Evening all, I’ve just rebuilt my pc with a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R, and an Intel q6600 (quad core), (it was an old athlon xp+2400 on a gigabyte ga7-dxr). I kept my PCI graphics card - a pny GForce 6200, which worked perfectly under my old build. On the new build, with a clean reinstall OS (XP Pro), when I’m playing a Far Cry 2 (really only using it to test as it came free with the CPU!), I’m getting really really bad frame rates. For windows I’m using 2 17" monitors at 1280x1024 @60Hz and 32 Bit colours on a dual span. Works fine here. With Far Cry's benchmark software I’m using the following: Resolution at 800x600, Anti-aliasing is set to none. Direct 3d 9 Render quality is low for everything, and off for shadow and under performance I’ve set it to low ( fire, physics and real trees?) With that test I’m getting frame rates of between 8 at best and 2-3 when there is any detail ( e.g. a shot from a gun or a tree burning). I haven’t tried it with any other games as yet - I did have Half Life and Counterstrike running on my old install without any problems on this card with full detail and 1280x1024 res (yea I know they are old games which are no where near as demanding!). As its a new install, I downloaded the latest and "greatest" drivers from nvidia when I did the install (2 weeks ago). Any ideas on how I can test/tweak the card to work better?
you cant really. your pushing that 6200 to its max. The only option is to get a never graphics card im afraid!
was hoping to get a bit more out of it before i needed to get a new one! That means i gotta get a new card and a new power supply... Hiper Type-R wont cut it any more!
Fair enough! its the 650w modular, but im running the above board + CPU, 4Gb RAM, 1 RAID PCI card, 9 hard disks, 1 CF SSD disk, 2 dvd burners, a floppy drive, 6* 12cm fans, 1* 8 cm fan and a partridge in a pear tree on two psu's - the 650 and a no brand 230w... The board, RAID card, graphics card ( both powered from MB), 8 cm fan, and 5/6 disks are from the 650w, the rest is from the 230w. I was hoping that it would be something to do with the drivers or direct x settings
based on swapping from your ancient entry level 6200 to a slightly old mid range card like a 8600GT (mid 2004 / late 2006 respectively), your not talking a huge increase in power consumption. Perhaps about 40W? Your Hiper should be able to handle to difference.
Will have to look into this. When I setup the rig in the middle of Feb, i think the Hiper was estimated as using approx 630W ( using an online put in the speck and we will give you your power consumption website)... Thing is id be tempted to get a goodish card if im going to get one, AND im looking to connect up a TV to my pc in the very close future so id be using the 6200 for the TV anyhow and a new card for my 2 desktops. (The rig is sort of evolving from a desktop to desktop + file server to a desktop + fileserver + htpc!) Any recommendations? Not looking for a lot of gaming, just enough to play comfortably!
in an ideal would you wouldn't put a PSU over 75% of its max load for extended periods of time. I did a very quick (so possibly not accurate) psu calculation earlier and it gave an approximation of 650W for you system (not just the parts connected to the hiper). for a good mid-range card, pay £100-£140. I'd suggest a GeForce 9800GTX or a Radeon HD4850. The radeon uses less electric, however I would go for an over clocked model as their cooling solutions are far superior (the stock ati one is terrible. the cards temps are daft).
Strange things happen with old drivers... I uninstalled my latest and greatest - 182. Something versions and installed what I think I had before - 96.x I think... and my fps has gone up! Under the 182 drivers I was getting between 3 to 8 ( as above) and with the 96 im getting 5 to 12! (yea I know- still not enough to play it but its an improvement!) So going to experiment with a number of the older forceware drivers and see what comes up best...
you still won't get a playable rate really. old drivers do tend to work better for old cards. If you read the release notes, they only tend to look at newer cards, and the old ones get let ignored. If you upgrade to the like of an 8400GS, the increase in power consumption would be about 10W. You may even get a playable frame rate!
You should be fine on your current PSU for an upgrade. Using This calculator, An approximation of your system (Geforce 6600GT, as 6200 wasn't listed) comes out at 261 w (at full tilt while gaming), which is more what I'd expect for a system like yours. Changing the GFX card to an 8800GT only ups this to 291W.
Golygus Yea it wont, but it will let me play empire- total war Badders, not sure about that calculator, everywhere else ive done is been hitting around the 500 to 600w mark... this one comes out at 261w? Seems low to me! eg Thermaltake is giving me 478w...
True, but what is it that thermaltake want to sell you? Your system with an 8800 GT would be virtually the same as mine. There's no way my of draws 500W. My electric bill would have been in the thousands by now!
True, Im going to look to see if i can measure the current accuratly - ie with a multimeter and calculate the actual current draw... hopefuly this weekend!
the calc badders linked to calculates power draw. Most tell you a recommended PSU wattage. Normally you don't want to put more than 75% continuous load on your psu. 261 ÷ 0.75 = 348 Still much lower than other calcs. Some calcs include age / degradation of capacitors etc. as well. The only other thing about that calc, is it seems to under quote. My PC (sig) quotes as 210W on that calc (full whack), where it actually draws 275W idle (not checked full whack)!!
That calc says I'm drawing ~320W from the PSU, but what I've measeured is that I draw ~320W from the wall.
so done some testing on the current draw, both psu's combined are drawing abuot 1amp of current when i have distributed running and Farcry's benchmark. Thats not including burning etc but still the main chunk of the systems draw. so by 230v, and 1amp, im using approx 230w?
