AMD 3200 ---> X2 4200 = slow performance

[aBg_rOnGak]

When I looked at Universal aBit S.E.A's website, http://www.abit.com.tw/page/sa/down...&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=UL8&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket 939, you might want to download two (2) bios files and do 2 bios flashing. furthermore, only certain ULi chipset that can give you comparable performance to better chipsets (nForce 4 series etc)...God luck in flashing

 

[stevechong25]

ok, I have updated the bios to the latest version but no improvement so far. Instead of displaying 2.21ghz it display 2.25ghz. The games performance are still horrible.

I decided to modify the multiplier and the bus speed. Instead of letting them to Default and Startup setting, I changed the multiplier to X11 2200MHz and the bus to 200MHz. Now my computer display 2.21ghz.

I tried a few games and noticed a small improvement in performance. Perhaps I should play with the bios setting until I get good performance.

 

[nightscope]

Did you try reinstalling windows yet? You said you were going to try, but have you done that yet?

 

[stevechong25]

of course I did, It is written on the page

 

[stevechong25]

do you guys think it is related to power consumption problem?

 

[swifty_morgan]

your ram should be running at 800........ no ?

wait a minute...........

ddr2 what ?

think you have to force your ram to run at native

 

[nukemaster]

its 939 so it should be DDR1 @ 400ddr(most bios's call it 200) for optimal performance...

 

[teh_boxzor]

his ram is DDR not DDR2 (socket 939)

windows reinstall should've done it unless its really old windows i.e. sp1 or below.

try turning off cool n quiet and yes i think the psu is too weak for your setup.

generic psu is running how many amps on the 12v rail?

 

[stevechong25]

my ram is two different kind of noname brand
2 X 1gig pc3200

 

[Orion1024]

If your system is slow only when playing games, the problem might be the AGP driver. Uninstall the video driver then the AGP driver, then re-install the AGP driver first. You can get the ULI AGP driver from the NVidia website. Maybe the problem has something to do with the AMD memory controller being integrated into CPU and it's affecting the AGP bus / driver.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Well, having 2 crap brand memory sticks don't help anything. Having said that, my ddr 3200/400 runs at 433.

Try running it at 216 for starters. Bump it up til it crashes then back off.......... or increase the voltage a little and start over

better off starting at 201 then 202, etc. Cheap memory might not run at 216..... ?

 

[Orion1024]

Yes...forgot to mention that my 3700 also idles at 50C with the stock HSF, so that's not abnormal.

 

[stevechong25]

Thank you guys I have fixed the problem by installing the Uli driver on nvidia website. I cant believe I have passed by all that trouble So happy !!!! I deserve you one!

 

[FSXFan]

you need to reinstall windows if you change the amount of cores in a PC...like others said windows still thinks that your PC only has 1 core, so its amazing its still working...

try reinstalling windows or googling a way to patch your installation...thats your problem right there

Nope. I replaced my 3000+ with a 4400+ and installed the AMD dual core drivers and everything worked fine. My bios was already updated.

To the OP: Your problem is that your mobo's ULi M1689 chipset (from the info I've found so far) doesn't support the x2 processors. The only option I can see is getting a new mobo. I just ran into this problem with a friend's PC I was upgrading for him. He had a Jetway with a via chipset that didn't support the x2, I didn't even think to check this out before but I realized it when I booted that thing. It was the same story, slow performance and only showed one graph in task manager. After I did some research and found out the problem, tried installing updated bios, nothing worked. We just had to get a new board.

Anyway, choices are limited for boards with an AGP slot and support for x2. Newegg has none. Tiger direct has an MSI with a VIA K8T800Pro for $50 that will work. There are some others out there, I think Zipzoomfly has one or two. Ebay is full of ECS and Asus boards with the VIA chip that will work for cheap, but some people don't feel comfortable buying such items from ebay. If you don't want to buy another video card I think that VIA is the only option if I remember right. You would be better off getting a board with a PCI-E slot and another cheap card IMO. There's lots of cheap ones with NF-4 chips that perform better and you could get something faster than that 7600 for very little. Hope this helps!

 

[FSXFan]

Well crap, that last post was pretty pointless then wasn't it? Oh well.

 

[jitpublisher]

Hit ctrl-alt-delete at the same time to bring up the task manager.
Click on ther "performance" tab.
If the X2 is being correctly identified, you will see 2 CPU usage graphs. 1 for each core.
Go to your Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, Processor. Again, if the X2 is being detected correctly, you will have 2 CPU's listed.
If you only have 1 CPU graph in the device manager, or 1 CPU listed in your device manager, your X2 is NOT being detected correctly. It is, in your case, most likely your motherboard not being dual core compatable.
When you installed the new CPU, upon the first boot-up into Windows, Windows should have detected the new CPU, installed it, (it was loading the multi-processor kernel and drivers) and asked you to re-boot to complete the installation. Did that happen?

 

[rickzor]

I know his problem is solved, but i just wanted to flame a bit about some comments on the previous page.
The 7600GT is not a crappy card.
And amd doesnt suck.
Period.

 

[tlmck]

I know his problem is solved, but i just wanted to flame a bit about some comments on the previous page.
The 7600GT is not a crappy card.
And amd doesnt suck.
Period.

The 7600gt plays Crysis and COD4 just fine in 1280x1024 with a stock E4300, 2gb DDR2 533, and a lowly VIA MB all running on XP SP1!.

 

[rickzor]

The 7600gt plays Crysis and COD4 just fine in 1280x1024 with a stock E4300, 2gb DDR2 533, and a lowly VIA MB all running on XP SP1!.

That said, there is nothing to add.
Although that "AMD sucks" comment was either childish and only meant to provoque people, or just purely ignorant.
Just because intel has better cpus, it doesnt mean that amd sucks, but thats just me and my homble opinion.
the nvidia 7600gt card performs on pair with a 7800gs (my card, a little oced anyway), and it still does the job pretty well.
Even with a old A64 3500+ (oced too) moving the horses :0 underneath.

 

[DJ_Jumbles]

Guys... God are you guys just random and silly with some of these suggestions... Reinstall Windows? Get real. The AMD dual core optimizer and X2 drivers are all you need. The graphics card is bad? He had the same card before and now he has worse performance, so that's not it genius. It's definately not the power supply unless he's getting some bluescreens of death or some other issues (which he's not). Your PS is more than sufficient for your system. A power supply failure is usually accompanied by A) The smell of freshly baked silicon or B) a component not working correctly and you get the bluescreen o' death or C) Won't power on at all.
I don't know what you problem is specifically. I would say that it might be a mobo issue or maybe a bad CPU? Don't know. I will say that back in the day when I upgraded from an Athlon 2000+ to a X2 3800, I didn't notice a really huge jump in performance. Your old single core was clocked at 2.0Ghz, but actually ran at an effective 3.2ghz compared with a Pentiac 4 at 3.2 ghz. The newer numbering system on the AMD chips is reflective of the actual clock speed times 2 (in the neighborhood at least), so your effective clock speed has slowed by 1 Ghz when running single-threaded apps and games. You might want to try a game that is known to have been optimized for dual core systems like HL2: Episode One or some of the newer games then do a CPU comparison and see if it's still dogging. If it does, my opinion is a Mobo or bad CPU situation.