Why such low framerates?

In what games, and what settings?

cpu is bottlenecking your system, the 9800 gtx is a pretty decent card, but the 8500 gt sucks really bad in gaming and if you swapped and you're still getting the same framerates, then is noticeable your cpu is bottlencking

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W

Maybe vertical sync is turned on?

which would cap your max framerate to 30fps

Didn't vertical sync cap frame rates at 60?

It would if you could achieve 60+FPS consistently. If you get like 55FPS or something, it would cap it at 30FPS.

We really cannot give you a completely valid answer without knowing what games and what settings. If you are complaining about Crysis for example, well, that's the limit of all your hardware. If you are complaining about COD2, then we have an unusual problem.

As Lopok said, in most games today, your CPU will be the main bottleneck. And I am one to not really use the word bottleneck. It's a dual core based on the older netburst architecture. As such, it would be outperformed by a less than 2GHz Phenom II or core 2 duo. By quite a bit.

Now this is also dependent on which games and at what resolution. So we really need additional information on software.

Depends on the game. I've seen Bioshock and WIC with v-sync on and it caps at 30fps. Turning it off, I get a whole lot more.

I play nearly all games, WoW, CounterStrike Source, Team Fortress 2, Age of Conan, all of these games and any others I throw at it are capping out at around 30 fps. I have turned all V-Sync off, I mean I have been building machines for awhile and built my nephews box but this is just wierd?

that processor is more than enough for Wow, i play Wow on a PD805 just fine and 60fps (most areas) even on my old ati 3870, so if you're only seeing 30fps then you would have to be v-synched limited or the refresh rate on your monitor is set ungodly low at 30hz.

Well if anyone could look at the XFX website and they have a CPU list of what can be used for that board but I dont know what is best to get for what I do. I just want the games to run smooth with what I have until this xmas.

Reading up on the net....

If your screen could do 60Hz, but your system could only produce 31-59fps (and never 60fps) it would chop it down to 30fps. If your system could do 60fps minimum then it would chop down the fps to 60fps.

V-Sync seems to chop down to either 30fps, 60fps, 120fps, etc.

Anyone can rec a cpu for this board? XFX 680i LT supposed to be a decent board?

thx

V-Sync normally caps your FPS to the same frequency as your refresh is currently set to in the monitor setting in Windows. With most LCD monitors, that is 60Hz.
This means, that if you cannot achieve 60 fps, you won't notice any difference with it turned on or off. If you can get above 60 fps, you'll be capped, never seeing the game go beyond 60 fps. Full name of "V-Sync" is "Synchronice to vertical refresh rate". If your screen is running at 60Hz, it means that it cannot physically display more than 60 pictures per second. Hence the 60fps cap. V-sync will not cap a game above (or below for that matter) 60Hz unless: 1. You screen is running a higher (or lower) vertical refresh rate or 2. You're using some forced settings/hacks.

Thanks Warmon, I dont really have a budget but am giving this machine to someone when I build the new one so I want them to be able to play a few games. If the e7500 is the best i can get I will go with that. Thx again.

If your system couldn't produce the consistent minimum 60fps on a 60Hz screen (which is the default and what I have), it would lock to 30fps. You should try it with some games and see for yourself (try it with fraps). Find some high settings on the games you have, wherein your PC couldn't produce 60fps, but never dip below 30fps.

With V-Sync on, you either get 30fps (unless you system just really couldn't draw up the game) or 60fps for 60Hz.

No problem.

There are better cpus for it (faster dual cores and some quads that are decent speed), but the price is starts to jump drastically from there.

I have tried it for myself. I have tried many games where FPS is very variable, depending on what's going on on-screen. In many cases, minimum FPS drops below 60 fps, in some cases, even below 30 fps. V-sync is still set to 60. Perhaps they've changed this in some more modern First Person Shooters, which is a genre I have little to no interest in, and thus haven't played much for a number of years, but in the ones I've tried with, V-Sync is a constant 60Hz. The problem with disabling V-Synch is when your computer is capable of rendering more than the 60fps, due to the possibility of graphical artifacts, such as tearing.

Best answer selected by rliming.