Hello TomsHardware community, I am posting for the first time here in hopes that maybe you guys can identify my problem.
Here is my story...
Last week, these were my system specs:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo e6850 Dual Core Processor 3.0 GHz
Power Supply: NZXT PP800 800 watt power supply
Motherboard: Asus P5NE-SLI
Video Card: BFG NVidia GTS 250 1GB
Memory: 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 RAM (2x 1GB Corsair, 1x 1gb GSKILL)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
With these specs, I wasn't satisfied with the performance in games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, GTA 4, and All Points Bulletin. I would regularly get framerates in the low 20s during heavy load situations, and thought that now would be a good time to upgrade.
I went ahead and bought an NVidia Gigabyte GTX 470 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125320&cm_re=gigabyte_gtx_470-_-14-125-320-_-Product) because it was on sale and I had a coupon code to reduce the price further.
When it arrived last Wednesday, I eagerly replaced my GTS 250 and installed in its place the huge GTX 470. I installed the drivers from the packaged CD and booted up a few games to test out its performance. I ran Bad Company 2, cranked the settings to high at DX11 1680x1050 (but with anti-aliasing and HBAO disabled) and expected to be greeted with silky smooth 50+ FPS even during intense battles. This was far from the case. Intense battles would regularly dip to around 25fps, sometimes even 21, 22.
Disappointed, but knowing that BC2 is a pretty CPU intensive game, I quit out and ran Dawn of War 2. I set the graphics to high, no anti aliasing, and ran the benchmark in the options menu. Max FPS was in the 90s, average FPS was around 40, and lowest FPS was 15! Surely there is something holding the card back.
I went ahead and tested out GTA4, and got the same unsatisfactory results. The lowest framerates were in the low 20s. I reduced the settings to low, just to see how much smoother it would be. It was not much smoother at all, minimum FPS was still in the 30s.
At this point I was thinking that it had to be my CPU bottlenecking the card. After talking with some friends who are pretty knowledgeable in PC hardware, they agreed, and I could get a good deal on an Intel Core2Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz CPU at Microcenter. I went ahead and purchased one, and installed it when I got home. Booted up those same games expecting to see a boost in performance, but only saw slight boosts in fps. In DOW2, minimum FPS was still something like 16-18. BC2 saw an FPS boost of around 3-5 fps. and GTA4 saw a boost of the same. By now I was quite disappointed, thinking maybe it wasn't the CPU bottlenecking to begin with.
I started talking with a few of my friends to compare performance and hardware. One of them has:
Intel Dual Core E8400 3.0 GHz
Windows XP 32bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
ATI HD5850
His DOW2 benchmark with the same graphics settings as me reads something like
Maximum FPS:120
Average FPS: 60
Minimum FPS: 30+
By comparison, I now have a Q9550 and a GTX470 running a minimum FPS of 16...
Another friend has:
AMD Phenom x4 running at around 3.2 GHz (not sure what the exact model is)
4GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
ATI HD5770
He says he runs BC2 with silky smooth FPS on DX11, high settings except shadows on medium. By silky he means 50+ FPS all the time. Another frield has a GTS250 and even he runs BC2 smoother than my system (on medium though. Even if I set mine to medium I would still not meet up to his performance).
It is also worth mentioning that my Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard does not "officially" support the Q9550. Something about not taking advantage of the the 45nm architecture. When I first installed the CPU, the bios only read 2.00 GHz. Others have reported that the board can detect the full 2.83 GHz but only after updating the bios to the latest version and setting the multiplier from 6 to 8.5. I did this and the bios now reads the full 2.83 GHz. Curiously though, when I ran PassMark it only reported around 2500-2600 MHz
I guess to boil this post down, I am asking "Why is my FPS so low compared to other computers with lesser specs?" The only thing I am lacking in is RAM and maybe motherboard. After a week of testing, tweaking, and research and finding no solutions, I am stumped. I uninstalled drivers, reinstalled drivers, reinstalled windows, all to no avail. Some people tell me that my motherboard, which is pretty old, may be holding it all back. Other people tell me that the motherboard should not have a significant impact on performance at all. Maybe my slow RAM is holding things back? I don't know. Please help! Any answers could potentially help my situation. If nothing works, I think I'm just going to return the video card...
My current specs:
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q9550 Quad Core Processor 2.83 GHz
Power Supply: NZXT PP800 800 watt power supply
Motherboard: Asus P5NE-SLI
Video Card: Gigabyte NVidia GTX 470
Memory: 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 RAM (2x 1GB Corsair, 1x 1gb GSKILL)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Here is my story...
Last week, these were my system specs:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo e6850 Dual Core Processor 3.0 GHz
Power Supply: NZXT PP800 800 watt power supply
Motherboard: Asus P5NE-SLI
Video Card: BFG NVidia GTS 250 1GB
Memory: 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 RAM (2x 1GB Corsair, 1x 1gb GSKILL)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
With these specs, I wasn't satisfied with the performance in games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, GTA 4, and All Points Bulletin. I would regularly get framerates in the low 20s during heavy load situations, and thought that now would be a good time to upgrade.
I went ahead and bought an NVidia Gigabyte GTX 470 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125320&cm_re=gigabyte_gtx_470-_-14-125-320-_-Product) because it was on sale and I had a coupon code to reduce the price further.
When it arrived last Wednesday, I eagerly replaced my GTS 250 and installed in its place the huge GTX 470. I installed the drivers from the packaged CD and booted up a few games to test out its performance. I ran Bad Company 2, cranked the settings to high at DX11 1680x1050 (but with anti-aliasing and HBAO disabled) and expected to be greeted with silky smooth 50+ FPS even during intense battles. This was far from the case. Intense battles would regularly dip to around 25fps, sometimes even 21, 22.
Disappointed, but knowing that BC2 is a pretty CPU intensive game, I quit out and ran Dawn of War 2. I set the graphics to high, no anti aliasing, and ran the benchmark in the options menu. Max FPS was in the 90s, average FPS was around 40, and lowest FPS was 15! Surely there is something holding the card back.
I went ahead and tested out GTA4, and got the same unsatisfactory results. The lowest framerates were in the low 20s. I reduced the settings to low, just to see how much smoother it would be. It was not much smoother at all, minimum FPS was still in the 30s.
At this point I was thinking that it had to be my CPU bottlenecking the card. After talking with some friends who are pretty knowledgeable in PC hardware, they agreed, and I could get a good deal on an Intel Core2Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz CPU at Microcenter. I went ahead and purchased one, and installed it when I got home. Booted up those same games expecting to see a boost in performance, but only saw slight boosts in fps. In DOW2, minimum FPS was still something like 16-18. BC2 saw an FPS boost of around 3-5 fps. and GTA4 saw a boost of the same. By now I was quite disappointed, thinking maybe it wasn't the CPU bottlenecking to begin with.
I started talking with a few of my friends to compare performance and hardware. One of them has:
Intel Dual Core E8400 3.0 GHz
Windows XP 32bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
ATI HD5850
His DOW2 benchmark with the same graphics settings as me reads something like
Maximum FPS:120
Average FPS: 60
Minimum FPS: 30+
By comparison, I now have a Q9550 and a GTX470 running a minimum FPS of 16...
Another friend has:
AMD Phenom x4 running at around 3.2 GHz (not sure what the exact model is)
4GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
ATI HD5770
He says he runs BC2 with silky smooth FPS on DX11, high settings except shadows on medium. By silky he means 50+ FPS all the time. Another frield has a GTS250 and even he runs BC2 smoother than my system (on medium though. Even if I set mine to medium I would still not meet up to his performance).
It is also worth mentioning that my Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard does not "officially" support the Q9550. Something about not taking advantage of the the 45nm architecture. When I first installed the CPU, the bios only read 2.00 GHz. Others have reported that the board can detect the full 2.83 GHz but only after updating the bios to the latest version and setting the multiplier from 6 to 8.5. I did this and the bios now reads the full 2.83 GHz. Curiously though, when I ran PassMark it only reported around 2500-2600 MHz
I guess to boil this post down, I am asking "Why is my FPS so low compared to other computers with lesser specs?" The only thing I am lacking in is RAM and maybe motherboard. After a week of testing, tweaking, and research and finding no solutions, I am stumped. I uninstalled drivers, reinstalled drivers, reinstalled windows, all to no avail. Some people tell me that my motherboard, which is pretty old, may be holding it all back. Other people tell me that the motherboard should not have a significant impact on performance at all. Maybe my slow RAM is holding things back? I don't know. Please help! Any answers could potentially help my situation. If nothing works, I think I'm just going to return the video card...
My current specs:
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q9550 Quad Core Processor 2.83 GHz
Power Supply: NZXT PP800 800 watt power supply
Motherboard: Asus P5NE-SLI
Video Card: Gigabyte NVidia GTX 470
Memory: 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 RAM (2x 1GB Corsair, 1x 1gb GSKILL)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
Windows 7 Professional 64bit