Bottlenecking

[damienpapson]

Hi, I've just recently bought a new PC specifically for gaming... The specs are as follows

Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 540 Processor (2x 3.06GHz/4MB L3 Cache)

Memory: 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430 - 1GB

Power supply: 550 Watt

Hard drive: 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s

OS: Vista (Directx 10)

I am getting much, much, much lower fps than I expected to get out of $1200. But it seems that my PC is being bottlenecked by one of the components. There is little difference in fps, but large difference in graphic quality when I turn settings down... For example, in WoW i get about 12 fps on ultra and 15-20 fps on low. I don't know enough about computers to know signs of bottlenecking but I think that there should be a much larger difference in fps... I have the same case with Crysis 2 aswell, almost no difference between lowest and highest settings fps wise (both around 15) but a pretty big graphic difference. I was expecting to get around 70 fps in WoW and I'm getting roughly 15 so you can imagine my frustration... Also I have updated drivers but besides that its straight out of the box. Any suggestion on software I may be missing or an answer to what is bottlenecking my PC? Or did I get ripped off and am getting the fps that my components are capable of? Thank you.

 

[T_T]

First thing that comes to mind is wanting to know what the make and model of your RAM is. Just because it is DDR3, doesn't mean it was meant for gaming or high performance.

Second, the 430 GT is not a very powerful card, but I agree with you on the expectation of greater than 15 FPS. Which leads me to me next question:

Third, what is your monitor resolution at?

Last, what is the resolution you play your games at?

Here's a suggestion, disable vertical sync in WoW, see if there is a change. I disabled VS in WoW because I saw absolutely no difference in the image quality. When I did that, my FPS went from 20's to 50's, standing in SW during peak hours.

 

[WR2]

Hello damienpapson;

Typically in a gaming system we see up to 25~30% of the system value in the video card. That would have been a $300 card in your $1200 system
In your system it's like 5% or $60.

What's the make and model of your PC? And who sold you that copy of Win Vista?

 

[damienpapson]

Thank you for your replies,
I run wow on 1024x768 and my monitor is 1920x1080.
I am not sure of the model of my ram but it is made by Corsair.
I had no idea people usually spend that large of a percent on their graphics card, I guess that explains where my problem is... I had a major problem deciding where to spend the budget I had with my PC, I'm new to PC's and there's really no frame of reference for components. I still think I should be getting more than 15 fps though.
My PC is a custom built one from ibuypower.com and came with vista installed. I know, I know, I could have built the same system for way cheaper myself, but this is my first PC, I've always had laptops, and I wasn't comfortabile and was a little confused with the software I would have to get and actually building it... My next will be self-built though.

Oh, and I will try to disable VS when I get off work and see the difference. Also resolution never even came to mind, I see how playing at a different resolution than my monitor might cause problems, I will try adjusting that tonight aswell.

 

[WR2]

You definitely want to run WoW on the full 1920x1080 resolution of your monitor.

We help people decide how to configure systems at CyberPowerPC and IbuyPower too.
There is nothing wrong with having someone else build a system for you. Building a PC isn't something everyone wants to do.
I have a bit of a problem with the IbuyPower site even letting people buy Vista when Win7 is just so much better IMO.