Low 3Dmark06 scores and Low FPS in SC2

[griffed88]

Hey i recently had to sell my laptop and drag out an old pc to hold me over til I can save for a new laptop.

My current setup is:
AMD FX-60 @2.6ghz
2gb pc2700 RAM
ATI 4850 512mb
160gb HDD
22in Monitor @ 1680x1050
Windows XP 64bit
500w BFG PSU

I got a 3dmark06 score of 7219
Does that seem low to anyone else? I was poking around on other forums and other people were getting above 11k with similar setups.
I also am getting between 10-20fps in starcraft 2 no matter what settings I use, Low, Med, High, Ultra. All the same fps.

TF2 gets between 15 and 50 fps on high settings depending on whether or not there is a ton of stuff going on onscreen. that seems like a big difference between high and low fps.

Is the slow and low amount of RAM bottlenecking the whole system? Or could it be xp64? Or is my computer just too old to handle current games?

Another thing that I find troubling is that my CPU usage hovers around 35% when idling, only 46 processes running in the backround. (It is a two day old install of xp64)

Any help or knowledge regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[wiinippongamer]

the cpu is bottlenecking that card BAD

 

[griffed88]

ok I thought so, I had previously posted on these forums asking whether or not the cpu would bottleneck the card and they told me the cpu would be powerful enough. I guess they were wrong

 

[AMW1011]

Your CPU is not bottlenecking the card, but SC2 and 3dmark are both very CPU heavy applications, so keep that in mind. However it is likely your RAM that is bottlenecking you the most, you only have 2GB of slow DDR RAM.

 

[griffed88]

What would suggest I do? I really don't have very much money to upgrade the mobo/proc/ram. What would be the cheapest way to go about getting a setup that won't bottle neck the card?

 

[AMW1011]

Another thing that I find troubling is that my CPU usage hovers around 35% when idling, only 46 processes running in the backround. (It is a two day old install of xp64)

If that is consistent then there is something very wrong. No modern processor should idle in the double digits, especially your old, but decent, dual core.

You need to track down what is causing this.

 

[AMW1011]

What would suggest I do? I really don't have very much money to upgrade the mobo/proc/ram. What would be the cheapest way to go about getting a setup that won't bottle neck the card?

You need to track down why your CPU usage is so high and you need to trim off some applications for more RAM space. You could try using the free trial of this:
http://www.systweak.com/CacheBoost/

 

[notty22]

Imo, you might have a buggy driver, odd combination of hardware is not something I would put xp 64 bit on. I would put windows 7, or xp 32, vista 64, vista 32. Anything but xp 64.

 

[griffed88]

Imo, you might have a buggy driver, odd combination of hardware is not something I would put xp 64 bit on. I would put windows 7, or xp 32, vista 64, vista 32. Anything but xp 64.

yeah I don't really like xp64 all that much, I tried installing vista32bit a couple days ago but I couldn't get any of the ati drivers to work at all. always went to a black screen and froze up after the welcome screen. Apparently it's a problem they've had since 2008, there is a huge thread over at the amd/ati forums about it. I'd like to switch to win7 but i'm worried the drivers would give me issues and I'd waste my money.

@AMW1011 I'll try and figure out why it's idling so high, it's pretty annoying

 

[griffed88]

well i still can't figure out why my cpu is idling so high, still a constant 30-35%.
I tried playing League of Legends and only got a high of 25fps no matter if it was on high or low. I'm getting pretty frustrated, I feel like even with the odd/old setup I should at least be able to pull medium settings at at least 50fps.

Is there like a $150 mobo/proc/ram setup that wouldn't bottleneck the gpu(or is the gpu just messin up?)

 

[ahnilated]

Do you know how to get into Windows task manager? You could sort by processor in there and see what process is taking up all your processor time.

 

[griffed88]

Do you know how to get into Windows task manager? You could sort by processor in there and see what process is taking up all your processor time.

yeah I did that. I just noticed that it says System Idle Process cpu=88
if i ended that process would it crash my comp?

 

[griffed88]

nvm, I looked up what system idle process is. It being at a high number is good apparently.

Apparently if it's at 88 it means that 88% of my proc is unused, but that doesn't coincide with it also saying that I'm at a constant 30-35% cpu usage.

 

[ahnilated]

You need to find out what is using the other portion of the processor. Look below the system idle number to see what else is using the system.

 

[Scott2010au]

Your HDD might be running in PIO mode - it happens sometimes, and/or your mainboard drivers have not been installed or have not been installed correctly.

■ Generally this is what causes the "System Idle Process" to appear good (>95%), and the Kernel Mode CPU usage [red in graph if enabled] appears higher than the difference!

■ ie: 88% System Idle (in the graph) + 35% CPU Usage (in the status bar) can actually be reported in Windows XP and XP x64 TaskMgr.exe - no joke!, due to Kernel Mode CPU usage.

What mainboard are you using?
(Start, Run, MSINFO32 - Check System Manufacturer and System Model)

Due to the age of the system you would want to consider a BIOS update and installing the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard - not (just) from the company, but from the chipset vendor (as the company will have stopped reporting on driver updates once the chipset is 3 months old).

PS: You can not terminate the "System Idle Process".

 

[griffed88]

Your HDD might be running in PIO mode - it happens sometimes, and/or your mainboard drivers have not been installed or have not been installed correctly.

■ Generally this is what causes the "System Idle Process" to appear good (>95%), and the Kernel Mode CPU usage [red in graph if enabled] appears higher than the difference!

■ ie: 88% System Idle (in the graph) + 35% CPU Usage (in the status bar) can actually be reported in Windows XP and XP x64 TaskMgr.exe - no joke!, due to Kernel Mode CPU usage.

What mainboard are you using?
(Start, Run, MSINFO32 - Check System Manufacturer and System Model)

Due to the age of the system you would want to consider a BIOS update and installing the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard - not (just) from the company, but from the chipset vendor (as the company will have stopped reporting on driver updates once the chipset is 3 months old).

PS: You can not terminate the "System Idle Process".

thanks so much for this help, I am currently running on an Asus A8S-X mobo and under the system manufacturer and system model it just says "system manufacturer" and "system model name"

I updated the BIOS to the most recent ones available on ASUS's website (from 2006 lol) and I can't seem to find any chipset drivers for my mobo. It uses SiS 765 Northbridge and SiS 965L Southbridge chipsets. I didn't find anything on Asus' or SiS' websites.

Also, how can I tell if my HDD is in PIO mode or not?

 

[ahnilated]

In the bios there should be a selection for it under the hard drive area.

 

[griffed88]

Ok i checked my BIOS and made sure it was not in PIO mode. I can't find anything that is taking up so much cpu. I still cannot find any chipset drivers for my mobo as well.

Also windows update is no longer working, it keeps saying everything is failing.

I'm pretty much done messing with this computer, at least with xp64, it has been a nightmare. I'll try and get a copy of win7 and see if there is any change with that.

Chances are i'll just save a couple hundred dollars for an athlon II x3 and cheaper mobo and ram. hopefully that will last me awhile.

Thanks for all your help

 

[Scott2010au]

You've almost solved this one - I wouldn't give up quite yet

http://www.sis.com/download/

Then select OS, SATA & RAID, then SATA & RAID again.

The following screen will have the driver for the SiS 965L Southbridge.

I would also suggest trying to install the SiS provided drivers for your other system components.

 

[mortesv]

Just a stray thought: I had a similar problem with a system I hadn't been running for a long time. I found out that my cpu was very hot because the cooler had fallen off a bit while in storage. This resulted in the CPU throttling down to very low speeds.

Make sure your cpu is not running too hot

 

[griffed88]

Ok, I'll give it one more shot after work today. I'll try installing the sis stuff from the link you provided and i'll check to make sure my heatsink is seated correctly. What would be normal temps for an older cpu? I do know that I have a an aftermarket cooler on it and I think the last time i checked temps they were in the upper 40's C

 

[griffed88]

Best answer selected by griffed88.

 

[griffed88]

well, after downloading the sis stuff I am able to play css at a constant 60fps with everything maxed out. I can play League of Legends on very high at about 30-50fps and starcraft 2 is running much better but still a bit worse than expected. the 35% constant cpu usage is still there but I am able to play my games so i'm ok for now.

Thanks for everything guys

 

[Scott2010au]

Thanks, It is amazing what difference a few KB's or MB's of drivers can do, eh?

I also like mortesv's response as a throttling CPU would cause an increase in CPU usage, something I did not consider & should have.

In regards to the 35% constant CPU usage:
■ Have you tried Disabing the Indexing Service completely? (Start, Run, services.msc, Double-click on the Indexing Service and change the startup type to disabled. Hit the stop button if it is started, which is likely, and then hit OK.)

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey