PC Tech Help (video/gamer guru)

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11-25-2006, 17:31
Atrain

PC Tech Help (video/gamer guru)

I need a hand with a video game (Counterstrike Source) performance issue on a new pc. I went around with IBM's helpdesk but they are clueless. PM me if you are willing to help a brutha out :roll:

System: Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 1gb ram, 250mb hard drive, GeForce 6100 256mb on-board video

Problem: Game play is 15 frames per second...should be running 60+ FPS.

What's been done so far: My nvidia software has a preset setting for Counterstrike Source so I selected that. I updated the drivers. Then I updated them with a tweaked version that supposedly gave better performance. I went into the bios and made sure the video setting was on the highest output. I set the monitor screen refresh rate to 75 hertz. The IBM guy had me reallocate some ram to video. So far, nothing has worked at all. Not even a slight boost in FPS. :cry:
11-25-2006, 17:37
thedave1164

system ram is much slower than dedicated video ram on a video card.

You will need to upgrade to an AGP or PCIe video card.
11-25-2006, 17:51
Atrain

my previous pc was half the speed with a GeForce 5200 128mb agp card and played it no problem. I understand the on-board setup is not as good as a 256 meg external card but it shouldn't be that bad.
11-25-2006, 18:37
Gman

I would try this dual core optimizer driver from AMD at the top of this web page;
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13118,00.html

It appears to specifically address PC gaming video.
11-25-2006, 18:40
Atrain

thanks :mrgreen: , trying it....
11-25-2006, 18:47
Atrain

No love...still 15 fps :cry:
11-25-2006, 19:06
Gman

I don't game on my PC--that's what the Xbox 360 is for. :P

I don't know if this discussion that I found via Google will help'
http://www.fishtankclan.com/e107_plu...php?content.29
11-25-2006, 20:03
thedave1164

Look,

You asked for free advice, I am telling you that your onboard video is your issue.

That is why IBM tech support can not help you.

I used to build custom computers for a living, I got out of it because people want to argue with me about what they needed to fix their store bought computers, and not wanting to spend a reasonable amount for a well designed custom computer.

Once again, your system memory speed is not sufficent for graphics intensive games. not to mention that you get the memory and system bus involved.
11-25-2006, 20:10
Atrain

Thanks Dave, I appreciate the advice and don't mean to be argumentative.
11-25-2006, 21:55
Gman

I think your system is plenty fast enough. Even an imbedded graphics chipset sould do better than 15fps. AMD uses HyperTransport for its interconnects, not a FSB, and has its memory controller on the processor.

It appears that the game you're playing gets its config info from a couple of files instead of letting the OS handle the resources. It won't matter what you do to the OS or hardware if the software is limiting itself.

It would be helpful if you could identify the specific make/model of your system.
11-26-2006, 05:35
Delphi

i'm a bigtime pc gamer...

Now your pc is more than good enough except for one thing, your onboard vid card. Basically that vid card is either a 64mb or 32mb and than it uses hard drive space to get the rest of the 256mb. In an essance its not a real 256mb vid card because hard disk memory is slower than a 100 year old t-32, lol.

Anyways spend about 100$ and get a half way decent Agp8 or PCI-E x16 card. Thats whats makin your game lag.

Good luck
Have fun.
11-26-2006, 07:58
Gman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphi

i'm a bigtime pc gamer...

Now your pc is more than good enough except for one thing, your onboard vid card. Basically that vid card is either a 64mb or 32mb and than it uses hard drive space to get the rest of the 256mb. In an essance its not a real 256mb vid card because hard disk memory is slower than a 100 year old t-32, lol.

Absolute bunk. The GPU is using dedicated physical RAM, not virtual memory being cached on disk. Study up on UMA-Unified Memory Architecture.

Atrain, it would still be helpful to have the make/model of your system. There are different Northbridge and Southbridge chipset combinations that will dictate the performance of your specific system. The nVidia 6100 is limited to only 2 pixel pipelines, which isn't going to give you high-end gaming performance. The 6100 series does support DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3.
11-26-2006, 11:01
KarlPMann

Hmmmm... CS:S... :twisted: Now where have I heard of that game? :roll:

They may be right, and I have a QUICK way to test it. I upgraded my video card not too long ago and still have my old one. The old ran CS:S just fine for me too. I upgraded because of DOOM3. :roll: Anyway, I got the card and the orginal drivers right here. Give me a call today and we can get together and try it. Karl.
11-26-2006, 11:04
KarlPMann

If I remember correctly, it's an nVidia GeForce 4/MX4000 with 128Mb. of RAM. Not high end by todays standards, but I know for a fact it will run Counterstrike Source. Oh, and it's AGP. Karl.
11-26-2006, 11:08
KarlPMann

Oh, and I was running it at 1024x768 (or higher) and it got a much better rate than 15fps. I seem to recall it went anywhere from 30 - 90 depending on resolution I ran it at. I got the card out, it is what I said it was. Now I'm going through my CD's looking for the drivers. Karl.
11-26-2006, 11:15
KarlPMann

Oh and last, it's an "eVGA" brand card and I think it can run on either 4X or 8X AGP. If you lost my number, PM me. Karl.

PS: Found the driver CD, looking to see if I still have a box too.
11-26-2006, 15:25
Atrain

Gman, My system is a Lenovo 3000 J series (IBM).
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...7E639B7AF4B25A

Karl, thanks for offering up your old card. I was going to try throwing in my GeForce 5200 128mb card from my other system but the new one does not have an AGP slot...Bummer.
11-26-2006, 20:51
Atrain

I was able to get 30 FPS by lowering the resolution and changing the game video settings to the lowest. Not the way I want to play. I'll be picking up this card tomorrow because I have a $40 gift card for compusa: http://www.compusa.com/products/prod..._OC_Video_Card

Thanks for all the help fellas,

Atrain
11-26-2006, 22:09
Delphi

The stuff that Gman said is probobly right lol, i dunno all the technical terms and stuff but that card should run CS:S fine.... my old radeon 9800 ran it like a charm, i think that card isnt too much different :)
11-26-2006, 22:49
Atrain

Well, I can't seem to figure out a way to improve it so I will take Dave's advice and buy the new card. If it doesn't work, I'll send him the bill... :mrgreen:

Thanks again
11-27-2006, 00:27
PsyKo

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrain

Well, I can't seem to figure out a way to improve it so I will take Dave's advice and buy the new card. If it doesn't work, I'll send him the bill... :mrgreen:

Thanks again

i can guarantee that will work, CS:S (and half life 2 in general) are very video card dependent, and the sound engine they use needs 100% of available ram to process everything going on. so if your video card and the rest of the system are fighting over memory in order to process all the sound and the physics, the rest of the system is winning obviously. you dont have enough shared memory to pre-cache all the sound and all the textures that the hl2 engine needs at the same time, so as they have said before get a cheepo new or decent used vid card, turn off onboard video and play the game the way it was meant to be played. :cool:
11-27-2006, 05:54
thedave1164

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atrain

Well, I can't seem to figure out a way to improve it so I will take Dave's advice and buy the new card. If it doesn't work, I'll send him the bill... :mrgreen:

Thanks again

Last piece of advice, make sure your computer power supply is at least 350 watts, per the specs on the video cards page.

Quote:

A 350W PCI Express compliant system power supply (with 12V current rating of 20A or more)

The video card itself will run the game great as long as your system can power it.

Welcome to my world, where every little detail can make a difference in how a system will or will not work for a given application.

Unfortunately, I have to work with standard commercial systems and cannot build to spec. I support lab systems for a pharmaceutical company now, and must make them work and keep everything within specs for FDA/USDA/EU regulations.

I don't know which is a bigger pain, building custom computers or dealing with the federal regulators, but I know what pays better on avg..... [pirate]
11-27-2006, 09:36
Atrain

I'm sure you are right Dave because everything I have tried, with the exception of lowering video quality, had no effect. I really didn't want to spend any more money before Christmas but once I get this new card I should be dialed in.

I hear ya regarding pharmaceutical companies. I used to recruit tech support staff for Baxter and Amgen. But it could be worse, our government and county contracts were a mess [dead] Now I recruit internally for a large software company and my blood pressure has stablized...

Thanks again for the help [beer]
11-28-2006, 09:18
Atrain

Installed my new Nvidia 7600 GT OC 256MB video card last night. Turned every CS:S feature on the highest setting, turned resolution up to 1280x1024....

90 FPS

Sweet! [hobbs]
11-28-2006, 12:38
KarlPMann

See. [poke] I think my current card runs about the same at a refresh rate of 72Hz. No lag or clipping from the video side of things, and my computer can easily handle it, but my connection is a big question mark still. I had a connection block on the phone line go bad and we just swapped the incoming line over to the second block on the houses junction box. I haven't tried CS:S since then so I don't know if it really helped my speed issues or not. It certainly fixed the bad phone line. :roll: Maybe I can get on and test my connection some time when you're on. Karl UZI-Dude Mann. :roll:
11-28-2006, 13:35
Atrain

Just let me know when you want to test it out. I got some virtual, high definition lead with your name on it [postal] [dead]
11-28-2006, 18:19
Delphi

lol told ya it was your card ;)

Any ways have fun tearing eachother apart... i personally like Americas Army [postal]

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