When I play almost any game (even on lowest graphics settings), my CPU jumps to 100% and stays there. I have between 2-10x the recommended specs to play the game depending on what game. Why is this? I have tried updating drivers etc, and I just got done reloading Windows to see if it was a conflict in drivers and it STILL does it. I have a Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz processor, 128 MB Gforce FX 5200 vid card, 770 MB of ram, countless gigs of HDD space, and am running windows XP home.
2006-12-29 14:05:34 · 4 answers · asked by Simba 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Go check your task manager and see what application eats up your CPU. Then go from there.
2006-12-29 14:08:45 · answer #1 · answered by Johnny Handsome 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"I have between 2-10x the recommended specs to play the game depending on what game."
What games are these?
"128 MB Gforce FX 5200 vid card, 770 MB of ram"
Not exactly good specs. 5200 is pretty ancient. I would consider 6800 aging as well. You might be a bit more convincing with a 7600 or 7900. And 770 MB is a bit lower than 1 GB recommended. 2GB would be a bit more convincing for good specs.
2006-12-29 22:10:16 · answer #2 · answered by csanon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the others said vid card and ram my friend. If your gaming those are the 2 most important things ( even over your connection )
Processor is fine but I wouldnt game with less than 2gb ram anymore, and while that vid card can handle it im sure it struggles.
Ram is a cheap upgrade ( compared to new video ) so I would start there. Get yourself 2 1gb sticks of decent ram.
And also like Johnny said you want end all other nonessential processes to free up resources.
2006-12-29 22:35:57 · answer #3 · answered by sociald 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
your actually 2x to 10x below specs. The 5200 is NOT a gaming video card, it never was. Not even close to the lowest ranges of todays "gaming cards". goto www.tomshardware.com for the benchmarks. The video cannot perform most of the task, it requires the cpu to do most of the work instead. Get a middle of the road gaming card (well over 50x faster than yours).
2006-12-29 22:39:11 · answer #4 · answered by computertech82 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋