Nvidia GeForce 240 lagging in games

[HermitBird]

Hello,
My little brother recently built his own simple gaming rig, with the following components:

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024m DDR3
AMD Phenom IIx2
2g DDR3 ram
Windows XP 32 bit
450w power supply

Now the problem he's having is that any game he plays, be it tf2, Killing floor, even things like simple flash games on the internet, occasionally the frame-rate will drop to -10 FPS. We've tried anything that comes to mind, conducting virus scans, cleaning up processes, and whatever else may be causing it, but the problem persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

EDIT:
Thank you for all the information, everyone! I would like to add though, we have considered the possibility of the outdated OS bogging it down, and we plan on upgrading to Windows 7 64 bit. Another thing, in any game the computer runs, even things like Dead Space, the framerate usually stays above ~80 FPS on mid-high settings. We have also taken shortage of ram into account. The hard-drive is a 7,200 RPM, 1TB drive and fares nicely. After checking, it seems that all the drivers are still up to date.

Whenever it happens, it seems to be framerate only, but maybe it could be CPU.

 

[Headspin_69]

The 2GB of ram is hurting performance and a GT240 is a Bum GPU.

 

[Christopher1]

Hmm..... could be a driver issue here. Go to NVidia's website and download the latest non-beta drivers.

Part of the issue is that you are still using (geck!) Windows XP on his system. I would strong recommend upgrading to Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit (if possible for the latter), which has better resource utilization and can wring some speed increases out of even an older system.

The 2GB's of memory shouldn't be an issue. Most games don't advise needing (even recommended) right now anymore than 2GB's of memory.

Lastly, go download a program called DriverMax. It could be that you don't have the latest drivers for other stuff (motherboard equipment especially), this program is a godsend for figuring that out.

 

[Sunius]

The 2GB of ram is hurting performance and a GT240 is a Bum GPU.

what are you talking about? TF2 is source game, it's an old engine which even old 8600 GT could max out. It's definitelly either a driver issue, or something is running in the background that you don't know about. I'd actually suggest reintalling since it's the easiest fix.

 

[amuffin]

32 bit is holding him back, upgrade to at least 4gb. 2gb is really not enough ram, a modern day system now runs at least 4-8gb of ram.

 

[duxducis]

I would think Hard Drive, (old, slow or on its last breath) you not trying to play game from external usb are you?
Also you should check your cpu usage, there could be sometime on PC that uses CPU when it not suppose (bad programs, viruses, malware) bad process that try to use CPU while you gaming will bring performance to its knees.

 

[hapkido]

Lots of bad info being tossed around.

The reason he's seeing low frames is he has a dual core and an entry level GPU. That's passable for dx9 games, but he probably needs to turn the settings down. If a game still runs poorly on the lowest settings, and the cpu and gpu usage are high, lower the resolution.

But as an FYI, TF2 runs like garbage. On everyone's systems.

 

[amuffin]

Lots of bad info being tossed around.

The reason he's seeing low frames is he has a dual core and an entry level GPU. That's passable for dx9 games, but he probably needs to turn the settings down. If a game still runs poorly on the lowest settings, and the cpu and gpu usage are high, lower the resolution.

But as an FYI, TF2 runs like garbage. On everyone's systems.

How does tf2 run like garbage on everyone's system? It runs perfectly fine on a system with mid-high end system specs. Its always 60+fps for me with all settings maxed.

 

[hapkido]

How does tf2 run like garbage on everyone's system? It runs perfectly fine on a system with mid-high end system specs. Its always 60+fps for me with all settings maxed.

It has massive frame dips. Drops to ~30fps on my system during huge fire fights. It's not just me and I don't get it in any other Source engine game. All my TF2 friends say the same thing. And it's the only game I've ever seen that runs worse in crossfire than with a single card.

 

[amuffin]

It has massive frame dips. Drops to ~30fps on my system during huge fire fights. It's not just me and I don't get it in any other Source engine game. All my TF2 friends say the same thing. And it's the only game I've ever seen that runs worse in crossfire than with a single card.

Hm thats weird, even with huge firefights it never does that to me

 

[spentshells]

How long have you had this graphics card ? What are the temps like on the GPU and CPU ?
I hate always saying that it's a good idea to look at the heatsinks and fans.
Sometimes blowing out the gpu will not clear this all up. The caked on dust retains lots of heat.

 

[hapkido]

Hm thats weird, even with huge firefights it never does that to me

It runs equally well (or unwell) on my Athlon x4 @3.4Ghz w/ 5670 or w/ 5850 as it does on my i5-2500k @4.4Ghz w/ 5850 (crossfire runs worse). Maybe AMD GPUs run worse in that game, but I have Steam friends (some with nVidia GPUs) who said they have the same problem. So it may not be a hard game to run, but in my experience it has its issues. As reference, Portal 2 and CS:Source don't drop below 200fps. I honestly think it's because the engine renders all those hat models and explosions at full texture, even if they're across the map and behind walls, but I can't say for sure.