Why do I have slowdowns???

[HueJazz89]

When i play games on my system and i enable anti-anliasing to 4X with 4X Anisotropic filtering i get slowdowns.
I play games like Splinter Cell, CS, RTCW, Warcraft 3, Hitman 2 and Ghost Reacon.
The slowdowns happen in RTCW and Splinter Cell.
Here's my system:

Pentium 4 1.6A
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
256 ddr ram
MSI 845E Max Mobo
Soundblaster Live! value
Maxtor 60gb 7200 rpm hd
Fugitsu 10gb 5400rpm hd
LG 16X DVD Drive
Yamaha 24X10X40 cdrw Drive
300W PSU.

Wut is the difference between the 1.6A and 1.6 processor??
Under Fuzzy Logic, an MSI proccessor overclocking program it identifies my proccessor as a 1.6 Northwood???
I heard theres a Northwood and a Wilamette or something.
Wuts the difference and wuts slowing me down???

 

[MetroFly]

1.6 A has 512 kb l2 cache versus the old 256 kb. so its better

about the slowdown. . . i dunno
you can try overclocking. most people can get over 2.1 ghz with the 1.6A northwood
or maybe add another 256 megs of ram.

 

[HueJazz89]

Alrite I'll try overclocking but which overclocking program???
Will it be alrite to overclock with the stock heatsink and cooler.
How much should I overclock??? I don't want to fry my processor.

 

[CraigRT]

The slowdowns happen cause you only have 256MB RAM, and with all due respect... a 1.6A really isn't all that fast anymore.. I mean it only makes sense. I wouldn't expect it to not slow down with those specs, esp. cause of AA enabled.. that's going to slow most computers down. if you had a 3.06, 512MB and a 9700 Pro, then you might have reason to worry.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Splinter Cell you say?

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030306/radeon9800pro-14.html

The R9800 can't fly through that game(nV hardware is better- XBox take a bow), I'm surprised you get playable framerates with your rig(if you have details cranked you are likely vid card limited, the game was designed to run on a 733MHZ Celery/P3 processor for the initial build). RTCW you are likely CPU bound. Try stepping the graphics down a few notches, if you are still having lots of slowdown then it is your processor(applies for both games, but SC you are most likely GPU bound).

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Splinter Cell you say? http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030306/radeon9800pro-14.html The R9800 can't fly through that game(nV hardware is better- XBox take a bow), I'm surprised you get playable framerates with your rig(if you have details cranked you are likely vid card limited, the game was designed to run on a 733MHZ Celery/P3 processor for the initial build). RTCW you are likely CPU bound. Try stepping the graphics down a few notches, if you are still having lots of slowdown then it is your processor(applies for both games, but SC you are most likely GPU bound).

Wow! Just when I thought video cards were getting fast enough to play any game you want with 4 or 6XAA and 8X anisotropic filtering, a game comes out and shows us that's not true.

I feel lucky I got this for Xbox, because I don't think I can afford to play SC on a PC (although I'm sure it's a lot nicer looking on the PC).

 

[HueJazz89]

Hey so what should I do???
If 1.6 isn't fast enough I'll try overclocking to 2.1ghz.
Help me out here, so i should add 256 more ram and overclock my processor because 1.6A isn't fast enough anymore.
I have the stock heatsink and fan for my processor so how much do u think it will go???
Also what overclocking program???

 

[BenSkywalker]

Hey so what should I do???
If 1.6 isn't fast enough I'll try overclocking to 2.1ghz.

Hold up for a second First thing to do is drop your resolution down along with texture detail and see if the framerate changes, in particular down to 640x480, and make sure that the CPU is the bottleneck. For RtCW it certainly should be, and then you can try the overclocking path if you are comfortable with it. You also really should pick up another 256MB or RAM at least, that actually would be a good idea no matter what at the moment. After you get the RAM in there and if you come to the conclusion that it is a CPU issue then you can proceed with trying to OC. How much you can get out of it is something I don't know, I don't follow Intel's particular chips closely enough to be able to even give you a general range, the guys in the OC forum should be able to help you out there. For the program you use, it's done in your BIOS, not by any particular application(for your CPU, to OC your vid card you have to flash the BIOS on the vid card first, then you could use an app like Rage Tweaker).

For Splinter Cell, the game was designed to run on a 733MHZ P3/Celery. Turn down the graphics details and it should be running smoothly. For right now, nVidia hardware has a decent edge with the game overall, it was built to run on NV2A hardware so that is to be expected. Upcoming patches may help adress the issue, but I wouldn't count on them. With SC it's kind of a pain to tell you to drop down the details as the shadows really do add to the experience in the game(moreso then any other I've seen), but unfortunately it is likely the best way to get it running decently until a patch shows up.

 

[BFG10K]

If you're using a high resolution then you're likely to be GPU bound. However even if you lower it you'll then probably be CPU bound and your performance will probably still be low in the newer games. A 1.6 GHz CPU is OK but it's not that fast, especially for the newer games which are very CPU limited.

However in the case of Counterstrike you should easily be able to get a good framerate with your settings and if you're not then you might have Truform enabled. You can disable it either in the game (ati_n_patch or something like that) or disable it in the driver control panel. Also be sure to disable vsync as well as that can cause performance problems.

And finally another 256 MB RAM will do wonders in newer games as 256 MB is not really enough anymore.

 

[HueJazz89]

Alrite thnx for the tip dudes.
I overclocked my P4 1.6A to 2.1ghz
i see a difference in some games and startup but I'll try to add 256 more ram.
I just ran 3D mark 2001SE and here are the results
before-8700
now-11000

as u can see my results are alot higher but these aren't the exact numbers there just rounded off.

Well thnx guys I'm gonna look for some more ram now.

 

[HappyNic]

Instead of lowering your game setting, resolutions, etc, just don't use anti-anliasing at 4X. That should help you alot.

I play games without Anti-anliasing all the time, I rather have everything like textrue, shadows, enviorment at high ,instead of using Anti-Anliasing with medium or low setting of those.

 

[Computergasm]

I'm running a P4 1.8, 512K RDRAM, Radeon 9700 Pro and I have no problems running Splinter Cell. Game graphics are at max.