Why are my computer games slow?

[Ian]

So, last year I got a new desktop for school and gaming, however it does not perform well on many of my games. Here is what "Can you run it?" said about Medieval 2: Total War.

 

CPU
Recommended: Pentium 4/Athlon XP
You Have: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor
	PASS

CPU Speed
Recommended: 2.4 GHz
You Have: 2.8 GHz Performance Rated at: 5.6 GHz
	PASS

RAM
Recommended: 1 GB
You Have: 5.7 GB
	PASS

OS
Recommended: English version of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
	PASS

Video Card
Recommended: 100% compatible DirectX 9.0c 256 MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 2 support and the latest drivers (NVIDIA GeForce 6800+
You Have: GeForce 9100
	PASS
Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card
	Required 	You Have
Video RAM 	256 MB 	2.9 GB
3D 	Yes 	Yes
Hardware T&L 	Yes 	Yes
Pixel Shader version 	2.0 	4.0
Vertex Shader version 	2.0 	4.0

DirectX version
Recommended: 9.0c
You Have: 11.0
	PASS

Sound Card
Recommended: Yes
You Have: Realtek High Definition Audio
	PASS

Free Disk Space
Recommended: 11.0 Gigs of uncompressed free hard disk space
You Have: 768.1 GB
	PASS

DVD-ROM
Recommended: 8x Speed DVD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers
You Have: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7231S5 SCSI CdRom Device
	PASS

 

Yet when I play the game, I have to take the graphics way down to play it without choppiness. What is wrong and how can I fix this?

[Alyxx Thorne]

If you are running any apps like FireFox they can consume a lot of RAM. I have this problem even if my computer is really powerful. And sometimes apps like Photoshop don't even close. I recommend using task manager (ctrl+alt+del) and the process tab to see if any apps are consuming RAM and shut these down.

 

Even MSN can consume unnecessary RAM sometimes.

[JournaL]

You have an integrated graphics card. The 9100 is the lowest tier of the Nvidia 9000s series.

So it's not known for its graphic processing (not suitable for gaming). The System Requirements Program Test is wrong, the Geforce 9100 is not faster than a Nvidia GeForce 6800.

 

 

If you have a PCIE slot open (go out get an actual Graphic Card, and install it into ur PC).

 

Any dedicated card, Geforce 9600GT+, 250GTS or higher, 450 GTS or higher, 560 Ti or higher (would all work, no choppiness whatsoever; and you would be able to play at your native resolution).

 

ATi cards have better performance over price, so you can look at them for an option.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[Alyxx Thorne]

You have an integrated graphics card. The 9100 is the lowest tier of the Nvidia 9000s series.

So it's not known for its graphic processing (not suitable for gaming). The System Requirements Program Test is wrong, the Geforce 9100 is not faster than a Nvidia GeForce 6800.

 

 

If you have a PCIE slot open (go out get an actual Graphic Card, and install it into ur PC).

Yeah, that'd explain it.

[Ian]

You have an integrated graphics card. The 9100 is the lowest tier of the Nvidia 9000s series.

So it's not known for its graphic processing (not suitable for gaming). The System Requirements Program Test is wrong, the Geforce 9100 is not faster than a Nvidia GeForce 6800.

 

 

If you have a PCIE slot open (go out get an actual Graphic Card, and install it into ur PC).

Gah, I was afraid of this! Last time I got a graphics card was for Republic Commando a long time ago. What do you recommend?

[Alyxx Thorne]

I recommend the ATI Radeon HD series. I got mine at a pretty fair price even.

[BTGBullseye]

CYRI doesn't tell us much about your system specs... The processor is decent, (reference: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X4+630) the memory is good in amount, (need to know the speed and timing of it to determine how good the RAM itself is) Win7 x64 is good, video card is crap, (reference: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?cpu=GeForce+9100) and that's all that would be affecting you in the hardware department.

 

Try right clicking your taskbar (the one the start menu button is attached to) and select "Start Task Manager". Take some screenshots of the processes that are running (you may have to switch to the Processes tab, it's default is the Applications tab) and post the SS here. I can tell you what processes might be slowing you down.

 

Biggest thing though, is you seriously need to upgrade the video card. Minimum recommended RAM on the card will be 1GB, my recommended card for you is: GIGABYTE GV-R567ZL-1GI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 Video Card

[JournaL]

I edited my former post to include Nvidia.

 

ATi Radeon HD 4850+s, HD 5770+s; The HD 6500s and 6600s (Turks) are released (but they are only limited to OEM manufacturers as of now, not for retail)

 

With upgrading your graphic card, another problem arises; what is your power supply? (how much power does it supply~ in total (Watts) and on the 12V rail (in Amps))

 

Whats your budget?

Edited March 11, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[Alyxx Thorne]

I have a HD 5770 myself and I can definitely vouch for it.

[BTGBullseye]

I have a HD 5770 myself and I can definitely vouch for it.

The 5770 is about $40 more than the 5670, for only a minimal performance increase... And if you're bumping up to that price range, should go for a GTX 465 that has double the performance of a 5770.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I have a HD 5770 myself and I can definitely vouch for it.

The 5770 is about $40 more than the 5670, for only a minimal performance increase... And if you're bumping up to that price range, should go for a GTX 465 that has double the performance of a 5770.

What he said.

[JournaL]

I have a HD 5770 myself and I can definitely vouch for it.

The 5770 is about $40 more than the 5670, for only a minimal performance increase... And if you're bumping up to that price range, should go for a GTX 465 that has double the performance of a 5770.

 

Not to correct you, but the 5770 HD does give a large increase on performance (~30%-58%) over the 5670 HD (at high resolutions).

 

Problem is that the performance increase comes with more heat and power consumption as well.

 

The 5670 HD is ideal for a HTPC-type; and if you don't game all too much (used to play HD video, movies, music, and has a lower profile). Lower power consumption, and lower heat is much better in those OEM desktops.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[Ian]

CYRI doesn't tell us much about your system specs... The processor is decent, (reference: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X4+630) the memory is good in amount, (need to know the speed and timing of it to determine how good the RAM itself is) Win7 x64 is good, video card is crap, (reference: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?cpu=GeForce+9100) and that's all that would be affecting you in the hardware department.

 

Try right clicking your taskbar (the one the start menu button is attached to) and select "Start Task Manager". Take some screenshots of the processes that are running (you may have to switch to the Processes tab, it's default is the Applications tab) and post the SS here. I can tell you what processes might be slowing you down.

 

Biggest thing though, is you seriously need to upgrade the video card. Minimum recommended RAM on the card will be 1GB, my recommended card for you is: GIGABYTE GV-R567ZL-1GI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 Video Card

 

Also, I don't run Firefox when I play games on Steam.

[JournaL]

Your processes look good. I'm sure you don't run Paint when you are gaming? hehe

[BTGBullseye]

Try closing these:

 

HP_Remote_S...

hpsysdrv.exe...

hpwuschd2.e...

jusched.exe *32

PictureMover...

plugin-contain...

SmartMenu.exe

 

And then uninstall McAfee antivirus, and put on Avast! Free Antivirus. (Avast! Free beats the paid version of McAfee in all areas)

 

 

Also, if you can, definitely buy an new video card. If you know what your budget is for one, I can recommend some good ones in your price range.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[Alyxx Thorne]

I have a HD 5770 myself and I can definitely vouch for it.

The 5770 is about $40 more than the 5670, for only a minimal performance increase... And if you're bumping up to that price range, should go for a GTX 465 that has double the performance of a 5770.

 

Not to correct you, but the 5770 HD does give a large increase on performance (~30%-58%) over the 5670 HD (at high resolutions).

 

Problem is that the performance increase comes with more heat and power consumption as well.

 

The 5670 HD is ideal for a HTPC-type; and if you don't game all too much (used to play HD video, movies, music, and has a lower profile). Lower power consumption, and lower heat is much better in those OEM desktops.

Yeah, I have an Antec 1200 case though, which gives very good ventilation since it has 3 fans in front and one huge on the top, so heat hasn't been a problem yet. And I can run Fallout 3 with all the settings maxed at 1920x1080 without any lag. Same with Need For Speed Hot Pursuit.

 

Anyway, I agree that the 5670 HD is more ideal for the HTPC-type. And McAffee is a virus in of itself.

[Ian]

Oh, haha. I forgot that was up for the second picture! Ok, thank you for your help, everyone!

 

Also, I wouldn't mind getting rid of McAffee. It's currently stuck in Mandarin Chinese.

[BTGBullseye]

Not to correct you, but the 5770 HD does give a large increase on performance (~30%-58%) over the 5670 HD (at high resolutions). .

You're right, I just checked the performance ratings, it's at a 33% increase. However for a 65% increase over the 5770, just go to the GTX 465 that is the same price.

[Bjossi]

I have a HD 5770 myself and it runs all my games beautifully at either max or very high settings. It is using the same power supply I used to power my old Geforce 7900 GTX so this thing can't be all that hungry.

 

But be careful of ATi cards, ever since their 10.5 drivers legacy OpenGL has been pretty much completely broken. I have to use source ports for Hexen 2, Quake 2, etc. that have a more modern renderer. But other than this all the games I throw at it work great and run smoothly.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I have a HD 5770 myself and it runs all my games beautifully at either max or very high settings. It is using the same power supply I used to power my old Geforce 7900 GTX so this thing can't be all that hungry.

 

But be careful of ATi cards, ever since their 10.5 drivers legacy OpenGL has been pretty much completely broken. I have to use source ports for Hexen 2, Quake 2, etc. that have a more modern renderer. But other than this all the games I throw at it work great and run smoothly.

That's strange. I don't experience any problems with Quake 2, Hexen 2 or even GLQuake.