Acting the maggot !!!!

[ajjcon]

Help me please ! i beg you !!!!?
Why o why is it still struggling ?
I have spent a tidy sum of money and many hours tinkering to build my self a gaming rig that i could be proud of, but why when i play need for speed shift, or dirt that it still struggles when there is alot of activity on the screen, kind of like when a race gets going there are plenty of cars and lots of scenery and the graphics faulter/stutter, just enough to annoy me !!!!! my spec is below !

INTEL CORE QUAD 2.66GHz Q9400
INTEL DG33BU CLASSIC BOARD
CRUCIAL 6GB RAM (800Hz)
SAPHIRE ATI RADEON HD4870 1GB
CREATIVE X-FI Music
CORSAIR TX650W PSU
DELL FLAT SCREEN (I HAVE A NEW LIYAMA PRO-LITE 24'' FULL HD ORDERED HOPEFULL HAVE IT FOR THE WEEKEND)
PLAYING AT 1280 X1024 EVERYTHING AT FULL !

When i get my new screen i would like to be able to play games at the native res which is in the 1920's and i fear that problems will arise especially when its starting to happen at the lower res !

and its windows 7 by the way, but i am in now way dedicated to it yet !
Help me please !!!!

 

[jennyh]

I'd look at that 2.66ghz q9400 as being a possible weak link. It's a good enough chip, but it needs overclocking to at least 3ghz.

Do you have the latest 4870 drivers also? Don't use the ones on the disc, download catalyst 9.9 from amd.com and use that.

 

[ajjcon]

what is involved in overclocking and how far can you push it and still leave it stable ?
andrew

 

[jennyh]

Make sure you are using the latest catalyst drivers for the 4870 first imo. Overclocking isn't for the faint hearted and it's something you'd have to read up a lot on before attempting it for the first time.

 

[ajjcon]

i see, as for the drivers all is up to scratch. by any chance is windows 7 causing an issue ?

 

[jennyh]

It's possible but unlikely. Maybe you just have to turn the quality down a notch, especially any shadows.

 

[ajjcon]

here is another question, its quite an aged mother board, could it be stiffling the cpu also ?
i was thikin of upgrading it as it only has 1 pci-2 slot rulling out crossfire in the future

 

[obsidian86]

the board is an old one i'd say get a p43 or p45

 

[obsidian86]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-240001_11_0.html

 

[jennyh]

Nope that shouldn't be causing anything bad. If you want the best performance increases you will probably have to tune the graphics options down a notch, overclocking your cpu will help but not massively.

 

[ajjcon]

ha ha wats the bets ill burn out the new cpu on my first attempy at overclocking, think ill try my work pc first, ill not end up crying if it dies ! lol ! is the p45 by asus ? must take a look ! thanks

 

[jennyh]

the board is an old one i'd say get a p43 or p45

Hmm. That bad? Still pci-e 2 though?

 

[ajjcon]

i jack the graphics back a bit, but im having to go as low as 1024 x 768 with 2xaa before i get decent results, its a pity about this... before you get a pc built games have surpassed them in what can be rendered. every time i change the graphics in this game i have to restart the pc. this game could get shelved very easily......

 

[ajjcon]

the only reason i started a new build at home was that i came across a spare intel board (this one) at my work that came out of a defunked server (thats what the hardware guys called it, but it was just a std pc running fedora) and i started to spend. looks like im not finished ! would be nice to put the new screen to the test

 

[obsidian86]

there are numerous p45 boards by many vendors

 

[jennyh]

I'd defintely consider a cheap P35 at least. I have one with my Q6600 and have absolutely no issues whatsoever, not sure if the P35's will take 9000 series though?

 

[megame255]

A P35 chipset will work just fine with a Q9400. Though I would probably go with something a bit newer... There are cheap P45 boards.

 

[Mousemonkey]

When i get my new screen i would like to be able to play games at the native res which is in the 1920's

I would suggest that you hold off doing anything else until you get your new screen, at your current low res the CPU is doing a lot of the work and NFSS will work your CPU at a higher res as well so you need to increase the resolution to get the GPU to share more of the load and earn it's keep.

 

[ajjcon]

just thought i would let you all know that the new monitor arrived today and at its native display.......... NO LAG !!! I even put on Crysis and it works great !!!!! thanks every one and cheers to mousemonkey you may have saved me money !

 

[Mousemonkey]

Nice one, now you can spend the money you saved on beer! [:mousemonkey:4]