Odd performance slips, graphic card problem?

[Phalanx01]

A while ago, about 2 weeks now, I replaced my Pentium 4 CPU and mobo with an AMD FX-55 and a new MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo. I kept both my older graphics card and memory modules; 2x Apacer 512Mb DDR400 + 2x Twinmos 512mb DDR400 and my graphics card, the FX 5900 Ultra with 256mb DDR of oncard mem.

Now, the initial setup went fine, Windows installed pretty well and all was ok until I tried the first real *heavy* game namely Half-Life 2. Normally I just tweak my settings to the max and have no performance trouble whatsoever, BUT it seems that my new AMD system thinks otherwise! Not only do I have severe performance hick-ups at times there also seems to be a problem with my graphics card all of the sudden... something that didn't happen with my P4 system... sometimes the game just starts to stutter like hell, really going from smooth running to unplayable... same goes for Painkiller Battle out of Hell and Silent Storm Sentinels. So I think I can exculde the possible software conflict since I updated every driver and even the mobo BIOS.

Here are my full system specs:

AMD FX-55 CPU
MSI K8N Neo2-54G Platinum
4GB DDR400 RAM (2x Twinmos 512/2x Apacer 512)
73 Gig WD Raptor HDD
250 Gig Caviar WD HDD
MSI Geforce FX5900 Ultra DDR256mb
Audigy 2 Soundcard
Vantec 510 Watt PSU

So what do you guys think? Broken graphics card, crappy AMD, memory boomboom or an alien menace?

Is it a bad thing if there is smoke coming out of my case?

 

[Crashman]

That combination of RAM will almost certainly kick your memory speed way down.

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[Phalanx01]

Ok, gonna look into it, maybe remove the Twinmos mems for now.

Is it a bad thing if there is smoke coming out of my case?

 

[cleeve]

So what do you guys think? Broken graphics card, crappy AMD, memory boomboom or an alien menace?

Broken graphics card? Hard to say. The 5900 isn't a real shining star for Half Life 2 though. What settings you runnning at?

Crappy AMD... what, are you kidding? Blaming AMD for slowdowns is so 1999. Everybody hails them as the fastest x86 CPUs on the planet because they're very good, not because they cause hiccups.

memory boomboom... well, mixing memory is never good. But this doesn't sound like the sort of thing it'd cause.


________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[cefoskey]

4GB DDR400 RAM (2x Twinmos 512/2x Apacer 512)

(2x512) + (2x512) = 2GB not 4GB

I wouldnt expect that 5900 to be that great, even if your system was running flawlessly.

"Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my drive?"
P4 3.0C HT, Intel D865GBF, 1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR, 2x WD 36GB Raptor 10kRPM, BBA Radeon 9800PRO, SB Audigy, Hauppage WinTV

 

[Phalanx01]

Heh sorry for the GB mistake there lol

Still this system is getting on my nerves big time, I never had this kind of trouble with my Pentium... Now I experience random blue screens of death followed by a beloved reboot...

Here's what I changed for now:

-I took out the Apacer to see how the Twinmos worked, blue screen as described above.
-I took out the Twinmos mems, same result.
-Graphics card is a-ok, tested multiple games and no trouble with rendering or any other malfunction.
-PSU seems to be good also, all amps read out correctly.
-Mobo... not so sure about this one, it SEEMS to work correctly...
-CPU seems to be fine also.

The way I see this problem now is that either the Mobo is faulty, or both my Twinmos mems and Apacer mems don't work with that board, which however is highly doubtfull...

Should I return my Mainboard to the store and pick another one or is there another setting I should check now?

Please note that my mems are now automatically timed at DDR400.

Is it a bad thing if there is smoke coming out of my case?

 

[georgebeee]

did you reinstall your OS when you changed your mobo and cpu?

 

[mozzartusm]

If your haveing blue screens I would do some memory test. In the past memory issues have caused me blue screen errors more than once.

 

[Phalanx01]

Yup already re-installed my OS 4 times. Identical issues. That's why I'm so sure that my trouble aren't software related issues.

I do however think that the reason may be that AMD simply can't handle that much DDR400 mems. AMD still has bad mem support, so I feel it's the wiser solution to simply order in 2 double sided 1Gig DDR400 mems. Those clock at 400DDR and that way I don't occupy all mem slots. Will post an update when I have changed mems, should be around middle next week.

Is it a bad thing if there is smoke coming out of my case?

 

[cleeve]

Don't go ordering anything until you've figured out the problem, mate.

Have you tried using only one memory stick? Because if it works, that would tell you it's not the memory straight off.

AMD memory support isn't that bad. You have to get over the marketing sloop you've been fed. If the problem is hardware, it's likely a bad mobo.

You did use Memtest on the memory, right?

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[Phalanx01]

Yep, used memtest. Mems ok.

But I have to agree, the mobo is acting very strange. One moment all is well, suddenly BIOS settings are altered. No one else besides me is using the comp and I did have some install trouble with the board. And yes, the mobo has ran with only 1 mem module and yes you guessed it, same result.

I'll try to contact my supplier later today or monday and ask if I can't send back this board for an ASUS A8 SLI mobo. That board seems to be decent and solid and it offers SLI. Also the fact that I can get 2 6800 PCI-e cards with 256mb at a small price of 303Euro... that's even cheaper then the price I paid for my FX5900...

Is it a bad thing if there is smoke coming out of my case?

 

[mozzartusm]

But have you tested the memory one stick at the time and for an extended period of time?

 

[Cyrus]

Random BSOD I usually know are because of memory defect or overclocking the processor. But I don't think you do the second one.

Have you checked you VGA card's fan? Never left the chip overheated, because it can make permanent error.

Before, I had 2 silly problems that made me reinstall my OS over and over. The first one was because of corrupted driver. It worked after I got another one. So try to redownload them. The second was because of one silly BIOS setting - enabling onboard sound blaster while installing Windows 2000 (still dunno why it failed). That's why I think you should try some BIOS changes.

Another thing you can try. Run the system with minimum hardwares. Use the onboard devices instead of plugging others. In your system, use 1 RAM module, use onboard sound processor and use 1 HDD only. If the system works fine, that means the problem lies within the other devices, whether it is the driver, settings or even insufficient power (which in your case is most likely not).

Voltage is needed to be check as well. Once I had my 3.3 V down to 3.0 V and got random BSODs.