Horrible FPS with new Nvidia 275 GTX please read

[sixeightsix19]

Hey. So I had a Nvidia XFX Gefore 8800 GTS 512mb g92 chipset video card. I had it for around a year now and it met the demands of most of my games, except GTA IV. I really liked GTA IV and so decided that in order to run it better I should upgrade to the Nvidia BFG Geforce 275 GTX video card, and so I did. So here's where things get interesting:

 

My current PC specs:

-AMD athlon 64x2 4400+ dual core processor (2.31ghz)

-2 GB DDR2 Ram

-Windows XP Service pack 2

-Nvidia Geforce 275 GTX

-PSU 750 Watts

 

Settings Used in GTA IV benchmark WITH 8800 GTS are the same as those used with the 275 GTX.

 

8800 GTS BENCHMARK:

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 17.98

Duration: 37.55 sec

CPU Usage: 85%

System memory usage: 83%

Video memory usage: 99%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Medium

Texture Filter Quality: High

View Distance: 30

Detail Distance: 50

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512

Video Driver version: 190.62

Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+

 

File ID: benchmark.cli

 

275 GTX BENCHMARK:

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 19.16

Duration: 37.47 sec

CPU Usage: 84%

System memory usage: 81%

Video memory usage: 58%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Medium

Texture Filter Quality: High

View Distance: 30

Detail Distance: 50

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275

Video Driver version: 190.62

Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+

 

File ID: benchmark.cli

 

 

So as you can see, the change in fps between the two cards is negligible with only a 1.18 fps increase after upgrading to the 275 GTX.

 

I do not think that the new card is defective because I trying playing Fallout 3 and noticed a 20-30 fps increase when compared to my old 8800 gts.

 

I have since tried installing the driver that came with the video card (older version) but have seen no improvement.

 

So my theory is that the CPU is simply bottlenecking my video card and that's why I'm seeing such poor performance. If I were to get an Intel i7 processor, for example, I feel that I'd see drastic improvements.

 

I'd like your inputs as well though as to other possible causes.

[Chevyboy]

Yep you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. You are heavily CPU bottlenecked, that explains your negligible gain when upgrading the GPU.

 

*As a point however, you did a very thorough job uninstalling/cleaning up your old drivers before installing the new cards drivers I assume? That can and will cause issues if overlooked.

 

Anyways an AMD Phenom II series quad, an Intel 775 socket quad, an E8400-8500 Intel C2D or an Intel i7 chip would give you very respectable gains. It's all about how much you want to spend, the Intel 775 quads and fast C2D's are the most economical with the i7 being the performer however more expensive choice. AMD Phenom II's perform quite well as well but I haven't had any experience with them so I won't comment compared to Intel's products.

 

Also if you run XP 64 bit 2 more gigs of system ram would be of great benefit. Heck even if you run 32 bit another 2 gigs would be worth it given the price of ram these days. Keep in mind 32 bit OS's will only recognize 3-3.5GB's of ram but it's still considerably better for high end gaming than 2gigs.

 

Good luck

[sixeightsix19]

Thanks for being so thorough in your response Chevyboy. I've seen low-end i7s online for about $200, but I'm sure I can find other more economically sound quads out there (I'll look into those that you've mentioned). And to answer your question, no I haven't uninstalled / cleaned up all my old drivers and it's good that you'd mention that. I, however naive it may be, assumed that when installing new drivers that the previous drivers would be overwritten. I kinda knew that without manually uninstalling previous ones I'd run into complications in the future but was too lazy to look into it. I may still have the nvidia 8600 gts driver, 8800 GT driver and 8800 gts driver still on my system. How would I go about uninstalling the previous ones?

[Chevyboy]

Simplest method would be to uninstall ALL nvidia display drivers through the built in windows uninstaller (control panel), reboot the computer in safe mode and while in safe mode use a third party cleaner such as driver sweeper to clean all nvidia display files (this cleans up anything missed by the windows uninstaller). Reboot normally and proceed with installing the drivers for your new card, I would start with the most recent and if you experience problems you can troubleshoot/try older drivers.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you noticed considerable FPS gains after cleaning up your old drivers in the above method, I would be shocked if they weren't conflicting with your new card.

 

That said you will still need a new CPU to unlock the cards potential, and as you said assuming the money isn't a big issue the i7 is a great chip.

[Jigglyass]

Yeh CPU is really the bottleneck here.

Your FPS should be in the high 50s...

[HushemFlupskluk]

Hi there,

 

Purchasing a new higher end cpu means also you have to buy a new motherboard, a near complete reïnstallation of your system.

 

On the other hand, I think you have a major performance increase in many other games

 

Greetings

 

 

[supermortalhuman]

You don't need a new motherboard to get a better cpu, unless your mobo won't at all support newer ones. You should be fine if you can support it.

[Saddy]

if you have upgraded your gfx card then why not to upgrade your whole PC .if you intent to play GTA 4 year long then it will be wiser to to get quad processor n and DDR3 memory.if you have spent so much of your money on graphics card then why not to buy the most essential components that will make your Gaming experience a whole lot better .

[Mudfrog]

As stated it's the cpu bottlenecking.. With the system in my sig I average in the low 40's at 1920x1080 with all the eye candy. A quad core would really let that 275 shine.

[RYO_91]

you should try a bit of overclocking to that processor, also i think that you dont needed to buy that 275gtx cause if you lowered the resolution, lets say like 1920 x 1200 to 1400 x 1024 or something like that you will be getting much better frames, also instead of getting the 275 it would be preferable that you buyed an ati hd 4870 because they work better with amd, maybe you are only getting low frames because of the software, try doing a format and install by 0, but i really think that the overclock will increase your performance a bit

 

PD: before buying anything you should consider all the posibilities and see if your pc is going to support what you want to buy

[BKwegoharder]

Get a phenom II X4 if you want to spend a little bit of money, or an i7 if you really want performance.