Gaming Performance Woes in XP

[Naginata]

I'm getting fairly poor performance in some games, first noticed under Half-Life, and also in Grand Theft Auto 3 and other games. Basically, the game will play fine, 60+ fps, and then every once in a while, drop down to 8-10 fps for a second or so. I'm on a brand new computer, and have been unable to nail down what exactly is wrong. I've tried disabling running applications and none of them seem to be causing the problem. The system is:

A7V333 (KT333) motherboard
Athlon XP 1733MHz
2x Mushkin PC2700 DIMMs
Audigy Gamer sound card
Asus v7700 Deluxe GeForce2 GTS Video Card
WD 120GB/8MB cache hard drive

If anyone has any other ideas beyond "disabling programs" and "updating drivers", I'd love to hear them.

My roommates are both running on _vastly_ inferior systems and aren't having any problems running any of these games under xp... so I know it _can_ be done, if only in theory

Thanks,
Nathan D Acuff

 

[Maleficus]

XP is completely weird and random IMO, it does the same thing on my system both times i tried it man.

Id stick with 2k but of course all electronics and computers are hating me right now for no known reason

 

[Naginata]

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to go buy Win2K. I'm swimming in free copies of XP thanks to some connections via my work, but I can't justify buying a new OS just to see if it might improve my games :/

Any other ideas?

 

[edblor]

Do you have access to additional RAM?

If so, swap it out for some other compatible RAM. Sounds like bad RAM to me. It simply is not refreshing correctly, and Windows needs to cache to the HDD more than normal.

Are your RAM timings too agressive maybe? Are they correct?

Edblor

 

[Naginata]

My roommate just got a new computer with some PC3000 stuff in it, also from Mushkin, I threw that in there and tried it (512MB, 1 stick), and I still experienced loss of frame rates.

As for timings, I'm using the detect by SPD option, it's setting the stuff at CL3, which is exactly what it's rated at.

Any new ideas? I'll try anything

 

[bruincal]

I think this sounds possibly like a heat problem. If you're able to get high frame rates at the offset of the game, then there is probably no problem with the drivers or software. Is your video card and case getting enough ventilation? What is the CPU and system temperature? I think the GeForce2 GTS runs slightly hot sometimes. One of my friends had a system where Unreal Tournament frame rates would drop severely about 5 minutes into the game because his system started getting too warm. He added some fans and turned up the AC to test, and the frame rates didn't suffer at all.

Good luck!

 

[Naginata]

I have a total of 4 fans, 2 on the PSU and 2 case fans, the processor runs at around 65-70 degrees (c). The video card fan is sounding suspect (and in fact, the card will be replaced fairly shortly), but I checked the temp on that with the utility included with the card, and it's about the same as the CPU. The performance drops last about 2 seconds or less, and happen right at the start of the game, and the whole time I'm playing, every few seconds. Performance is find if I stand perfectly still, but when I'm moving, the hits come, seemingly randomly.

 

[Mem]

You tried installing latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers(4.42) also some BIOS gaming tweaks like disable video ram cacheable,disable all video shadowing,disable fastwrites,disable system bios cacheable,btw I presume you`re using Nvidia drivers so check FSAA is off in Nvidia driver panel.

 

[Naginata]

I am using 4.42 on the 4 in 1 drivers, and have tried 3 different versions of the nvidia reference drivers, I've stuck with 40.41 for now because, you know, higher numbers are automatically better

As to the BIOS options, I've turned off fast writes, but I must confess that I haven't really mucked around in the bios all that much before, and I'm not sure where, exactly, to do all that other stuff you talked about... the only agp options I really see are the Aperture size, agp speed, drive strength, "performance control", fast write control, and "video memory cache mode (uc or uswc).

On the other side, hopefully the new video card gets here soon, and I'll be able to fix (or rule out) the video card as a source of problems.

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming

 

[Mem]

I`ll help you with some of those settings,anyway Aperture size is normally 64mb or 128mb,if you`ve 256mb of main ram or more then 128mb is a good setting in bios,as for AGP speed set that to 4x AGP, "drive strength" should be left on the default setting normally auto.

video memory cache mode (uc or uswc) means

USWC (Uncached Speculative Write Combining) - Write-Back Cache mode
UC (Uncached) - Uncached mode,normally found on Asus boards.

I believe USWC is best for performance,however might cause stability problems if not supported so UC is better for stability(I would choose UC ).

Available settings in the ASUS BIOS are either uncached (UC) or uncached speculative write combining (USWC). Needless to say that USWC needs to be supported by both graphics adapter hardware and drivers but if it works, it is one sweet feature.

Good bios guide here .

 

[Naginata]

Well, regardless, I've tried most of the combinations of those settings.... I think I'm going to stop fooling with it until I get some hardware replaced. If I have a new graphics card/motherboard and I'm still having issues, then I'll come back here and bother you all some more. THanks for all the tips, and the free graphics education.

 

[kursplat]

If anyone has any other ideas beyond "disabling programs" and "updating drivers", I'd love to hear them.

mmmmmm no. but it could be system restore is running. system properties\system restore.
good luck

 

[Naginata]

I turned it off a while ago, no change. This is really start to upset me. New motherboard is in the mail, and new video card will ship as soon as the bozos get their act together :/

 

[FluxCapacitor]

You're not the only one having this problem. I hope you don't get the new mobo and video card and have the same problems, since you're pretty much just guessing that it will help.

I'd say this is an XP setting causing you, and others, this problem.

By the way, this is kind of funny:

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to go buy Win2K

when combined with:

New motherboard is in the mail, and new video card will ship as soon as the bozos get their act together

LOL

Anyway, I'm curious, what motherboard did you get? I'd be pretty happy with the A7V333.

 

[Naginata]

Yeah, it is kind of funny when I look at it now

I got, basically, 5 copies of XP for about 60 dollars, most of that shipping, as a result of my position and attendance at a few computer conferences (which I won't go into because I don't want to sound like a jerk), so I went directly from 98 (which was free to me and worth every penny) to XP (which was nearly free to me and worth every penny), and skipped 2K along the way.

As to the new motherboard, I'm getting a replacement for the A7V333, since I've replaced nearly every other component in the system with "scavenged" parts from systems that work fine, and had the system work correctly. For reference, the company doing the replacing is outpost.com, and I order nearly everything I can from there, if not for their prices (which are usually excellent) than for their service (which is always excellent). I'm done with my commercial now. I'm not a whacko, really

 

[FluxCapacitor]

Someone else said he solved the problem here by removing the jumper from his WD hard drive.

I'm curious though, because if you're running the WD drive he has in Single mode, you shouldn't be using a jumper at all...

Maybe you could check your jumper setting or try rearranging your drives? Maybe this is the common link with people having the freeze-up problem.

 

[Naginata]

I'm happy to report this problem is solved. I'm not sure which thing did it, I got a new motherboard, and reinstalled windows, and fooled with my hard drive jumper all at the same time... yes, I know, poor engineering practice.

Anyway, the frame rate in Half Life is now nailed to the wall at my max refresh rate... I'm quite happy with the system. Thanks to all for the wonderful suggestions, if nothing else I've learned alot that I didn't know before