Poor gaming performance - PSU?

Grimspoon

Grimspoon

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Ever since I got my new rig I have never been overally happy with the performance with games.

COD4 and COD MW2 really run poorly. Lots of choppy screens and "lag". Not internet lag, but gaming lag. Some maps on COD4 are almost unplayable. I dunno what the heck to do anymore.

I have updated my drivers, I always get the latest.

I was wondering could my PSU be underpowered? Would GFX performance be effected by a underpowered PSU or would your PC just reboot? PC never hangs or reboots and normal desktop performance seems fine.


Specs are i5 760, Ati 5850, 4GB Ram, win 7 64, PSU - Thermaltake TR2 500W.

Thanks!
 
Are all games affected or just those two?
 
Your PSU should be more than capable to drive you CPU + Graphics card.

What resolution are you playing at and at which detail level?

Also, do you get these symptoms in single player too?

You can always run like GPU-z to monitor the graphics card usage level, and Process Explorer to monitor the CPU usage.
 
zolly said:
Are all games affected or just those two?
Click to expand...

Thats it, some games are ok, but the majority are average. Dragon Age is the only one that comes to mind that runs very smooth.

MW2, COD4, BC2 run average on medium to high settings.

Pada said:
Your PSU should be more than capable to drive you CPU + Graphics card.

What resolution are you playing at and at which detail level?

Also, do you get these symptoms in single player too?

You can always run like GPU-z to monitor the graphics card usage level, and Process Explorer to monitor the CPU usage.
Click to expand...

I have dropped COD4 to minimum everything on 1980 x 1024 I think. Seems better, but would expect my card and system to be able to handle well on full settings.

Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
I'm playing CoD4 with everything maxed out, except for AA/AF with my i4 940 + 2x GTX460 OC at 1680x1050.

Your card should be more than capable to run CoD4 with everything maxed out except for AA/AF like I'm doing, but then your framerate might drop to like 60fps, with the average being around 100.

I would really recommend that you run those 2 apps while running CoD4.
 
Your PC should blow COD4 on maximum at over 100fps. Maybe even 200fps.
I had an E5200 and HD4870 which played COD4 on maximum (1920x1080) with AA at over 60fps.

Most probably something is wrong with your card. Then the PSU. If those are ok then it may be software. Check if something is running in the background while playing and chewing up your CPU resources. You should be able to play just about all games on max with over 40fps.
 
Go get 3Dmark and run a benchmark. Compare the results to a similar pc on the 3Dmark charts. If it under performs a lot, then you should know that something is definitely up. And yeah, it's a good idea to check what other processes are running in the background. Some anti-virusses may cause a drop in performance, but I don't think this drastic though.

You can use this to calculate if your PSU is good enough, but I would say it definitely is:

http://www.raptoxx.com/calculator.php

EDIT: If you are using a pirate version (If you play online you probably aren't), it could be the crack. BUT DON'T USE PIRATE GAMES, RATHER GET THE REAL ONES, AND BE SURE OF QUALITY!
 
I had a guy at my lan that had similar issues ... he turned off V-Sync and he went from 30fps to 150fps. Worth trying.


PS - where the blerry hell are you playing cod4? I haven't seen you anywhere?
 
Did you get rid of your previous drivers properly... at first my old 4850 was playing games worse then my even older 8800gts 320 due to the fact I still had old nVidia drivers on my pc from when I had a 8600gt.

I use Driver Cleaner Pro to clear old gpu drivers but im not sure if there's anything better (it hasn't been updated for windows 7 or even vista(i think) but it still runs fine)
 
Grimspoon said:
Ever since I got my new rig I have never been overally happy with the performance with games.

COD4 and COD MW2 really run poorly. Lots of choppy screens and "lag". Not internet lag, but gaming lag. Some maps on COD4 are almost unplayable. I dunno what the heck to do anymore.

I have updated my drivers, I always get the latest.

I was wondering could my PSU be underpowered? Would GFX performance be effected by a underpowered PSU or would your PC just reboot? PC never hangs or reboots and normal desktop performance seems fine.


Specs are i5 760, Ati 5850, 4GB Ram, win 7 64, PSU - Thermaltake TR2 500W.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Did you by any chance re-use an older hard drive?
 
NAG - Wesley said:
Did you by any chance re-use an older hard drive?
Click to expand...
Why do you reckon an old hard drive can slow down the framerate?
I know that with Windows XP, the IDE Channel could switch to PIO mode and then your PC will be incredibly slow, but I haven't seen something like that in Windows 7 yet.
 
Definitely not PSU. Wrong CPU gives you a unstable system, not a slow system.

I reckon software issue. Nuke the install imo. First check the temps though on CPU & GFX.

Pada said:
Why do you reckon an old hard drive can slow down the framerate?
I know that with Windows XP, the IDE Channel could switch to PIO mode and then your PC will be incredibly slow, but I haven't seen something like that in Windows 7 yet.
Click to expand...
Interrupts configured @install. I'd think Grim would have reinstalled w/ new rig though.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

I am using a HDD from my old system, but it was a fairly newish drive, a Samsung 250GB 7200 - So I don't think that could be it? Or could it? :confused:

I lowered everything on COD4 to the lowest possible settings, only leaving the RES @ 1980 x 1024 and ya it runs smooth, but I mean it seems nuts that I need to put it on super low to get it to run well.

With regards to drivers, I have also used driver cleaner. This system was also a fresh install so no Nvidia drivers are lurking around.

Its flippin weird though because I was playing some MOH and it runs pretty dam well on high, so I don't get what the issue with some other games are.

I think maybe a format reinstall is in order, that is the only way I will be able to rule out software.

@Mephisto - Yeah I have started playing COD4 again, Its actually still the best online shooter around :p
 
Grimspoon said:
@Mephisto - Yeah I have started playing COD4 again, Its actually still the best online shooter around :p
Click to expand...


I hope the fresh install makes things right ...... just hurry up and get it done so I can kick your ass asap
w00t.gif
 
lol Mephisto, bring it on :p - I been playing on the iGame teamdeath match server.


I have noticed another thing that is annoying me to death, my mouse cursor all of a sudden gets all laggy and it looks like i have put full mouse trailers on. Cursor is super laggy.
 
Guys, quick, possibly stupid question, but does the cache on the drive make a big difference?

My Windows drive is a 250 7200 RMP 8MB cache.

Would upgradeable to a say 1TB 7200 32MB cache make a difference?
 
Windows 7 (RTM, MSDN)
DisplayFusion 3.1.4

I used to run Ultramon when I had XP, but installed DF recently when I moved to Windows 7.

As soon as I had installed DF, games (listed below) became very choppy whereas beforehand they were very smooth. Interestingly there was not much of a difference in FPS. The choppiness greatly affected mouse input making the mouse 'skip' inconsistently. That is, the rate of movement jumps drastically at random moments, and is generally inconsistent.

I tried checking my mouse, but got the same skipping with 3 mice (with corresp drivers installed):

* Razer Deathadder
* Logitech mx518
* Razer Lachesis


... using a Razer Destructor mousepad. Since all mouse skipped, I next did software isolation tests:

* standard bootup environment. DF running
* standard bootup environment. no DF running
* bare essentials with all background processes closed. DF running
* bare essentials with all background processes closed. DF not running
* many extra background processes. DF running
* many extra background processes. DF not running


The corresponding results of this were:

* skipping
* smooth
* skipping
* smooth
* skipping
* smooth


This behaviour was consistent with the following fullscreen games:

* Team Fortress 2 (steam)
* Counter Strike: Source (steam)
* Call of Duty 4 (non-steam)


I have installed the latest videocard drivers (nvidia 8800GTS 512mb), and directx drivers (DirectX 11), and the Windows is genuine and up to date.

I am running two monitors at 60Hz:

* 1680x1050
* 1280x1024


I can only conclude that DisplayFusion is the culprit here. Please find a fix for this behaviour because I dont want to go back to Ultramon since it has poor Windows 7 support
Click to expand...

Answer - and solved

Make sure the DisplayFusion setting "Pause System Hooks when a fullscreen program is detected" on the "Options" tab. Let me know if this solves the problem, and if not we can try a few more things.
Click to expand...

so maybe you have something similar?


PS - keep a lookout for =USN=Mephisto|P kicking your arse :p
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Answer - and solved



so maybe you have something similar?


PS - keep a lookout for =USN=Mephisto|P kicking your arse :p
Click to expand...

Very interesting Meph, I am running UltraMon, which is similar to DF. :eek:

/unistalls

Now I just need to find out if getting a new HDD with bigger cache is worth it.
 
Grimspoon said:
Very interesting Meph, I am running UltraMon, which is similar to DF. :eek:

/unistalls

Now I just need to find out if getting a new HDD with bigger cache is worth it.
Click to expand...

I doubt it will make a massive difference. I'd start by disabling AA/AF. Test. Then lower the visual effects to Medium if available. Test again. If it's still not smooth, lower the resolution to 1680x1050. BTW, HD is 1920x1080, so how are you getting 1980x1024?

Also, are you using the latest Catalyst drivers?
 
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