Low performance with GTX 285

Hello,

sorry if this question is placed in the wrong subforum - actually my first post on Tom's.

I recently bought a new system and graphics performance is severely lower than I'd personally had expected from the setup of this rig.
Setup is as following:

Mainboard: ECS AM2+ GF8100VM-M3 (GBL/R/V/DDR2)
Processor: CPU AM2+ Phenom X4 9850 4*512k (2.5 GHz stock)
Ram: 8GB (4 * DDR2 800MHz Kingston Valueram CL6 Bulk)
HD: SATA II 1TB Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB
Power Supply: ATX 650W
Graphics Card: GTX 285 (ASUS ENGTX285 1024MB HTDP/1GD3)
OS: Windows 7 64bit (RC 7100)

Graphics Driver is: 8.15.11.8585 from NVIDIA (release date 30.04.2009).
Latest Nforce drivers from NVIDIA installed as well.


My problem is that my performance in the only gaming app i use (World of Warcraft) is barely better than on my 2 year old Laptop which used a 8600M GT graphics card. Both systems (Laptop and the new one above) run on 1680 * 1050 resolution.
Even at lowest ingame settings my FPS drops down heavily (to 10-15 fps) when in a boss encounter. Around 15 fps in Dalaran.

CPU-Z and GPU-Z readings can be found here:
[img]http://img196.imageshack.us/im[spoiler][/spoiler]g196/7641/cpuzgpuz090516.png[/img]
This already includes me having slightly overcloced the processor to 2.7GHz (vcore in bios set to 1.43v - no idea why CPU-Z says 1.552)

I understand World of Warcraft is kinda strange in that it doesnt make real use of high-end graphic processors and is highly cpu-dependant where this system with an AMD Phenom doesnt really score.
Still the following Passmark Benchmark against two similar systems (also GTX285 and same Phenom 9850 processor) shows me heavily falling behind in the 3D graphics department, so the reason might lie outside the game after all? (I'm an amateur regarding this so please correct me if wrong).
With Aero disabled I get the following benchmark in Passmark:



Hopefully I didnt violate forum etiquette in some way here.
I'm highly thankful for any help, insight or advice you can offer,
Hinnerk

The quality of your forum post is far above average (as Im sure you know from having read some of the topics )

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196 [...] 090516.png

All the GPU-Z stuff reports the normal GTX 285 values.
I'd start looking at the motherboard video options. Maybe disable the GF8100 graphics chip, and turn off Hybrid SLI if it's enabled.

Good graphics performance is not isolated to the graphics card alone, if you want that killer 285 to perform top notch, you have to put it on a solid board.
WR2's suggestions are good start, but I would really look at upgrading that board.
Also try disabling cool and quiet in the BIOS, it can make a difference.

Yes, making sure Cool n Quiet is off is a good point. Those Phenom I's could downclock individual cores, which sounds good in practice, but was bad when Vista would shuffle threads around and force cores to jump back up. Worth a try if it isn't already disabled.

Another thing to try is to remove the drivers and use driver cleaner, and then reinstall them.

Could also try reinstalling WoW, and then defragging.

That Mobo isn't helping matters, but that card is surprisingly underperforming right now, so it is probably best to try some software stuff first just to be sure.

based on the image your HT link is very low check your board settings

<sigh> no idea why I cant edit my own entries :-(
In the last paragraph I ofc ment if getting the ASUS M3A32-MV was advisable/overkill if you suggest keeping the Phenom and staying with an AMD platform.