New PC serverely underperforming

J

JungleXV

n00b
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Nov 19, 2006
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So I finally got my gaming PC in the mail (whoohoo!) and I was extremely excited to start gaming on it until I noticed that it was not performing up to my expectations. Since I just received the computer, I haven't been able to really try any games besides World of Warcraft, and to be perfectly honest, my framerate is all over the place. Some places I'll get a solid 60 FPS, and then it will just drop to like 10-15 out of nowhere. I've also tried disabling SLI just to see, but my FPS are still really bad. Here are my stats:

2 eVGA 8800 GT 512 MB Video Cards in SLI (latest drivers)
Q6600 Quad-Core Processor
3 GB of Corsair Ram (2 sticks of 1GB each, and 2 sticks of 512MB each)
MS Vista 32 Bit w/ service pack 1
580 Watt PSU Hush PSU (crappy, I know, but I'm upgrading soon)

Ok, the thing is, a friend of mine has a similar PC to mine, only with 2 GB of ram (down from 3), and only one 8800GT, yet his Windows Experience Index in Vista is 5.5. My index is a 4.4, and that is because of the Memory (Ram). Why would it be so low if I have 3 GB of ram? I spent a lot of money on this computer and I honestly expected it to run games better than it is now. My older PC ran WoW much smoother. Some things I'm thinking it might be:

1) My Ram? Is Corsair not a good brand or something? Screenshot of my Windows Index: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/DragonfireXV/WindowsIndex.jpg
Could my ram be bottlenecking my PC, which is why my games aren't performing well?

2) My PSU? Would not having a really good PSU possibly lower my FPS in games somehow?

3) Quad Core maybe not too compatible with WoW?

I know there are a lot of questions but I spent close to $1400 dollars on this PC and I just can't understand why my friends PC would run smoother when he only spent like $800 on his.
 
- Uninstall and reinstall the Nvidia drivers. iBuyPower may have installed older drivers which is slowing down WOW for you
- Download CPU-Z and take a screen shot of all of the tabs except for "Cache" and "About." For the "SPD" section, make sure you get a screen shot of each slot with RAM in it.
- Remove the two 512MB sticks of RAM and see if your Index score goes up.
 
Danny Bui said:
- Uninstall and reinstall the Nvidia drivers. iBuyPower may have installed older drivers which is slowing down WOW for you
- Download CPU-Z and take a screen shot of all of the tabs except for "Cache" and "About." For the "SPD" section, make sure you get a screen shot of each slot with RAM in it.
- Remove the two 512MB sticks of RAM and see if your Index score goes up.
Click to expand...

I did two things; I took out the 2x 512 MB sticks of ram, and then I spread out the 2x 1GB sticks of ram. By that I mean, the slots on my motherboard are from left to right, yellow, black, yellow, black. So I made sure that both 1GB sticks of ram are in the same color. After doing that, I ran a Windows Index and it went from 4.4 to 5.0, however, I still feel that is kind of low compared to the rest of my scores. Not only that but my FPS still jumps around in WoW. Would my Ram have anything to do with that? Here are my CPU-Z screenshots:

CPU1.jpg


CPU2.jpg


CPU3.jpg


CPU4.jpg


CPU5.jpg
 
Have you run any real benchmarks? Keep in mind that WoW is *far* from an accurate benchmark. also keep in mind the max score is 5.9 for vista index.

you got it "in the mail" ? I'd be highly suspicioius about what driver versions are being used and what programs/processes/antivirus/etc are running.

fake edit: does your friend OC at all?
 
I haven't had any success fixing my system. Here's what I've done to troubleshoot so far:

1) Disabled SLI in Nvidia Control Panel - No success. Same issue with FPS jumping all over the place
2) Took out the two 512MB sticks of ram, and alternated the two 1GB sticks of ram (First ram slot has a stick, second one is empty, third one has a stick, fourth one empty) - Same performance issue although I did notice a slight improvement.
3) Disabled SLI and completely unplugged and removed the second video card - No change, same issue (so even with one video card, my system is underperforming)

What on earth could it be?? Could it be my PSU? Would that really effect my performace? Could it be my Ram? Vista? Something with my CPU? I am pretty sure this is the ram I have, as it looks exactly the same: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145153

Not sure if this will work, but here are my 3DMark06 scores: http://service.futuremark.com/resultAnalyz...mp;UID=15066829
It seems to be really low compared to a lot of systems. During the CPU testing I was running at about 1FPS.

Here is a screenshot of my Windows Index:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Dra...indowsIndex.jpg

Here are my 3D settings in the nVidia Config:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Dra...3dSettings1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/Dra...3dSettings2.jpg

As for the drivers, I believe I have the latest video card drivers, Everest says I have nVidia Forceware 169.32 Installed. I also updated my Motherboad BIOS. I don't know what other drivers I can possibly update. I don't think that is it. What else can I do?
 
Uninstall and reinstall your drivers anyway just to make sure that you have the latest drivers.

Oh and your futuremark link doesn't work. Same with your photobucket links.

And rarely will the PSU cause performance problems. Stability problems yes but rarely performance problems.

What anti-virus and firewall is installed on your system?
 
Clear your CMOS with only 2 gigs of ram and see what happens your ram is under clocked and your PCI-E link is only 1X thus your performance problems.
 
Hey guys, after talking to a lot of people I FINALLY think I know what is wrong with my PC. As some people here have already mentioned, my PCI-E link width is only 1x when the max is 16x according to CPU-Z: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/DragonfireXV/CPU2.jpg

I asked two of my friends who have similar PC's to mine (one also has SLI and the other has one 8800GT) to download CPU-Z, and for both of them it shows their link width as being 16x. I think it is a problem with my motherboard and not with my video cards. So I called the company and they said if I send back the motherboard they will send me a new one. The thing is, I don't even want to risk getting the same motherboard (Asus P5N-E) so lastly, I was hoping somebody could recommend me a good motherboard for me to buy. They said if I wanted a different motherboard, I'd just have to pay the difference. What do you guys think would be a good board for SLI?


Thanks for all the help guys, I honestly appreciate it so much.
 
Isn't there a setting in the BIOs where you can adjust the PCI-E width? Under PEG setting or something. Or set the PCI-E frequency to 101 or 102.
 
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