Why do games lag with pretty good computer?

[jasonpf1123]

hello there i've asked a few questions on here and i dont get this. my computer which originally was an acer x1200 athlon 64 x2 5400+ 2.8 ghz mainboard is acer wmcp78m, trandscend information 4gb ddr2 ram 180gb hdd onboard video onboard sound and vista as the os. well i ripped it all out and slapped it in a new mid tower case added a cooler master 600 watt power supply and a evga gts450 the one that came with free performance boost and seems to work lovely except one things my games lag like crazy even in 800x600. i mean these are games i should be ripping apart maybe except for 1 or 2. half life 2 e1, l4d 2, medal of honor airborne and the 2 that are iffy are crysis but i beat the recommended specs and mafia 2 which my processor might be iffy. so i dont know what gives. i did a direct driver update from nvidia a couple days ago version 267.59 tried to roll it back didnt help reinstalled didn't help. on crysis it was putting it med specs before, now it putting it at low in 800x600 mode. i dont know whats up. is there anyone who can help me? thank you very much for any ideas oh by the way i dont mess with overclocking nothing or turning anything up or down never knew how really but kinda i do

 

[jasonpf1123]

hello there i've asked a few questions on here and i dont get this. my computer which originally was an Acer x1200 athlon 64 x2 5400+ 2.8 ghz mainboard is acer wmcp78m, trandscend information 4gb ddr2 ram 180gb hdd onboard video onboard sound and vista as the os. well i ripped it all out and slapped it in a new mid tower case added a cooler master 600 watt power supply and a evga gts450 the one that came with free performance boost and seems to work lovely except one things my games lag like crazy even in 800x600. i mean these are games i should be ripping apart maybe except for 1 or 2. half life 2 e1, l4d 2, medal of honor airborne and the 2 that are iffy are crysis but i beat the recommended specs and mafia 2 which my processor might be iffy. so i dont know what gives. i did a direct driver update from nvidia a couple days ago version 267.59 tried to roll it back didnt help reinstalled didn't help. on crysis it was putting it med specs before, now it putting it at low in 800x600 mode. i dont know whats up. is there anyone who can help me? thank you very much for any ideas oh by the way i dont mess with overclocking nothing or turning anything up or down never knew how really but kinda i do

 

[4745454b]

CPU. 5400 doesn't cut it for gaming anymore.

 

[jasonpf1123]

CPU. 5400 doesn't cut it for gaming anymore.

please then let me ask you a question do you overclock? can you tell me where in bios and what numbers to put to overclock the cpu just a little bit to get a little more performance?

 

[dalauder]

An Athlon 5400+ is not "pretty good", but should handle any Source Engine games (HL2, Portal, TF2, etc.) just fine, even at 1680x1050.

You say "lag like crazy". Lag is often referring to a delay likely related to a slow Internet connection. Run a program like Fraps while you game and take a look at the frames per second. It'll get very choppy below 30 frames per second.

Your CPU cannot handle Crysis or Mafia 2. Your motherboard is actually an ECS MCP78M-A. It might be compatible for a drop-in AM3 AMD CPU upgrade. Let me check.

 

[dalauder]

Is this your motherboard? http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=873&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=20&LanID=9#Socket AM2+

 

[aznshinobi]

^ True dat.

You don't need to enable Fraps though. All Source games feature the console by clicking `. You can enable that in Advanced options. After enabling that, type in net_graph 3. That should tell you your FPS, Ping, etc. real time.

Yeah the 5400 isn't going to cut it for high end games like Crysis or Mafia 2, I don't even think it's that good enough for TF2. Maybe Portal, CSS, and HL2, but not TF2 IMO.

Try waiting it out for the BD chips, that or just get the Athlon II X3 450 and a cheapo AM3 board.

450+Board 132$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.624995

Great budget boards
60$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176

 

[jasonpf1123]

An Athlon 5400+ is not "pretty good", but should handle any Source Engine games (HL2, Portal, TF2, etc.) just fine, even at 1680x1050.

You say "lag like crazy". Lag is often referring to a delay likely related to a slow Internet connection. Run a program like Fraps while you game and take a look at the frames per second. It'll get very choppy below 30 frames per second.

Your CPU cannot handle Crysis or Mafia 2. Your motherboard is actually an ECS MCP78M-A. It might be compatible for a drop-in AM3 AMD CPU upgrade. Let me check.

thats not my mobo acer wmcp78m is. not laggy then. its choppy fraps shows like 10 frames a sec. on crysis on 1280x720 on my 50 inch plasma.mafia 2 and everything else is the same

 

[HVDynamo]

I am still running my socket 939 Athlon 64 x2 4400+ @ 2.4GHz and I can play all of those games comfortably on my computer, Crysis works, but it's not the best experience, but all the rest have no issues with these games, I play at 1680x1050. I realize that these older processors aren't ideal for gaming, but they do still work for gaming. I am not sure why you would be having such a terrible time with those games unless the processor is overheating or something. TF2 runs great on my system btw.

 

[dalauder]

He said he was running Vista, right? There's the problem!

 

[mortonww]

mouse is correct. I'm just gonna second his post. Your processor is way too slow.

 

[dalethepcman]

I will step forward and agree to disagree. You should not have choppy graphics on those games at 800x600. Here's a review using a Q6600 and dynamically disabling cores one by one to see the impact on games. This was done using a GTS 250 video card. Your CPU and video card are both similar to the performance of the dual core test setup.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/multi-core-cpu,2280-10.html

Here is the cheapest way to figure out if you need a hardware upgrade. Do a full backup of anything you have that's important. Format your drive, reinstall your OS, then reinstall your game, update drivers and give it a whirl. After a format and applying a fresh OS your FPS should be in the 70-80 range at 1024x768 on L4D2.

If you don't have a good backup solution you could keep your old drive intact and purchase a new one for $40.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

Don't go throwing hardware at a problem until you have ruled out software.

 

[tecmo34]

This next topics has been merged by Tecmo34
■ Why do games lag on my computer?

 

[rajaawad23]

as "dalethepcman" said reinstall vista,
your CPU is just fine, crysis requires minimum pentium 4 @ 2.8Ghz
make sure your power options are set on "performance"
try to use gamebooster, to get a little bit more out of your system http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
but reinstalling vista is the best move.

 

[dalauder]

He said it couldn't play Portal though. I could play Source Engine games well on my Athlon 64 x2 5000+ wtih a GeForce 7950GT. The difference must be that he's running Vista.

I agree, his CPU is terrible and CANNOT play modern games. But Source Engine games aren't modern--they just look amazing for 2004.

As far as reinstalling the OS. You can do a fresh install of Windows 7 without backing up (if you feel risky). It just puts all your files in C:/Windows.old.

To correct what mouse24 said--"phenom x2 would also be an alright upgrade". He meant a Phenom II x2 would be an alright upgrade. A Phenom x2 would be a terrible choice. A Phenom II x2 would be a big boost.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to find info about his motherboard. He just wants to keep telling me it's an Acer manufactured board when it's a rebranded ECS. I need the OP to look at the ECS website and tell me which board looks exactly like his or post a photo of his mobo. If we can determine the board, we might be able to recommend a big AM3 upgrade.

 

[dalauder]

@rajaawad23--Reinstalling Vista is not his best move. Reinstall Windows XP or Windows 7. Vista is that bad.

 

[rajaawad23]

@dalauder, i used vista for years same with xp and now 7, i am not saying it is better than 7 but it is an OS, i prefer it to xp, windows 7 is based on vista FYI
do you have 64 or 32 bit vista and what edition?

 

[dalauder]

Windows 7 is kinda based on Vista, but it's got a lot reworked so it's much less of a resource hog. I've used Vista, XP, & 7 on the same systems and Vista slows you down unnecessarily.

When you have a lousy computer, you can't really afford the 10% performance hit Vista inflicts. 10% is an estimate, by the way, but Vista will substantially slow you down.

 

[rajaawad23]

even though going back to xp will limit him to direct x 9, vista is compatible with 10 and 11 so is 7 so if anything he should be getting windows 7.

 

[dalauder]

Yes, he definitely should get Windows 7. But between XP and Vista, I say XP.

 

[jasonpf1123]

i figured it out. i had another post going on here it hit me that afew days ago i switched to maxium power save. cut the cpu right downn to 1000mhz. after i put power option to maximum performance swith back to 2800 mhz. played crysis 42 fps at 1280x720 on a plasma on medium specs.

 

[dalauder]

Haha! Great.

You'll probably want to just put the power option on Auto (or something like that), btw. It only will slow the CPU down when it's idle and will speed up to max quickly when needed (gaming, startup, etc.). That'll keep it cooler and save you 60W or so of electricity.

 

[ezio_creed]

I use amd fusion to make sure all my devices are working at full speed so i dont have that problem.