Nvidia GTS 250 1GB Driver & Performance Issues

[coozie7]

I think Twoboxer might be onto something here with I/O as a root cause.
Use the SMART reader from Speedfan to check the health of the drives (or have you already done that?)
Do you have both HDDs connected? If so, try disconnecting the old one, perhaps it is the root cause of the problem?
Also check the memory speed and voltage are correctly set in BIOS, not every motherboard supports fast or higher voltage memory by default.

 

[Sokoprok]

The SMART reader doesn't show any hard drives listed, just out of interest, do the HD's have drivers too that could do with being installed as well?

The HD light doesn't come on much when the slow downs occur, no more than when it's smooth. The max speed I can set the memory to is 800Mhz so this is what I've done. The voltage values I'm not so sure about as I'm not sure what they should be...

The BIOS was updated with the disk that came with the motherboard but I've also replaced it with the latest one from the Asus website which hasn't made any difference.

 

[coozie7]

You need to bring up the list of drives in Speed Fan.
Start the program and click on SMART. When the dialogue opens there is a blank line where the drives will be listed, at the right hand end of this line is an arrow pointing down, click on this to bring up a list of your drives.

If this is not the problem then I have to admit this has me beaten with only a replacement card as the final option, although I am beginning to suspect it is more likely you need a preist rather than a tech🙁

Edit: removed some unsavoury words.

 

[Sokoprok]

You need to bring up the list of drives in Speed Fan.
Start the program and click on SMART. When the dialogue opens there is a blank line where the drives will be listed, at the right hand end of this line is an arrow pointing down, click on this to bring up a list of your drives.

If this is not the problem then I have to admit this has me beaten with only a replacement card as the final option, although I am beginning to suspect it is more likely you need a preist rather than a tech🙁

Edit: removed some unsavoury words.

I replaced my motherboard but you don't think I can work a drop-down menu! lol 😉

When I click the drop down there is nothing in there to select.

Must admit, I'm very close to checking out the warranty on this card.

 

[coozie7]

Sorry, did n't mean to sound insulting.
Try this reader instead:

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/03/30/free-hard-drive-monitoring-utility/

 

[Sokoprok]

Sorry, did n't mean to sound insulting.
Try this reader instead:

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/03/30/free-hard-drive-monitoring-utility/

No need to apologise matey, you've been more than helpful.

Unfortunately, the same is with that one as well, no drives appear on the drop down. 🙁

 

[coozie7]

At the risk of being insulting (again): Check that SMART is enabled in BIOS, I know it is not enabled by default in mine.
Both of those readers work on my rig!

 

[Sokoprok]

Just been into BIOS and there's no mention of SMART at all so I'm not sure how to enable it. I have seen it before on other BIOS screens though so I know what you mean it's just not there for some reason...

 

[coozie7]

Strange.
Have you checked the card with GPUZ? I have reread the thread and cannot see any mention of that.
If all is/was well with GPUZ then I'm dry apart from trying to get it checked with another system, perhaps a local small computer store could do that?

 

[Sokoprok]

Strange.
Have you checked the card with GPUZ? I have reread the thread and cannot see any mention of that.
If all is/was well with GPUZ then I'm dry apart from trying to get it checked with another system, perhaps a local small computer store could do that?

I've got GPU-Z, what am I looking for?

 

[coozie7]

First tab will show the GPU information: Chip type, memory, speeds and PCI-E link speed.
Is the PCI-E set to X16 and do the other readings match what the card is?

 

[Sokoprok]

First tab will show the GPU information: Chip type, memory, speeds and PCI-E link speed.
Is the PCI-E set to X16 and do the other readings match what the card is?

Yep, all correct. Any idea how I can look into the I/O thingy?

I've ordered some better RAM today as well with some cooling on them. Could have done with being a bit faster, these ones run at 800Mhz default rather than 633Mhz and can be overclocked if required.

That's the only other thing that's puzzled me during this whole thing is when I took out the RAM and when one stick was running that Windows Experience went up to 4.4 for the RAM then back down to 4.1 when they were both installed. Everything else (aside from the processor) is coming up at 5.9. The other strange thing is that before I re-installed Windows, RAM was scoring at 5.1.

RAM should come tomorrow with a bit of luck so will let you know if there's any difference after that's installed...

 

[coozie7]

I was hoping that GPUZ would show a card fault and nail this thing down.
Like I said, I'm now dry on ideas apart from putting the card into another system. Sorry I have n't helped you to a soloution, mate but good luck in finding one.
Keep an eye on the thread for another day or so, someone else might chip in with a useful idea.
If you do find the cause please let me know!

 

[Sokoprok]

Nope, no luck, it's going back under warranty.

Thanks to everyone who had a go at suggesting anything and attempting to help, it was very much appreciated!

 

[Sokoprok]

So close...

After realising that there's probably nothing wrong with the card, I decided to give Windows 7 a try and downloaded the RC beta version to see if it had anything to do with me using 32-bit Vista basic rather than something that is 64-bit.

It wasn't.

After taking the heat sink off the old computer the other day I removed the Processor inside which is a 1.8Ghz E2160. After thinking about selling it on eBay I serached for some prices for it and happened upon an article about it being based on Core 2 Duo architecture. I then seached for a comparison of the Pentium D 3.4Ghz processor I was using and found a review confirming that the E2160 actually performs better.

So I installed it...

...and now Prototype runs like a dream all the time. All settings high and framerate nice and high too.

Months of annoyance and £110 and all along the answer was sitting on a chip on my desk. 😉

 

[coozie7]

Well, I hope you never have to suffer that kind of s*** again, mate.
The ray of sunshine here is that the system should now run like a dream.
Thanks for posting the conclusion, it's good to know your problem has been solved, even if my help was no help at all!

 

[Sokoprok]

Lol, I'd have been pretty worried if you'd have suggested that I use the processor on my desk considering I never mentioned it!

It's all a learning curve mate and I'll have a few more options in the future if I ever have to deal with this sort of thing again.

 

[campaigner111]

I'll go out on a limb here and say its your processor that is holding you back. However the 250 gts is basically a 8800 gt and most people know they don't perform very well now days. The 260 gtx is a much better choice if your power supply can handle it.

HUUUH???

The GTS 250 is NEWER and MORE POWERFUL than the 9800GT!!! In fact, it's equivalent to the 9800GTX+...The 260 gtx is an even newer card, but the GTS 250 isn't far behind it. The 512 MB or 1 GB version of the GTS 250 will absolutely rock a game like Empire Total War! The GTS 250 will also play games like Crysis and Far Cry 2, but perhaps not at the highest resolution settings. You won't get high frame rates with everything set on high. But it will play them just fine frame-rate wise if settings are put down to medium or medium/low which still looks pretty fantastic on today's monitors. In addition, the GTS 250 absolutely rocks games like World of Warcraft and Eve Online with resolution settings maxed.

For MMORPG games and any PC games that came out in 2007-2009, it can handle most of them if not nearly all of them.

The minimum system power supply recommended for the GTS 250 is 450 watts.

It absolutely kills the entire 8800 series, I don't know where you got the info that the GTS 250 is an older weak card. God, there is so much misinformation out there.

He has either a processor problem or his hard drive is too full, or his system trying to run too many things, or perhaps he has things installed that are interfering with the installation of the nVidia drivers.

Campaigner

 

[Guest]

My friend I hope by now you figured out what the problem is I had the same problems with the same card and I tried to think of everything. The problem was not just drivers or hardware but the stupid option the Nvidia driver has for power save. Switch it off! It's under "Manage 3D setting" and then on "Power management mode" you choose "prefer maximum performance". Otherwise it keeps working with very low clock speeds, even during games. So maybe it's a driver glitch but you don't need that power saving crap anyway! If you don't have any other hardware issues then this is for sure the problem!
I have a better processor and power supply, good cooling system, enough disk space, and everything up to date so it made no sense that many known games were all of the sudden slowing down like below 10frps!
Also because I have an MSI gts250 lately they released the wonderful Afterburner tweak program which I installed for handling fan speed or overclocking. It's really great, otherwise you can use the similar EVGA Precision program, works about the same. With both of these programs you can se on 2D mode how low all the clocks are if you have the power save on! That's how I finally thought of the problem.

I hope that helps more people that have the same problem.

Hi all,

I have recently purchased the aforementioned graphics card as an upgrade from a Radeon 2600XT 512MB.

Unfortunately, since installation, there doesn't seem to be the impact that I expected.

Two main problems seem to be involved;

1. Drivers - I have downloaded and installed the lastest 186.18 drivers from the Nvidia site. However, when I use the scan tool located here - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us it says that my 'Current installed driver' is 03.04. I have tried re-installing the drivers again and have ensured any trace of the old drivers are gone but to no avail.

2. Performance - I am receiving extremely varied performance since installation which may or may not be related to the driver issue. For example, I have today purchased Prototype on the PC, with settings on Medium and AA at X4 the game initially runs very smoothly. I then reaches a point around 10 seconds to one minute in at which point the frame rate drops massively and things get very laggy (estimating around 3-6fps). I also recently installed 'Mount & Blade' which seems to run smoothly for between 10-30 minutes and then becomes very laggy where previously it was smoother than anything. This is the same for most games aside from Sims 3 which is very laggy as soon as the screen is moved from the off. The above is reminisent of overheating although temps when games become laggy are never more than 55 Celsius.

I have tried setting the card to default, OCing it a little and enabling Hyperdrive but the problems occur in the same way regardless.

To the best of my knowledge, the rest of the PC is as such;

Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit
2 Pentium D CPU's at 3.4Ghz each
4.00GB DDR2 RAM
150GB SATA HD
2X DVD Writers
Not sure on the case but it has a fan that sucks cold air in the front and another that expels hot air out the back
Not sure on motherboard

I've had a look round on the net and can't seem to find anyone with similar issues and would appreciate any help or suggestions anyone can offer.

Cheers...

 

[Guest]

Well it wasn't as simple as that. I still had to clean up and reinstall the Nvidia driver. That was mainly the problem for me. So it wasn't just the settings for power save management. It works fine so far with smooth framerate and no glitches.