Help! I just upgraded from a HD 4850 to a 6850 and now have lower FP

Its not your PSU. I'm running an HD6850 with a Core 2 Quad on a 400w PSU just fine.

What is your CPU and RAM?

I've got a slightly older processor: AMD Phenom 9650 2.3 Ghz
And 8 gigs of RAM (4x2GB) I'm not sure what their clock speed is without pulling em out.

Could that actually cause my Framerate to drop? Beyond not actually increasing?

Unless your RAM is DDR it won't be a problem, there isn't a difference between DDR2 and DDR3 when using a card like the HD6850.

Your CPU should not be an issue for most games. What games are you playing?

What game is it that you are playing?

I would strongly recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers one more time, but you should be getting better FPS.

The problem could be a feature where your GPU limits its FPS to what the screen can deliver. This feature is called v-sync, look for it in games and make sure to disable it if you want extremly high FPS (although for everyday play i would enable it, puts less unnecessary strain on your GPU.
(Thanks VetteDude for informing me of the name  )

Are you sure you plugged in your monitor to the right place? sometimes people make mistakes and plug it into the integrated chip. I've even seen people who plug in the monitor to both  

Did you adjust the AA levels? With a high AA the game will have worse FPS than the previous GPU. Sometimes games can Auto-calibrate to the GPU. Maybe the game previously ran at low detail, but is now at high?
Lastly, did you change your monitor resolution at all, even accidentally? If you did, this could dramatically reduce frame rates.

Try those, and tell me if that helps you

Called V-Sync BTW  

The games I've tried are Diablo III, WoW, and UT 2K4, I've had V-sync off while testing. The games have been running at the same setting levels (though interestingly enough changing any settings except v-sync seems to have little to no effect on D3), I've plugged the card into the DVI port on the back of my card, with a VGA adapter attached to suit my monitor, and have always been running Resolution of 1280x1024 (I know, I know, get with the future, drop that crappy 4:3 XD). I used to run some games with AA enabled but am still getting lower FR with the new one with it off >__< oh and my RAM is definately not DDR 1.

Enabling V-sync actually seems to boost the frame rate (or at least keep it stable) when a lot of monsters come on screen in D3, but it's choppier overall compared to my previous card, and I'm not able to react as quickly as I could with my 4850.

Lower resolutions shift the load from the GPU to the CPU. Download GPU-Z, hit log to file and keep refreshing in background and go play a game. After 5 or 10 mins look at the log and see what the GPU Load % is. I bet its not 100%, you are CPU bottlenecked.

Its not a vsync issue, its VERY obviously your cpu.
You are cpu limited, that processor you are using is terribly slow; it literally cannot feed your graphics card data fast enough.

Its not a vsync issue, its VERY obviously your cpu.
You are cpu limited, that processor you are using is terribly slow; it literally cannot feed your graphics card data fast enough.

So assuming you did all of the above, its time to take this a step further. Is your GPU under full throttle? It could be a different bottleneck. Maybe its a Hard Drive or CPU?

Are any of your parts overclocked?

Try running Unique Heaven DX11 Benchmark. Enable 4 X AA and 16 X AF (Normal Tesselation)
If your getting under 30 FPS, something is not right.

If you have a UEFI Bios, did you ensure your in performance mode and not normal?

Is the VGA-DVI connector faulty?

Ran D3 with the logging program, with highest settings I was getting usage %s from the 70s to the low 90s, lowest settings 40s-60s.

In response to mastrom, I have since tried overclocking the gfx card (the CPU is not) I've just OC'd it slightly to test, defauts are 775 and 1000 memory, I bumped it to 815 and 1100 using MSI afterburner.

I'm not sure about UEFI bios, what's the best way to check if my motherboard has it? Shouldn't be the connector, it's the same one I was using with my previous card, and I'll get on downloading the benchmark.

Yep, you are CPU bound. Not enough change between low and high settings. You don't have a UEFI, I can almost guarantee you don't with your CPU. That's something on newer Mobo's. If you want to check, reboot and hit your BIOS key. If you can use your mouse, its UEFI.

Alright, ran the benchmark, FPS: 39.2, Scores: 987, Min 7.9, Max 91.7.

If it's the CPU do you guys recommend slightly overclocking it to boost performance?I think my cooling can handle a bit at least.

You can try an overclock. Couldn't hurt your performance as long as it doesn't overheat.

Those things do not overclock very well but it will def. improve your performance.
My brother had one and I had it at 3.1ghz for a while, he still could not get playable performance with battlefield bad company 2, he finally upgraded a year ago and can now play everything. Those first gen phenoms were dogs though, ugh...

Yeah, I'd upgrade if it didn't mean I had to get a new motherboard at the same time too >__< prolly gonna give in and bite the bullet in a few months, I only upgraded the graphics cause I got it for 60 bucks off.

You clocked my same processor from 2.3 up to 3.1 and it didn't freak out? What sort of cooling were you using?

He had a xigmatek dark knight, the processor still ran hot though... to OC it you want to bump up the multiplier and not mess with the fsb speed too much.

You don't need a new motherboard if your motherboard has am AM2+ slot instead of a regular AM2 slot. The Phenom IIs are compatible with both DDR2 and DDR3 memory and they work in AM2+ motherboards with DDR2 memory.

Thanks guys, good to know that the AM2+ boards can run AM3 processors.

When I go into my BIOS to increase my multiplier it won't show setttings for anything higher than 2300 Mhz that are factory settings, how would I go about getting it to allow me the option of increasing it?

If you ran it with the setting i listed, then its not CPU bound. That's what the card is supposed to deliver.

So the card is running fine

Its not a CPU problem, if it was, the performance would be the same, not worse.

I think its a driver issues tbh. Mind you, triple check the settings for Diablo, and make sure it the same.

Dont get the latest driver, get a less recent stable one.

Most OEM machines and cheap motherboards have little to no overclocking capabilities. What motherboard do you have?