Bottlenecked build

[Imp 55]

Hello everyone, i have a pretty annoying problem with my system. My system is almost 3 years old now, but its had problems since day 1 when i put it together.

Specs

Intel Q8200 Quad
4gb DDR2 800
Asus P5Q P45
500gb Sata 2 HDD
ATI HD 4870 512MB
750 Watt Arctic Power PSU

When i bought it, it was running vista home premium. 32 bit.

It was only running games like CS:S at about 110fps and dropping to 50fps in heavy firefights and games like TF2 stuggled to even stay over 60fps...there was definatly something wrong there. Nobody on the steam forums could help me, one said its just 4870 don't work well with source games. So basically i just stopped playing those games.

It ran cod4 fine so i just played that along with wow and cod2.

I Changed back to XP in the last year due to Vistas compatibly issues with various games.

Back when i was on vista it had trouble running CoD WAW and MW2 maxing only 90 fps on MW2 at 1024x768 at high settings, lowering the settings did help the framerate but only buy 10fps... WAW was a little better but still had to be run at 1024x768 to make it playable.

Now that im on XP i still have these issues so it wasn't the OS...i updated ATI drivers to latest using driver sweeper to clean them out. No dice. I even back graded to 9.3 drivers with no luck. I still suffer terrible Framerates in TF2, MW2, WAW and CS:S

Im unsure on how to rectify my problem, i spent $1000 on this build and i have little to show for it :/. I know my temps are fine after a heavy load the CPU is around 51c and the GPU is 60c. I have scoured the internet for possible fixes and pretty much no of them have work such as running in DX8, allowing multi core, disabling smoke, defrag..reinstall...

How would i go about trying to find the cause for bottleneck, my CPU has a bit of a low multiplier so i cant overclock it much, but im sure that's a good place to start?

What do you guys think, i look foward to your replys. Thanks in advance!

 

[COLGeek]

In addition to the video drivers, are your chipset and and audio drivers fully up to date?

 

[geekapproved]

I've been running Vista since the day it came out and I never had a compatibility problem with ANYTHING or ANY GAME.
Likely you had another issue which you blamed on Vista.

What's the problem with 60fps? I mean you got a slow cpu, an older graphics card and a generic psu that's probably only putting out about 400w.

What are you expecting from this?

 

[Imp 55]

@ COLGeek i'll have ago at updating both of them thanks for the suggestion. Funny how one misses these things...


@GeekApproved Try and help buddy not attack me cause i don't use vista, its clear something is wrong. You do sound a little on Vistas defence but it wouldn't play many games for me. And i did do my research when it came to blaming vista, i don't hate vista i had to get rid of it cause of the games i wanted to play. TRSUT ME im not just out to hate vista for the fun of it.

Whats the problem with 60fps? Nothing...But the fact is i wanted to play those games at a much nicer resolution than 1024x768 i mean i payed $200 for the GFX card you want it to run stuff at 1280x1024 at least. The fact i had to play these games on that resolution on a 24 inch monitor is brain hurt, and in spite of that still get low frame rate. I payed big money so i expect good performance or i wouldn't of payed so much.


First off my CPU isn't slow its a quad core i know its a lower end quad core but its still a goddamn quad core its fast. My graphics card may be old now but when it came out it, it was the fastest out. It should of run those games much faster. Remember buddy i'm not trying to play crysis on high or anything.

While my PSU brand might be undere the rader so to speak, saying its putting out 400w is probably a lie unless there's something you know which i don't which i doubt.

I've looked up how others 4870 and Q6600 are running MW2 they are reporting 111fps constant on MW2 multiplayer and 300fps on CS:S its clear something is up with my system.

Its almost like your trolling me? You know i'm not somekind of FPS whore or anything i dont expect my PC to run all the games at like 200fps but when compared to similar setups mine is performing terribly. This system when i bought it and put it togther was a high end machine. And considering people with 4850s,9800,8800gtx and dual core setups get higher fps on those games clearly shows something is up.

Its seems to me your trolling.

 

[geekapproved]

It's 2.3ghz, it's not fast. A 3.1ghz dual core like mine would absolutely destroy it in any game.

...and the power supply, I'm not even gonna go there, but your right, I know something you don't.

Good luck with your problem, clearly you already know everything and can't be helped.

 

[COLGeek]

The HD4870 is quite the power hog and requires a lot from a PSU. Back when I had one of them, it was the main reason I started buying Seasonic PSUs. I had a Zalman that was supposed to be "premium" and it turned out to be a dog. It simply could not power the HD4870 properly and it failed within 30 days of the warranty expiring.

GeekApproved does have a point regarding the "goodness" of your PSU. If you have access to another PSU that can meet the needs of your HD4870, you could swap for troubleshooting purposes to isolate, one way or the other, the status of your PSU.

When PSUs are in the process of failing they do all sorts of odd things, particularly by affecting GPUs more than just about anything else.

Good luck!

 

[Imp 55]

@ Geekapproved, please don't think i'm being mean but in your first post you did come across pretty trollish...and cmon dude... 4 cores running at 2.3 = 9.2 ghz total compared to a 2 cores running at 3.1 = 6.2. If a game has good multi threading support i'm sure they perform just aswell as each other...


i don't know it all otherwise i wouldn't be here looking for help now would i

But if you adamant its the PSU i will deffo have a look, ty for advice...

@ COLGeek

only access wise to another PSU would be buying one...probably take a week to report back.

Thanks for help guys...

 

[COLGeek]

@ Geekapproved, please don't think i'm being mean but in your first post you did come across pretty trollish...and cmon dude... 4 cores running at 2.3 = 9.2 ghz total compared to a 2 cores running at 3.1 = 6.2. If a game has good multi threading support i'm sure they perform just aswell as each other...


i don't know it all otherwise i wouldn't be here looking for help now would i

But if you adamant its the PSU i will deffo have a look, ty for advice...

@ COLGeek

only access wise to another PSU would be buying one...probably take a week to report back.

Thanks for help guys...

...be careful with your "core math", my friend. It doesn't necessarily work that way. Standing by.

 

[Imp 55]

Reporting back tested a Corsair 750TX in the system, mw2 suffered still maybe a 10fps boost...but also suffered graphical glitches i have never seen 0_0.

TF2 and CS:S did run better by 40fps in some places, i suppose that's a consolation. If anything. Not the performance increase i was hoping for but makes the able o play.

I might aswell go ahead and be on the safe side and invest in a better psu. Any other suggestions?