Hardware performace degradation

[Argon]

Hey,
I bought my computer just over a year ago, and back then it purred like a kitten. I could play bf2 on highest graphics settings without so much as a burp. I took a small break from gaming, and recently, after formatting my computer, I have come back for more, but my cpu hardly purrs anymore. I can't play most recent games on high graphics settings without hardcore annoying lag. I was wondering if there was any reason for this degradation, or maybe I just need to clean the inside of my tower?

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4400+, 2.21 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
1GB RAM
MSI K8N Neo4 Sli motherboard
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS

Any help would help, thanks

 

[BaCoSs]

it MAY be the vid card, it defentaly isnt the X2
Try buying another 6800 and SLI'ing them together

other than that i dont see any reason you should be getting any lag in games

 

[mammikoura]

Shouldn't be about the vid card. I have a 6800GT (yes, this is a little better) and I can run most games on high settings. Actually every game I've tried exept for Oblivion.

So have u tried bf2? How does it run?
U could try updating the vid card drivers, also cleaning the hsf on the vid card would drop the temps a little, though this shouldn't have a big effect on performance if the card is not overheating. (which I doubt) But u could still check the temps.

 

[Kage]

Hmm, maybe its simply your Windows installation getting bogged down with stuff.

Try running a cleanup using Accessories/System Tools/Cleanup, and get rid of anything there.

If you have any protection programs (antivirus/spyware) as you should have, and there are many free ones out there, you should do a scan and clean/delete what they show.

Then, try a defrag which may also speed things up. (Accessories/System Tools)

If none of this helps, if you backed up, a fresh install of windows would probably do the job, if you wanted to reformat and start over.

 

[joxley1990]

and recently, after formatting my computer

Lol sorry Kage, he already tried it!

 

[lhuser]

There's a special driver on AMD's site that will make the real use of your AMD.

Get it here:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcpusetup.exe

 

[Spec]

Hey,
I bought my computer just over a year ago, and back then it purred like a kitten. I could play bf2 on highest graphics settings without so much as a burp. I took a small break from gaming, and recently, after formatting my computer, I have come back for more, but my cpu hardly purrs anymore. I can't play most recent games on high graphics settings without hardcore annoying lag. I was wondering if there was any reason for this degradation, or maybe I just need to clean the inside of my tower?

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4400+, 2.21 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
1GB RAM
MSI K8N Neo4 Sli motherboard
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS

Any help would help, thanks

How much space to you have on your hard drive? currently free.

 

[Kage]

That could also be it Spec, good idea

Sorry, I would have expected a reformat to do the job since its a clean install. Which leads me to believe, that either your parts are diminishing (i dont see how), or your hard drive is getting slower or bulked up like Spec says.

 

[Chainer]

You may want to invest in a program such as System Mechanic 6 Professional. It's made by iolo Technologies. Great program, and any computer I have had has ran wonderfully after diagnostics from this program. The program itself will let you know when diagnostics (tune-up) needs to be ran, which is the best feature IMO.

Check them out! IOLO - http://www.iolo.com

 

[Argon]

How much space to you have on your hard drive? currently free.

on my C drive, where games are installed I have about 10 Gigs free, that should be more than enough, no? I have other drives that do have very little free space but how would that affect the performance of a program on my C drive? I will try the driver suggested above to see if that does anything.

I wish I had $200 to dish out to get another SLI graphics card, although I noticed that I couldn't find an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, did they stop making them? That is all I can SLI with right?