My Comp < Patrick

[Patrick 1st MRB]

Hey my comp I think is underperforming to the specs I have and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion. I think I may need to OC my processor as i think its the weakest link but others insight would be great. I have read alot about the video card specifically and most people say they can play most modern games on high settings but im finding its mostly medium to low setttings. Im Playing crysis on medium and oblivion is unplayable. Dod is fine but im only around 30-80 fps, i have read people getting 400 fps with the card and similar set ups.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

System Information

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Time of this report: 2/21/2011, 01:24:50

Machine name: HOME

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: ECS

System Model: A780GM-A

BIOS: Default System BIOS

Processor: AMD Phenom™ 9600 Quad-Core Processor, MMX, 3DNow (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz

Memory: 3328MB RAM

Page File: 692MB used, 4518MB available

Windows Dir: F:\WINDOWS

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

Video Card

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Display Devices

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Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x68B8)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68B8&SUBSYS_29941682&REV_00

Display Memory: 1024.0 MB

Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor

Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200

Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll

Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7149 (English)

DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

Driver Date/Size: 11/25/2010 21:54:36, 302080 bytes

[Worsham]

I think I may need to OC my processor

yep or buy a new one. u have a quad core. and its only running 2.3g? thats terrible!

[Telee]

think I would buy more Ram to make it to at least 4GB and would install Win 7 64bit.

Dont think its processor's fault.

Its funny that your Ram is 3328MB, what memories have you got inside then?

Another thing could be HDD.One with 7200rpm should do, any lower than that and it could slow down everything.

[Patrick 1st MRB]

yeah win xp only picks up 3 gis or so but its two sticks of 2g so I have 4 gigs total. the HDD is 7200 RPM also. The cpu is old and slow so I guess that is it. Any one good at OCing?

[Dillon 1st MRB]

First things first. You are only able to see and use 3.3 gigs of ram because you are running a 32-bit os. If you made a move to a 64-bit os, you would have your full 4 gigs. Secondly, this would have a very neglible effect on play DODS.

Now, which video card do you have? There are two models of 5700-series.... the 5770 and the 5750. The 5770 is much stronger card than the 5750.

Now the bad news. The Phenoms were pretty bad CPU's. It isn't the speed or anything like that.... it was bad architecture. When it was released, it was pretty underwhelming. Couldn't keep up with the C2D or C2Q's. And then the erratum struck. Here is an article that deals with it: TLB Erratum at the Tech Report. Now, the good news. You can disable the TLB erratum error correcting in your BIOS. Read up on it, but it will greatly increase the speed of your cpu.

Personnaly, the next $100 I got would be spent on a Phenom II cpu. These are great cpu's, but not in the i7 class. Then I'd look at a new gpu. You can get by with Windows XP for another couple of years, but its running out of gas. I just upggraded myself to 12 gigs of RAM for Civ V.

[Telee]

Ok,

checked 1 benchmark and it came out that your phenom 9600 is actually a bit slow.

My Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz which i got in 2007 was better in many test.

Here is the link to that benchmark between my q6600 and ur phenom.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2226942,00.asp

Anyway I still think that you could hold on to your processor for a while.

Depending on how many free Ram slots you have I would get it up to:

*in case of 2 more slots to 8GB

*in case of 1 to 6GB

I have 4x1GB Ram 667Mhz and as soon as I am able to change that will get it up to 4x2GB which should do for another while.

My computer is getting close to the edge where new games won't be looking so good on it and then will have to change some stuff in it.

My Nvidia 8800GTX is sweating to deliver everything on high in Test Drive Unlimited 2 with 1680x1050 resolution.

[Berg 1st MRB]

to speed up loding time buy a ssd dirive!

[Patrick 1st MRB]

Yeah a SSD would be sweet, maybe down the road.

Dilion its a 5770. I would like to know how to improved the CPU but I bought this thing as a budget comp and as such will add from time to time. Up until recently I was using the onboard HD 3200 ATI video card and got through GTA 4 with it. The Video card I added maybe last month so.

I agree Phenom II are much cheaper now so I might splurge with that soon.

Telee, I have more mem slots but as I already knew and Dillion pointed out the OS i run won't read it. I have been holding off getting a beter OS but that should be something else.