Recent Upgrade - Wheres My Performance?

Z

Zer0-120

n00b
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
7
I recently made some upgrades to my gaming rig, but I’m not quite seeing the performance I expected.

My current build is as follows:

GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB (New – Upgraded from 6800)
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2ghz
Mobo: Unsure of exact specs, but it’s nothing fancy. (Posting from work)
RAM: 3ghz generic DDR2
PSU: 750w Rosewill (New – Upgraded from 450w)

I have a 22” widescreen LCD and I usually play at 1600 x 1050.

In CS: Source (All settings on high, no AA or AF), I get around 40-50 FPS – but with lots of activity on screen, I can get below 30.

In WoW (All on High, no AA or AF) – I average about 60FPS.

With 3dMark06, I got around 4400 marks. (Note: When 3dMark06 starts the CPU test, I get less than 1fps.)

I was expecting better performance when I upgraded my video card. I’m wondering if my aged processor is holding me back, or maybe the motherboard? Would upgrading either/both of these items result in a significant performance increase?

Or, are my expectations just too high?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Zer0-120 said:
I recently made some upgrades to my gaming rig, but I’m not quite seeing the performance I expected.

My current build is as follows:

GPU: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB (New – Upgraded from 6800)
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2ghz
Mobo: Unsure of exact specs, but it’s nothing fancy. (Posting from work)
RAM: 3ghz generic DDR2
PSU: 750w Rosewill (New – Upgraded from 450w)

I have a 22” widescreen LCD and I usually play at 1600 x 1050.

In CS: Source (All settings on high, no AA or AF), I get around 40-50 FPS – but with lots of activity on screen, I can get below 30.

In WoW (All on High, no AA or AF) – I average about 60FPS.

With 3dMark06, I got around 4400 marks. (Note: When 3dMark06 starts the CPU test, I get less than 1fps.)

I was expecting better performance when I upgraded my video card. I’m wondering if my aged processor is holding me back, or maybe the motherboard? Would upgrading either/both of these items result in a significant performance increase?

Or, are my expectations just too high?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The only real advice I can give you is this:

make sure all drivers and firmware are up tp date.
run benchmark tests to check for faulty hardware(i.e. a bad stick of RAM)

From what you telling me, you mobo could actually be the bottleneck. If your mobo is really that old, the bus speed limitations could be your problem. The video card can only be let lose with a good processor and mobo..in my opinion anyway. just a starting point for you.....hope you have better luck with this little bit of info.
 
Also, what operating system are you running? Not that it matters much.

CS and WOW wouldn't show that much improvement since your 6800 would have run them perfectly fine. Also, your CPU and MOBO could def be a bottleneck. Your MOBO determines your RAM and thus your RAM's speed. I'm assuming your not running DDR2 yet, and even though you upgraded your video card, if your RAM isn't fast you won't see much improvement in CS or WOW.

If you want to see a more noticeable improvement I'd suggest upgrading CPU and MOBO as well.
 
What does 3ghz of Generic DDR 2 mean? If you mean 3 gigs of DDR 2, then the next question is: how are the 3 gigs spaced across your RAM DIMMS? If you have 3 1-gig DIMMS, then you are suffering from a substantial performance loss, as having an odd number of DIMMS results in DDR RAM running in single channel mode (which more or less halves the operating speed of your RAM.) If you have 2 1-gig DIMMS and 2 512-meg DIMMS, then you're fine.

Your Pentium 4 processor is definitely a dog, and it could be the source of a performance bottleneck in your system, especially when paired with a high end graphics card such as the 8800 GTS. However keep in mind that 3D Mark's processor test is supposed to run at 1-2 FPS, even on the latest and greatest Core 2s. 3D Mark is doing active 3D renderings using just the processor in that test, and general CPUs perform very poorly at 3D rendering. That's why computers have dedicated graphics cards.

Mark.
 
Thanks for your responses.

To clarify and answer some questions, I pulled up my order history from Newegg:

OS: Windows XP
Ram: 3gig DDR2 PC4200 - (2x1gig and 2x512)
Mobo: ECS C19-A SLI (1.0A) LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI XE ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor Model BX80547PG3000F
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series HD160JJ 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

Also, the 6800 didn't run CS:S and WoW fine at all - 30fps at lowest settings.

I built this machine when I was very new to hardware. While I still don't know much - I know enough not to skimp on things.

With this additional information, are we in agreement that my mobo and processor are likely bottlenecking the video card?
 
Thanks for all of your help.

I've got a pretty decent budget available - I'll do some research over the weekend and make a purchase on Monday.

Any further recommendations on Processors and Motherboards? (Preferably something compatible with my existing RAM)
 
You won't get a improvment in WoW, your LCD monitor is probaly forcing WoW to default to a 60HZ refresh rate, ergo, 60 FPS. You will notice however, that it'll never lag where it may have used to. I'm unsure as to what you mean by "3 GHZ" ram, but I guarantee that it being generic is a major bottleneck, latency is a factor with less mainstream RAM. I'd give a Core2 a try, and if you have 3GB of RAM, you may want to replace it with something faster, but I wouldn't get MORE than 3GB, windows XP simply wont see it. If you're on vista... that's a whole new set of problems :D
 
Zer0-120 said:
$300 or so - for Mobo/Processor/Ram (If needed).
Click to expand...
So go with Danny's suggestions...
Danny Bui said:
Yeah pretty much it is the CPU.

If you are looking for a cheap upgrade, I recommend this -
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 CPU - $80
Abit IP35-E Intel P35 Motherboard - $89
---
Total - $169 Plus tax and shipping.

The E2160 will be faster than your P4 and it is a dual core CPU.
Click to expand...

and add some RAM:
$70 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

Though, you could bump that CPU up to the E4300 or E4400:
$117 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache
$125 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top