I bought a new graphic card. Why am I not noticing a difference?

Question

Here's my setup:
Athlon 64 3200+, 512mb (pc3200 400MHz) x 2 (1GB total) of RAM, some 10,000rpm hard drive, dual-monitors, no background apps running.

Today I finally upgraded my video card from a PNY GeForce 5950 Ultra (256mb 8xAGP) to a PNY GeForce 7600 GS (512mb 8xAGP).

I ran World of Warcraft, and the frame-rate was still averaging about 30fps at 1280x1024. When I run WoW, I have about 256mb of physical RAM still free, but my CPU is usually between 90-100% usage.

However, even when I lower the resolution, and my CPU usage is between 80-95%, I only get a few frames better.

Is my CPU bottle-necking my system when it comes to running WoW? Surely the 7600 GS is superior to the 5950 Ultra ... right? And what else would help to increase my system performance? (Remember I'm using socket 939 so I can't get too fancy of a processor.)

Thanks for your help!
Derek

Rawr, I just did some research and it turns out my processor is socket 754. No chance in upgrading without upgrading the motherboard.

(And I have cable internet.)

Answer 1

Well first off, it coud be debated whether that was even an upgrade. You got a slight boost in your fillrate from 3800 to 4800, but your memory bandwidth is now about a third of what it was before. Those are the two most important things to look at on video cards.

30 fps is not terrible, but if you are looking for higher you would need a fasater CPU, which as you have already figured out is pretty much out of the question without a mobo upgrade, or a truly superior card. The 7800GS should give you the kind of boost you are looking for, or the Radeon X1950 Pro, if you are looking for the best availabe in AGP graphics.

Last thing, I had to comment on what that last guy said on DDR vs DDR2. What he said was true when DDR2 first came out, but they have lower latencies a lot since then, so for gaming DDR2 is the clear choice.

Answer 2

Other factors that can affect video performance:

1. Make sure Windows XP is updated.

2. Do an online virus scan (like trendmicro housecall or panda) in addition to your regular virus program.

3. Scan for spyware with Spybot S&D and AdAware.

4. Check that you are using the most up to date NVidia drivers.

5. Try different NVidia graphics settings. Setting for "better performance" should give higher fps.

6. Reinstall WOW with your new graphics card installed. This will insure that WOW settings are current to your new graphics card.

7.Even though you have no background apps running you do have many "processes" running and some of those may not be necessary and could be using up CPU resources. I would run a "HiJackThis" scan and post the results to a forum that can help with the scan results. A good one is:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html

8. Check that your in game settings are optimized for WOW.
For a good guide on this:

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=405

9.Benchmark your pc. Download free version of 3DMark here:
http://www.futuremark.com/download/

You can compare results of 3DMark here:
http://www.sysopt.com/systemdb/benchmark/

I have a socket 939 processor (FX-55) that kicks ***. It's your motherboard that determines how fast of a socket 939 processor that you can use. Right now socket 939 processors are a great buy due to competition with Intel.

Note: Just read you have S754 not S939.
Best bet would be to bite the bullet and upgrade MOBO and CPU and VID CARD. You could keep AGP video card But PCI-e would be better.
PC3200 DDR400 RAM is good and will beat out lower speed DDR2 RAM due to higher latency with DDR2. Socket 754 doesn't support dual-channel RAM while most socket 939 MOBO's will. For a great explantion on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture

Answer 3

Howzit!!

I friend of mine suffers from a similar problem... The 7600 GS is superior to the 5950 Ultra of course and that is why I cannot figure out the problem. Try setting up the game to use the most extreme settings and see what happens and try maybe upgrading the graphic card drivers.

Sorry for not being of any help BUT I know of the problem you have...

Good luck!!

Answer 4

Honestly, the upgrade from the 5950 ultra to the 7600gs was not that big a jump.

I am not surprised that you did not notice a real increase in framerate.

Answer 5

For "best results", you really *should* get a desktop. However. GeForce Go 6150 ain't that bad. Still , you need to keep in mind that 1) a LOT of games simply states that "laptop chipsets are NOT supported". In other words, try it, but don't call us if it doesn't work. 2) it'll never run as good as it would be on a desktop.

Answer 6

Your processor appears bottlenecked. Possible upgrade options:

NO COST OPTION: Overclock your processor. If it is a Venice core, 2.4Ghz is easy to hit.

MEDIUM COST OPTION: Sell your processor and upgrade to an Athlon64 3800+ (Venice)

HIGH COST OPTION: Sell your processor and buy an Athlon 64 FX-53 (Sledgehammer S939).

Answer 7

id say that its a small config problem. im using a darn nvidia fx5500 with a 2800 amd and i get some good framerates.
but i looked online for troubleshooting guides to find out the little bugs. and there are certain drivers that i had to get . to make it run
smoothly. Id try getting online with the nvidia card and find out what version of forceware works best.

Answer 8

What kind of internet connection do you have? Your PC can only display frames as fast as it receives them.

Answer 9

what is your virtual memory set to? try setting it to 2.5-3 times your 1 gig mem