8800GTS, low(er than expected) FPS?

M

MattyC

Gawd
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
797
I got an evga 8800GTS 640mb card and while I do love it, it wasn't as much of an upgrade from my xfx 7600GT XXX as I had expected. I am assuming this is CPU bottleneck from my old Pentium D 3.2Ghz. I expected this, but am holding off for the price drops before I pick up a core duo.

My FPS dips down to low 30s pretty often in Day of Defeat: Source and goes into the high 30s every now and then in CS:S when I get in larger firefights. WoW also dips into the high 30s often in the big cities. This is at 1280x1024 with most everything on max except AA and AF. FEAR and STALKER are pretty immune to this, dunno why (smaller fights I guess?). Haven't played around enough with other games to judge them. This hardly makes the games unplayable or anything, I just wanted to figure out where the bogdown is coming from. From what I have read the 8800GTS is more than capable of staying at higher rates in these games. I guess it could also be my RAM (in sig), but I have a feeling that if it is hardware related it is the CPU as it is the oldest part of my system.

Just wondering if anyone had any opinions on this being correct, or if I need to mess with some settings/something else. I did not run drivercleaner, but I did uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones.
 
Weird, even though you shouldn't be getting those nasty framerate dips, the 3.2ghz Pentium D still should be good enough to play along with a 8800. Sorry I can't think of something how to help you but this is weird..

EDIT: Ok, well, um... did you use Driver Cleaner for removing the 7600GT's drivers before slapping in your 8800 plus the drivers after that?
 
A Pentium D even at 3200mhz is going to be painfully cpu limited at 1280x1024 with all the eye candy turned on. That's just the plain facts. Now if you were playing at like 1600x1200 or more, you would still have the same speeds you are getting now even with all the eye candy, and if you went to a new cpu like an X2 or a C2D, you would see significant gains in speed.

Right now your GPU is sitting around smoking a blunt, waiting for the CPU to feed it some info...
 
Umm the prices on the C2D have dropped... A LOT e6600 for 235, e6320 for about 190. The diffrince between a 7600GT and a 8800GTS should be night and day.

Ether stop wasting your video cards time and sell it, or get a chip that will do it some good.... Oh and 2GB PC6400 should stock anything less is ewww more video card time wasting.

but that's my 2 cents
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Based on the system that is posted in your sig, there is a LOT of eeewwwww there....
 
The upgrade to c2d WILL give you heaps more of FPS. I guarantee it.

(George Zimmerman?)
 
Iscarioth said:
The upgrade to c2d WILL give you heaps more of FPS. I guarantee it.

(George Zimmerman?)
Click to expand...

I wish I could upgrade, I am so envious of your core2duos.. seriously I am.

except that means I have to upgrade.. my board, ram, and processor which is one heck of an investment. maybe in 2-3 more years :) maybe I can wait, or my next pay raise! yeah!
 
firebyyrd said:
I wish I could upgrade, I am so envious of your core2duos.. seriously I am.

except that means I have to upgrade.. my board, ram, and processor which is one heck of an investment. maybe in 2-3 more years :) maybe I can wait, or my next pay raise! yeah!
Click to expand...

Taaaaaaax Returrrrrrrn. :D

Seriously, some Gskill DDR2-ram, E6300, p5b-e board... runs for <600$ CAD... I'd imagine around 450$ USD. ;)
 
That is pretty much what I thought I just wanted to confirm that it was my CPU and not something else. Thanks for the input.

As for going to 800mhz RAM, that is on the horizon, but the CPU comes first. Until I get that the ram would just be even more of a waste (I think, I could be wrong though...).

This is all the long road towards upgrading to a 24inch display :p Step one was getting a desk that could actually hold one (EDIT: Oh and a big comfy Lane chair for it, but that was just for me :p). Step two was a new mobo with more longevity. My old D945Pvs didn't have much room to upgrade. Step three was getting a video card that could handle gaming at resolutions fitting such a display :) Step four was realizing my old Sparkle power supply was going to be cutting it close at best and getting a Ultra 500W X-Finity to replace it.

Now I am going to let some paychecks come in and fill back up that hole I tore in my checking account heh. Then I will start looking at a new processor. Hopefully another price cut will be coming around by then.

EDIT: Also I hope the eww wasn't including my P5N-E. This will be the first time in a loooong time I have gone outside Intel for a mobo. That is actually one of the things I have liked about going with Intel CPUs, minimal risk on picking up a mobo. I have never had them send me junk. I can't say the same thing for some of the boards I got to go with AMD processors. If this mobo ends up being trash I will be one sad user :(
 
I use a 3.2GHz P4D (the 8xx series though) with a 8800GTS / 640MB

I notice that you only have 1GB of memory. Get another gig :) I have 3GB (running at 533MHz since only 2GB is 667Mz and 1GB is 533MHz)

I play CS:S at 1920x1200 (dell 24" LCD) with everything on high and 2xAA. I just loaded up cs:s and ran the video stress test and came back with 81.2FPS average.

When I play CS:S, the framerate is smooth like butter...

This is with the 158.18 drivers in Vista 32 bit. Post some more details and we can help ya debug the issue :) With a 9xx series P4D and your mobo, you should be getting much better framerates.
 
It had been awhile since I actually checked my framerate in game - so I enabled the console, net_graph 3 (I think that's the command I used - I just asked someone in game).

It hovered around 60FPS on a 32 player map with ~30 people in game.
 
MattyC said:
That is pretty much what I thought I just wanted to confirm thSNIPme thing for some of the boards I got to go with AMD processors. If this mobo ends up being trash I will be one sad user :(
Click to expand...

The P5n-e is a GREAT board.

You're right, getting an E6320 right now, and OCing the bastard to around 3ghz is much more important than ddr-800 RAM. Hell, getting an E4300 (with a 9x mult) and clocking her really high isn't a bad idea either. They go for like, what, 150 these days on some websites with rebates :D

You won't be disappointed.
 
calebb said:
I use a 3.2GHz P4D (the 8xx series though) with a 8800GTS / 640MB

I notice that you only have 1GB of memory. Get another gig :) I have 3GB (running at 533MHz since only 2GB is 667Mz and 1GB is 533MHz)

I play CS:S at 1920x1200 (dell 24" LCD) with everything on high and 2xAA. I just loaded up cs:s and ran the video stress test and came back with 81.2FPS average.

When I play CS:S, the framerate is smooth like butter...

This is with the 158.18 drivers in Vista 32 bit. Post some more details and we can help ya debug the issue :) With a 9xx series P4D and your mobo, you should be getting much better framerates.
Click to expand...

That is interesting. BTW, what Dell monitor is that? I was originally upgrading my system to pair with a BenQ FP241WZ or a Viewsonic VX2435wm. The recent drop in the Dell 2407WFP's price (along with promise of the rev 4) paired with the increase (from what was previously announced) in the Viewsonic's price, has left me thinking Dell all the way.

Anyway I ran the stress test with all settings on max except the AA and the filtering. Both of those were set to 2x. I got 124.34 average FPS. It appears my FPS drops are more for large fights. How do you do in 6-10 person firefights? Particularly with smoke or HE nades involved. That is where I get the lowest. 6ish person fight and someone tosses a HE, then BAM my FPS goes down my 60% or more. Either way you appear to be outdoing me.

I did notice I had the control panel settings still set for a dual display optimization (I had a Samsung 912n running as a secondary to the Optiquest Q9 I have now before, but I sold it to help pay for the eventual upgrade to the 24inch), but changing that did nothing for my results.

Also, if you don't mind me asking another question, what do you have set in the nvidia control panel under advanced and what drivers are you running (158.19 here)? Or did you just pick one of the preset options on the slider?


EDIT: Thanks for the feedback on the board and the CPU vs RAM issue Arcygenical!
 
I know I will be flamed for not suggesting a C2D, but..

You could pick up a 3600x2 Brisbane for around $70
a T-force 550 mobo to overclock it for ~$80 (not counting a $10MIR)
and 2GB of some cheap DDR2-667 memory for ~$100 (or spring for some DDR2-800 for about 30 bucks more)

Unlock that GTS for ~$250 :D
 
PCduster said:
I know I will be flamed for not suggesting a C2D, but..

You could pick up a 3600x2 Brisbane for around $70
a T-force 550 mobo to overclock it for ~$80 (not counting a $10MIR)
and 2GB of some cheap DDR2-667 memory for ~$100 (or spring for some DDR2-800 for about 30 bucks more)

Unlock that GTS for ~$250 :D
Click to expand...

Or an E4300 for 130 :eek:

;)
 
MattyC said:
That is interesting. BTW, what Dell monitor is that? I was originally upgrading my system to pair with a BenQ FP241WZ or a Viewsonic VX2435wm. The recent drop in the Dell 2407WFP's price (along with promise of the rev 4) paired with the increase (from what was previously announced) in the Viewsonic's price, has left me thinking Dell all the way.
Click to expand...

I have a A01 2405 FPW from a couple years ago. It works perfectly for me - and yes I know the newer revisions have much lower refresh times & higher contrast ratios :)


I re-rant he stress test at 1280x1024 with AA and AF as 2x and got 118.xx FPS average

So it seems that we're pretty similar at this point. (I wasn't sure how much of a hit 1920x1200 was causing so I thought I'd re-run at your resolution to see).

I haven't even opened the control panel since I updated to the vista 158.18's...

I would say that your problem is I/O related. Possibly bad/old/corrupted/incompatible ethernet drivers? Or maybe even your Intel Matrix Storage (whatever they are called) drivers. (or is that a Via chipset? I'm not up on AMD mobos these days)

Everything is just as smooth in 6+ person firefights and I can easily pull of headshots if I'm in the zone :) I don't recall grenades affecting my framerate but I don't generally keep the FPS monitor up. I don't notice any obvious stuttering though -
 
calebb said:
I have a A01 2405 FPW from a couple years ago. It works perfectly for me - and yes I know the newer revisions have much lower refresh times & higher contrast ratios :)


I re-rant he stress test at 1280x1024 with AA and AF as 2x and got 118.xx FPS average

So it seems that we're pretty similar at this point. (I wasn't sure how much of a hit 1920x1200 was causing so I thought I'd re-run at your resolution to see).

I haven't even opened the control panel since I updated to the vista 158.18's...

I would say that your problem is I/O related. Possibly bad/old/corrupted/incompatible ethernet drivers? Or maybe even your Intel Matrix Storage (whatever they are called) drivers. (or is that a Via chipset? I'm not up on AMD mobos these days)

Everything is just as smooth in 6+ person firefights and I can easily pull of headshots if I'm in the zone :) I don't recall grenades affecting my framerate but I don't generally keep the FPS monitor up. I don't notice any obvious stuttering though -
Click to expand...


I was busy with work and finals so I didn't have a chance to work on this much until now. Anyway, I went and re-did all of my drivers, clearing them out with driver cleaner to boot. Now the FPS still dips, but much less so. I did all the drivers at once (well without stopping to test after each one), so I have no idea what driver was causing it (it could have just been the fact that the drivers for some stuff were newer, the only thing I know was up-to-date was my nvidia driver), but my FPS drops are much less now though still probably tied to the CPU, which will be on its way out in a few months.
 
Your CPU is the weak link. You'll see 200+FPS in the stress test with an overclocked Core 2. At 3.6GHz and 8800 GTX with all video settings maxed out(4xTRAA, 16xAF, reflect world), 2560x1600 I get 280-290FPS in the stress test. The lowest frame rate I've seen playing the actual game is ~85FPS, 32 players on Office, lots of smoke and fire fights near the projector room.
 
I just saw 110 fps with 2xmsaa, 8x af, 1600x1200, everything on high, with a 1950pro, a p4 3.8 (@4.0), and 1gb of pc3200.
Reasonable rates, and a shitty single core p4 @ 4.0ghz.

He shouldn't be having that many problems. I can go run the x6800 and 1900xtx at the settings you are talking about, and probably get 200fps.



168 fps with a 1900xtx 6xMSAA 16xAF 1680x1050

He should be able to turn up all the settings on his 8800 without any slowdowns whatsoever, even with that 3.2
 
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