HD5870 + Q6600 & Bad PSU = Huge frame drops?

[lankai-ocz]

Hello everyone, this is my first post. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm having frame drops in almost every game or heavy 3D app...


PC Specs (everything is in stock):

OS: Win XP sp3 32bit
Motherboard: Abit IP35-E
Processor: Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz, stepping B3
Ram: DDR2-1066 OCZ XTC SLI 2x1GB
Video card: Asus HD5870
HDD: 1x Samsung 250 GB
PSU: Codegen ATX 500W Model: 500x, 2x +12V rails: 12A & 14A (pretty BAD for this card, I know) .

HD5870 connected to one 6-pin PCI-E (from the PSU) connector & single 4-pin Molex to 6-pin PCI-E connector.


I hear a strange sound when running 3D apps, games and so on...
it's hard to describe... like crystal needles or drops breaking (in 2D everything's fine & it's not HDD's reading&writing sound), reminds me of an old Pentium 4 or Celeron "action" sounds, if you know what I mean. Maybe it's HD5870 GPU's "starving" sound, no :lol: ?

GTA IV lags on medium & low settings on 1024x768 res.
Having frame drops even on such an old game like nfsu2 (sometimes drops to 25 fps!!).

My OS is CLEAN & STABLE, has 36 processes running with 0-1% CPU usage at idle and everything's optimized for the performance.

My main question: Is my PSU causing frame drops in games, because the "monster" HD5870 does not have enough power (12a & 14a on +12V1-V2 rails)?

 

[feeblepenguin]

It might be that you have only 2 gigs of ram. But the sounds seem to indicate psu

 

[smeezekitty]

Hello everyone, this is my first post. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm having frame drops in almost every game or heavy 3D app...


PC Specs (everything is in stock):

OS: Win XP sp3 32bit
Motherboard: Abit IP35-E
Processor: Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz, stepping B3
Ram: DDR2-1066 OCZ XTC SLI 2x1GB
Video card: Asus HD5870
HDD: 1x Samsung 250 GB
PSU: Codegen ATX 500W Model: 500x, 2x +12V rails: 12A & 14A (pretty BAD for this card, I know) .

HD5870 connected to one 6-pin PCI-E (from the PSU) connector & single 4-pin Molex to 6-pin PCI-E connector.


I hear a strange sound when running 3D apps, games and so on...
it's hard to describe... like crystal needles or drops breaking (in 2D everything's fine & it's not HDD's reading&writing sound), reminds me of an old Pentium 4 or Celeron "action" sounds, if you know what I mean. Maybe it's HD5870 GPU's "starving" sound, no :lol: ?

GTA IV lags on medium & low settings on 1024x768 res.
Having frame drops even on such an old game like nfsu2 (sometimes drops to 25 fps!!).

My OS is CLEAN & STABLE, has 36 processes running with 0-1% CPU usage at idle and everything's optimized for the performance.

My main question: Is my PSU causing frame drops in games, because the "monster" HD5870 does not have enough power (12a & 14a on +12V1-V2 rails)?

Your components are a bit old (like many of mine LOL) so you will not likely see spectacular frame rates. Still < 25 FPS at 1024x768 is pretty low.

The sound probably the transformer and inductors in the PSU whining due to very high switching duty cycled caused by the high load. It should be upgraded.

Yes you have relatively small RAM too.

 

[lankai-ocz]

Your components are a bit old (like many of mine LOL) so you will not likely see spectacular frame rates. Still < 25 FPS at 1024x768 is pretty low.

Having 25 FPS in NFSU2 (really old game). Even a 8800gt (which is a lot less powerfull than 5870) should run this game on max at 60+ fps :lol: )!

And GTA IV should run on high smoothly with 5870...

 

[guanyu210379]

1.
I say, get a new PSU and this time from a well known brand.
Something like 650W should be sufficient.
You will need and can use the new PSU also if you want to upgrade.
See if you get better result with the new PSU, if not, you can check somewhere else inside your PC.
Hick ups in games could also be caused by something unstable in OS, etc..

2. Yes, your RAM is very minimal. Try to get second handed RAM modules from ebay. New DDR2 modules do not worth the price anymore these days for upgrade.

3. Consider getting an SSD.

4. Consider upgrading your OS to Win7 or Win8 x64. (only if you upgrade your RAM)

My system:
Intel Q6600 @3.0GHz + ASUS P5E X38 +
6GB DDR2 1000 CL5 Mushkin + Coolermaster CM690 + Corsair CMPSU-750HX + Sapphire HD6850 1024MB + Crucial m4 128GB+ Seagate 3000GB 7200.14 + LG BR-Writer BH10LS30 + Zalman CNPS9700 + Win 8 x64 pro

I can ply Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Starcraft 2, Torchlight 2, Tropico 4, etc. on 1680x1050 with everything on high without having any big problems. Those games are smooth enough.
and...HD6850 is weaker than HD5870...meaning, your GPU is better than mine