[Arther]

Hello,

System specs are:



1000Watt PS

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 x2

Stock cooling

Asus P5N-E 650i

3 GiG corsair XMS2

WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 16M Cache 10,000 RPM

8800GTX 768MB

w/Windows XP Home SP2



I was just wondering if there was some way that I could test my system to see if I am really getting the best proformance out of it. I mean as you can see I built a nice gaming system, but it just seems to me I should be getting better performace out of my system when it comes to gaming.

The main game I play is EQ2 which I know is a badly coded game and memory hungry game, but never the less it just seems like I am not really getting a full performance out of my rig.

Screens do not seem to load as fast I thought they would, the looks of the game seem to be only ok to me...when I read a lot of folks saying they really love the looks of the game....(ex: some things in the game look very bland to me..like rocks, tree,s grass...ect..)

I normaly play the game on max settings and don't really have to turn it down much...unless servers are being stressed due to zone population which I can't control.

So is there some program or some way I can test my pc out while playing the game to see if it is really taken advantage of all the high end stuff I built it with?

[crazy4laptops]

try it out on some other 3d intensive applications. If it just blazes through, you are in buisiness. but other than that I can't say much

If you hard drive is running alot, try a defrag.

[coastie65]

Hi Arthur, First what may look good to one person may not look all the good to another, as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You yourself said the game is badly coded, that could account for the sluggish load time. I have run into the same thing on The Witcher. You have a really well thought out system and you are playing with your settings at maxed out to near maxed out. If you are playing online, that too could be an issue as to the load times. As was suggested, if you try another graphics intensive game and it zips through, I wouldn't worry about it, just hammer the sloppy coding in an online review of the game. :D coastie65

[lilxkid24]

if you really wanted to test it i would say download the crysis demo and run it on high and im pretty sure you can tell the difference.

[Arther]

Thanks for all the feed back, sorry took me so long to respond just been really crazy this last week or so.


Yea I had a friend suggest that I d/l Crysis and max it out to see what it runs like which I will do.



Isn't there some way I can watch how many FPS I get during the game?? Maybe that would give me something to kinda go by.





Just wanted to give yall a update on this:



I did d/l Crysis and ran it at max settings (non-dx10) and it ran perfect. Once I decide to get Vista I will get a 2nd h/d and install vista on that then I would be able to take advantage of DX10 via vista and my video card, wonder if I would notice any real diffrence?

[piyushsingh]

i have crysis and i am able to run it at high settings , if u r able to run at very high graphics then its good and your system seems to be OK.
remember there are 4 graphics settings in crysis - low , moderate , high , very high.

[FenderGuy2112]

I'd say upgrade your graphics card... but it seems fine.
Next time you want a PC game, dl the demo.
That's all I have to add in for this topic,
FenderGuy2112

[piyushsingh]

he's having a 8800GTX ,that's why he is able to run crysis at very high. what else do you want him to have ??

[CrimsonHawk]

Are all your drivers up to date, especially the nvidia video drivers?

Have you disabled unnecessary background processes and programs that take up CPU time?

Is your drive defragmented? If not, you can run disk cleanup and defrag with a good defragger like Diskeeper. For games that access the HDD often, defragmentation helps to run them smoothly.

If you are able to run Crysis on max settings in DX9 mode at 1680x1050 and > 30 fps, then you're probably good to go; your system is fine.

For checking framerates, download and install the free utility called FRAPS.

For checking overall graphical performance, you can run 3dmark06 (the free version) and compare the scores with similarly specced systems.

[Arther]

Yea not sure if you noticed but I already have the 8800 GTX 768mb card not sure there is a bigger/better card out there B-)
And yea I defrag/disk cleanup about once a month. I also run a program that lets me kill programs in the back ground. This primarly my gaming pc so I don't really load much else on it.



I have played EQ2 since launch and it has always been a badly coded game so its always run a bit choppy from time to time, think most of that is the folks who created the game as well as the crappy servers they use. Don't get me wrong the game looks great and runs fine, hell I was on last night in a raid (total of 24 people grouped up at one time) and I had the settings max'ed out and it ran just fine. Mainly I was looking for some way to make sure I was set to top performace for gaming on my pc, and I think being able to watch the frame rates will help me determin that. I can ask others that I know have the game and find out how many frame rates they are getting and have a way to compare it to what I am getting.



Thanks for all the feeback.



I might buy crysis when it comes out, the demo was fun and the game looks are awsome on my pc w/1600x1200 settings :D I have been thinking about buying a 2nd 8800 GTX for the hell of it B-)



Update: How do I attach a log file to this post???

[mphenterprises]

Arther said:

Update: How do I attach a log file to this post???

Hi Arther. If you mean an actual attachment, unfortunately, we cannot upload any files within the PCWorld forum. However, as an alternative, you can submit a screen shot of your log. If you are not sure how to capture and submit screen shots, please read this Document.

[Arther]

Yea I know how to take screen shot, but its a big long file no way to get it all in one shot. Can I copy and past the file into this thread?

[mphenterprises]

I am sure copy and paste would do fine. However, if I may ask, what would posting the log file provide us? If you are referring to the log file of the game I really do not think that has any bearing on whether your system is running efficiently or not.

If I am following your Discussion correctly, you are looking for ways to verify whether or not your computer is performing at its peak. If you are merely looking for gauges, why not try a full performance check at a site similar to PC Pit Stop. On the right side of the screen, you will see the PC Pitstop Dashboard. The first option is a PC Performance Scan. You can either click the hyperlink to download the .exe file or click more to learn about the Performance Scan.

You can also download a popular temperature gauge called SpeedFan. This will give you a graphical and numeric readout of how well your computer is maintaining nominal temperatures. This application also shows fan speeds and Power Supply voltage.

Additionally, you can download the Belarc Advisor. This will scan your computer and give you a .html readout of all the inner workings of your computer. If you have Windows XP Pro, you can get a CIS Benchmark Score and an explanation of how to interpret the score.

[Arther]

Wow thanks a lot for all the really good ideas there Mphenterprises.



Actually the log file I was talking about was a log file from a program called nTune which is for Nvidia Cards. Its actually a really cool program. It shows me everything about my system as far as performace goes. At one point I can create a log file for all the info on current settings for my CPU and GPU plus fan speed info FSB ect...thought If I posted that here it wold give some one a change to look over all my current performace settings and tell me if all looks well.



It has a built in over clocking tools for GPU/CPU and timmings but I don't really plan to mess with any of that. One thing that kinda got my eye was my GPU temp it was @ 145F at not playing a game, is that a bit high??

There are some other readings that caught my eye but can't remember them exactly right now and I'm at work so don't have acess to the program or my pc.



Also I did D/L the fraps program that some one suggested and ran it last night while I was playing EQ2 and noticed that in some places I was getting 30FPS but in several places I was getting low teens even single numbers. This was a little unsetteling to see that. Any ideas why I would be getting such low FPS. From my understanding 30FPS should be a good average to go by so when I get down to 8FPS I start to get worried. Could server load have anything to do with that?

One suggestin some one had in game was that my GPU is probally set to run off both cores of the CPU. He said that most games including EQ2 do not like that and that I should go to my GPU's control panel and set the GPU to run off one single core, have you heard of this or done this beore. Because I glanced around in the control panel and did not notice any where to do this. Woudl this really help and if so how would it affect my over all performance of my pc.



Sorry about the long thread and lots of ?'s but just wanted to try and get some of these bugs worked out seeing how I spent a ton of money on a really nice set up and its never really ran at top performance if you ask me.

[spike]

Are you testing , during ONLINE play, or single player? ?



AND YES, that GPU temp. is VERY HIGH !

[coastie65]

Hey spike, If that temp was centigrade, I would say he was in danger of cooking the GPU, but it was Farenheit. Most of my GPUs have consistantly run from 50 to 68 degrees centigrade with no adverse effects. I think that translates to a Farenheit temp above 145 degrees. coastie65

[spike]

Still to hot,..........and you only answered half the questions, .......................online, or single player???

[Arther]

EQ2 is on line play only (MMORPG)

But that temp was right after I turned the pc on I had not even started to play the game yet. Did not think to check it while I was playing, I beleive the C was @ 59c

[mphenterprises]

hi Spike. Haven't seen you in a bit. :-)

From what I have seen, the nominal temperature for CPUs & GPUs is 100-170 degrees Fahrenheit (38-77 degrees Celsius). Any higher and you are in serious trouble of damaging all components within the computer. Now, as you and I preach, the Power Supply is crucial in maintaining the effeciency of the computer. If the Power Supply is too weak, it will force all other components to work harder, thereby increasing the temperature.

[Arther]

Well don't think that the P/S would be a problem because I current have a 1000WaTT P/S



I did notice on the Nvidia site they stated that my GPU 8800 GTX has two plug ins for P/S on the card its self guess I can always check and make sure that both of them are plugged in.



So has any one ever heard about the statement I posted before: Setting up my GPU to run off only one core to improve performance?