Severe FPS/LAG problem

[Joker_Joe]

I made a different post about this but it's kind of died now and i still need help you can view it here:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=107719

My problem is whenever i'm playing games, it appears i have well low FPS or LAG, I have only just thought about the fps after installing CS:S and seeing that i'm playing it at 9 fps.

I can play counter strike, but not counter-strike source. Also i have this problem with battlefield ( all games). I can play Dawn of War but when there is alot of stuff going on on the battlefield it lags, i dont mind about that.

Do you reckon its because First person shooters uses up alot of system resources.

I meet the reccomended specs on all of these games so they should work.

I had this problem before i installed my graphics card ( nvidia geforce 6600), so either i hav'nt installed it properly or it's not a graphics problem.

I think this is quite an advanced problem.


Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name JOESNETWORK-PC1
User Name Joe

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Celeron, 2700 MHz (27 x 100)
Motherboard Name Epox EP-4SGM8I (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 661FX
System Memory 768 MB (PC2100 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (10/19/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6600 AGP
Monitor Proview 772 [17" CRT] (1243264920)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB PCI128 (CT4751) Sound Card

[DarkCypher0x0]

While it could be numerous problems one thing that does concern me is from the looks of the other post your case temps were very high for a machine on idle, did you get this sorted out and what do your temps look like as of today. Only reason I ask is it might be possible that those temps caused some pretty bad wear and tear on the components.

Also have you checked to see if you had any type of Virus, Spyware or Adware on the machine or any background program that would eat up a lot of resources (i.e: File Sharing programs, messengers, Office programs or photoshop programs) while you are playing a game? Your RAM could also be another issue...some people would disagree but, I've always believed that 768 as opposed from 512MB of ram really makes no difference and I've done benchmarks myself on the matter and 6-7 MB/s and a little less than 1-2 latency decrease isn't all that much to really brag about.

Well I guess any is better than none right, I personally would suggest 1GB, 1GB now days is minimum for any high end game and soon even that won't be enough. Something you could try is re-seat your Video Card and possibly even your RAM just to be sure, make sure they are firmly seated and no dust is interfering. Do be sure to update your drivers as well for your video card, though I don't see this as a HUGE factor in the matter unless you have never installed them but you never know.

[Joker_Joe]

Yes, my temps did used to be really high, but i am now running with the side case off. It is cooler. Also went out and bought a new case fan the other day.

I know i shall upgrade to 1 GB but with only 2 slots of ram, i had to take out a 256 to put in a 512 so i only incresed by 256. still as you say any is better than none.

I don't have any virus's etc i keep this checked.

I've tried all this before hence the ' I think this is an advanced problem' , I'm not no brain box but i know a few things bout pc's and this has got me baffled.

Thanks for the reply.

[DarkCypher0x0]

Well there's another thing that catches my eye though and there in lies the problem, you had this problem before you installed the video card, what did you use before as a Video Card?

I still really believe those temps you had before caused some wear on some components, it could very well be even the CPU, If you re-seated the Video Card and have the Drivers installed then I would imagine the CPU is bottlenecking the Video Card. Or maybe the Video Card is defective, have you noticed any tearing in the screen or pixelation during boot sequence or any other time?

Do you have any random reboots or random black screens? All could be a sign of a bad Video Card, where about did you purchase the Video Card and who is the Manufacturer? (I.e BFG, eVGA, HIS, MSI, XFX, ASUS etc...) If it were the CPU...I guess you would notice a lot of stop errors and just overall sluggishness.

[Joker_Joe]

Before the video card i used the onboard graphics.

No i hav'nt seen ay tearing or pixelation, no random reboots, Bought the card Nvidia geforce 6600 from PC World.

[Joker_Joe]

*bump*

[DOA]

Three things to start:
1) do a ctrl-alt-del during the game and see what is in the background. Kill all but the essentials.
I assume you have studied
http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12
until you know what they are talking about.
2) set the game video to its lowest settings - that may be 640 x 480 with no eye candy then try 800 x 600 and see if it helps. Set your desktop to 800 x 600 when you try that setting.
3) disable the onboard video
The easier solution is, of course, the more expensive one.
Buying new gear.

[Colemanguy]

Actually lets start determing the actual problem, theres a difference between lag and fps problems. Lag is a latency on the network. FPS Problems are hardware/settings problem. Which is the case? are you getting low fps or terrible ping?

[Joker_Joe]

well my ping is'nt that bad. On CS Source i get around 70-80 sumtimes up to 120 if i'm lagging. But it's just that when i play games it seems as their laggin but their not it's the FPS any ideas?

[Joker_Joe]

Sory really desperate * BUMP *

[viper_boy403]

Whenever this happens to me it turns out to be a memory problem. Try running memtest for a few hours and see if you get any errors.

[Joker_Joe]

ok dint get any errors, maybe that's because it only ran to 3.6% and then crashed.

My PC hardly ever crashes. Could this be down to a corruption in the memory?

[Joker_Joe]

I'VE FOUND A FIX,

Well i think so i reduced my out-of-game resolution to 1024 x 768 and change my refresh rate from 60 to 85 hz, my bro is running 1280 x 1024 at 60 hz and his games are working well good, so this is'nt exaclty a fix but it helps

anything else that could help?

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthr...084#post918084

[Joker_Joe]

nope tell a lie this didnt fix it, it was the options that i changed, what is causing this ?

[viper_boy403]

oops, forgot about this thread

yea if it crashed while running memtest then its a memory problem. Im guessing that you're running 3 256mb sticks? or is it 1 512 and 1 256? Take out one of the sticks, run memtest. if it crashes, replace the stick, take out a diff one. repeat until it doesnt crash (hopefully) and we've found the bad stick