Problems with my recent PC Upgrades

[tjharwin]

Ok guys, so I just bought some new upgrades for my PC this week.

Original rig:
AMD Athlon X2 2.8ghz Dual Core CPU
BFG nVidia 9800 GT GFX card
Seagate 500GB Sata HDD
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
OCZ 4GB RAM
1400x900 Samsung Monitor
OCZ 400watt PSU

Ok, so the two new parts I bought were:
XFX ATI Radeon 5770 HD GFX card
Akasa 500watt Power Pax PSU

My old PSU was a 400watt OCZ one, and I wanted to overclock my CPU in the coming future so I figured with a more powerful GFX and more power hungry CPU, I should upgrade. Anyways, I digress.

I've been having 2 serious problems with PC since I installed these two parts a couple of days ago.

1. When I turn on my PC, it takes a good 15-20 seconds for the motherboard bios to load and appear on my monitor. In that 15-20 seconds, my DVD-RW drive makes a series of consecutive 'clunking noises' which stops after about the 5th-6th time. Then the internal speaker FINALLY bleeps as it should when the motherboard bios load. Before this upgrade, the bios would load up instantaneously near enough, and the internal speaker would bleep after about 2-3 seconds of me hitting the power switch. Now it's closer to 25 seconds.

2. I'm getting a horrible FPS in game. The 9800GT is a fairly mediocre card, but I'm pretty sure my FPS in games like Counter-Strike Source was 200, it was roughly 35-40 in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and was about 30 in games like GTA IV and Crysis. With my new 5770 HD card, it's now dropped to 130 on Counter-Strike Source, it's averaging between 20-35 on Bad Company 2, and it's still around 30 on GTA IV and Crysis. So not only am I not seeing an improvement, the FPS is even worse on some games.

Can anyone help me solve these two problems? Don't give any stupid as suggestions like my CPU is bottlenecking my GFX, 'cause the 9800GT was running them fine with my CPU. Plus, Quad Core sure as hell isn't necessary for Bad Company 2, so...

Just to point out, I used drive sweeper first to remove my nVidia drivers, then installed the latest version of ATI Catalyst Control Centre (10.6).

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the foums, newcommer and HI!

you didnt mention your mobo in your specs ...

a bottleneck or an issue with your grafix card....

 

[tjharwin]

Mobo is a Foxconn M61PMV. Does that make a big difference?

 

[Lutfij]

OK, here goes.

Th PCI-e sot on your mobo is rated at version 1.0 x16. Normally the grafix card you chose will be usable since PCI-e 2.0 i backwards compatible with PCI-e 1.0 slots. But theres a catch! Some mobos have the older 1.0 slots that cause an issue with the 2.0 version cards thus causing bottlenecks...or a stutter in your gaming experience.

Heres a simple solution to rule out your mobo slot. Test it out in another rig. IF the FPS seen is same on THAT rig, then the card is an issue. I forgot to mention, the other rig can be of a dif spec.

Post back here.

 

[tjharwin]

Hmm. Thing is, I don't have another rig to test it out on.

Not sure what I can do about that.

 

[Lutfij]

Then take it over to your pals....

I just looked up your card again, its PCI-e 2.0. Then the slots aren't an issue - the card is! Test the 9800 GT again

 

[tjharwin]

None of my close-by pals have rigs tbh. They're all craptop fags.

 

[Lutfij]

LOL...then place th 9800GT and see how things go from there. Can you overclock the x2 ? provided you have an aftermarket cooler

 

[tjharwin]

Well, I planned on overclocking it. I need to purchase an aftermarket cooler first though. But I'm not particularly sure on what I'm looking at. I'd only overclock to 3.2 max I think, but even so, I might just buy Quad Core.

The 9800GT was fine, but perhaps that's meant for PCIe x 16 1.0 and not 2.0
I'll have to read into the matter more.

 

[tjharwin]

My BFG nVidia 9800GT is also a PCI-e 2.0, the XFX Radeon 5770 HD is a PCI-e 2.1 so technically they're both too advanced for the mobo? If that's the case, how come my 9800GT delivered maximum performance? (Or what I believe to be maximum performance).

 

[Lutfij]

Version 2.1 is nothing but an usher for 3.0. Essentially its the same as a 2.0 but has a lil' difference. Wiki has an article on this matter - PCI Express

The PCI's aren't too advanced for your mobo - they're backwards compatible with 1.0 slots. the issue could be wth the CPU bottleneck and/or an issue with the card

now about the overclock, you should hit something like 3.5-3.8Ghz to move out of a bottleneck , but wy not move with a Quad core amd?

"then place th 9800GT and see how things go from there" - i meant replacing the 5770 with it again, andsee if you get your initial bnchmark scores/FPS

 

[tjharwin]

Okay. I've done some tests. I used my new PSU for both. May I just say FIRSTLY that the 9800 GT requires no 6 or 8 pin power, but the HD 5770 requires 1 6-pin power cable. The 9800 GT resulted in an instant boot, with the bios loading straight away and the internal speaker making a beep. The HD 5770 took approximately 15-20 seconds to allow the bios to boot, with a series of consecutive clunking noises coming from the DVD-drive. The internal speaker finally bleeps after this time period. I switched the 6-pin cable connected to the card (could have been a faulty lead) but this made no difference. Anyways, onto the benchmarks.

BFG nVidia 9800GT

Counter-Strike Source Video Stress Test:

160.8 FPS avg.

Grand Theft Auto IV Benchmark Tool

Average FPS: 31.35
Duration: 37.35 sec
CPU Usage: 97%
System memory usage: 78%
Video memory usage: 91%



XFX ATI HD 5770

Counter-Strike Source Video Stress Test:

177.0 FPS avg.

Grand Theft Auto IV Benchmark Tool

Average FPS: 33.08
Duration: 37.46 sec
CPU Usage: 95%
System memory usage: 77%
Video memory usage: 43%




So this time, I'm actually seeing small improvements compared to what I was seeing. But shouldn't I be seeing bigger improvements than this?

Also, another question I have to ask is how do you know my motherboard is 1.0 PCI-E, because I can find that in writing anywhere! Also, how much of a difference does 2.0 make in terms of FPS, but I'm seriously considering upgrading my mobo now.

 

[Lutfij]

lol, i was just editing the post

The benchmark results show improvement and they are the most you an get from that 5770. If you crossfire, maybe you'll get atleast 20-30% increase or more in FPS. You can see a bigger improvemen we you switch to a PCI-E 2.0 slot. That is one bottleneck.

Your mobo found on their site, states that. You'll find it on the specs tab. If you had a PCI-E 2.0 slot it would've shown "PCI-E 2.0 x16" such as this

PCI-E 2.0 basically has double the bandwidth thus faster data transfer/processing : here's a read

You really sure the clunky sound doest appear with the 9800?

Upgrade huh? you looking to change the mobo only? I'd look into an ROG board Crosshair III Fomula - you cant go wrong with it - though a lil' expensive

* i don't know if you've noticed but your 9800GT shows as a PCIe 2.0 bus interface wheras your 5770 shows a PCIe 1.0 interface - your card should't be showing 2 things on the same mobo. I'll need to dig some stuff up. You can put this doubt to rest with CPU-Z...it should show your PCIe version

 

[tjharwin]

Not a happy face until problem is resolved! lol.
Answers to my questions?

 

[Lutfij]

Ok i suppose i know whats going on...GPU-Z shows your CARDS PCIe bus version, not your mobo's PCIe version. But thats wierd!!! 5770 is PCIe 2.0/2.1, or isnt it?!?!?! as seen here

btw Where you from?

The ROG board

 

[tjharwin]

It's a 2.1, yes. Funny that...


I think I'm going to upgrade my motherboard to this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174002

And at the same time, upgrade my processor to this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191956

My budget doesn't cover much else, those two parts just cost me a bomb! I really need a motherboard with DDR2 memory though, as I can't afford to buy new memory and my 2x2GB OCZ suits me fine. What do you think?

 

[Lutfij]

so want to keep your rams huh? which OCZ's dya have?

 

[tjharwin]

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_vista_performance_gold_4gb_dual_channel

 

[Lutfij]

The ebuyer site is bloody expensive!!

Heres how i see it.

Since your making an upgrade to an AM3 proc but cant go all out to an athlon x4/x6 mobo cos of the rams then get an Inel 775 proc, that way you can get an Asus Maximus II Gene and yet have you DDR2 rams. OCZ are awesome for OC'ing!

sorry for the constant edits, my keyboards acting up...lol - its making way for my sidewinder x8

 

[Lutfij]

I suppose things in UK are a lil' overpriced cos of tax - oh well - c'est l vie!

The way i see it getting an x4 proc is excellent - but getting that MSI board will limit your options. Choosing a mobo with dual PCIe slots will help you use mutiple cards in the future and maybe get another 5770 and you'll definitely see higher FPS.