I think something is up with my PC.
I always hear of how current mid-high end PC's are capable of running recent-ish games at high widescreen resolutions, an adequate level of AA/AF at great framerates. We're talking games like Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, etc.
But my PC for the oddest reason never comes close despite it being fairly recent. Mass Effect, even on 800x600 on the lowest possible texture settings runs around 30 FPS, with dips/stutters in between, Team Fortress 2 (even on the famed Source engine) runs OK at 1280x1024 with no AA and medium-high textures middles between 20-50/60 FPS.
And though I know Crysis is supposed to be a system wrecker, I recently picked up Crysis: Warhead and again, even on the lowest settings (we're talking 800x600 again, lowest possible texture settings, no AA, etc.) it probably runs at 10-20 FPS.
It seems the more advanced the engine, the more terrible the game runs.
My system isn't *that* terrible, is it?
CPU: AMD X2 4400+ (2.2 Ghz, Dual-Core)
GPU: Geforce GTX 260 (before the revision)
RAM: 2 GB OCZ PC400
HDD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II
PSU: 535W Enermax All-in-One
(No extraneous components sucking up power. Just your basic DVD drive and all-in-one floppy drive. Also, all drivers for video/sound/CPU are updated to their most recent versions.)
I'd really love to play Mass Effect, as I just picked it up, but I'm currently running that game at 1024x768, no AA/AF, textures set to medium and probably getting anywhere between 15-30 FPS, with stutters in between. Otherwise, nothing is out of the ordinary with the PC, ie. playing videos, exploring files. I do notice however, that even my laptop PC is sometimes quicker to load websites/applications in general, but I don't figure that a major concern.
One concern I DO have is that with my recent Geforce GTX 260 (and I realize this is much more relatively powerful than my CPU), it requires 2 PCI-E slots (the thing is huuuge!). I don't know much about motherboards, but mine only has a central 16x PCI-E slot (which worked fine for my Geforce 7800 GT) and 2 8x PCI-E on either side of it.
I have no idea if that means anything, but will that reduce GPU performance? Other than that, I can't think of anything else that could result in such poor graphics performance from my PC.
I have one more question. I have a friend that just got a recent PC with a Geforce 9800GTX. Now I don't know much about that card, but does it only use 1 PCI-E slot? If so, would it be beneficial at all to trade cards? His new PC could take advantage of the newer GTX 260 and if this is true, I might receive a performance gain myself.
I'd appreciate any and all ideas on this. Thank-you.
I always hear of how current mid-high end PC's are capable of running recent-ish games at high widescreen resolutions, an adequate level of AA/AF at great framerates. We're talking games like Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, etc.
But my PC for the oddest reason never comes close despite it being fairly recent. Mass Effect, even on 800x600 on the lowest possible texture settings runs around 30 FPS, with dips/stutters in between, Team Fortress 2 (even on the famed Source engine) runs OK at 1280x1024 with no AA and medium-high textures middles between 20-50/60 FPS.
And though I know Crysis is supposed to be a system wrecker, I recently picked up Crysis: Warhead and again, even on the lowest settings (we're talking 800x600 again, lowest possible texture settings, no AA, etc.) it probably runs at 10-20 FPS.
It seems the more advanced the engine, the more terrible the game runs.
My system isn't *that* terrible, is it?
CPU: AMD X2 4400+ (2.2 Ghz, Dual-Core)
GPU: Geforce GTX 260 (before the revision)
RAM: 2 GB OCZ PC400
HDD: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II
PSU: 535W Enermax All-in-One
(No extraneous components sucking up power. Just your basic DVD drive and all-in-one floppy drive. Also, all drivers for video/sound/CPU are updated to their most recent versions.)
I'd really love to play Mass Effect, as I just picked it up, but I'm currently running that game at 1024x768, no AA/AF, textures set to medium and probably getting anywhere between 15-30 FPS, with stutters in between. Otherwise, nothing is out of the ordinary with the PC, ie. playing videos, exploring files. I do notice however, that even my laptop PC is sometimes quicker to load websites/applications in general, but I don't figure that a major concern.
One concern I DO have is that with my recent Geforce GTX 260 (and I realize this is much more relatively powerful than my CPU), it requires 2 PCI-E slots (the thing is huuuge!). I don't know much about motherboards, but mine only has a central 16x PCI-E slot (which worked fine for my Geforce 7800 GT) and 2 8x PCI-E on either side of it.
I have no idea if that means anything, but will that reduce GPU performance? Other than that, I can't think of anything else that could result in such poor graphics performance from my PC.
I have one more question. I have a friend that just got a recent PC with a Geforce 9800GTX. Now I don't know much about that card, but does it only use 1 PCI-E slot? If so, would it be beneficial at all to trade cards? His new PC could take advantage of the newer GTX 260 and if this is true, I might receive a performance gain myself.
I'd appreciate any and all ideas on this. Thank-you.
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