Framerates suffering for no apparent reason

[Sightless]

Im having issues with my computer, it's been slow since I've owned it, but lately I've had next to no patience for it and its getting extremely annoying. The computer itself is an eMachines box with the original 2.6GHz Intel P4, the memory was upgraded from 256mb stock to 2x1GB DDR2, and the video was upgraded from onboard to a GeForce 6800GT 128MB AGP card. Admittedly not the most powerful computer around, but decent enough for older games like C&C Red Alert 2, C&C Generals, and Sacred Gold. However, the framerates for ALL of these games is atrocious and at times in the single digits. Oddly, I can play some newer 3D games like Freelancer and HL2 with almost 60fps, but older stuff struggles along.

I'm at wits end and hoping someone here can think of something to make it play older stuff better. I've already defragged windows, ran virus / spyware scans, and even reformatted windows. Nothing else installed except the latest service pack, most up-to-date drivers, and of course the games I want to play, still the same problem.

[Lobstar]

Well first off. Your graphics card is garbage. Sorry to say but you're entirely bottlenecked by that card.
If you call Freelancer "newer games" then all i can say is wow...

Anyhow the ability to play oldergames might be beacuse your drivers are outdated or something. I have no idea really with thoose old 6000 series cards. I would advice you to at least buy a 8800gtx 512mb, they are really cheap.

[Sightless]

By newer I meant simply 3D, as it seems that most 3D games have a better chance of running smooth than 2D stuff. I realize the 6800 is pretty crap nowadays, but as far as older games go (which is what this computer is used for), it should be more than sufficient. Also, I am already running the latest drivers from nVidia's website, which would be 190.62 released the 21st. Did some checking and the mobo in this tower has an AGP 4x bus, and since I'm not too familiar with how that part of a computer works, would that have a lot to do with the pretty much 'hit-or-miss' framerates?

As an interesting comparison, my old eMachines that had a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon / 768MB Ram (1x256mb and 1x512mb) / GeForceFX 5200 256MB AGP card ran everything that was installed on it beautifully. Not sure why this computer, with a lot better hardware is having so much trouble.

[Aus_Karlos]

Whats your Power Supply Unit?

[Psy]

It's just the major downside of PC gaming. You can upgrade to play the latest games perfectly but older games suffer a lot.

For instance, I bought Beyond Good & Evil the other day and - guess what - it doesn't fucking work. The game runs about 2 times faster then it should so all the audio is out of sync and it glitches all the time with textures appearing in the wrong place and models spaz out like they've been blown up. It does this on both my laptop (Nvidia 8600GS) and my desktop (ATi 4870) so it was basically a waste of money.

You could try the old affinity trick. Run one of your games, go the task manager and under process look for the process your game is running under. Right-click, 'Set Affinity', then change it so only 1 core is ticked.

[Sightless]

Wow, totally forgot about this thread.

Thanks for mentioning the power supply, hadn't even considered that so I looked it up and it came with a 250w PSU... Definately going to upgrade that as soon as I get the money.

As far as affinity goes, its an Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz single-core processor. However also doing some research and found that the FSB is only rated as 400MHz.

I'm kinda kicking myself for not having considered these factors myself, but you know what they say about fresh perspective. Thanks for the advice

[CorporalAris]

Older and Older games use the Processor more. So, if you have a poor processor, chances are that you are going to have a worse FPS.

Any chance you could up the clocks on that P4? They can take a lot of heat and voltage.

[Psy]

I thought the P4 ran as 2 cores due to hyperthreading?

[zombie@computer]

I thought the P4 ran as 2 cores due to hyperthreading?

still has one core. Hyperthreading is simply
hardware multithreading. Like windows does, only on a processor level. It was a laugh, Intel knows this. But hell, it sells.

[CorporalAris]

I thought the P4 ran as 2 cores due to hyperthreading?

Yeah, it is still only one core.

Well first off. Your graphics card is garbage. Sorry to say but you're entirely bottlenecked by that card.
If you call Freelancer "newer games" then all i can say is wow...

Anyhow the ability to play oldergames might be beacuse your drivers are outdated or something. I have no idea really with thoose old 6000 series cards. I would advice you to at least buy a 8800gtx 512mb, they are really cheap.

Uhh.....


No. His entire system is a bottle neck. If he but a 8800GT, he would see very little gain. The little gain he would get is that his card will use SM3.0. He needs a new Processor AND Video Card.