Underwhelming FPS. Any Suggestions?

[wookie2000]

Hello everyone I'm new and this is my first post!

I will get straight to the point. I don't think that my computer is performing as good as it should be. I use the setup below, on max settings on both the graphics card and the games that I run, running at 1680x1050 resolution.

Setup:
-Windows Vista for DX10
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 - Only one card at the moment
-Intet Quad Core 2 Extreme CPU Q6850 @ 3.00GHz - Not Overclocked
-ASUS Striker Extreme NVIDIA 680i SLI Motherboard
-Cooler Master Real Power M850 power supply - 850-1000 watts
-4 Gigs of KINGSTON DDR2 400MHz RAM. 4x1gig sticks but using a Vista 32 bit system
-22" LCD 1680x1050 resolution 2ms

Now for the games:
Crysis = 22fps with no aliasing and enthusiast settings when outdoors.
World Of Warcraft - 15-24 fps in towns and flying in the air - 70+ in dungeons
Farcry 2 - 26-33 fps when outdoors
Fallout 3 - 26-30 fps when outdoors

I am not complaining. But everyone says they can max the settings on these games with thier machines and get higher fps than my machine. Even when they enable aliasing.
I have the aliasing and filtering turned up on my GTX settings as well as the programs.

Running a 3D MARK 06 test gets me 6491 marks - Crystal clear picture but low fps. 25 or so. I get get higher marks with lower settings but for this test i was using:
8 Sample AA - Trilinear Filtering 1680x1050 resolution

I understand aliasing eats up the fps but for my rig I would have though it could handle it a bit easier esp for my resolution. People with 1600x1200 resolution screens can get higher fps than mine.

Any suggestions? should I overlock it? Should i get another card and SLI?

Any tips on how to speed up my FPS would be awesome. I don't want to upgrade everything. I feel that my PC is above average but my only next real upgrade would be another card if it makes that much of a difference. Money isn't an issue for me.

I am a bit worried about overclocking. I don't want to damage my hardware. But it might be what it needs

Thank you for reading and yes I have the latest drivers. Time for bed

 

[MayDay94]

get cpu-z. it will tell you details about your ram.

your fps aren't bad but maybe not as good as you would like. since many people have their q6600 at 3.4+, you may want to oc your cpu to that level.

 

[wookie2000]

Hrm using CPU-Z it says my memory is:
KINGSTON DDR2 400MHz - 400MHz? I thought it was higher. Is that slow?
It's 4- 1 gig sticks

 

[JDocs]

DDR2 800mhz is actually only 400mhz single data rate (DDR stands for double data rate) so I'm not surprised by the 400mhz.

 

[serpent1202]

CPUZ reading 400 mhz means your ram is running at 800, since its ddr2, which is what its rated at.

There have been tons of posts in the past where people complain about poor cpu & gaming performance. In about 90% of those posts, people are using all 4 memory slots on their CPU. Once they upgrade to 2X2 Gigs, they problem instantly goes away and their PC's perform to the level they thought they should.

Ram is super cheap right now, and you also mentioned money is not an issue so this should be an easy fix. I'd get 2X2 gigs of some decent DDR2 800 from newegg and it should fix your fps.

PS, who buys an unlocked processor and doesn't OC? OC THAT PROC MAN!

 

[jerreece]

Something isn't right.

My q6600 @ 3.2Ghz and 8800GTS will beat your FPS in all those games. HOWEVER, keep in mind I run 1440x900, so you may be doing okay.

Your DDR2 should probably be reading 800Mhz, if it is PC6400 RAM. 400Mhz is the old DDR PC3200. You might check with CPU-Z and or make sure you're software is up to date.

If CPU-Z still shows 400Mhz, you might also check your BIOS and be sure your RAM is configured properly. Probably a reading error though.

 

[evilshuriken]

Something isn't right.

My q6600 @ 3.2Ghz and 8800GTS will beat your FPS in all those games. HOWEVER, keep in mind I run 1440x900, so you may be doing okay.

Your DDR2 should probably be reading 800Mhz, if it is PC6400 RAM. 400Mhz is the old DDR PC3200. You might check with CPU-Z and or make sure you're software is up to date.

If CPU-Z still shows 400Mhz, you might also check your BIOS and be sure your RAM is configured properly. Probably a reading error though.

Jerreece, CPU-Z only shows the actual RAM frequency, not the effective DDR speed. So 400Mhz is perfectly normal.

 

[wookie2000]

I will have a look and see if it is the RAM and I'll post my results. My friends is building his own PC too and is getting 2x2gig sticks so maybe I can convince him to let me test them out
I will also try and OC my Processor a little bit and see how it goes.

Cheers for the replies they're helpful!

 

[mehcrim]

The fps you are getting are very underwhelming for your pc, i got a pc a small step down from yours and it can easily surpass those fps on 1680x1050 res. The ram runnning at 400mhz sounds strange but it could be correct.

I have 2x2 gigs of ram so serpent is probebly right try it out and tell us what you find.

 

[V3NOM]

well the GTX 280 is a pci express 2.0 card, and the 680i has a pci express 1.1 slot so..

 

[Zenthar]

Both PCI-E 2.0 and 1.1 are intercompatible.