Why Does My Graphics Card Lag On Low Settings?

[Stanran]

First off, I don't have a up-to-date Gaming Rig, so don't expect anything fancy. Anyway, I recently got back a Graphics Card, because I broke my old one(HD 6450 1GB DDR3.)I got a GT 440 1GB DDR3, which is pretty much equivalent to the old one, derp.(I'm poor, lol) Anyway, the HD 6450, was able to play CoD: Black Ops 2, fairly well, at low/high settings, with Shadows off. But now, the GT 440 lags the game like MAD! on any setting, even lowest. But here's something strange: Sometimes the game runs well, on Maxed Settings, but can't handle low??? And also, now, I'm able to use HD Textures perfectly, on Minecraft, whcih the HD 6450 couldn't do!... Someone please explain why my GT 440 is doing this weird ass shit, when it practically has the same, if not MORE power, than my old HD 6450. Only difference I saw was that the GT 440 had 128 Bit Memory Bus, but the HD 6450 only had 64 Bit. I even recently updated my Power Supply, with a 400Watt one.... Specs: Intel Celeron e3400 @2.6Ghz. Ram: 2GB @1300Mhz each(2 Sticks)OS: Windows 7 - 64-Bit. GPU: MSI-N440GT 1GB DDR3.... And I highly doubt my CPU is the Bottleneck here, because like I said. Everything worked better, on the HD 6450, except for Minecraft.

 

[chugot9218]

Did you update your drivers? It may just be a compatibility issue with the available drivers, that card isn't exactly recent.

 

[ingtar33]

the problem is the cpu became the slowest part in your system... let me explain.

at every resolution there is a certain amount of processing your cpu needs to do. generally the amount of objects the cpu is working with, doesn't change too much between different resolutions, though it does change greatly at higher detail settings. so lets say you're playing a game at low resolution and detail settings, then the same game at high resolution and low detail settings... the cpu will end up working about the same for both (or close anyway).

However, on the high resolution, low detail settings, the gpu is bottlenecking. Now gpu bottleneck usually ends up resulting in lower framerates, but smooth action, as GPUs do a pretty good job governing the frame rates they produce when bottlenecking, at least they do as long as they aren't bottlenecking too badly... almost everyone's system is gpu bottlenecked almost constantly, particularly with modern games and cpus... so if gpus didn't handle frame pacing well, we'd all suffer with some pretty jerky animating.

The problem is when your cpu starts to bottleneck. When that happens a gpu can't draw a frame. Since it can't govern when the cpu is going to bottleneck gpus tend to really handle this event poorly, particularly if the cpu is bottlenecking badly. Your wrong about the 440 and the 6450 being the same, the 440 is a lot faster and stronger gpu then the 6450 you replaced. The bottleneck at low resolutions shifted from the gpu which could barely play the game even on those settings to the cpu which could only slightly handle the load better then the gpu (resulting in an almost smooth rate of play, as the gpu measured it's frames to make the gameplay look almost smooth).

now your gpu is waiting for the cpu to deliver the data it needs to render the frames, resulting in long pauses and jerky animating, and poor frame pacing. by turning up the resolution, you're not taking load off the cpu, but instead artificially slowing down the gpu, making it the bottleneck once again, and allowing it to pace the frames a bit better then when it was being strangled by the cpu. I'd be willing to bet your average FPS is higher at lower resolutions with that 440 then it is at the higher resolutions, the difference is where the bottleneck is coming from and how the gpu is pacing the frames.

 

[Stanran]

Did you update your drivers? It may just be a compatibility issue with the available drivers, that card isn't exactly recent.

Yes, I did update the drivers to the latest one available, which was stated by Nvidia Themselves, to have added Performance Boosts, up to 40% for the 400 & up series cards, so that's not the problem, I think.

 

[Stanran]

the problem is the cpu became the slowest part in your system... let me explain.

at every resolution there is a certain amount of processing your cpu needs to do. generally the amount of objects the cpu is working with, doesn't change too much between different resolutions, though it does change greatly at higher detail settings. so lets say you're playing a game at low resolution and detail settings, then the same game at high resolution and low detail settings... the cpu will end up working about the same for both (or close anyway).

However, on the high resolution, low detail settings, the gpu is bottlenecking. Now gpu bottleneck usually ends up resulting in lower framerates, but smooth action, as GPUs do a pretty good job governing the frame rates they produce when bottlenecking, at least they do as long as they aren't bottlenecking too badly... almost everyone's system is gpu bottlenecked almost constantly, particularly with modern games and cpus... so if gpus didn't handle frame pacing well, we'd all suffer with some pretty jerky animating.

The problem is when your cpu starts to bottleneck. When that happens a gpu can't draw a frame. Since it can't govern when the cpu is going to bottleneck gpus tend to really handle this event poorly, particularly if the cpu is bottlenecking badly. Your wrong about the 440 and the 6450 being the same, the 440 is a lot faster and stronger gpu then the 6450 you replaced. The bottleneck at low resolutions shifted from the gpu which could barely play the game even on those settings to the cpu which could only slightly handle the load better then the gpu (resulting in an almost smooth rate of play, as the gpu measured it's frames to make the gameplay look almost smooth).

now your gpu is waiting for the cpu to deliver the data it needs to render the frames, resulting in long pauses and jerky animating, and poor frame pacing. by turning up the resolution, you're not taking load off the cpu, but instead artificially slowing down the gpu, making it the bottleneck once again, and allowing it to pace the frames a bit better then when it was being strangled by the cpu. I'd be willing to bet your average FPS is higher at lower resolutions with that 440 then it is at the higher resolutions, the difference is where the bottleneck is coming from and how the gpu is pacing the frames.