Bad performance and FPS drops on new computer

[context_dump]

Howdy. I've recently built myself a new computer which has the following specifications:

Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.0GHz -C Hyperthreading 512Kb 800MHz Boxed
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe i875P
Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO 2x512Mb
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023AS 160Gb 7200rpm 8Mb cache S-ATA
NEC ND-2500
Chieftec BX-03B-B-B Super MidiTower Black 360W ATX

With these new parts assembled I thought the FPS drops I get on my old computer were a thing of the past, I was wrong.

Memory bandwidth
Reading: 5100 MB/s (AIDA32 and Sandra 2k3)
Writing: 1800 MB/s (AIDA32)
OK I guess, but the thing is, this is what I get with the FSB running on 220 MHz. With the FSB running on 200 MHz I get about the same result on writing, reading has however dropped a few hundred MB/s.

3DMark03
4538 points (FSB = 220 MHz)

FPS drops in CS and RTCW ET (FSB = 220 MHz)
In CS the FPS drops from 100 to 70-40 FPS as soon as the game engine is drawing more than 3-4 player models.

In RTCW ET the FPS drops from (locked) 90 to 60-30 FPS as soon as there are a few player models in the screen or I'm in a wide area in the game.

So...
I've lost the count on the amount of drivers and settings I've tried for the GFX card. I've updated my BIOS whenever there has been an update. I've tried switching my Corsair modules with two Standard DDR 400 MHz 512 MB memory modules, the memory bandwidth benchmark results were a few hundred MB/s worse. My attempt to boost performance through setting the FSB on 220 MHz has made unpacking and loading faster and the memory bandwidth greater, the FPS drops still remain though.

So when I get FPS drops on these old games I'm fearing HL2 will be unplayable for me. ;( ;( Does anyone have somekind of clue on what might be causing this bottleneck?

 

[[Matt]]

try running CS and RTCW in direct 3d mode? We all know that ATI suck in openGL mode.

 

[SidewinderX]

I'm not sure what your problem is... It loosm like you've OC'ed your procssor and have a higher clock speed and better mem bandwidth....


what was your old system?

 

[context_dump]

try running CS and RTCW in direct 3d mode? We all know that ATI suck in openGL mode.

I got the same amount of FPS drops with my GeForce 4 Ti 4200, it's not the card.

SidewinderX: I don't see how that has any relevance.

 

[SidewinderX]

well, no matter what kind of hardware you have, your FPS will drop when your CPU/vid card has to do more work.

You can't expect to keep the same FPS from a computer rendering an empty sky to rendering 3 or more times the informatiopn, as well as possibly calculation AI, projectiles, etc.


And if you say you get the same amount of drop with 2 diffrent cards, it should be obvious that it's not the hardware.

 

[Frag-0-Matic]

What resolution are you running, do you have AA and AF on? Are you sure you installed the chipset drivers that came with your mobo.?

 

[Kiva128]

check your bios and make sure your computer is actually running at 3.0ghz. I've heard people saying how their comp was running slow because it was going like 1.5ghz instead of 3 or something around those lines.

I'm not an expert on the subject but I have almost the exact same cpu as you and i get 1000 more 3dmark points (200fsb) with my 9800pro. So you should be getting about the same, if not more since you have double my ram too.

 

[context_dump]

And if you say you get the same amount of drop with 2 diffrent cards, it should be obvious that it's not the hardware.

Are you seriously claiming a 3 GHz P4 and 1024 MB DDR RAM isn't sufficient enough for having 100 FPS on a six year old game engine?

What resolution are you running, do you have AA and AF on? Are you sure you installed the chipset drivers that came with your mobo.?

Standard settings, drivers installed.

check your bios and make sure your computer is actually running at 3.0ghz. I've heard people saying how their comp was running slow because it was going like 1.5ghz instead of 3 or something around those lines.

It's running at 3.3 GHz.

 

[Dead-Inside]

Sounds to me like you've burnt one or more parts or it's a manufactured problem. Sorry.

 

[context_dump]

Sounds to me like you've burnt one or more parts or it's a manufactured problem. Sorry.

Yupp I'm thinking that too, the question is what part is malfunctioning. I'm guessing the motherboard...

 

[bosox188]

K, a lot of people complain about these fps drops in Counter Strike, the truth is that it's gonna happen, CS is an old game and new cards will have fps drops in it, maybe if you try older drivers, maybe if you can use the drivers that were around when CS came out, though I'm guessing this was before even the radeons, so may not work.

 

[SubKamran]

K, a lot of people complain about these fps drops in Counter Strike, the truth is that it's gonna happen, CS is an old game and new cards will have fps drops in it, maybe if you try older drivers, maybe if you can use the drivers that were around when CS came out, though I'm guessing this was before even the radeons, so may not work.

I can run CZ 1920x1440 6xAA/16xAF with zero slowdowns. He has something wrong with his comp...

Did you install Catalyst 4.8 with Control Center? Double check that Vsync is off...

Pentium 4 2.96Ghz 1Ghz FSB
OCZ EL Platinum PC3200 DDR RAM - 4x256MB chips
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 Pro 128MB R350 core
Windows XP Service Pack 1
DirectX 9.0c
Catalyst 4.8

PS. It might be your gfx card...I heard PowerColor has problems...

 

[Rhalle]

Just some suggestions:

Make sure first display device is set to AGP in bios
Make sure you've got DirectX 9 installed
Make sure catalyst is installed
Make sure motherboard chipset drivers are installed
Make sure agp is running at 8x
Maybe up the voltage a .1 or so to those big bad memory sticks
Maybe up the voltage a .1 or so to the agp slot
Maybe up the vcore some
Maybe get a greater than 360w stock power supply

 

[Sprafa]

I get more 3dmarks than you, that's really, really weird considering I have a 9700pro , a 2.66ghz P4 and only 512ram. And RTCW works like a beauty.

You have a serious problem in your hands.

 

[GuNzABlaZiN]

I just got my MSI 9800 Pro 128mb today and I had the exact same problem (scoring 4400 on 3dmark2k3) and I have almost the same/equal computer as you (amd 64 3000, 1gig kingston, ASUS K8V SE Deluxe). Before I had a GF2TI 64mb. I went into my mobo setup (pressed when delete when computer booted up) and I noticed the my AGP apperture was set to 64mb, I set it to 128mb and my 3dmark score went up to 5900! I hope that helps.