GHz and an ATI X300....I was able to get around 30 FPS no problem in WoW. Never had the driver issues you spoke of.

------------------------------ Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand.
I don't care, I'm still free you can't take the sky from me.
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kwijibo55   11-10-2008 at 06:03:26 AM
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So, I made sure to remove all drivers from the on-board VGA and used driver sweeper to remove anything left from catalyst applications, then installed drivers only. Same thing, 70% CPU usage. Actually, I just tried running WoW with the on-board video and it runs better then with the 3850! I'll try with a lower end card tommorow...

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