Mediocre performance on new machine, should I be worried?

[theotherguy]

I finally got my new PC built and running, but I'm a bit disappointed with the performance. I was wondering if I should be expecting this kind of performance from this hardware, or if its a driver/configuration issue.


I'm getting about 14-25 FPS on Left 4 Dead with all max settings on 1024x768 with no AA and 4xAF with no Vsync. With all settings on low, it never rises above 32 FPS.

OpenGL performance is miserable. I am getting <9 FPS on RocketPod, a 2D openGL game that I could comfortably run at >100 FPS on my old machine. (Athalon 64 3500+, 2GB PC3200 RAM, ATI Radeon x1900 pro 512 MB AGP)


Specs:
Q6600 Core 2 Quad 2.4 Ghz
EVGA e-Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512 MB
4 GB DDR2 1066MHZ RAM
1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Sounblaster X-Fi
Windows Vista Ultimate x86

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Your hardware seems very good. Check drivers or seek help somewhere.

 

[Blackthorn]

Yeah something there is definitely screwed. I get a constant 60 FPS with a lower spec GPU and a much higher resolution, with AA enabled. I'd make sure everything is plugged in firmly, since you said you built it yourself. Check the temperatures on your CPU and GPU too, I had some severe overheating problems with the Q6600's stock cooler.

 

[theotherguy]

omg, I found the problem!

When checking the fan settings, I had accidentally pressed the button in the Nvidia control panel for "Use settings emphasizing quality" which basically defaulted to 8x MSAA and 16X AF,with some other fancy features. I changed this to "let the 3D application decide" and I"m getting 60 FPS on Left 4 Dead!

 

[Barney Fife]

omg, I found the problem!

When checking the fan settings, I had accidentally pressed the button in the Nvidia control panel for "Use settings emphasizing quality" which basically defaulted to 8x MSAA and 16X AF,with some other fancy features. I changed this to "let the 3D application decide" and I"m getting 60 FPS on Left 4 Dead!

You got it.
Everything on Nvidia control panel should be left on "Application Controlled/default" except "Multi-display/Mixed-GPU acceleration" which you can change to "Single-Display Performance Mode" from "Multi-Display Performance Mode" unless you're using multiple-display or mixed-GPU.

Good Luck.

 

[CyberPitz]

Silly nvidia control panel!!!

 

[Stigmata]

And here I was, thinking your PCIe slot was set to 1x. Good to see it got fixed!

 

[giant384]

even then you should still be able to run those settings no problem.

your monitor resolution is killing the fps sir.

 

[Sedako]

Silly nvidia control panel!!!

I miss being able to set separate performance profiles for each game.

 

[The Brick]

It's still there.

 

[theotherguy]

even then you should still be able to run those settings no problem.

your monitor resolution is killing the fps sir.

Why's that?

EDIT: I'm still getting horrid performance in OpenGL 2D applications, including Adobe Photoshop

 

[The Brick]

Check your mainboard, cpu and ram settings with CPUZ. Check your videocard clocks with GPUZ. Run 3dmark06 (you should score around 12500). Reinstall drivers.

 

[giant384]

Why's that?

EDIT: I'm still getting horrid performance in OpenGL 2D applications, including Adobe Photoshop

1024x768 doesnt use much power so it causes bottleneck.

as for the 2d apps, that is fishy. i would do what brick says

 

[theotherguy]

I got 3495 3d Marks



Core 0 is clocking at 1.6 GHZ, running at 1.184 V
Ram is clocking at 333 Mhz

Cannot access second core.

VPU is clocking at 1.1 Ghz
VRAM is clocking at 0 Mhz (?)
Shader clocking at 2.7 Ghz

 

[theotherguy]

More detailed score after a second test:

3DMark Score
3365 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score
1619
SM 3.0 Score
1911
CPU Score
574

 

[theotherguy]

It looks like only two out of four of my Q6600 cores are working :x

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Did your processor got damaged? Check it.

 

[giant384]

why is your ram clock so low??

should be 533mhz

you might want to try to see if there is an update for your motherboards bios or you can try resetting the bios to default settings.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

OpenGL performance is miserable. I am getting <9 FPS on RocketPod, a 2D openGL game that I could comfortably run at >100 FPS on my old machine. (Athalon 64 3500+, 2GB PC3200 RAM, ATI Radeon x1900 pro 512 MB AGP)


Specs:
Q6600 Core 2 Quad 2.4 Ghz
EVGA e-Geforce 9800 GTX+ 512 MB
4 GB DDR2 1066MHZ RAM
1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Sounblaster X-Fi
Windows Vista Ultimate x86

You have the same hardware as me, except for the HDD and soundcard. Assuming you haven't got the SP1 of vista, make sure you update vista x86, as the original version didn't handle the source engine very well too.

Core 0 is clocking at 1.6 GHZ, running at 1.184 V
Ram is clocking at 333 Mhz

Which motherboard do you have, because it would be interesting to see the settings in there too

 

[kazsymonds]

This is going to sound daft - but you aren't on a powersave energy plan are you? I was getting rubbish framerate on tf2, and it turned out to be on some kind of powersave setting where it only used 50% processor power!

 

[theotherguy]

No, actually on the performance setting.

I checked to see if it was msconfig setting the processors to 2 instead of 4, but alas, it was already set to four. Device manager only shows 2/4 of the cores, so does task manager. (CPUZ only shows one of the cores). VirtualMark claimed I only had two cores.

My motherboard supports Q6600, it says so right in the manual. I am pretty sure this is a software error or a BIOS error. I will try reinstalling my motherboard drivers. If that doesn't work, I'll try clearing the CMOS, and if that doesn't work, I'll try flashing the BIOS.

 

[theotherguy]

No, actually on the performance setting.

I checked to see if it was msconfig setting the processors to 2 instead of 4, but alas, it was already set to four. Device manager only shows 2/4 of the cores, so does task manager. (CPUZ only shows one of the cores). VirtualMark claimed I only had two cores.

My motherboard supports Q6600, it says so right in the manual. I am pretty sure this is a software error or a BIOS error. I will try reinstalling my motherboard drivers. If that doesn't work, I'll try clearing the CMOS, and if that doesn't work, I'll try flashing the BIOS.

Here's what CPUZ and GPUZ say:

 

[DreamThrall]

It should also be noted that if you're running x86, you'll only be getting 3.something GB of your ram used.

 

[theotherguy]

I reset the CMOS, and it fixed the problem.

However, my machine began to experience random crashes and bluescreens.

My performance increased dramatically, but I couldn't install windows vista SP1. 3D mark ran amazingly fast, my CPU scores jumped from 500 to 4000, but it would crash randomly and bluescreen often.

My friend convinced me to uninstall Vista and install windows XP. I am now running XP with basically the same problems.

This is terrible.

 

[giant384]

I reset the CMOS, and it fixed the problem.

However, my machine began to experience random crashes and bluescreens.

My performance increased dramatically, but I couldn't install windows vista SP1. 3D mark ran amazingly fast, my CPU scores jumped from 500 to 4000, but it would crash randomly and bluescreen often.

My friend convinced me to uninstall Vista and install windows XP. I am now running XP with basically the same problems.

This is terrible.

search for an updated bios for your mainboard, check to make sure you have the most up to date drivers for your computer.

 

[Stigmata]

I reset the CMOS, and it fixed the problem.

However, my machine began to experience random crashes and bluescreens.

My performance increased dramatically, but I couldn't install windows vista SP1. 3D mark ran amazingly fast, my CPU scores jumped from 500 to 4000, but it would crash randomly and bluescreen often.

My friend convinced me to uninstall Vista and install windows XP. I am now running XP with basically the same problems.

This is terrible.

Check to make sure your RAM is running at the right clock speeds. When I first built my computer, the motherboard set the ram to 667mhz instead of 800mhz and due to whatever CPU/memory synchronicity issues, Windows XP would fail to install.

 

[theotherguy]

Fixed it!

It was the legacy USB drivers apparently. I just disabled them and it now no longer hangs.

 

[Vigilante]

Check to make sure that your video card is getting enough power. When I first built mine I had an Antec 550w in it and it was performing at about 1/3 of what it should have been.

I uninstalled vista and installed XP to see if that was the problem and XP told me the video card wasn't getting enough power. Put a BFG 800w in and problem solved.

EDIT: Nvm, glad you got it fixed .

 

[theotherguy]

Actually nevermind.

Windows XP continues to lock up, forcing me to do a hard restart. The lock ups occur after between 10 and 30 minutes of operation, and don't seem to appear with any particular program in operation. I have tried just letting the system sit for 30 minutes, and found it to be frozen. Once, it froze while the screensaver was active.

I have updated XP up to service pack 3, and have checked CPUZ and GPUZ, everything appears to be at the proper voltages and clock speeds.

What could possibly be causing these random lockups? There are no crashes or bluscreens like before, but I have no way of diagnosing the problem. Does Windows XP keep an event log of system hangs and their causes?

 

[Krynn72]

If you're getting all these different problems in so many different situations, it seems like there is a problem with your hardware. If so, my guess would be the motherboard.

 

[giant384]

checked for the bios update like i said?

 

[theotherguy]

I spent hours last night debugging this.

I let it crash three times, and then checked the event log for similarities between the crashes. In each case, a service related to my wireless network card experienced problems and shut down, and ten seconds later, the computer crashed.

I uninstalled the wireless network card, removed it from my PC, and haven't experienced a crash in the last two and a half hours.

I ran 3dMark 06 all the way through this time, and got a new score of:

12,676 marks!!

Truly incredible.

...oh shit it just crashed again while installing Supreme Commander.

****.

 

[theotherguy]

Going to flash the BIOS. If that doesn't work, I'm getting a new mobo from Fry's tommorow.

 

[Rico]

Get it from Newegg instead. Fry's policy is to take your money first, screw you over later if for whatever reason the crap they sold you has problems. Look up Fry's and customers on google, and see all the horror stories you find.

I only go to fry's if I must these days. Their sales clerks don't know a motherboard from a RAM stick, and their store policy is so muddy and full of BS that it makes me wonder if they just make things up as they go along.

 

[theotherguy]

Got a new ASUS mobo from frys, and I have no more problems. I am running Far Cry 2 with all settings on ultra at 45 FPS with no hitches , running Supreme Commander at 60+ FPS at full settings with hundreds of units onscreen.