Performance Issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neologisticism
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Neologisticism

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I recently picked up an x800 Pro 256 MB vid card and popped it into my machine, replacing the 9600 xt that was in there already. I noticed great jumps in fps even as the recommended settings changed to 4x aa 8x af. I was really impressed. I started to test my new hardware using CS:S and was pleased. I then moved on to Half-Life 2. I started a new game and about 3 seconds into the opening movie (I could see 1/4 of G-Man's face), the game crashed. It studdered and then locked up. Afterwards, for the short amount of time I let the computer remain in windows not doing anything, i was hearing these clicking sounds, kind of like computer hickups.

My question: is my graphics card being too bottlenecked, and if so, is this causing my lockup? Also, any ideas as to what the noises were? My system specs are as follows:

Athlon XP 2800+
ATi Radeon X800 Pro 256 MB
1.5 GB PC3200 Kingston RAM (too much?)
(2) 70 GB HDD 7200 RPM
450W PSU
 
Can't help you much as to why HL2 crashed but there is nothing wrong with your system specs, by the way 1.5 GB of ram is not to much. Some people seem to think to much is no good so in short that is not a problem.

Two things you can check, press Ctrl+Alt+Del when the window comes up check all the programs running, you might find one or two programs are using a larg amount of memory. If they are shut them down but if you are using windows do not shut down windows explorer.

I don't know the specs on your two vid cards but check what AGP speed they are if your old card runs at X4 you will need to change the AGP speed in the bios to X8 as I guess your new card runs at X8.

Have you also downloaded the updates from steam and got the latest drivers for your vid card?
 
One word, REFORMAT! If you change your videocard then do a clean up of your system. I bet you HL2 doesn't crash then, not with that card.
 
Neologisticism said:
Athlon XP 2800+
ATi Radeon X800 Pro 256 MB
1.5 GB PC3200 Kingston RAM (too much?)
(2) 70 GB HDD 7200 RPM
450W PSU

I have a very close system.
2800+ (OCd to 3000+)
9800XT 256M ATI
1.5G PC2700 Corsair (not too much!)
(2) RAID 0 74G HDD 10K (Raptors)
400W PSU

I have not had any problems myself, in any of the games. I do, however, update the drivers and Catalyst package every time ATI comes out with a new one. And I always uninstall the previous version (Add/Remove Programs) before installing the new one. I never had a problem.

Also, if you are hearing something, more than likely it is something that moves - fans, hard drive, optical drives. I suggest this before you format and reload everything:
Uninstall any ATI driver you have on there and install the newest 4.12 drivers. If this gives you problems, uninstall those and try 4.11.
After this, do a scan disk on both your drives.
Open up your case and then turn it on and start HL2 - try to find where the noise is.
Hope any of this helps.

Hulk
 
Thank you very much for your help everyone. I will post back after trying these suggestions.
 
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