Looking For Help (Optimizing Performance)

[ho0dzy]

Hi Guys,

I'm currently using this Machine (upgraded the RAM to include another 512 MB DDR2 Chip) with this Graphics Card I recently purchased.

The dilemma I seem to be having is that I'm running World of Warcraft at 1280x1024 Windowed Mode and I average 28.8 FPS with nearly all of the graphics settings in game set to Medium or Lower. I'm thinking that I should be able to do better with this machine, and was hoping you all here at TechPowerUp might have some advice/suggestions as to how I can bring my performance up

Thank You!

 

[erocker]

Sorry to dissapoint you, but that sounds about right.

 

[ho0dzy]

What I was hoping I wouldn't be hearing.

Well, perhaps you could assist me with this - I recently updated my drivers, but I seem to be getting a lot more "glitching" going on where I'll be riding to someplace, and I get Frame Spikes where it feels as though I'm "lagging" momentarily. I've bee messing around with the 3D settings a bit and all... and even when I bring performance up it seems to do it even worse.

 

[erocker]

It could be so many different things, but I'll throw a few things out there:

*Did you uninstall your old drivers before updating to the newer ones?
*What is your pagefile set at?
*In the Device Manager, make sure all drivers are updated and that there are no <!>'s.
*tweakguides.com is a good place to find a Vista or XP tweak manual
*All unnecessary hardware turned off in the bios?
*Take a screenshot of processes running in the Task Manager and post it.
We'll start there.

 

[ho0dzy]

*Did you uninstall your old drivers before updating to the newer ones?
No

*What is your pagefile set at?
How do I find this out?

*In the Device Manager, make sure all drivers are updated and that there are no <!>'s.
Done and done, no <!>'s

*tweakguides.com is a good place to find a Vista or XP tweak manual
checking this out as we speak

*All unnecessary hardware turned off in the bios?
I'm not sure what would be considered "Unnecessary Hardware" or how to go about turning it off (yes, I'm new to a lot of this)

*Take a screenshot of processes running in the Task Manager and post it.
We'll start there.

 

[erocker]

Too many processes running is your problem! Get rid of AOL now! What I would seriously consider is reinstalling Windows, as per instructed by the Tweak Guide.

 

[ShadowFold]

Thats what it should look like lol reformat and reinstall windows

 

[ho0dzy]

ugh... where's the install CD's when you need them

 

[thoughtdisorder]

Whoa! That's gotta be some kinda record, I've never seen that many processes running!

 

[keakar]

as an example, most people only have 30-35 processes running and if you optimize it like shadow you get down to around 20

 

[BullGod]

Well, most of his processes don't take more than 3MB of RAM so that is not his problem. A clean install will help but I think there is more to this. Do you run the newest drivers? Please update your drivers first before you go and format everything...

 

[ho0dzy]

yes, I'm actually running the latest drivers as we speak

Also, my friend mentioned something about a program that modifies your background processes to an absolute minimum (which helps for gaming, obv) and I was wondering if any of you would know of such a program?

 

[phanbuey]

its not so much about the amount of ram as the amount of CPU time... with that single-core athlon, he would see a huuuuuge difference in performance or cpu-oriented aps by havig fewer things in the background...

Have you tried overclocking your vid card? --atitool is reaaaaallllyy useful

 

[ho0dzy]

Yes. I've tweaked with OC'ing a little. I've pushed my CPU up to 2200 MHz (from 1990 MHz) and I've tested moving my GPU speed up by about ~50 MHz or so. (from 500 MHz standard to 550)

 

[phanbuey]

Yes. I've tweaked with OC'ing a little. I've pushed my CPU up to 2200 MHz (from 1990 MHz) and I've tested moving my GPU speed up by about ~50 MHz or so. (from 500 MHz standard to 550)

cooool... great... ur Cpu should be good for another 400MHz, i used to have the sempron version of that and it hit 2.8 with stock cooler and a littl v-bump... its ok it wont die, some OCing fears are so overstated... as for your vcard, thats the real thing holding you back...

OC the pants off of it... hold on...im gonna go see what is standard for that card. for the services go to start>run> 'services.msc'
disable anything AOL
disable Indexing
Disable remote registry
and basically anything else that you dont think u need... u can always re-enable
EDIT: Also... what is the exact model of the card... i know its x1650 series but is it a Pro or Xt or what? How the hell did you OC to 2200 on that MB (props)??? clockgen?

 

[ho0dzy]

With the OC'ing the GPU - When I bring the core anywhere higher than 600 ish, the PC seems to lock up. I'm not sure what gives with it... but yeah, it has been relatively a nuisance in that department.

As for OC'ing the CPU - ClockGen won't take me any higher than 2200 MHz. I've tried going through the guide here on the forums for OC'ing AMD's but my BIOS doesn't appear to have any of the "sections" listed that he has you change. Any suggestions on how I work around that...?

Edit: Yes, OC'd with ClockGen and the exact model is the Diamond Viper Radeon X1650 Pro linked in my original post

 

[phanbuey]

Yeah i just saw that 600 is about the limit... http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/X1650Pro/14.html

would you be willing to try a pencil vmod (if i can find one for ur PCB)?
also with that card you should be getting alot higher frames....

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2381&p=4

 

[ho0dzy]

pencil vmod being...? and yeah, I'm willing to try just about anything that won't absolutely positively break my system.

Edit: Also, I'm trying to overclock the memory on the Video Card, but my computer appears to "freeze up" with a black screen as I start to go over the 540 preset on ATI Tool. Not sure what gives with that...

Also note that when I go to Properties to set the viewing for The Temperature etc... I don't see anything =\ it goes back to being unchecked as if I hadn't checked it to begin with.

 

[phanbuey]

hmmmmmm... sounds like a driver problem, ATI tool should be detecting those temps... I know youre using the latest drivers, but you might wanna try some different ones (maybe some omega drivers?), or try to reinstall...

Here is a good place to go >>> http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1817

Also, regtoy is a good overall Optimization proggy >>>http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegToy_d4997.html

EDIT: For a healthy boost (i dunno if you knew about this already), run a64 tweaker and where is says "enable 2t timing" click "disable... if your system stays stable (a good chance that it will) it is guaranteed to boost FPS a bit. >>> A64 tweaker http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/download.php?fh=8f29338d3514bee40b8fcab5afbd2c2b

use superpi before and after, youll see the difference... with new drivers you should be running that game maxed out...

 

[ho0dzy]

This is what I'm missing, but I'm going to try the Omega drivers (used them on my last card, loved them) and check out RegToy.

You still haven't clarified -whats a pencil vmod?

 

[ho0dzy]

Superpi being a Stress Tester? (and can I use Orthos instead?)

Edit: Appear to already have 2T timing disabled... strange. Installing Omega drivers as we speak. Also, with RegToy - is there any particular set of things I should be looking to disable to optimize gaming performance??? Like, can I set a "gaming profile" to enable/disable as I choose with it (looking through the program now) and any particular sets of items I should be disabling etc? (it's a rather extensive program hehe)


Edit Edit: Also, any words of advice on my screen going black on me when I move up the Memory core on my GPU through ATI Tool?

 

[phanbuey]

You still haven't clarified -whats a pencil vmod?

Pencil mod is a crap mod that gives a bit more voltage to your GPU, to let you overclock more (i did it on my 7600GS and for mem on my 7800GT when it got really old)... the X1600/X1650 series doesnt really have software vmodding like some other ATI cards, so you have to have a hardware mod - which is either through soldering a variable-resistor on the PCB, or penciling (if available) a resistor to provide less resistance (and therefore more voltage).

Basically you draw some graphite on the board and that lets you OC a bit higher, i cant find one for your card... but even with a VR and voltage of 1.45, that card isnt gonna go very high so it doesnt matter...

Pencil mods are also used to correct vdroop on some motherboards.

and superpi is just a lame-o quick benchmarking app. The standard is to calculate 1M places of Pi to see how fast your machine can do it... for your setup it should be about 40 seconds (lower is obviously better) or so maybe 45 (with the OC), anything more than that and you've got too much e-machines crap on it. Superpi is good because it shows you really quick how well your tweak/OC works.

 

[phanbuey]

nah nothing specific about the gaming profiles... just use normal. hopefully that solves some of your probs... just out of curiosity... what is your superPi 1M time??? this will tell you how bloated windows is:

Spuerpi download : http://www.xtremesystems.com/pi/

 

[ho0dzy]

Hm. Gotcha. Don't knwo whats taking this Omega Drivers install so long... but it's saying "please wait" and my PC Wizard is showing my CPU at 100% load... yet I'm not running anything except that LoL strange


Edit: Found it, MemTurbo was running wild on me.

 

[ho0dzy]

SuperPI 1M: 40 seconds you were on the money with that one.

still hoping to get these Omega Drivers through already....

Edit: Omega Drivers installed. Time to test this the FPS again. *crosses fingers* hoping that I can get at least 40 FPS average on WoW now... if I can get it maxed AND get that - I'm going to be a very happy man

Edit Edit: still appear to be running around 20 FPS still, even after installing Omega and running my GPU @ 100 mhz OC'd and CPU at 200 MHz OC'd