LOW FPS WITH HD 4670; CPU BOTTLENECK?

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seerwan

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Hi guys, I just bought a ATI HD 4670 for my desktop a couple of hours ago. I installed the driver on the cd, went to the website and updated to the latest drivers, updated DirectX 9, and I used windows update as well.

I then started playing games to test it out; all the reviews I’ve read of it so far have said that I can play ALMOST ANY GAME on this card at MAX SETTINGS, on a 1280x1024 resolution.

I’m running that resolution, but I still constantly fall below 30 FPS!!! It often goes down to 20! It sometimes even goes down to 15, and that’s after I’ve LOWERED a lot of the settings!!! The games I’m testing it on are Left 4 Dead, Stronghold 2, LOTR: BFME 2 and Halo: Combat Evolved.

The thing is that I have a Pentium 4 524 HT 3.06 Ghz, 1 MB Cache and 533 MT/s FSB.
But I over clocked it to 3.34 Ghz, and is still hasn’t improved the FPS… so I’m thinking there’s a CPU bottleneck…

What do u guys think? Is there anything I can do to improve performance?...

Thanks.
 
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megamanx00

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Well, for a resolution of 1280x1024 a 4670 is pretty good. Crysis as well as newer, more demanding games though probably won't run on the highest setting trouble free, but should run pretty good above medium at that res. Even so, your CPU is waaaaaaay too dated. If you have an LGA775 board you may want to see about upgrading your CPU. You may also want to consider a budget AM3, or AM2+ if you're really short on cash, upgrade.
 
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seerwan

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Mys PC specs are:-

ASUS P5GV-MX Motherboard
Pentium 4 524 HT 3.06 Ghz, 1 MB Cache, 533 MT/s FSB, OC’ed to 3.34 Ghz
400 W PSU
ATI Radeon HD 4670 1 GB GDDR3
250 GB Maxtor Hard Drive
CPU Cooler – Intel Certified Core 2 Duo Cooler (old fan got messed up, replaced it with a core 2 duo fan).
2 x 1GB DDR-400, or PC3200

Tbh, im not sure if it is compatible with dual core processors… it is an LGA775 socket, but it doesn’t say anything about dual cores on its pages… maybe as it has an LGA775 socket, the motherboard can handle dual cores, although dual cores were made after it was manufactured?... im not sure… I’ll post links to the pages, you tell me:-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131586
http://ae.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=793&l1=3&l2=11&l3=237&l4=0

And I cant increase the RAM further because the system cant use it and its way too expensive. 32-bit OS, I already have 2 GB RAM and a 1 GB video card. Also, a 1 GB DDR ram stick costs USD $44, whereas a 2 GB DDR2 ram stick costs USD $27. It’s that old.

Exactly, a 4670 @ 1280x1024 on most games, especially the old ones I’m playing, should be just fine, definitely 30 FPS or above…

Unless the board is dual-core compatible, no point in upgrading. I’m graduating in one year, and as soon as I’d get a job and paychecks start coming in, I’m intending on getting the future equivalent of a current system such as this (I’ll be willing to spend between USD 2000 - 2500):-

Core i7 920
6 GB DDR3 1600
2 X 500 OR 750 GB Hard drives
GTX 275 – 285, maybe 2 of them…
Zalman CPU Cooler (something reputable that would be good for pushing the core i7 to 4 - 4.2 GHZ)
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
750 – 850 W PSU – Corsair

But that’s the future, sadly, gentlemen… I can’t wait for it to become the present… ;)
 
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seerwan

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also, my motherboard seems to have a FSB standard of 800... the minimum FSB speed of the E6XXX, E7XXX, E8XXX series is 1066... lol... id have to under clock it by at least around 15%...

but wait... hypothetically, lets assume the MOBO can accommodate a dual core and as dual cores run at a higher FSB, far beyond the 800 speed of the specified mobo speed, I know fro a fact that I can SET the mobo FSB frequency up to 400… I know my Pentium 4 processor starts at 133, and I THINK that the 1066 dual processors start at 266.5, so TECHNICALLY, I don’t have to underclock it, and furthermore, I could even over clock it, as I still have a frequency ceiling of 400… lets assume that I did that… the thing is, though, wouldn’t it fry the board quickly as its only constructed to handle 800, and I’ve put it in a 1066 processor, and to add icing to the cake, ive OCed it?... = P

lol – hows that food for thought? = P
 
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megamanx00

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Looks like your motherboard maxes out at a 3.8 GHz single core P4 CPU. If you get a model with EM64T and HT it would be an improvement. You would need a good cooler to overclock it though since those P4s make alot of heat. Even if you could overclock a P4 to 4.0 GHz, it would still only be about as good as a 2.4 C2D or Athlon X2 for single threaded apps, but the comparison worsens for modern apps optimized for dual and quad core CPUs.

If you just want your system to last for the year then get a good cooler and overclock it to hell. If you can get it to 3.75GHz that's a 25% OC and that can be the difference between 30fps and 24fps.
 
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seerwan

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lol - no way will i find a processor as old as that, or afford it... also, the motherboard has very limited OC capabilities, all i can do is turn up the frequency of the FSB, and it seems ive already maxed it out to 12%, anything else and windows doesn't boot, i don't know why...
 
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seerwan

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Yo guys, its DEFINITELY a CPU bottleneck, my friend was over with his laptop today, its only a few weeks old, our CPU and GPU specs are:-

MY DESKTOP
Pentium 4 HT 524 - 3066 MHz - 1MB - 533 MT/s - OC'ed to 3.34 Ghz
ATI Radeon HD 4670
Texture Fillrate 24 GTexel/s
Bandwidth 27.9 GB/s

HIS LAPTOP
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 - 2400 MHz - 3 MB - 1066 MT/s
ATI MOBILITY Radeon HD 4650
Texture Fillrate 17.6 GTexel/s
Bandwidth 21.3 GB/s

I have a superior graphics card, he has a better CPU and he's getting over 20 FPS more than me in Left 4 Dead.
MY FPS ranges from 10 - 35, his never drops below 40 - 45.
We play it at 1280x1024 with 8xAA and 16xAF, EVERY SETTING MAXED OUT.

It is without a shadow of a doubt a CPU bottleneck. I need a Dual-Core.
 
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seerwan

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Steam games? u mean the Source Game engine that Valve uses, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_engine, or this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28content_delivery%29 ?

I play Left 4 Dead and its based on the Source engine... My FPS has a huge range due to the old CPU, when im just stading, its around 45, but if there's a few zombies running towards me, goes down to about 20 - 30, and a horde rapes performance, it goes down to 10 - 15 FPS...

u want me to test the graphics card or the CPU? becoz the card is magnificent at 1280x1024, runs games at max settings at around... 30 - 45 FPS, depending on the game...

The CPU is hopeless and unbelievably outdated... its useless...

id b able to give u a more accurate reading with a better CPU...

P.S - nice signature. "Men should be taught and won over by reason, not by blows, insults or corporal punishments." - Julian the Apostate.

peace.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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@ Seerwan: When I read that Eienstien quote that it just struck a chord, perhaps he just remembered the one you quoted and put it into his own words?

As for the CPU, find the exact model number of the motherboard and check the makers site to see what upgrades could be applied then take a look at Craiglist or E-bay and see if you can find anything there.
 
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seerwan

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Guys, i forgot to make a post here weeks ago...

i upgraded my entire system! =D did so a couple of months ago, by now... forgot to post it here, i apologize...

im now running:-

• Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 2.6 Ghz @ 2.8~3.2 Ghz (i keep playing with it ;P)
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - 1 GB
• ASRock G31M-S Mobo
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• Hard Disk One 500 GB - 7200 rpm
• Hard Disk Two 250 GB - 7200 rpm
• 400 Watt PSU
• Windows 7 - Ultimate - 64 bit

I'm currently running it on an old 17 inch LCD with an aspect ratio of 1.25, max res of 1280x1024, within a week ill be buying a 2nd monitor though, gonna dual these b****es...

as ill need space on my table, i need to stop using my 10-year-old hi-fi as my sound system and instead get a 2.1 system...

thought i should let u guys know...



ive only had issues with Crysis, GTA 4, Prototype and Borderlands...
Crysis, no one can run, lulz... GTA 4 and Prototype, large worlds, i need more CPU cores... Borderlands SHOULD run gr8, but there isnt even VSync as its an NVIDIA The way it's meant to be played game!!! :fou: :fou: :fou:

Left 4 Dead 1 runs magnificently... so do many other games like H.A.W.X., COD MW2, NFS Carbon and Undercover are very good too...
cant wait to play Batman: Arkham Asylum, checked the benchmarks, should run gr8, and Dragon Age should run well good...

thnx, guys.
 
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Guest

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I was wondering if your card is the HD4670 GDDR3 or the HD4670 GDDR4 version cause i have been looking for the GDDR4 version everywhere and cant seem to find one for purchase anywhere.

-Vector187
 
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Aneesh@4GHz

Aneesh@4GHz

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Which Os are u using, and there is a chance of bottleneck by both ur ram(ddr1 400MHz) and by the pentium 4
 
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ghstinshll

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SO.....

4670 in a BRAND NEW Phenom ii x4 3.2 system w/ 4GB of CAS7 RAM, and I'm STILL only getting 30FPS in L4D? I was abel to turn the settings up, but turning them down doesn't give me any better performance.
 
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Ehsan w

Ehsan w

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check your temps?
 
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