Performance Issues With An 8800GT

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Hello all. As of late, I have noticed some performance issues with my 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM. All I have been doing is playing WOW, and there should be ZERO performance issues with that game. I have all settings maxed in WOW, except for AA, which I have at a meager 2x. I run the game at 1680x1050, which is not a huge resolution for WOW and an 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM.

I was running the beta drivers from April, and they were doing fine, but I just recently upgraded to the latest WHQL drivers. I removed the nVidia drivers from my system and rebooted before installing the new ones.

What is even more baffling is that I was messing with the video settings in WOW, and even if I lowered settings, the framerate did NOT improve.

I am baffled. I don't know why my computer is even thinking about having trouble with WOW, but here I am.

Here are my system specs that matter (as best as I can remember):

Core 2 Duo E6750
BFG 8800GT with 512 MB RAM
4 GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 64-bit

As you can see, this system should be crushing WOW, but instead, I am getting constant 30 FPS in empty areas. Don't even get me started on Ironforge and Shattrath...

Please help!

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Just an update before I go to bed...

Changing and tweaking settings in WOW does NOTHING. It doesn't matter if I'm playing in 16-bit color at 800x600, the system will still stay at 30-40 FPS. Something is seriously wrong here, and it is either NVIDIA's new drivers or my card is going bad.

I downloaded 3DMark06 and ran the benchmark. My 3DMark score was 10679.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Shameless bump...

Any insight as to why my card is all of a suddenly performing very poorly? Should I go back to older drivers? Should I change some settings? Is my 3DMark06 score where it should be?

I just find it baffling that I am getting less than 60 FPS in WOW, a 4 year old game that is not exactly cutting-edge graphical technology!

 

[Raider1284]

You should def be getting higher FPS. Have you checked that your PCI-e slot is still running at 16x? Start-run-dxdiag has some useful information. Are any other games experiencing this slowdown? Could it be a WoW addon causing the slowdown?

10k 3dmark sounds about right though.. Have you tried reinstalling WoW?

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: Raider1284
You should def be getting higher FPS. Have you checked that your PCI-e slot is still running at 16x? Start-run-dxdiag has some useful information. Are any other games experiencing this slowdown? Could it be a WoW addon causing the slowdown?

10k 3dmark sounds about right though.. Have you tried reinstalling WoW?

I could try dxdiag tonight. What I did in WOW was delete all of my saved config files, and it didn't fix it. I could try and disable the addons to see if that improves performance.

Even still though, my computer crushes WOW, and I would hardly expect an addon to cause me to lose 20 FPS. But you never know?

I don't recall any other games having this FPS loss, but I don't have many games. I have Gears PC, and that runs fine except for the occasional "loading" slowdown that is unfortunately a bug in the game. I also have BioShock PC, but I don't have it installed.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Hello all. As of late, I have noticed some performance issues with my 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM. All I have been doing is playing WOW, and there should be ZERO performance issues with that game. I have all settings maxed in WOW, except for AA, which I have at a meager 2x. I run the game at 1680x1050, which is not a huge resolution for WOW and an 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM.

I was running the beta drivers from April, and they were doing fine, but I just recently upgraded to the latest WHQL drivers. I removed the nVidia drivers from my system and rebooted before installing the new ones.

What is even more baffling is that I was messing with the video settings in WOW, and even if I lowered settings, the framerate did NOT improve.

I am baffled. I don't know why my computer is even thinking about having trouble with WOW, but here I am.

Here are my system specs that matter (as best as I can remember):

Core 2 Duo E6750
BFG 8800GT with 512 MB RAM
4 GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 64-bit

As you can see, this system should be crushing WOW, but instead, I am getting constant 30 FPS in empty areas. Don't even get me started on Ironforge and Shattrath...

Please help!

It's been awhile since I played WoW on my humble 7800GT card with Vista x64,however I was at 1680x1050 res and never had any serious issues or slow downs,with your rig it should be solid on performance.

Changing and tweaking settings in WOW does NOTHING. It doesn't matter if I'm playing in 16-bit color at 800x600, the system will still stay at 30-40 FPS. Something is seriously wrong here, and it is either NVIDIA's new drivers or my card is going bad.

I downloaded 3DMark06 and ran the benchmark. My 3DMark score was 10679.

All I can suggest is make sure you have installed latest version of DX9.0c(March 2008) which you can get below(its for Vista as well as XP) ,make sure you have installed chipset drivers for your motheroard as well,tried disabling V-Sync?
I would disable Windows Defender too(I set Defender's real time scan to run once a week).

DX9.0c download .

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

All of my programs and drivers are up to date.


I have tried disabling all of the settings in WOW, restarting, coming back in and testing the FPS. It NEVER changes from 30-40 FPS. It doesn't matter if I have everything set to low/off or everything set to high/on, whether I'm out in the middle of nowhere or smack dab in the middle of Shattrath. It still clocks in at 30-40 FPS. It is confounding!

I am going to try and disable some addons tonight, otherwise, I have no idea what the problem is! Why is it always stuck at 30-40 FPS, regardless of my settings or what is going on in-game? /boggle

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Hello all. As of late, I have noticed some performance issues with my 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM. All I have been doing is playing WOW, and there should be ZERO performance issues with that game. I have all settings maxed in WOW, except for AA, which I have at a meager 2x. I run the game at 1680x1050, which is not a huge resolution for WOW and an 8800GT with 512 MB of RAM.

I was running the beta drivers from April, and they were doing fine, but I just recently upgraded to the latest WHQL drivers. I removed the nVidia drivers from my system and rebooted before installing the new ones.

What is even more baffling is that I was messing with the video settings in WOW, and even if I lowered settings, the framerate did NOT improve.

I am baffled. I don't know why my computer is even thinking about having trouble with WOW, but here I am.

Here are my system specs that matter (as best as I can remember):

Core 2 Duo E6750
BFG 8800GT with 512 MB RAM
4 GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 64-bit

As you can see, this system should be crushing WOW, but instead, I am getting constant 30 FPS in empty areas. Don't even get me started on Ironforge and Shattrath...

Please help!

It's been awhile since I played WoW on my humble 7800GT card with Vista x64,however I was at 1680x1050 res and never had any serious issues or slow downs,with your rig it should be solid on performance.

Changing and tweaking settings in WOW does NOTHING. It doesn't matter if I'm playing in 16-bit color at 800x600, the system will still stay at 30-40 FPS. Something is seriously wrong here, and it is either NVIDIA's new drivers or my card is going bad.

I downloaded 3DMark06 and ran the benchmark. My 3DMark score was 10679.

All I can suggest is make sure you have installed latest version of DX9.0c(March 2008) which you can get below(its for Vista as well as XP) ,make sure you have installed chipset drivers for your motheroard as well,tried disabling V-Sync?
I would disable Windows Defender too(I set Defender's real time scan to run once a week).

DX9.0c download .

 

[fredhe12]

My setup is nearly identical to yours with one major exception, I'm running XP. But currently I'm playing Crysis and Rainbow Six Vegas2, both maxed w/ AA moderate @ 1600x1050 and while I don't FPS numbers, it seems to be chewing both up pretty well. No lag anywhere and I haven't thought about performance once.

I am running latest nVid drivers.

I haven't really helped you much other than to help you confirm that you probably shouldn't be experiencing this type of performance given your setup.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: fredhe12
My setup is nearly identical to yours with one major exception, I'm running XP. But currently I'm playing Crysis and Rainbow Six Vegas2, both maxed w/ AA moderate @ 1600x1050 and while I don't FPS numbers, it seems to be chewing both up pretty well. No lag anywhere and I haven't thought about performance once.

I am running latest nVid drivers.

I haven't really helped you much other than to help you confirm that you probably shouldn't be experiencing this type of performance given your setup.

I agree. It seems that every time I upgrade my drivers, I get worse performance. The 3DMark06 test was chugging in sections too, while I can (could?) play new titles like Gears PC all maxed out and experience no problems whatsoever.

Mostly, I am just confused as to how a rig like mine can be experiencing slowdown in a game as old and graphics-lite as WOW!

Either the NVIDIA drivers keep getting worse, my card is going bad, or there is some unseen third factor going on here. I run a pretty tight ship on my computer, so I don't really think it is some strange unknown going on in my computer. But, I don't really know WHAT it is.

Grr...

 

[Raider1284]

Originally posted by: fredhe12
My setup is nearly identical to yours with one major exception, I'm running XP. But currently I'm playing Crysis and Rainbow Six Vegas2, both maxed w/ AA moderate @ 1600x1050 and while I don't FPS numbers, it seems to be chewing both up pretty well.

If by "chewing both up" you mean, smooth 50+fps gameplay, then you are way off. Crysis "maxed" means Very High mode + AA + 1600x1050 resolution and you are looking at 10fps max!

the 8800gt at 1024x768 with no AA at max settings cannot even get 30fps...
http://www.pclabs.gen.tr/wp-co...10/crysis/image001.png


Back on topic: Is there a reason the low framerate is bugging you? Is it appearing choppy? You dont need 60fps in a game like WoW, you could run 30fps all day and it would never appear choppy.

 

[lurk3r]

There's a checkbox that tries to lock your refresh to the monitor's, I think its called VSYCH, try disabling that, if that does nothing disable all addons and go to an empty zone and check it out.

 

[fredhe12]

Not sure what my FPS is, don't really care, it's as smooth as can be. Very high mode w/ AA low.

 

[vanvock]

Wouldn't be the first time NV screwed "legacy" games with a driver update. Since it started there I would definatley roll back to previous version & see what happens.