Do I need a new CPU or GPU?

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Fenix793

Gawd
Joined
Jan 13, 2003
Messages
664
Hey all,

I recently got a 7900GTO to replace my 6800GT and I'm a little disappointed by the performance. My goal was to game at 1680x1050 with 2xAA (FEAR, Quake 4, GRAW). Most of the reviews I looked over suggested that the GTO should perform close to the 7900GTX and x19xx series. I was thinking about moving up to a faster GPU but I was wondering if maybe my CPU is holding me back? Any ideas?
 
I think so...you can game real nice at lower res...at least i did with a comperale processor before going the intel route. Now I can, with sli and these two 7950s play at 16*10 easily but again, I'm using an intel processor.

In this case, not all, cpu performance can make THE difference. IMO of course.
 
That would explain it. I have sigs turned off.

A faster CPU wouldn't hurt, and will certainly help. Don't expect miracles, though.
 
Fenix793 said:
Hey all,

I recently got a 7900GTO to replace my 6800GT and I'm a little disappointed by the performance. My goal was to game at 1680x1050 with 2xAA (FEAR, Quake 4, GRAW). Most of the reviews I looked over suggested that the GTO should perform close to the 7900GTX and x19xx series. I was thinking about moving up to a faster GPU but I was wondering if maybe my CPU is holding me back? Any ideas?
Click to expand...

That's wierd. A few months ago I bought a Samsung 204B 20.1" LCD with a native res of 1600x1200. I had a 3700+ @ stock on an NF4 Ultra board with an ATi x1800XL and wasn't too happy with the performance on the XL. I then bought a 512mb 7900GT and was amazed because I was able to play pretty much everything @ 16x12 with varying levels of AA and AF at 8x or 16x (I love my AF). There was definitely a noticible improvement :confused:
 
Well, there's only a few nvidia cards that are more powerful than the 7900GTO...being the 7900GTX, the GX2's, and the new 8800s...which are only officially out today! So until today, you had (roughly) 3rd fastest nvidia card...and it easily performs at the level of the 2nd highest....so I'd say something else is the limiting factor :)
 
did you follow the strict driver cleaner steps having to boot into safe mode and then reinstalling the latest drivers? What about your other drivers for your chipset and such?
 
Hey guys thanks for the replies. I should mention that there was a performance increase when I upgraded it just wasn't as much as I expected. I can play at 16x10 it's just not as smooth as I would like and from what I've gathered a 7900GTO/GTX should be able to handle that res with AA and AF. I did overclock it to just about GTX speeds (700/1520) and it didn't seem to do much. I'm gonna do some benchmarking tonight to see where I stand but I'm thinking I need a new CPU and another gig of ram.
 
Dan UCF said:
did you follow the strict driver cleaner steps having to boot into safe mode and then reinstalling the latest drivers? What about your other drivers for your chipset and such?
Click to expand...

I just uninstalled the old video drivers, restarted, installed new drivers. Is that not good enough? That's how I've always done it...
 
Fenix793 said:
I just uninstalled the old video drivers, restarted, installed new drivers. Is that not good enough? That's how I've always done it...
Click to expand...
The best, safest, most thorough way with the smallest chance of conflict:

General Video Driver Uninstall/Install
(before reading this, download and install DriverCleanerPro and also download the XTreme-G drivers)

1. Unplug nic card or modem from net or disconnect.

2. Disable any AntiVirus Software. If you don't disable, it could give you trouble.

3. Uninstall current vid driver (If you have an nVidia mobo and a nVidia vidcard, make sure you only uninstall the video driver, not all nVidia drivers or your mobo will lose its drivers also.)

4. Reboot

5. As the reboot comes up, after the quick memory test and hard drives have been recognized, hit F8 and enter "SAFE MODE." On some boards if you hit F8 too early you will enter other utilities.

6. On reboot into safe mode WinXP SP1/SP2 will auto detect and ask you to install drivers. You should be able to can cancel out of the auto install hardware wizard move to step #7. If you can NOT cancel out of auto detect wizard then, navigate to device manager->display adapters->highlight (nVidia, ATI, etc.) and click uninstall or remove but don't reboot.

7. Run Driver Cleaner with the filter for the driver (nVidia, ATI, etc.) you just uninstalled . Quit DriverCleaner and restart into Windows XP normal mode.

8. Install new vid driver. Note for SLI users: sometimes the driver doesn't install for both cards. To ensure proper installation, you should check in Device Manager to be sure the driver is installed for both cards. If it isn't, you should right-click on the yellow-question-marked card and click on Update Driver.

9.. Empty the recycle bin and Reboot

10. Redo what was undone in #2 & #1, in that order. Reboot if needed to re-establish Internet connection.

11. Enjoy.
 
It could also be a RAM issue, since you only have 1GB. A 2GB kit would get you the most out of that system.
 
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