Whats wrong with my Radeon 6850?

[scienceisfun91]

I have a Radeon 6850. All games lag.

Specs

Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6 Ghz
2 GB Ram
350W PSU

Now, what's causing the lag? RAM, Processor, or PSU?

 

[rwayne]

"IF" the problem was the hardware I would guess it be the PSU. However that may be the source. Need some more information.

Questions:
■What was your previous videocard on this set up and was it faster than your 6850?
■Can you give us a few example games and what settings you are trying to play them on?
■Do you have lockups, freezes or reboots?
■Does the problem occur right away or only after gaming for a while (like an hour or so)

 

[Kari]

lack of psu power would cause instability and reboots...

I'd blame the cpu and ram, or too ambitious game settings for the card.
review of a 6850 (passive)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6850_SCS3_Passive/

 

[scienceisfun91]

"IF" the problem was the hardware I would guess it be the PSU. However that may be the source. Need some more information.

Questions:
■What was your previous videocard on this set up and was it faster than your 6850?
■Can you give us a few example games and what settings you are trying to play them on?
■Do you have lockups, freezes or reboots?
■Does the problem occur right away or only after gaming for a while (like an hour or so)

My card before this was a Radeon 4350. The games don't freeze or lockup, they just lag. And it happens all during gaming. And I play games like Fifa 12, NFS Hot Pursuit and I can't get them to play at 1600x900 without lag.

 

[scienceisfun91]

lack of psu power would cause instability and reboots...

I'd blame the cpu and ram, or too ambitious game settings for the card.
review of a 6850 (passive)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6850_SCS3_Passive/

The games dont crash or reboot. They just lag alot

 

[Djentleman]

Your PSU is not giving enough power...... Get enough money and get a solid PSU!

 

[Kari]

recommemded specs for nfs hot pursuit
Recommended:
OS: Windows® XP SP 3 (32-64 bits) / Windows Vista® (32-64 bits) / Windows 7® (32-64 bits)
Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better
Memory: 1.5 GB Windows® XP / 2 GB Windows Vista® - Windows 7®
Graphics: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 or better
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0
Hard Drive: 8 GB free space
Sound: 5.1 sound card
Supported Peripherals: Keyboard, joystick optional (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)

so the cpu is a bit underpowered.
Easiest way to check for cpu bottlenecking is to monitor the frames per second with FRAPS, and change the graphics settings and resolution. If you get about same fps with different resolutions, the cpu is limiting the system. If the fps increases when the resolution/eyecandy decreases the gpu is limiting the performance (this would be better).
Also keep an eye on the cpu utilisation when playing with task manager (performance graph) or smthng else that logs, use alt+tabbing to switch between game and windows desktop.

 

[johnb0118]

What OS and gpu driver version do you have? If you have Windows 7 you should have more RAM. 4GB is the sweet spot. Also, your processor isn't exactly a gaming proc. Your psu is awfully small. The bare minimum for your setup is 400W.

If you don't want lag, you should get a new proc, more memory, and a better psu. You graphics cards is being bottlenecked by the rest of your computer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kari]

6850 use just under 100w under heavy gaming, the cpu ins't a power hog either. Unless the psu is a really old desing with weak 12v rail, there should be enough power to run the system just fine.
What does it say on the label on the side of the PSU? How many watts/amps on the 12V?

Though if you end up upgrading anything, get a better psu as well.

 

[scienceisfun91]

I have 20 amps on the 12V. Is that good?

 

[swifty_morgan]

your processor is only dual core and it's slow. you don't have enough ram and have doubts to the power supply.

 

[Kari]

no not really
20amps works out as 240W, it should work, though just barely... :/

better just to upgrade everything.

 

[Djentleman]

Yes, that is a extremely slow cpu. What CPU socket are you using? Because if you're using the 755 then i would suggest Q9550... It's still a 300$ Cpu for a reason. It has 12mb of cache which be enough for any gaming. People mistake having speed is all you need. But cache IMO is way more important!

 

[Kari]

Q9550... It's still a 300$ Cpu for a reason.

the reason being they don't make them anymore.

 

[Kari]

with 300 you can get a 2500k and a mobo
Intel Core i5-2500K Now: $214.99
ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Now: $104.99
ok that's $320
ad some ddr3 ram and decent psu and you are looking something like $500

edit
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) $49,90
Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W 64,99
total $435

edit2 newegg.com

 

[scienceisfun91]

with 300 you can get a 2500k and a mobo
Intel Core i5-2500K Now: $214.99
ASRock Z68 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Now: $104.99
ok that's $320
ad some ddr3 ram and decent psu and you are looking something like $500

edit
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) $49,90
Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W 64,99
total $435

edit2 newegg.com

What if I just upgrade my PSU only? Will I get better results?

 

[clarkjd]

What if I just upgrade my PSU only? Will I get better results?

No...A higher power PSU won't make your CPU any faster. That is your bottleneck.

 

[4745454b]

6850 needs around 130W, not 100W. Big difference. Add in a 65W CPU and ~50W for the rest of the system and your looking at ~240ish Watts for this system under max load. Your PSU isn't going to like that.

I'd get a new PSU before the one you have burns out, and a good cooler so you can OC the snot out of that CPU. That will fix your problems.

 

[rwayne]

I don't think anyone could guarantee that a stronger PSU would yield better FPS. It may or may not. However whether it does or not your system would probably be benefit from a stronger PSU which you can always carry over to a future build.

Quad Core or even Hexacore processors can make a big difference in some games. See the quote from the following DIRT 3 review:

It was also interesting to see that Dirt 3 really dislikes dual-core processors as the Phenom II X2 560 averaged 54fps, making it effectively twice as slow as the Phenom II X4 980. Another fun fact: Dirt 3 seems to prefer hexa-core processors over their quad-core counterparts as the higher clocked Phenom II X4 980 performed worse than the Phenom II X6 1100T.

http://www.techspot.com/review/403-dirt-3-performance/page7.html

 

[Kari]

6850 needs around 130W, not 100W.

under furmark 118W, crysis 96W
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6850_SCS3_Passive/25.html

but agree on rest, ocing will help ease the bottleneck

 

[4745454b]

Kari, I'm using the stated TDP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/amds-radeon-6870-6850-renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market

Gaming will be lower as 100% of the shaders aren't being used 100% of the time. Its like worse case.

Rwayne, I never said a new PSU would fix the issue. I said he needs a new one before his PSU dies. OCing his CPU or flat out buying a new one should fix his issues.

 

[scienceisfun91]

Kari, I'm using the stated TDP.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/amds-radeon-6870-6850-renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market

Gaming will be lower as 100% of the shaders aren't being used 100% of the time. Its like worse case.

Rwayne, I never said a new PSU would fix the issue. I said he needs a new one before his PSU dies. OCing his CPU or flat out buying a new one should fix his issues.

What if I upgrade my Ram?

 

[scienceisfun91]

under furmark 118W, crysis 96W
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6850_SCS3_Passive/25.html

but agree on rest, ocing will help ease the bottleneck

Hey Kari. What if I upgrade my Ram? Will that help. I'm not having problems with my PSU. It's running the card and my temps are all normal. But will upgrading the Ram help?

 

[Djentleman]

the reason being they don't make them anymore.

Look on new egg; they still have them for sale. Also i was bringing that up for a reason because i was guessing he had he 755 socket. And with that much cache you can't go wrong. If he has the 1155 sandy bridge socket than go right ahead with the 2500k. It's a fantastic CPU!

 

[4745454b]

You can go wrong if he spends that much money. If he's going to spend that much on a CPU, he should get a current gen model. Lets say both the 9550 and the 2500 are $200. He should buy the 2500, sell his current setup for $100 and use that money to get the motherboard. He then spends $50 on 2x4GBs of ram and he's set. Spending $200+ on a 3 generation old CPU is dumb.

Getting more ram isn't a bad idea, but I wouldn't do it. First, you have a CPU issue. Second, you're probably running DDR2, while DDR3 is the current standard. Its a bad idea to buy old stuff, see above rant.