My New Computer, Pls Help

[slcibk]

I recently built a new rig and am experiencing noticeable slowdowns while playing games (Half-Life 2, FarCry, even Painkiller) although my 3dmark05 score was over 6,000. I would like to know if my problem could be anything other than my video card or if ati just sucks and I need a 7800 gtx. I have a 19'' LCD monitor with 8ms, but I still received slowdowns when i switched to a CRT. Please help.

My specs are:

2X1Gb geil DDR 400
535W Enermax PS
320 GB SATA WD HD
K8n sli neo4 pe motherboard
x850xt pe video card
athlon 3700+

 

[Osak]

wow very nice system, are you only getting these slow downs when you switch to crt or is it all the time?

 

[slcibk]

I get slowdowns on both the LCD and the CRT. I just don't understand how my system is slowing down when I have such new parts. Is there any way of determining if anything isn't working right? I'm almost ready to send back the video card.

 

[Osak]

Have you ran anything like "The PC doctor"?

 

[DarkBlade1]

First off, if you have AMD Cool and Quiet Technology enabled, that will DEFINENTALLY cause significant slowdowns. Also, make sure you RAM is configured correctly in your BIOS, as the MSI Neo4 Plat BIOS default settings can be kind of a pain... I HAD one before it blew up... Now I use the ABIT FATALITY SLi board!

Also, the most common problem with this scenario is heat. Check your graphics card temperature during gameplay by quickly minimizing the game and going into the temperature area of your Catalyst settings area. Also, I would recommend you use the ATi DNA Drivers as they are the supreme driver set for ATi and in most cases, the DNA Force drivers are as well for nVidia based GPUs. And NO, the x850XT PE is an INSANE card and well worth it to keep it.. But with the SLi board, you might want to save up for dual 7800GTXs..

Just make sure your temps are not exceeding 60-65 celcius core temperature, because that is the level at which the silicon wafers degrade and lose the ability to store and send bit registers (texture and polygon commands) out at their full speed if at all (this causes what we call FRAGMENTATION or GHOST SPRITES or POLYGONAL ANOMALIES)

 

[slcibk]

Ok, i hope you're still there darkblade. I am not running AMD cool and quiet, but when i ran a memory test it labeled the ram as being single channel, which it isn't, and having cas of 3-4-4-8 although the package says its a 3-8-4-4. Does this matter, if so, how do i change the settings? My temp levels are also fine, nowhere near 60-65. I will try the DNA drivers to see what they do, and will post if anything significant happens. Thanks so far.

 

[DJ Stephen]

Hell be back later as he is not currently on here, but i am sure he will help you if no - one else does.

 

[rdcmmnst]

have you gone into your bios and turned of your cool and quiet and tried to enable duel channel ram. You could make sure you have the ram in the right slots as well.

 

[Kage]

3-4-4-8 (what it says)

3-8-4-4 (what you should have)

Weird... the 2nd number is actually faster than packaged, but the last number is 4 down...

Are you by any chance running some kind of overclock on our system which has needed the RAM timings to be dropped?

Plus yeah, at least it isn't Cool and Quiet doing it (i switched mine off and got a boost straight away)

I should also mention that it won't be the CRT or LCD monitors causing the slowdown, as they wouldn't do what you are suggesting.

TRY DOING:

In games, try switching off VSYNC, or in the Video card settings, as this will increase the frames per second rate you might be encountering, from your monitor rate (60-maybe 70hz) to as fast as the video card can possibly pull the frames out at.
This will defininitely help anywayas some people find slowdowns turning this on as it slows the video card down to the rate of the monitor which in a way is better, but it does take hit on the system on some computers (though yours is great!!)

I hope this helps

 

[slcibk]

thank you so much kage, you saved me a $70 dollar restocking fee, and the time without a computer. I turned off the VSYNC in both Direct 3d and open gl and I played hl2 and painkiller with no slowdowns. I used a fps program before and after and I was reaching none of the drops in fps as i was when enabling vsync. Afterwards, my averages were higher, and my mins much hgher.
About the timing, I didn't change it on purpose, it's just what memtest86 found when i ran a test. Is this something i need to change, if so, how? Also, i think the comp is recognizing as single channel as opposed to dual, is there a way to change that?
Thanks so much to everyone, esp Kage.