New Computer (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe / ASUS 6800GT)

I Bought a new computer the other week.. After playing around with some games i get the feeling that it doesnt really perform as good as it's supposed to do. The computer, which I assembeled my self, has the following spec:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
ASUS GeForce 6800GT 256 meg
2x512 Crosair XMS3200XL PRO (CAS 2-2-2-5)
Nexus RealSilent 400W

Processor temperature is at 32 degrees celsius idle and 40 degrees at load. The GPU is somwhere around 50 at load and slightly lower at idle.

I Installed Windows XP SP2 on a newly formated partition and installed all available updates. Installed the latest Nvidia drivers for both chipset and the graphics card.

Well, my problem is that i get pretty lousy FPS in the most games (Far Cry beeing the only exception). In F.E.A.R. I get about 20 FPS in the higher setups. When i tern on FSAA to x2 and AF to x2, Soft Shadows on and Volumeric Lightning on i get somwhere between 10 and 20. After reading some tests of my setup, I get the feeling it should perform much better. In Doom 3, with FSAA x2 and AF x16, everything else on maximum, the FPS jumps between around 20 and 50 (exactly). In both of the games it doesn't make a real difference if i run it in 1280 or 1024 resolution.

I get around 11000 points in 3D mark 03, which, I get the feeling, is pretty what im supposed to get.

So; whats going on? Am I missing something important here, or is this perfectly normal? Could there be some BIOS setting that I have overlooked, or are there drivers I am using bad (nForce4_amd_6.70_winxp2k_international.exe & 81.98_forceware_winxp2k_international_whql.exe)

I'm going insane over this... I've been asking around in some swedish forums, without getting any answers. So I turn too you guys

Thanks in advance!

Fredrik, Sweden.

 

F.E.A.R. is a very hardware intensive game. That said, your video card is geting old, and is not going to play cutting edge games at the speed of light, like it once did, when it was new tech. Compare benchmarks, and you'll likely find you are getting the performance you should, for the hardware.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/10/24/fear/5.html

Not that far off.

 

If you have the cash, get another 6800gt to SLI them. you will get a significant boost that way and should keep you set for upcoming games.