Low performance after dual core upgrade

[Lucifer1127]

Hi, I recently upgraded my AMD athlon 64 3500+ processor to a AMD athlon x2 4200+ and have seen a drastic decrease in performance in games such as Call of Duty 4 and Left 4 Dead. With the single core processor, I was getting around 40 fps but with the new dual core processor I am getting something like 10 fps. I have the newest drivers and reinstalled Vista but the problem still exists. Any help with this issue would greatly be appreciated.

My system specs are:

Abit KN8 SLI
AMD 64 x2 4200+ 2.2Ghz
2gb of ram
Galaxy 8800gt 512mb
80GB SATA
Dynapower 500W PSU

Thank you in advance.

 

[ferdy]

try to download the dualcore optimyzer from the amd site... it has made a difference for me a time ago when i had amd ..i'm on intel now..good luck mate

 

[Lucifer1127]

Thanks for the replies, I'll go try that AMD dual core optimizer. I was under the impression that Vista didn't need to use the optimizer but I'll try it anyways. My cousin have the exact same hardware except for a bigger hard drive and a different brand of video card and gets really good frame rates so I don't think it's the game not utilizing the dual core. After closer inspection of the dual core cpu, I did notice two pins slightly bent but I could still mount the cpu with no problems. Could this be the source of my poor performance?

 

[Lucifer1127]

So far, installing the AMD dual core optimizer didn't help. Any other ideas on how to fix this problem? Please help, playing at 8-10 fps is pure agony!

 

[Mondoman]

I would certainly upgrade to 3 or 4GB total RAM in any case.
Does your cousin maybe have a different BIOS version?
I would also try running some standard benchmarking programs such as those in Everest or PC Wizard, and comparing the results with the same benchmarks from your cousin's computer.

 

[Shadow703793]

Could this be the source of my poor performance?

May be. If those pins underclocked the CPU (extremely unlikely, and if it's the real cause, I'm a god ).

Also OP, are you sure you are running at the same resolution as before?

 

[hot74rod2003]

yeah vista is great but it is a ram hog!!! go with 4. i dont know how good that cpu overclocks but i would deff do it!!!

 

[Lucifer1127]

I kept the resolutions all the same in the games when I upgraded the CPU's. I have same BIOS version as my cousin and the same amount of ram so I don't think its a ram issue since I can run the games fine with my old single core processor. It's either a hardware or software problem with the dual core CPU.

 

[Lucifer1127]

Yep, one for each core. The device manager also shows two CPU's.