Problem with ATi HD 4770 or GTX 560 Ti

[Miharu]

Hi,
I have a little problem and I asking for your help.

I just started for weeks ago to play with some games.

I had a ATi HD 4770 (512mb)... and this card seem to be a bit slow in Duke Nukem Forever.
I know my pc is kinda old... but it's a Duo Core 2 2.4ghz... so he should at least be playable at low resolution. (also I don't have many program running... I keep my Windows clean Hijackthis and disable unused Windows services).

I had older ATi Cataclyst drivers.. so I tried uninstall drivers... few test.. installed the lastest 11.6.
Seem the card run faster without any Cataclyst drivers.. ?!? I don't really understand why...

I also had trouble with Flash running slow. Many topic exists for this issue with 4770 and 5770. (I think it's due to clock speed in Windows / The card is underclock at 200-250mhz in Windows so doesn't give the correct hardware acceleration)(anyway this is another issue)

Also I seem having trouble with nProtect (game antihack in few games). Slow performance and game freeze (Game???.des could freeze the game for 1-2 minutes in the middle of a in game 3D shooter.. it's not good )

Anyway... I just choose to change the old card for an "EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit". This card should be at least 2 times better.

I uninstalled ATi.
Change the card.
Install Nvidia drivers.
Run DNF... somewhat same slow performance... ?!?
Running Flash game, a bit better but still suc*s.
I have another computer with an low level msi nvidia (I think its a 8400) and it's better than that....

-----

Finally, I want your idea for troubleshoot this...
Perhaps you know what is wrong...

I think I have a hardware or Windows 7 problem.

This is my hardware:
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4ghz
-ASUS P5QL/EPU LGA775 P43 chipset FSB 1600(O.C.) Energy Saving
-OCZ Gold XTC 0CZ2G10664GK 4GB 2x2GB DDR2-1066 5-6-6-18
-500GB WD Caviar Black WD5001AALS 7200rpm 32MB
-4 others HD
-LG BD-RE WH10LS30

I think nothing should be wrong... except:
1. The CPU... (but he should be playable at low resolution)
2. if ASUS P5QL/EPU have special trick in the bios?
3. Perhaps having many SATA II drives overload the motherboard (since I use all 6 SATA ports)?!?

And for the software... I just see Windows 7 64 bits Pro SP1.
1. I run every update since Win 7 release. Perhaps it's a problem ?

I think about test few thing more.. but want your opinion before do extreme thing... like remove hds or reinstall windows, perhaps XP 64bits or Vista 64bits ?

What I thinking right now:
-Remove all hds except Windows 7 disk and check performance.
-If it's still wrong, "Build a Virtual PC" (but I don't know if I lose performance there) or just change the windows 7 disk for a empty one and reinstall (i don't know which version) Windows 64bit.

Could you help me?

 

[badtaylorx]

"ATi Cataclysm drivers"

thats a riot!!!

no your correct...it should run better than that.......it really sounds like a fresh windows install may really help.....is that possible for you???

 

[Miharu]

That thing wasn't worked that great with ATi... so Cataclysm

Thx badtaylorx

 

[badtaylorx]

ohhh man....would have been funnier if that was unintentional......

still funny tho

 

[Miharu]

I also think my CPU could be underclocked since Duo Code 2 E6600 doesn't appear in Asus P5QL/EPU support list. It's at 2.4ghz (and 2.4ghz in Windows 7) but I'm not sure getting all the power, perhaps I should consider overclock the CPU.

ADDED: This doesn't make sense... since I already tried this CPU on another motherboard... and I had the same Windows Experience CPU Index.. with 5.3.

 

[Miharu]

badtaylorx : "no your correct...it should run better than that.......it really sounds like a fresh windows install may really help.....is that possible for you???"

I could do a fresh install... but I don't think this will change something.
In WinXP, if you change your motherboard, you NEED TO do a fresh install to make it works correctly.
In Win7 it's wasn't needed. (I could be wrong.. and it's why I have trouble right now).

If I do a fresh install, did Windows 7 with cause me trouble with my genuire key since I already used it to register the same PC previously ?

 

[Miharu]

I figure out.

I switched my windows disk for a empty one, and I have installed Vista 64 bits.

I have the same result as Win7 x64.

I finally just try to OC the CPU and Video card.

CPU overclock perfectly... over 25%!
Video card... one review tell I could OC this model adding 100mhz. I tried and didn't get any better result.
So I figure out­. The motherboard P5QL/EPU is the cupid. He support PCI-E 16x... but the intern bus doesn't allow so much information to be transfert. He probably stuck at a speed around 8x. (perhaps the EPU function... perhaps there is a work around. Anyway it's a question for ASUS).

I'll just buy a new mb/cpu/memory in few months. Probably a Intel 8 core/16 thread or an AMD 8 core or a Intel Ivy bridge. This should fix the problem.

 

[Miharu]

Finally, P43 and P55 chipset is limited to 2.5GT/s... and it's not enough for a 57.6Gbps videocard (60.8Gbps OC).

I need to change my motherboard.

Thank you badtaylorx