Need some techie help

radforChrist

<div class="IPBDescription">getting my PC to perform</div>I have a gaming rig that I've been trying to tweak, and for the life of me, I can't seem to get any good performance out of it. I wanted to know if you've experienced similar problems, or what I can do to get better performance, without completely degrading quality.

The system is:
Pentium 4 Processor 650 with HT Technology (3.40GHz, 800 FSB)
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
80 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 Graphics Card
20.1" 2005FPW WS LCD.

No matter what I try, I only get 30-40 FPS in Source (CS:S and HL2) with HDR disabled at 1650x1080. 3DMark06 only gets 4-10 fps in 1280x1024, no AA/AF, and overall, I'm disappointed in the performance.

What I've tried? NVTweak, custom drivers (DNA and NGO), newest WHQL certified drivers, Beta Drivers, even older drivers. I've tried my best to tweak Windows, disabling unnecessary services, and any other backgroud task. I'm at a lost.

Also, I'd try a lower WS resolution, but since NVida so conveniently broke the custom resolution feature, it's not an option ATM.

Any help is appreciated.

Confused

Do you have HT on or off?

What processes are you runnning in the background?

Finally, what are your fps in a more standard resolution, say, 1024x768 or 1280 x960/1024 in source?

DarkFrost

Motherboard drivers, you never said if you tried them. Its arguably the most important driver set for a system. Since everything goes through the chipset.

radforChrist

It's an Intel Chipset, and I've downloaded and installed their latest. I'll do some more benchmarks tonight and post the results.

Faust

Looking through <a href="http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/" target="_blank">here</a> may give you a solution or two <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />

CoolCookieCooks

that is quite a high res to run hl2 at :X

douchebagatron

yea, that resolution is probably youre problem. needs to be lowered.

KungFuDiscoMonkey

I've run HL2 at 1680x1050 on my notebook. Though that was when it first came out.

radforChrist

That's the funny bit. I've run HL2 WITH AA and AF at that resolution, but now it drags. I don't know if Steam just updated their engine to make my card all poopie, but it's frustrating.

I've semi improved the overall performance by turning down the texture quality etc, but I'm saddened I have to do that now, when I didn't earlier with a 3.0 GHz processor, and the remaining specs identical...

Marik_Steele

I remember reading complaints from Athlon 64 owners when Valve released a 64-bit version of their exe's and (at least at first, perhaps they do now) didn't give the option of choosing to run HL2 in 32 or 64 bit. Some people were experiencing lower performance with 64 bit, oddly enough.

I haven't heard if there's a similar issue going on with your processor vs. your previous one, but it's worth checking Valve's support system.

radforChrist

Well, the best option I had was to create a custom resolution for my Valve Games, 1024x480, so I could have WS and a low enough resolution that my games played well.

Petco

<!--quoteo(post=1564509:date=Jul 25 2006, 01:08 PM:name=Marik_Steele)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marik_Steele @ Jul 25 2006, 01:08 PM) [snapback]1564509[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I remember reading complaints from Athlon 64 owners when Valve released a 64-bit version of their exe's and (at least at first, perhaps they do now) didn't give the option of choosing to run HL2 in 32 or 64 bit. Some people were experiencing lower performance with 64 bit, oddly enough.

I haven't heard if there's a similar issue going on with your processor vs. your previous one, but it's worth checking Valve's support system.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Also some complaints about steam games (basicly almost every mod) using up a huge amount of CPU usage.