Processor Bottlenecking VC? Please Help!

Hello, and thank you for giving this little thread a few minutes of your time, I really appreciate it.

Let me explain my little problem, I have an ATI X1950 PCI-E card, but it gets choppy in some games, like Ranbow 6: Vegas, World of Warcraft, Hitman (the newest one), Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, etc... So basically, after the next couple paragraphs, I will post my specs for my machine, what I'd like to know is, (1. What could be the slow-down?) and (2. Will overclocking the Processor do anything to improve the FPS?)

Now, my FPS is actually choppy in some populated areas of World of Warcraft (if you are familiar with it) namely Shattarth City, so you can understand why (to me) it doesn’t feel like I’m currently using an extremely awesome Video Card… I hear people saying “Yeah, my FPS drops to about 35 – 40 in Shattarath” using similar, even lower end VC and hardware… But if I’m getting the chops at times, but mostly just un-smooth graphics… what am I doing wrong? I run the game with everything maxed out and a resolution of 1280X1048. I don’t see why a VC like the ATI X1950 couldn’t run an older game like WoW at max…

Let it be known, I am have not overclocked anything, because I’m too afraid of something burning out. Could it just be the fact that I haven’t overclocked anything? I do have very recent ATI drivers (at least from March or April 2007) directly from the site. Someone did tell me that my processor could be bottlenecking my Video Card.

=============================================================

--Processor--
Name: Intel Pentium D 805
Code Name: SmithField
Package: Socket 775 LGA
Technology: 90nm
Voltage 2.288 v
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CUP 2.66GHz
Family: F
Ext Family: F
Model: 4
EXT Model: 4
Stepping: 7
Revision: B0
Instructions: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, EM64T

--Clocks (Core#0)--
Core Speed 2.666.8
Multiplier x20.0
Bus Speed: 133.3 MHz
Rated FSB: 533.4 MHz

--Cache--
L1 Data: 2 x 16 KBytes
L1 Trace: 2 x 12 Kuops
Level 2: 2 x 1024 KBytes
Level 3: Ghosted out...

MOTHERBOARD----
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Model: D101GGC
Chipset ATI RS400/RC400/RC410
Southbridge: ATI SB400
Sensor: SMSC 7803

BIOS----
Brand: Award BIOS for Intel
Version: GC11010N.86A.0312.2006.0609.1700
Date: 06/09/2006

GRAPHIC INTERFACE----
Version: PCI-Express
Link Width: x16
Max. Supported: x16

=============================================================

If you need more information, let me know.

I really appreciate ANYTHING you guys have to say about this.

Thank you very much in advance,


The Purge
Dave

Overclocking the system and the video card will help gaming FPS. Unfortunately, that motherboard is not O/C friendly, but you could try overclocking the vid card a little. Another thing to try that typically helps is updating the vid card drivers. ATI releases new drivers almost monthly.

Hi, sorry about the late response...

Well, after looking at my hardware, could it be that the CPU is bottlenecking? Or is it the motherboard that's just too weak? Because from what I've heard, my video card isn't working even near it's maximum capacity, simply because the CPU can't get the information to it fast enough...

So in your opinion, should I try overclocking the Mobo and CPU? I have never overclocked anything before, so I'm thinking it might be a bad idea to start on something that isn't friendly.

If that's the case, could you suggest a good solid mobo that is an all round good board for the buck? Like OC Friendly, solid performance, fits my CPU ^^, and basically easy to do the "switcheroo" with my current Mobo? I'm not a super rich guy so don't bother suggesting any top of the line stuff, but I do want quality, just not state of the art stuff, because again, I'm not rolling in money.

Thank you again for your time

You could get a ds3 like mine. Different revisions are available with the price between $100-130. This motherboard has more than enough oc headroom to completely max your processor out. The only thing you really need to worry about is that it only has 1 IDE connection, so a max of 2 ide devices.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound ignorant or anything, but for the sake of the little sanity I have left (lol) could we use terms that I understand? It's not big deal really, but if I need to google every little term it makes it long for me

So whats a DS3? And who makes it?

IDE Devices would be like a Sound Card and a Video Card right?

Thanks, and sorry for the ignorance

The Purge said:

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound ignorant or anything, but for the sake of the little sanity I have left (lol) could we use terms that I understand? It's not big deal really, but if I need to google every little term it makes it long for me

So whats a DS3? And who makes it?

IDE Devices would be like a Sound Card and a Video Card right?

Thanks, and sorry for the ignorance

Click to expand...

DS3 is a popular and relatively cheap board for overclocking
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012

IDE is like older type hard drives and CD-ROM with the thick ribbon connection

GTengineer said:

DS3 is a popular and relatively cheap board for overclocking
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012

IDE is like older type hard drives with the thick ribbon connection

Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry. IDE would also be most optical drives. (CD/DVD)

Ahh thanks for the info!

One little thing tho... will my CPU fit into the DS3? Basically, will it be an easy switcheroo with my old Mobo?

Thanks a lot.

I am not going to pretend to know what is wrong with your FPS since I never owned a Pentium Dual Core and I am not too much into graphics cards but if you are going to go the way of upgrading, I would recommend to go ahead and grabbing a Core 2 Duo CPU which will give you a significant boost over the Pentium D.

Just to give you an example:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=449&chart=169
this compares your cpu to a C2D 6400 (red colored bars)

If you decide to overclock the C2D cpu you will see FAR greater improvements. Furthermore July 22nd, the prices of Intel cpus will drop significantly so I would use that opportunity and grab a nice cpu cheap to go along with your board.

your probably going to have to reinstalll windows if your going to replace the motherboard

Yeah, a Pentium running @ 2.7 will slow the games down in many situations and bottleneck your card.

I think the best idea would be to OC your CPU, like it's already been mentioned.

dan

Dan0512, Do you think I should OC the CPU even with my non-oc-friendly Mobo?

GTengineer, Thanks for the info!

I have the same exact processor and problem >_>

I'm using the pD 805 on an eVGA 680i SLI board with a 7950GT KO and 2GB's of ram, and I still get low fps in most of my games, and I've tried overclocking, but my system was unstable. I suspect I might have overclocked improperly. It'd be nice if somebody came through and told us how to overclock a pD with newer components.

The Purge said:

Dan0512, Do you think I should OC the CPU even with my non-oc-friendly Mobo?

Click to expand...

First you need to see what the BIOS has to offer and see how flexible the board is (I'm not familiar with it). Overclocking always starts with a good motherboard.

The Purge said:

Dan0512, Do you think I should OC the CPU even with my non-oc-friendly Mobo?

Click to expand...

Well, it doesn't hurt to try

dan