Slow performance

StalkerStalker
edited September 2003 in Hardware
ok heres the deal. I have an old computer of mine that seems to be underperforming by a lot. I'm not even sure what the system specs are other than the graphics card. Its a 1.3 ghz athlon. With 512 mb of pc-133 (i think). And it has a 128mb radeon 8500. Built in sound. I think the motherboard is an ECS but im not sure. My question is why cant i run any game at all over 10 fps at 640X480. Its really starting to bug me, can someone help me with this. I wont be on this computer much since its at my house and not at school, but any help is apreciated.

Comments

  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited September 2003
    Which game? Are the game's details turned on/up too high? What video drivers are you currently using? (and have you tried downloading the latest from ati.com ?) etc...
  • CoasterCoaster
    edited September 2003
    what OS? We need more details ;)

    Tried to disable the sound? Can you fit a decent sound card in and test? Anything running in the background?
  • StalkerStalker
    edited September 2003
    have all the latest drivers, i dont have a sound card that i can test in it right now. I'm running win2k pro. I'm running minimal things in the backround. Its mostly medal of honor that ive been trying to play and i have everything turned way down.
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited September 2003
    How many frames/sec we talking? If there's significant lag it may be reading/writing/swapping to the hard drive a lot, or in need of the latest VIA drivers.

    I've seen similar issues in the past with SDRAM based systems, and sometimes it's just a matter of the PC being the bottleneck (lack of memory bandwidth). Most of the time there's a conflict or memory leak, or something that would cause it (assuming it's generating 30+ fps and skips a lot). If it isn't even making 30fps, then you either have the game's details set too high or there's a hardware issue (assuming, like you said, everything else -- drivers -- are in order).
  • StalkerStalker
    edited September 2003
    then it must be a hardware issue since i know i dont have anything turned up at all in the game. and its gettign far less than 30 fps, around 5 - 10 i would say. Is there any way to figure out the problem without swapping the memory, which you seem to indicate as the probable problem
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited September 2003
    Lets back up. Hardware could mean a broken video card, but could also mean a chipset that performs poorly (this mostly determines your bandwidth). I doubt any chipset that could handle a 1.3ghz duron would be so poor it couldn't run Mohaa at lowest settings at 30+ fps. I'm leaning more towards defective or dying video card, but there's really no way to tell until you swap components at this stage. It's very likely not to be software at this point.

    troubleshooting=teh suk :)
  • StalkerStalker
    edited September 2003
    mmm... its too bad that somputer is at my house and not at school where i could swap parts, i guess ill have to try some stuff that my p[arents could handle
Sign In or Register to comment.