Geforce GTX 280 Performance issues

[Kjølen]

Hello. I've just received my ASUS Geforce GTX 280 today (Hurray!) and installed it into my system. However, everything went to **** the moment I tried to play games. I ran the FEAR (v1.08) benchmark tool and have not been able to get over 60 fps (1600x1200, everything maxed), even though benchmarks sites I've read should be getting me anywhere from 60fps min to 140fps max at this resolution and these settings. Also, after about 10 minutes of gameplay, it begins to lag terribly, and will not stop until I reload the game.

BioShock won't even load a new game or saved (if the game loads at all). The first time I had to force the game to close and got a bluescreen. It still will not load any games.

Unreal Tournament 3 appears to run fine after a cursory inspection.

I've tried both the drivers from the ASUS install CD and the drivers from NVIDIA's website, with proper install/uninstall processes between them.
According to the ASUS utilities, this is NOT a heat issue, since it seems to stay under 65 degrees Celsius for the most part, during load.
I don't really want to hear that I need to wait until the drivers mature. This card has been out for nearly a month. If the drivers are this bad, it should not have been released.

Otherwise, suggestions are welcome.

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Quad (Q9450 @ 3.0GHz)
6GB DDR2 RAM @ 960MHz
500GB Hard Drive
ASUS P5N-D SLI Motherboard
Rosewill 750W Powersupply with 4 +12V rails (18mA per rail for a total of 72mA)
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
ASUS GeForce GTX 280 (Upgraded from a GeForce 7950GX2)
Plenty of well-positioned case fans

 

[Ste]

Did you wipe your previous driver using driver cleaner pro?

 

[[t..o..m]]

need to know the specs of your whole system to understand what the whole problem might be. Could be something else which is bottle necking your system.

60fps on fear is pretty bad for the 280 so I suspect something else is going on

 

[Kjølen]

Yes, after I manually uninstalled the drivers and files with Device Manager, I ran Driver Cleaner Pro to fix any loose ends, then rebooted and reinstalled the drivers again and rebooted again. Didn't fix it.

 

[bkolk]

you dont have vsysnc enabled right? that would limit it to 60fps.

 

[Drizzt]

Are you sure your cpu is stable? lol.

 

[Kjølen]

bkolk: Why, yes, I do. I never knew that V-sync limited your framerate. I shall remedy this at once and give another report. However, this still doesn't explain BioShock not working and the random slowdown during FEAR gameplay. Edit: Turning off V-sync brought my average and maximum up quite a bit, yes, but I ran the in-game benchmark four times, and each time the framerates dropped considerably. From first to fourth the framerates dropped from about 59fps min, 84fps avg, 114fps max down to 27fps min, 39 fps avg, high 40s max. Maybe this IS a heating issue? But my case has two 120mm case fans and an 80mm fan right over the GPU pushing the hot air out. Something is wrong here. Could the card have a faulty cooler? Could the GPU itself be faulty?

Drizzt5: The only thing that I've changed in this system was my video card. My CPU is set at the same clock it's been for months.

 

[Drizzt]

Y do you have 6gb of ram?

 

[Kjølen]

Why not? Does this really matter? My issue is with the video card here.