Hey all,

This is my first post... man I thought I knew about computers until I started reading some of these posts. Anyway, on to the problem...

The main components of my not-so-pimp rig are listed in my signature. I'm having terrible video problems, and they started acting up when I started Doom 3. I know that game is pretty graphically intense, so I thought nothing of it. Now I'm having problems with NFSU 2, and I can't believe it.

Basically the game is fine, but when I get into a situation where there are 3 or 4 cars on the road (or 2 or 3 monsters in Doom), the game starts glitching and the frames per second decrease rapidly - to the point where it's probably around 4 FPS.

I'm not sure what in my setup is causing the problems, or where to start troubleshooting. Maybe my graphics card is bad, bad memory, not enough HD space etc. Can anyone recommend some testing software/services so I can see what piece of hardware is causing the bottleneck? Any other help would be appreciated as well!

Thanks!

Welcome to PR, Dude. First off, not to sound like a rag or nothing, but pretty much everything in your system ( besides Ram and HDD) look like a bottleneck. You might want to consider upgrading your CPU so you can enjoy the full benefits of a new videocard aswell. When I ran Doom III with a GeForce FX 5200, I got the exact problem you're having ( mind that the fx 5200 could only handle 1 or so monsters in windowed mode before it became more unplayable than its native 15fps already was), however, i've found that my soundcard can be a real tool ( gee, thanks CMedia!!! ) because it hogs up a serious enough chunk of CPU power that it makes HL2 croak like a frog. After disabling ( muting) everything but Master, CD, Wave, and SW Synth Volumes I enjoyed a great improvement in framerate and thus playability! - Also, for those of you who remember me talking about my problems months ago with GTA: VC and my soundcard being fussy with EAX to the point that my framerate halted; this was the fix. -I wouldn't have ever known hadn't I been so picky about having HL2 run perfect at max settings 1024x780 No AA/AF. -Let me know if this helps, and if you don't mind, might I ask what soundcard you're using?

Thanks for the tips. Do you really think I need a better video card/cpu just for need for speed underground 2? I didn't think that it would be that much of a resource hog, but hey - upgrading is always fun

The soundcard I'm using right now is just the onboard from the mobo, and I don't know what brand it is off the top of my head. I would have never thought of the sound issue, but it's something I'll definitely look into.

Anyone else have any tips? Agree/disagree with konai?

There are several things that you might try to get your machine to perform better. First of all, is your hard drive defragmented and is there enough free space? Do you have the latest drivers for your componants? Another thing you can do is cut down on your windows services. Many services are active by default and are not needed. Here is a link to a guide that I have found very helpful in determining wheather or not to leave a service active, or weather to get rid of it.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

I like the guy's suggestion of creating multiple service profiles, for diferent applications.

Thanks for the reply. You know, now that I think about it... I don't think I have much space left on my HDD, so I need to address that and see if it helps. The thing that weirds me out is that all these games (doom 3 included) automatically set up my pc for the highest video settings, which lead me to believe that I should be ok with my current setup. Maybe that's not the case.

If I were to start upgrading (budget is tight right now), where should I start? Obviously not the mobo or process or because I'll have to buy new RAM, processor and mobo all at once to make any kind of difference. What's the video card of choice these days?

A 9800Pro would be the bottom-line card I believe..

Quote: Originally Posted by konai_konai666 A 9800Pro would be the bottom-line card I believe..

Nah, 9800s are still midrange. 9600xt is still decent and would use it for a low end card in a system. If 9800Pro is lowend than theres no midrange since theres only the x800s for now.

So where does that put my 9700 Pro? I know it's probably older technology compared to the x800 cards but you guys know how I am with older stuff All it has to do is play HL2 every once in a while, infact I think HL2 is the only game I have that requires a card like a 9600 pro and up to run smoothly on, all the other games I play run at 60 to 100 fps on a Voodoo 3.

..Just sayin, to enjoy AA/AF 4X @ 1024x780 in HL2, a 9800Pro would be the bottom-line in my opinion. It is by no means low-end. And I love the 9800Pro, hey j, that puts your 9700Pro in the same place, I can hardly disscern the two by framerate differences alone. I'd say though slower than a 9800Pro by arguably small margins they're faster than a 9800SE stock and more reliable ( by avg) than an excessively clocked SE performing 8 pipes opposed to its native 4. Price is where its at right now, -if you'll pay a bit more, you can get a 20-30% step up in performance ( big difference) by moving up to the $200.00 ( MSRP, give or take) X700XT/ 6600GT which are what I might call the consumer flagship cards as to many, thier price-to-performance ratio's are simply too excellent to resist!

Thanks for all the help guys

As far as the problem you described in your first post, it sounds like an example of your card not being Direct X 9 compatible, as both NFS:U and Doom 3 require DX9.

You do not have to have a DirectX-9 video card to play Doom3 or HL-2, they just needs to be *Compatible* It will automatically select a Direct X 8 path for older video cards...but you miss some of the eye candy.

I suggest formatting that HD and getting all the latest drivers, that 4400 is a pretty strong card, it should have decent framerates if everything is running right.

DX 9.0 compatible 3D card w/ 64MB RAM*
MS Windows 2000/XP
Pentium 4 1.5 GHz or Athlon XP 1500+
384 MB RAM


He is well above the Minumum, wich was tested and ran well in this test below.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjQ0LDU=


I agree, a new card would realy wake up your system, I would look at an ATI 9700Pro and up, or NVIDIA 5900XT and up.

You could go with a lesser video card, but you will get more mileage out of the above, especialy since you are only at 2GHZ.