System not performing as well as it should
Tags:
-
Power Supplies
- Performance
-
Components
- Product
Last response: in Components
jb223
November 25, 2011 11:12:39 PM
Not sure if I'm posting in the right place as I don't know in what area my problem lies, so sorry if this should be elsewhere.
I just upgraded my GPU from a HD4890 to a 560Ti as I felt performance wasn't as good as it once was and some games were getting a bit sluggish when I don't think they should have.
The main offender being StarCraft 2 where I've been having to play on medium/low settings to get a decent framerate and having it still drop to ~20 in even just moderate sized fights.
The game automatically sets the graphics to extreme which I feel my rig should be able to handle, not have to play on much lower settings while still seeing poor performance.
When I was first playing the game over a year ago, I'm 100% certain I was playing on extreme settings without these issues.
Another example is Skyrim.
On my 4890 it recommended the graphical settings be set to high which was fine, I was happy with the performance and the game looked good.
I installed my 560Ti yesterday and the game now recommends all the settings to max, great. However the performance really isn't the best so I turned it down to high, the same as with my 4890, and it don't think it handles it any better. There are more glitches and graphical errors in fact, but this could just be down to the drivers or Skyrim working better with AMD at the moment, I don't know.
Thinking back to when SC2 seemed to run better, the only things that have changed in my system are the MoBo and PSU (and the recent GPU).
It went into a repair shop a while back and a guy diagnosed the MoBo as faulty so I got a new one. That didn't fix it. Took it to another place and this guy replaces the PSU which did fix it.
However, he replaced it with some PSU with a brand I'd never heard of and still can't really find anything about it. It's an EVO Labs 900W thing, but other than that I don't know anything of it. I just figured 900W sounded like a lot so thought it would be fine. Here's a link to as much info as I can find on it: https://www.azzta.com/shop/products/EVO-LABS-900W-80%25...
So I'm starting to wonder, could a poor quality PSU be the cause of this performance drop?
I've been using it for a year or so now and it hasn't died or anything, but my issues seem to have started around the time that it was installed.
Here's my system:
AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @ 3.6Ghz
PNY 560Ti OC2
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
Gigabyte 790XT-USB3
EVO Labs 900W PSU
Wrote more than was necessary probably, sorry.
TL;DR: System not performing well, could a poor quality PSU be the cause?
Thanks.
I just upgraded my GPU from a HD4890 to a 560Ti as I felt performance wasn't as good as it once was and some games were getting a bit sluggish when I don't think they should have.
The main offender being StarCraft 2 where I've been having to play on medium/low settings to get a decent framerate and having it still drop to ~20 in even just moderate sized fights.
The game automatically sets the graphics to extreme which I feel my rig should be able to handle, not have to play on much lower settings while still seeing poor performance.
When I was first playing the game over a year ago, I'm 100% certain I was playing on extreme settings without these issues.
Another example is Skyrim.
On my 4890 it recommended the graphical settings be set to high which was fine, I was happy with the performance and the game looked good.
I installed my 560Ti yesterday and the game now recommends all the settings to max, great. However the performance really isn't the best so I turned it down to high, the same as with my 4890, and it don't think it handles it any better. There are more glitches and graphical errors in fact, but this could just be down to the drivers or Skyrim working better with AMD at the moment, I don't know.
Thinking back to when SC2 seemed to run better, the only things that have changed in my system are the MoBo and PSU (and the recent GPU).
It went into a repair shop a while back and a guy diagnosed the MoBo as faulty so I got a new one. That didn't fix it. Took it to another place and this guy replaces the PSU which did fix it.
However, he replaced it with some PSU with a brand I'd never heard of and still can't really find anything about it. It's an EVO Labs 900W thing, but other than that I don't know anything of it. I just figured 900W sounded like a lot so thought it would be fine. Here's a link to as much info as I can find on it: https://www.azzta.com/shop/products/EVO-LABS-900W-80%25...
So I'm starting to wonder, could a poor quality PSU be the cause of this performance drop?
I've been using it for a year or so now and it hasn't died or anything, but my issues seem to have started around the time that it was installed.
Here's my system:
AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @ 3.6Ghz
PNY 560Ti OC2
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
Gigabyte 790XT-USB3
EVO Labs 900W PSU
Wrote more than was necessary probably, sorry.
TL;DR: System not performing well, could a poor quality PSU be the cause?
Thanks.
More about : system performing
DelroyMonjo
November 26, 2011 12:43:58 PM
Related resources
- Samsung 840 EVO not performing as well as it should. - Forum
- Help with i3-2120 not performing as well as should be expected - Forum
- Computer not performing nearly as well as it should with my specs - Forum
- My computer is not performing as well as it should. - Forum
- 2 x 770 sli not performing as well as they should. - Forum
jb223
November 26, 2011 1:17:50 PM
jb223
November 26, 2011 10:12:11 PM
Okay, I've got another issue too that's just now started.
I was watching a YouTube video and it kept hanging briefly. It was sort of making a buzzing noise for a second or so then carrying on, doing this maybe several times in a short period of time or not doing it for 30 seconds or a minute.
I restarted and ran a game. The same thing's happening, brief pauses or hanging.
Even as I'm typing this it's doing it, although not as often.
I've been monitoring the temperatures of my hardware and everything seems normal. Although I don't know what a normal temperature range for my motherboard is, and I'm getting three different readings for it with the highest reaching 51C and the other two at 35C and 40C.
Any ideas what this could be?
Also, when I'm trying to update my motherboard drivers it wants me to install ATI Cataylst Control Center.
I can't seem to do it without installing that and I thought if I did that it might cause some problems with having an nVidia card.
Any way to get around this?
Thanks.
I was watching a YouTube video and it kept hanging briefly. It was sort of making a buzzing noise for a second or so then carrying on, doing this maybe several times in a short period of time or not doing it for 30 seconds or a minute.
I restarted and ran a game. The same thing's happening, brief pauses or hanging.
Even as I'm typing this it's doing it, although not as often.
I've been monitoring the temperatures of my hardware and everything seems normal. Although I don't know what a normal temperature range for my motherboard is, and I'm getting three different readings for it with the highest reaching 51C and the other two at 35C and 40C.
Any ideas what this could be?
Also, when I'm trying to update my motherboard drivers it wants me to install ATI Cataylst Control Center.
I can't seem to do it without installing that and I thought if I did that it might cause some problems with having an nVidia card.
Any way to get around this?
Thanks.
jb223
November 26, 2011 11:47:31 PM
jb223
November 27, 2011 12:31:33 AM
jb223
November 27, 2011 10:54:05 AM
jb223
November 27, 2011 8:07:10 PM
jb223
November 28, 2011 5:43:01 PM
jb223
November 28, 2011 8:42:29 PM
I uninstalled the old drivers manually then ran a driver cleaner to get rid of anything left over.
That didn't seem to help so I did a fresh install of Windows and it's still the same.
http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3...
That's where I'm downloading from.
It's the 'chipset' one that's prompting me to install Catalyst.
That didn't seem to help so I did a fresh install of Windows and it's still the same.
http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3...
That's where I'm downloading from.
It's the 'chipset' one that's prompting me to install Catalyst.
jb223
November 29, 2011 9:57:01 AM
The file's called 'motherboard_driver_chipset_amd_333_win7'.
Haven't been able to get my hands on a PSU yet.
However, my dad's computer is basically exactly the same as mine and actually has some of my old components in it that seemed to perform better.
I'm going round at the weekend and giving him my old GPU so it'll be pretty much identical to how mine was a bit over a year ago.
I'll take StarCraft 2 with me and see how it performs in comparison to mine.
Haven't been able to get my hands on a PSU yet.
However, my dad's computer is basically exactly the same as mine and actually has some of my old components in it that seemed to perform better.
I'm going round at the weekend and giving him my old GPU so it'll be pretty much identical to how mine was a bit over a year ago.
I'll take StarCraft 2 with me and see how it performs in comparison to mine.
I looked and I couldn't find anything files to use updating that board outside of windows. I opened the exe file with 7zip to see what was in it and there are like 100 files in it with ATI written all over it.
Unless you are going to just let it do what it wants to do I don't see what other options are available than just trying other things to fix the problem like the PSU route.
Unless you are going to just let it do what it wants to do I don't see what other options are available than just trying other things to fix the problem like the PSU route.
I just spend like 1 hour searching "EVO LABS 900w" looking for a review, or a label, or even a manufacturer home page and I didn't find any of those things so far. I did, however, find plenty of "HELP! CAN'T BOOT!" threads with that combination of characters in it.
I really feel like I am going far out of my way here to try and explain why it isn't the PSU and I am kinda failing.
Could you either take a picture of the wattage label and host it somewhere (ideally) or just write out what is on it (failing the ideal) to the best of your ability? Also, include what things are connected to what connections in your PC?
- Edit - Typos
I really feel like I am going far out of my way here to try and explain why it isn't the PSU and I am kinda failing.
Could you either take a picture of the wattage label and host it somewhere (ideally) or just write out what is on it (failing the ideal) to the best of your ability? Also, include what things are connected to what connections in your PC?
- Edit - Typos
jb223
November 29, 2011 2:36:44 PM
jb223
December 6, 2011 9:06:27 PM
Sorry it's taken so long to get back. Been a bit busy.
I wrote down some of the info from the wattage label.
Let me know if you need more or if you need a photo.
+3.3V +5V +12VDC1 +12VDC2 +12VDC3 +12VDC4 -12V +5VSB
36A 40A 20A 20A 20A 20A 0.5A 3A
Hopefully that comes out right.
Computer's been hanging more aswell.
For a while it'll be okay and then it'll start hanging briefly every few seconds until I restart.
When this is happening my CPU usage shoots up due to 'System Interrupts.'
Getting annoying.
Thanks again.
I wrote down some of the info from the wattage label.
Let me know if you need more or if you need a photo.
+3.3V +5V +12VDC1 +12VDC2 +12VDC3 +12VDC4 -12V +5VSB
36A 40A 20A 20A 20A 20A 0.5A 3A
Hopefully that comes out right.
Computer's been hanging more aswell.
For a while it'll be okay and then it'll start hanging briefly every few seconds until I restart.
When this is happening my CPU usage shoots up due to 'System Interrupts.'
Getting annoying.
Thanks again.
jb223
December 6, 2011 9:08:02 PM
jb223
December 7, 2011 12:01:04 PM
I can tell you that underneath all that it just says '900W' spanning all of those figures.
I'll get a picture a bit later though.
I managed to find an XFX Core Edition 550W PSU at an affordable price.
Would you say it's worth getting it even if I can't be certain there's anything wrong with my current one, just so that I know I have a good, reliable PSU?
Thanks again.
I'll get a picture a bit later though.
I managed to find an XFX Core Edition 550W PSU at an affordable price.
Would you say it's worth getting it even if I can't be certain there's anything wrong with my current one, just so that I know I have a good, reliable PSU?
Thanks again.
I do hate to suggest people spend money when I don't know if it will fix their problems so I generally try to suggest people try to acquire one temporarily from.... somewhere... just to test with before they go out and spend money because my own tech budget is under $200 a year and I am so far behind the tech curve because of this it isn't funny (no ipod, no smart phone, no ipad, no consoles, etc).
So... I really hate to suggest it. That being said, I do take particular delight in knowing that I have a Seasonic PSU and that my power delivery is solid in both amount and cleanliness and my $200 video card (a whole years worth of tech budget video card) and my motherboard (even though it was free I don't want to pay $60 for another micro board) aren't likely to get destroyed by my PSU.
Power problems are extremely insidious, though, and usually try to disguise them as problems with something else. It is hard to rule out the power being a problem in any case without trying a different PSU in the PC.
I don't know about you, but I am comforted quite a lot by having a PSU that I can trust.
My wife had a computer problem lately and I was able to rip my XFX PSU out of my computer and shove it in hers to make sure that the problem wasn't with power delivery (hers is off brand like yours and it pains me) which it wasn't. It was a long shot anyway, but I was able to rule it out this way which was helpful to me in solving the real problem.
Personally, I think I would rather have the XFX 550 instead of the EVO Labs 900w if I were you and if anything I think it would help figure out what is going on with your computer if it doesn't solve the problem right away, but it could also be $50 wasted and I don't know how much that will impact you.
So... I really hate to suggest it. That being said, I do take particular delight in knowing that I have a Seasonic PSU and that my power delivery is solid in both amount and cleanliness and my $200 video card (a whole years worth of tech budget video card) and my motherboard (even though it was free I don't want to pay $60 for another micro board) aren't likely to get destroyed by my PSU.
Power problems are extremely insidious, though, and usually try to disguise them as problems with something else. It is hard to rule out the power being a problem in any case without trying a different PSU in the PC.
I don't know about you, but I am comforted quite a lot by having a PSU that I can trust.
My wife had a computer problem lately and I was able to rip my XFX PSU out of my computer and shove it in hers to make sure that the problem wasn't with power delivery (hers is off brand like yours and it pains me) which it wasn't. It was a long shot anyway, but I was able to rule it out this way which was helpful to me in solving the real problem.
Personally, I think I would rather have the XFX 550 instead of the EVO Labs 900w if I were you and if anything I think it would help figure out what is going on with your computer if it doesn't solve the problem right away, but it could also be $50 wasted and I don't know how much that will impact you.
jb223
December 7, 2011 1:43:49 PM
jb223
December 7, 2011 2:20:55 PM
Basically it's one horizontal line for the voltages, underneath that it's a horizontal line for the corresponding amps, underneath that it's '900W' on a horizontal line that spans the entire thing.
Sort of like this http://www.ocztechnology.com/resources/drivers/SXS400w_... but without the 'Max Combined' part.
Sort of like this http://www.ocztechnology.com/resources/drivers/SXS400w_... but without the 'Max Combined' part.
That is fine, though it sounds a little odd. I generally expect there to be lines in between like the one you linked.
Anyway, if I am to assume that you can max 20a on each line only limited by the total 900w and if I am to assume that what it says on the label is what it does in reality are the same things, then before you go out and buy a new PSU you may at least want to play a game of randomize the power connectors.
Basically just unplug all the 4 pin MOLEX connectors that go into things like hard drives, dvd drives, and so on and connect them to some other wire that they aren't connected to now.
Mine looks like this
![]()
with just 1 listing for +12v with 53A on it so I can't possibly connect the cables in a way that it won't work unless I went over the 53a.
For your EVO Labs one, if you put a 15A using device and an 8A using device on the same 20A line, then it would max at 23A and pass the 20A, potentially causing instability or shutdowns.
If you switched cables around, you could attempt to rule this out as a possibility, but it is usually pretty hard to tell which 12v line you are connecting things to. It is entirely possible if you had 2 things with 15A and another with 8A, you could move the 8 onto the one the other 15 is using, or move the 15 onto the one the other 15 is using, etc.
The manual might be able to give you some guidance on what connects with what, if you have one, or you could be left with trial and error. In the latter case, you would just have to do as I described above and try to play musical power cords and just switch a bunch of things around, try it, and if it doesnt work switch things again, etc.
I don't completely trust what is on the label since I can't find any serious reviews of the product or anything other than "WONT BOOT" threads with "EVO Labs 900w" in it, but it conceivably could fix your problems, at least temporarily.
If you have plenty of time on your hands, it may be worth pursuing.
Anyway, if I am to assume that you can max 20a on each line only limited by the total 900w and if I am to assume that what it says on the label is what it does in reality are the same things, then before you go out and buy a new PSU you may at least want to play a game of randomize the power connectors.
Basically just unplug all the 4 pin MOLEX connectors that go into things like hard drives, dvd drives, and so on and connect them to some other wire that they aren't connected to now.
Mine looks like this
with just 1 listing for +12v with 53A on it so I can't possibly connect the cables in a way that it won't work unless I went over the 53a.
For your EVO Labs one, if you put a 15A using device and an 8A using device on the same 20A line, then it would max at 23A and pass the 20A, potentially causing instability or shutdowns.
If you switched cables around, you could attempt to rule this out as a possibility, but it is usually pretty hard to tell which 12v line you are connecting things to. It is entirely possible if you had 2 things with 15A and another with 8A, you could move the 8 onto the one the other 15 is using, or move the 15 onto the one the other 15 is using, etc.
The manual might be able to give you some guidance on what connects with what, if you have one, or you could be left with trial and error. In the latter case, you would just have to do as I described above and try to play musical power cords and just switch a bunch of things around, try it, and if it doesnt work switch things again, etc.
I don't completely trust what is on the label since I can't find any serious reviews of the product or anything other than "WONT BOOT" threads with "EVO Labs 900w" in it, but it conceivably could fix your problems, at least temporarily.
If you have plenty of time on your hands, it may be worth pursuing.
jb223
December 7, 2011 6:09:53 PM
Related resources
- SolvedMy computer isn't performing as well as it should be. Forum
- My Gigabyte 5970 AMD GPU is not performing as well as it should Forum
- Computer not performing as well as it should/low graphics score on 3DMark11, need help Forum
- Why isn't my graphics card performing as well as it should be? Forum
- Is my GTX 560 performing as well as it should? Forum
- New GTX 570 not performing as well as it should Forum
- Self built not performing as well as it should Forum
- SolvedIs my system performing as it should? Forum
- SolvedWhat graphics card should I get that works well with my system, and can run all games on high? Forum
- SolvedWill this system perform well Forum
- SolvedHow well will this system perform? Forum
- $650 system will this perform good and overclock well? Forum
- SolvedWill this system still perform well? Forum
- SolvedGTX 980 SLI not performing well in 3dMark Firestrike Forum
- SolvedNoctua NHD-15 not performing well? Forum
- More resources
Read discussions in other Components categories
!