Games not running well anymore, Need new graphics card?

[darklord412]

I have been having lag on all my games including WoW and Team fortress 2. I used to be able to run them smoothly on high settings but now on WoW I lag on the lowest settings. WoW is a very easy game to run. This doesn't make any sense at all considering I have windows vista with an nvidia geforce 9100 video card, an amd phenom quad core processor, and 5.7gb RAM

The lag seems kind of strange. For example, WoW will say I am getting 30fps, but it will feel like 3fps. It seems to slow down and speed up rapidly.

I got a new modem and had my isp check my internet connection. So it is not my internet. I reformatted my harddrive and restored my computer to its factory settings so I don't think it is a software problem.

I don't know a lot abbout computers so I would like to know why I could once run games well but then suddenly stop running them well.

It must be a hardware problem, but I'm not sure if it is my video card. your thoughts?

 

[rolli59]

It is your card. It is a basic integrated card to give you nice 2d on the screen.

 

[khelben1979]

If you have the possibility to insert another harddrive where you do a fresh install of Windows Vista and trying to run some games on there, you will notice if it's a software problem.

If it's harware related: it could be that your powersupply is getting bad which affects your other components as well.

 

[mfarrukh]

If you have 9100 card i suggest you upgrade it to atleast 9600 or maybe 9800
check the power supply and system specs again
Good luck

 

[Kari]

dust in the heatsink(s) causing it to overheat and throttle down?