Phenom II x4 820 really slow

[TR0UBLE]

I've been playing Hawken online and I've been frustrated because most everyone there gets like 60 fps and I've been stuck down at 10-20 fps which leads to me loosing alot I feel. I upgraded my GPU to a GTX 650 Ti thinking that would give me a good boost on performance and I got maybe a 5 fps boost to like 15-20 fps. the Windows Experience rating my computer gives itself is only 4.2 due to the processor but I was under the impression this was supposed to be a good processor. Was I wrong?

Asus M2N68-AM-Plus board
4 gig ram
Phenom II x4 820
GTX 650 Ti video card
Realtek HD Audio

 

[Johan45]

Welcome to OCF TROUBLE
It's not a bad CPU you just need to speed it up a bit. Check out this OC Guide

 

[Mandrake4565]

Trouble the Phenom II 820 is pretty darn old but should be able to play Hawken with better frame rates. What resolution are you playing at and what game settings are you playing the game at.

 

[TR0UBLE]

I've been playing at the minimum resolution at 1280x720 with everything on low

 

[Mandrake4565]

Ok then download prime 95, Hwmonitor and Cpu-Z. Open HWmonitor and run prime blend 20 minutes. Then post screen shots using the in forum attachment tool of Hwmonitor and the following tabs in Cpu-Z, Cpu, Spd and memory. It will give us a peek under the hood so to speak. If while running prime your Cpu or Package temps go above 60c shut it down.

 

[TR0UBLE]

here are those screenshots

 

[Mandrake4565]

The first thing I see is you're only running on 1 core, do you have it set like that in the BIOS?

 

[TR0UBLE]

No, there's no option in the BIOS to change that. I've been suspecting that's what is going on but been baffled as to how or why it's happening.

 

[TR0UBLE]

I've wondered if maybe it's a defective CPU, but I don't want to buy a new one to find out it's my board...

 

[manu2b]

Maybe a bios update/flash?

I checked you MoBo manual, and you're right: there is no option for disabling cores...

 

[TR0UBLE]

my bios is the latest version... idk if maybe reflashing it would help?

 

[Mandrake4565]

You may want to do some exploring in the BIOS to see if there is an option in the BIOS for un-leasing mode or something of that nature. If you could host some pics of the boards BIOS maybe we can see something. If there isn't you may need to update the BIOS but I'd wait to do that until we can confirm there isn't an option to disable/enable the cores.

 

[TR0UBLE]

I've been through the BIOS inside and out and there's nothing. And I can't update the BIOS cause this is the most recent update they have for the board. I wonder if maybe it would be smarter to try replacing the board before the CPU with maybe one that's known to have a better BIOS with more control?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What revision is printed on your motherboard?

Edit: Its right after the model number, like this:

 

[Mandrake4565]

I've been through the BIOS inside and out and there's nothing. And I can't update the BIOS cause this is the most recent update they have for the board. I wonder if maybe it would be smarter to try replacing the board before the CPU with maybe one that's known to have a better BIOS with more control?

Truth be told you're running really old architecture, including DDR2 ram. You should weight the cost of getting another motherboard vs just upgrading to a newer setup. That said there must be something causing the cpu to be running on only 1 core, it is supported by the board so it should work correctly.

 

[Johan45]

Can you go to the search box type in msconfig. Start msconfig go to boot tab then select advanced. You should see a check box that says number of processors. Tell us what it says there. And wether checked or not

 

[Mandrake4565]

Can you go to the search box type in msconfig. Start msconfig go to boot tab then select advanced. You should see a check box that says number of processors. Tell us what it says there. And wether checked or not

Good call Johan

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Guys, make note that this motherboard didn't support these CPUs until Asus updated the PCB revision AND the BIOS revision.

I suspect that his PCB is an older revision than needed.

 

[TR0UBLE]

3.010

 

[TR0UBLE]

the revision is 3.010 and the processors box shows a 1 and it's not checked