What's giving me performance hiccups?

[ex_reven]

if you cant unlock, you probably need a new mobo to enable you to get 800mhz ram
after which it would seem pretty pointless to keep the same cpu

 

[Namslas90]

She's trying to find that out, but it does have four DIMM slots, which is nice, given the computer it is.
The two modules are in the first two slots which are color coded blue.
The next empty slots are color coded black, but are also 240PIN.

The BIOS is very spartan, 'locked' if you will. I'm still trying to figure out how to unlock it.

I have had in the past Hp's and have a Compaq and a Gateway now. Try pressing the F11 key three times after "select operation" window shows up. There is a chance you have a Technitians Bios available ( many newer HP's have a duel Bios system). Other than that the newer HP's are "hardware" locked in Bios and cannot be changed. The Mobo is probably not that good anyways. The CPU you have is too slow for the Video card, and that Video card needs a lot of juice(24-26 amps on 12v PCI-E rail) just to run right. The bigest problem HP's have is the fact that they load and run so many HP applications and you can not stop them.
Remember HP's are "Partnership Biased" meaning HP relies on customers to use HP or HP Partner applications for revenue and marketing. Thats why HP's come with 'Snapfish', Rapsody, Weatherbug, and all that other stuff. Weatherbug is a "BOOT HOG" using up a lot of cycles during bootup. It's also related to a lot of viri,spyware etc. AOL is also a CPU cycle hog and I won't use it. If you run a search for AOL, you will find over 60 files (if not more) and 4 to 7 of them are applications that run at any given time while computer is on.
If you delete any of these HP applications make sure to delete the corresponding "add-on" in the tools tab of (options > manage add-ons)Internet Explorer or they will reload during updates.

 

[Namslas90]

Try the XP optimization guide here at TPU, it is an old post from DEATHSTARR, but still good. It will teach you how to tell your computer how to not run applications you don't want/need to run; and a lot of other tricks. Here's the link
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=11119

 

[Testing]

I think you have either assumed or mis-understood, but the computer itself runs (minus OCng) as fast, smooth and clean as it will, whether it's using 3d applications, or general O/S processes.


I don't need to get into the advanced BIOS anyways, we won't be doing any OC.


I will get the 2gig ram and force PF into physical since there will be some to spare and hope it settles the hiccups.


Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[pt]

well if theyr both 240 pin they are both DDR2
the problem being that they dont take more than ddr667
which in itself sucks rather large ass

a am2 board can't take 2 types of ram, 'cause the memory controller is on the cpu, the cpu or has ddr support or ddr2 support, it can't have both, nor the board

 

[ex_reven]

a am2 board can't take 2 types of ram, 'cause the memory controller is on the cpu, the cpu or has ddr support or ddr2 support, it can't have both, nor the board

thats for the lil tip

 

[pt]

thats for the lil tip

no problem

 

[ex_reven]

HP and Dells are generally good when you buy them
its a shame that they intentionally limit you so you have to buy a whole new comp

taking advantage of trusting customers who dont know about hardware :shadedshu

 

[pt]

HP and Dells are generally good when you buy them
its a shame that they intentionally limit you so you have to buy a whole new comp

taking advantage of trusting customers who dont know about hardware :shadedshu

HP LIES TO CUSTOMMERS, THEY ANNOUNCE THE 7300LE AS ONE OF THE BEST GFX CARD ON THE MARKET ON THEIR TOP END PC'S

i believe they are even worse than dells, since dell do some pretty kickass rig altough overpriced

 

[ex_reven]

HP LIES TO CUSTOMMERS, THEY ANNOUNCE THE 7300LE AS ONE OF THE BEST GFX CARD ON THE MARKET ON THEIR TOP END PC'S

i believe they are even worse than dells, since dell do some pretty kickass rig altough overpriced

here in australia, dell do give some pretty reasonable deals and they do look quite good

Hp's are just ugly

 

[pt]

here in australia, dell do give some pretty reasonable deals and they do look quite good

Hp's are just ugly

i'm thinking of suing hp for their misleading publicity
anyone wants to join the lawsuit?

 

[ex_reven]

i dont like your chances

if you were to perhaps bomb their head office, maybe you could get them to change their ways

 

[pt]

i dont like your chances

if you were to perhaps bomb their head office, maybe you could get them to change their ways

not a bad idea, but i like the printers

 

[ex_reven]

yeah me too

especially the huge university ones you scan a card in, scan your ass on the photocopier and make gazillions of colour copies in seconds

 

[AshenSugar]

it's the ram, but not the size, it's it speed, running at that speed makes a huge bottleneck
get some ddr2 800 at 4-4-4-12 or 5-5-5-15

and overclock your cpu aswell

first off NO, your wrong, athlon64 dont need or even take advantege of extreamly high bandwith , latancy has an effect but in this case its all about the lack of ram, newer games need 1.5-2gb for proper performance.

its a stupid myth that using ddr2 below 800 will hamper performance on athlon64 systems, with intel thats true, but amd isnt so dependant on massive memory bandwith.

You're right, it's the RAM. A lot of newer applications run better with 2 gigs of RAM.

Having more RAM will prevent the program from being forced to access the page file. like in your example if you're running a game and windows tells you it's using 800Mb of RAM and you have 200Mb free, chances are at least part of that program is being stored in the page file. If the game needs to access something new then it first must write part of what is currently in memory to the pagefile, then load the new data in the memory. If you had more memory, it could keep the old data in memory and just read the new data off the hard drive without first having to clear part of your memory to make space.

Now, you don't necessarily have to spring for a full 2 gigabytes of RAM. Although it's getting to that point, many games still do not utilize a full 2 gigs and 1.5 gigs can be just as effective. However, 2 gigs is best and more futureproof.

That's not the end of the story though. Although the RAM is causing the hiccups you describe, you also have an 8800GTX combined with an Athlon 3500+. The 8800 is quite a beast and needs a more high-end processor to reach it's full potential. So even though you have one of the most powerful video cards out right now, your framerates will remain artificially low and could possibly higher with a better processor.

So while more RAM will most likely relieve your "hiccup" problem and give a framerate boost, a better processor would yield even higher framerates overall and allow the 8800 to run at it's full potential.

I'm sorry my answer was so brief the first time, but I was in a hurry. I hope that answers your questions. If you need anymore clarification on something don't hesitate to ask.

the only time the cpu will come into play for that card is at high res's, the reviews i have seen seem to show that 1600x1200 and below dont see a huge benifit from c2d over athlon64, getting a faster chip may help for oblivion and fear but most other games wouldnt see any benifit from it unless he starts going for 19xx res's.

and i agree about the ram, thats the problem, to many people assume that 1gb is still plenty for a gaming system when anymore its the minimum for a basick low end gaming rig, for true gaming boxes 1.5-2gb min and 3gb is "the sweet spot" leaves 2gb free for the game and 1gb for other stuff your running(like windows and other backgrouns apps)



really for most people (you know those of us using normal lcd/crt monotors) theres no real point to getting a big burly overpriced cpu even with a video card like the 8800, because we dont play at resolutions that need it.

fear with softshadows and such can use more cpu power at high res, oblivion same deal(tho its a poorly optimized port so any extra power you give its gonna help)

as stated above grab a 2gb ram kit, it will help greatly, add a 2gb kit to what you have and you will have 3gb, thats PLENTY for years to come, and you will be ready for when you feel the need to move to a k8l chip

 

[ex_reven]

ahhhhh satisfaction
i love it when im right
or not wrong

either way, ashensugar just pretty much concluded the thread

 

[pt]

ahhhhh satisfaction
i love it when im right
or not wrong

either way, ashensugar just pretty much concluded the thread

im not so sure....

 

[ex_reven]

well put it this way, the computer needs ram regardless.
so if that doesnt totally rectify the problem, they got one upgrade out of the way anyway

its probably the cheapest/most cost effective upgrade they can do atm

 

[AshenSugar]

check other forums, and i dont mean xtream systems, they seem to think en large that you need ddr2 1066/1666 for everything

honest to god, check ur latancys at diffrent clocks, you will find that lower overall latancy(masure with everest or the like) will serve you better then higher bandwith with higher latancy.

this is only valud on AMD systems tho, intel systems, well latancy is 100+ in most cases due to chipset base memory controler vs cpu based, they need the bandwith to makup for the latancy as best as possable.
diffrent core designs, k8 isnt bandwith limmited, try it yourself honestly set diffrent memory deviders and latancys manualy, 533 with 4-4-4-12 or 3-3-3-8(great ram for 3-3-3-8) will give better perf them 667 or 800 at 5-5-5-15 in most cases, also check async latancy, some boards bump that up at diffrent deviders, at lower clocks it should be 4-5ns 6 at most, seen some msi boards and gigabyte boards set it at 8 when using the 533 devider(ouch)

try superPI with diffrent async latancys(systool set them) it makes a notable diffrance in many cases!!!!

also row refresh cycle, if you can get them all at 75ns or 105ns its better then 127.5 that many boards revert to, i have seen them go all the way out to 192ns on some boards at some deviders(really hurts perf!!!!)

try tweaking them and running everest membench and superPI, the diffrance is in most cases easy to see(only times i havent easly been able to see it is if other factors like software lower benchy scores, superPI and membech need to not have alot of excess crap using ram and cpu when they are tested!!! )

 

[ex_reven]

honest to god, check ur latancys at diffrent clocks, you will find that lower overall latancy(masure with everest or the like) will serve you better then higher bandwith with higher latancy.

this is only valud on AMD systems tho, intel systems, well latancy is 100+ in most cases due to chipset base memory controler vs cpu based, they need the bandwith to makup for the latancy as best as possable.

thats interesting...

 

[Testing]

"its a stupid myth that using ddr2 below 800 will hamper performance on athlon64 systems, with intel thats true, but amd isnt so dependant on massive memory bandwith."

This sounds viable, because several AMD enthusiasts have told me I will not see any difference in using 667 vs 800 with late model or AM2 chips.

They stressed that instead, the CPU makes more use of the amount of ram, in where it can maximize effectiveness.

"the only time the cpu will come into play for that card is at high res's, the reviews i have seen seem to show that 1600x1200 and below dont see a huge benifit from c2d over athlon64, getting a faster chip may help for oblivion and fear but most other games wouldnt see any benifit from it unless he starts going for 19xx res's."

Correct, it would seem so. She says anything over 1600X or even 1280X messes with her eyes, (again female logic? dunno?). I ran more tests with FEAR, I went through and started adjusting .ini files and shader objects. I modified files to the point I had forgotten anything of their original values, and with this GPU FEAR will absolutley not stay under 40FPS for longer than a few seconds. Most of the time it's capped at 75 with the Vsynch.

I also went back and looked at the Oblivion issue, and I think it was just a particular spot being RAM hungry. I've now gone and linked up with the recent MOD community, to take advantage of the GPU's memory bank, by using texture/render files that are literally 10-40mb a piece(in motion) and still notice no FPS change.

EQII is simply a hog, and hopefully some RAM will smooth it out. It definatley has some coding issues; it almost feels like Splinter Cell (;gag.


"as stated above grab a 2gb ram kit, it will help greatly, add a 2gb kit to what you have and you will have 3gb, thats PLENTY for years to come, and you will be ready for when you feel the need to move to a k8l chip "


Unfortunatley, they used 2X512, so I'm worried that filling all four slots will force a 2T command rate ;/ I will try it though, let's just hope it posts.


And as a comment on softshadows, I thought this was an option in games like FEAR and R6 Vegas? Maybe I missed it in FEAR, but can't find it in R6. Console command add?

 

[AshenSugar]

as i said t2 is NORMAL for ddr2, it dosnt have a noteable effect on perf with ddr2, ddr2 was DESIGNED to work at 2t not 1t.

duno about r6, check with a community thats more into r6 they would know what is possable, also many times there are INI tweaks that can help

2t wont have anything close to the perf hit it has in 939 or 754, ddr2 isnt the same as ddr1, its less sencitive to command rate, under ddr1 you can loose 10-15% perf in some cases by going to 2t, under ddr2 the biggest i have seen is 1-2% hit and that is well within the "margen of error" for benching a system.

i had been pushing for 1t but honestly after ket and i talked i started testing it was around 1-2ms latancy diffrance using 1t vs 2t, but i was able to hold stable higher clocks with lower latancys at 2t so sall good.

eq/eq2 started being memory hogs back in the days when the first expantion packs started comming out for eq, you needed 1gb+ toget full perf out of eq expantion packs, 1.5gb for it to run totaly smooth(i dont play but my uncle and his wife are insainly addicted) the funny part to me was that you could get the same gfx and fetures using 1/2 the system specs on other games.

and when linege2 came out(i was in the beta) well the game ran fine on my backup system with 768mb ram, eq with expantion would barly run, yet len2 looked better :/

oblivion really needs to be code optimized better, i have other games that have fancyer gfx that run 100x better, maby nexttime they should make the game on pc then port it to consol like they did with morrowind!!!

 

[Deleted member 24505]

i only have a gig of ram and all my games run fine,it is at 1000mhz 1:1 tho'.i could shure use another gig tho'.