Terrible lag on some games(Geforce GTX 650 Ti boost)

[Chronyxx]

I have been lagging in alot of the games i play, i run all my games on low-normal, but i still get pretty low frames, such as on Black ops 2, i get about 30 frames on low, on Arma 2/Dayz i get around 10-25 fps on low. I have to play low settings with most of the settings off, but i built a pc that is supposed to be able to run games smoothly. I also run 2 monitors. I recently got a new video card(geforce gtx 650 ti boost) because i thought the video card was my problem, my old video card is the geforce gtx 550 ti. After installing theres has been little to no difference in Arma 2, but i am able to run CoD a little bit better. My specs are...

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
RAM
G Skill Ripjaws 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz (7-7-7-20)
Motherboard
MSI G41M-P33 Combo(MS-7592) (CPU1)
Graphics
2019Vwal (1680x1050@59Hz)
S24B20/S24B30 (1920x1080@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST (EVGA)
Hard Drives
932GB SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA)

I have a friend with a gtx 450, and she runs the game 100% better than me, she can play almost every game on high with over 60 frames, why is it that I'm lagging so much? Everything in my computer is relatively new except the hard drive.
Additional Details
I also wiped my hard drive to see if that was the problem about 2 weeks ago, it wasnt, so i dont have anything but games on it now, and all my drivers are up to date
Please someone help me, i need a professionals word on this, i really need to figure out what is wrong with my PC to make my games lag this much.

 

[monsta]

You may be getting a bottleneck in your system to run that card.
I would suggest getting a decent cooler for your cpu and overclocking it, it will give you 650ti boost some extra juice.
Is your friend running similar hardware to you? Or does she have a better system?
What psu are you running?

 

[Chronyxx]

You may be getting a bottleneck in your system to run that card.
I would suggest getting a decent cooler for your cpu and overclocking it, it will give you 650ti boost some extra juice.
Is your friend running similar hardware to you? Or does she have a better system?
What psu are you running?

My PSU is a Thermaltake R2 600W power supply, also, what does bottleneck mean? And my friend is not running a similar system, she is using a server processor, and most likely a better motherboard, mine is a bit old, but its brand new. My CPU is usually about 30-50 degrees celsius

 

[lmaonade200]

You may be getting a bottleneck in your system to run that card.
I would suggest getting a decent cooler for your cpu and overclocking it, it will give you 650ti boost some extra juice.
Is your friend running similar hardware to you? Or does she have a better system?
What psu are you running?

My PSU is a Thermaltake R2 600W power supply, also, what does bottleneck mean? And my friend is not running a similar system, she is using a server processor, and most likely a better motherboard, mine is a bit old, but its brand new. My CPU is usually about 30-50 degrees celsius

bottlenecking is when a certain component is hampering the performance of the entire system, your Intel Core 2 Quad is quite an old CPU (2008 CPU after all) so it would be the main source of your performance issues most likely.

I would go with what monsta says and get an after-market cooler and give your core 2 quad a good kick with an OC, your motherboard should be able to handle a modest OC just fine, though a quick search shows that it may have BIOS problems while doing so, so be sure to research thoroughly.

For reference, the GTX 650Ti is a mid ranged card by today's standards that can get max settings on black ops 2 if it has nothing inhibiting its performance.

ultimately, your CPU (and mobo) are holding back your system, your RAM speeds and GPU performance are being affected by it, and therefore performance in games will be too. If you do not plan on buying a new CPU just yet, then get a nice and inexpensive after-market air cooler and give your CPU a decent size OC (I'd say get it to 3.3 GHz if you can), but you'll have to replace your CPU pretty soon imo. Power Supply is still good for now, but Thermaltake has a bad reputation so depending on how old it is you may still get some juice out of it before needing to replace that.

 

[Chronyxx]

You may be getting a bottleneck in your system to run that card.
I would suggest getting a decent cooler for your cpu and overclocking it, it will give you 650ti boost some extra juice.
Is your friend running similar hardware to you? Or does she have a better system?
What psu are you running?

My PSU is a Thermaltake R2 600W power supply, also, what does bottleneck mean? And my friend is not running a similar system, she is using a server processor, and most likely a better motherboard, mine is a bit old, but its brand new. My CPU is usually about 30-50 degrees celsius

bottlenecking is when a certain component is hampering the performance of the entire system, your Intel Core 2 Quad is quite an old CPU (2008 CPU after all) so it would be the main source of your performance issues most likely.

I would go with what monsta says and get an after-market cooler and give your core 2 quad a good kick with an OC, your motherboard should be able to handle a modest OC just fine, though a quick search shows that it may have BIOS problems while doing so, so be sure to research thoroughly.

For reference, the GTX 650Ti is a mid ranged card by today's standards that can get max settings on black ops 2 if it has nothing inhibiting its performance.

ultimately, your CPU (and mobo) are holding back your system, your RAM speeds and GPU performance are being affected by it, and therefore performance in games will be too. If you do not plan on buying a new CPU just yet, then get a nice and inexpensive after-market air cooler and give your CPU a decent size OC (I'd say get it to 3.3 GHz if you can), but you'll have to replace your CPU pretty soon imo. Power Supply is still good for now, but Thermaltake has a bad reputation so depending on how old it is you may still get some juice out of it before needing to replace that.

Thanks for the great feedback, I don't know how to overclock though, and I would probably mess something up if I tried, are there any services that will overclock it for you? Such as geek squad? Otherwise I would rather get a new CPU, can anyone suggest a good processor for a cheap price? I'd say around $150, or maybe a PSU/Mobo Combo that would be great

 

[lmaonade200]

Thanks for the great feedback, I don't know how to overclock though, and I would probably mess something up if I tried, are there any services that will overclock it for you? Such as geek squad? Otherwise I would rather get a new CPU, can anyone suggest a good processor for a cheap price? I'd say around $150, or maybe a PSU/Mobo Combo that would be great

Yes, I do believe there are some services out there that will help you overclock, although I wouldn't really recommend that since they most likely can't be held accountable for any problems.
And honestly, if you have some free time you should read up on overclocking, it's a great way to get a free performance boost out of your system, even if it seems daunting at first it becomes just another procedure once you know enough. Not saying you need to do it for this system specifically but just a nice skill to have for future builds.

As for a new CPU/Mobo combo, unfortunately I can't do much with $150, depending on if you have a microcenter near where you live, I can recommend you a nice set for under that price point since they have absolutely massive deals, but it's only for in-store pick up. Otherwise, I'd need something more like $200 for a decent FX setup, or even an upwards of $250 to 300 for an i5 system.

If you live near a Microcenter, check out the CPU/mobo combo bundles here:
http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx
you can get a really nice FX 6300 with an MSI (I would recommend the Asrock, but that's more for overclocking ability since it's a strong board, the MSI is fine for normal use) for only $140, and by today's standards the FX 6300 is a really nice entry-mid range level CPU.

as for a comparison against your Core 2 Quad:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/699?vs=76
as you can see, the FX is anywhere from 40 to 100% stronger than your current CPU so it's a really nice buy at near 100 bucks.

If you don't live near a Microcenter, the same combo will cost something like:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VQme
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VQme/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VQme/benchmarks/
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($117.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $172.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

which is a bit above your 150 price point but a worthy buy if you can stretch your budget.

However, if you do plan on getting the FX chip, then I strongly recommend a stronger motherboard such as the Asrock Extreme4 or Asus M5A97 R2.0, this will give you a beefier mobo that is less likely to fail, and will give you the opportunity to get an after-market cooler to overclock in the future and give your system more juice at it ages (for comparison, an FX 6300 at 4.5 GHz is about the same performance as an i5 3330 I'd wager, and only a bit behind the i5 3570k in stock performance)
A better mobo, however, will push the price to a bit above 200 dollars, which is still completely worth the money imo, you should be able to push a few years out of this set.

 

[Chronyxx]

Well... I finally bought a motherboard : Asus M5A78L-M LX+ and Processor: AMD FX6300 Six core 3.5 Mhz. It runs worse than what i had. I really dont understand why it would, the processor is double the price, quality, and performance of my old processor, the Intel 2 core quad Q9400. With the old one, i ran Arma 2 -Dayz at around 25-30 fps on Arma 2, now i run 10-15 FPS, both are pretty bad anyways. I spent $200 on the motherboard and processor and its worse than one that costs $120, it doesnt make any sense, could someone please help me to figure out why my computer runs games so bad? My Build now is

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
Motherboard
Asus M5A78L-M LX+
CPU
AMD FX6300 - Six-Core (6 x 3.5GHz - 12MB Cache)
RAM
G.Skill Ripjaws 8.00GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 533MHZ(7-7-20)
Video Card
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost(EVGA)
Hard Drive
932GB SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Devide(SATA)
Power Supply
ThermalTake R2 600W ATX 12V 2.3

 

[okini55]

probably the cpu. The GTX 650 is a decent card but your processor is old and quite outdated. Id go with a new core i5 if I were you but since you already bought a new cpu its too late for that I guess. Is there any possibility to return it and get your money back and buy a new CPU and mobo? Otherwise the problem may be something else

 

[lmaonade200]

it still shouldn't run below the performance of a Core 2 Quad, the FX 6300 is new enough to have higher IPC and better architecture.

I think it's the mobo, it only has 3+1 power phases, which is incredibly small since the FX chips require a lot of power to run relative to other CPUs, if you can return the mobo do it imo, it's alright for older Phenom CPUs but for an FX chip you need something that can channel more power