Performance Issues and general slowness

[maximus44]

Hi everyone, I've had this computer to close to a year now, and I have been trying to understand why it has been struggling to run games and other general tasks. I brought a graphics card with the intention of improving the performance, but it did not appear to do anything.

Comparing it against a similar machine in Performance Test 7, it seriously underperforms. Any suggestions or ideas? Is it because of the version of XP I am running? I have the feeling that I'm missing something quite obvious. Details are below. Thanks!

System Summary
Windows XP (32-bit)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+
2047 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
149GB HDD, 75GB HDD

System Information
System Name: COMPUTER_1
Operating System: Windows XP (32-bit)
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: M2N-MX SE Plus
Motherboard Version: Rev x.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version: 0503
BIOS Release Date: 03/26/2008
Memory Information
Total Physical Memory: 2047 MB RAM
Available Physical Memory: 1423 MB RAM
Slot 1: DDR2, 2048MB, 800MHz
Slot 2: Not populated
Virtual Memory: C:\pagefile.sys (2046 MB)
CPU Information
Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
Type: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+
Manufacturer: 1
Cores per CPU: 2
Hyperthreading: Not capable
Measured Speed: 2712.7 MHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 2 x 64 KB
L1 Data Cache: 2 x 64 KB
L2 Cache Size: 2 x 512 KB
L3 Cache: (N/A)
Disk Information
Drive Letter (Number): C (Physical drive 0)
Model Number: ST380011A
Disk Size (Free space): 149.0 GBytes (23.2 GBytes)
Disk Cluster Size: 4 KBytes
File System: NTFS
Drive Letter (Number): D (Physical drive 0)
Model Number: ST380011A
Disk Size (Free space): 37.3 GBytes (3.4 GBytes)
Disk Cluster Size: 4 KBytes
File System: NTFS
Drive Letter (Number): E (Physical drive 0)
Model Number: ST380011A
Disk Size (Free space): 37.3 GBytes (195.9 MB)
Disk Cluster Size: 32 KBytes
File System: FAT32
Video Adapters
Description: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
Chip Type: GeForce 9400 GT
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Memory: 512MB
Video BIOS: Version 62.94.4B.00.00
Driver Provider: NVIDIA
Driver Version: 6.14.11.9107
Driver Date: 9-27-2009
Monitor 1: 1024x768x32 85Hz (Primary monitor)

Test Name FOXCONN-A78AX-9400GT AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2601 BL6846 This Computer
CPU - Integer Math 290.0 38.0
CPU - Floating Point Math 903.7 217.9
CPU - Find Prime Numbers 272.2 50.8
CPU - Multimedia Instructions 8.2 1.5
CPU - Compression 1727.6 451.5
CPU - Encryption 8.1 1.8
CPU - Physics 73.2 17.6
CPU - String Sorting 1050.6 271.5
Graphics 2D - Solid Vectors 3.1 1.3
Graphics 2D - Transparent Vectors 3.0 1.1
Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors 92.0 20.9
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text 76.6 33.5
Graphics 2D - Windows Interface 58.4 49.4
Graphics 2D - Image Filters 120.7 42.4
2D Graphics - Image Rendering 225.2 34.1
Graphics 3D - Simple 309.9 384.5
Graphics 3D - Medium 98.1 142.9
Graphics 3D - Complex 25.7 9.2
Graphics 3D - DirectX 10 1.5 -
Memory - Allocate Small Block 2903.9 486.5
Memory - Read Cached 1210.6 286.3
Memory - Read Uncached 1111.2 127.0
Memory - Write 1008.5 154.6
Memory - Large RAM 226.1 56.3
Disk - Sequential Read 45.2 52.3
Disk - Sequential Write 46.5 41.5
Disk - Random Seek + RW 2.7 3.6
CD - Read 3.2 -
CPU Mark 1632.0 327.7
2D Graphics Mark 363.9 134.8
Memory Mark 424.5 75.7
Disk Mark 341.3 352.2
CD Mark 392.5 -
3D Graphics Mark 229.7 279.5
PassMark Rating 735.7 204.2

 

[tasha1133]

download ccleaner.. slownes mostly is caused by corrupt registry. also, click start > run > type MSCONFIG and hit enter> click startup and uncheck everything except your antivirus program.

another: click start > run > type: %TEMP% and hit enter. delete all the files in the temp folder.. those are temporary files you won't need..

 

[Lexluethar]

Found here:
http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-keep-winxp-really-fast-stable-156582/

 

[maximus44]

Hey,
Tried ccleaner and clearing out temp as suggested, but no improvement so far. I have tried using seatools to check the harddrives, but it fails to run. Any ideas?

 

[tasha1133]

Hey,
Tried ccleaner and clearing out temp as suggested, but no improvement so far. I have tried using seatools to check the harddrives, but it fails to run. Any ideas?

have you tried system restore?

 

[turbogtstang]

2 Big Reasons are Windows XP 32-bit and only 2GBs of RAM. Getting the graphics card is great, but if the computer is forced toread data from the hard drive and cannot store a majority of it into memory, then it will appear to perform slowly. Vista 64-Bit is the way to go, with Upwards of 4-8 GBs of RAM. Vista has a feature called superfetching, which basically utilizes memory in a much more efficient way. Look at it this way, when you turn on XP, you are only using about 10-15% of your memory. When you load the game, XP only loads the necessity and you may be using upwards of 30-40% of memory. Vista loads up by using 30-40% of memory and adds more and more into memory as it sees fit. memory has a much faster I/O than drives do so programs will run faster.
Also 64-Bit is the way to go since it allows more data to travel in and out of the processor at once.
Let me know what you think?

 

[KSoD]

Sorry but no.

XP can use 64MB of RAM. Having 2GB is MORE than enough. Especially for 32 Bit. XP also has PreFetch which is just like SuperFetch but operates a bit differently. It loads the most commonly used info into the Fetched area for easy access and use. It takes about a month for PreFetch to get your patterns down properly.

I do agree that 64 Bit is the way to go, but for the system he has, it is just fine to have XP and 2GB of RAM.

Try what Lex said and go through this as well:

Spyware Asylum

That will help boost the performance.

 

[turbogtstang]

I understand that prefetching exists in XP, but XP does NOT handle memory nearly as efficiently as Vista. However it depends highly on what is running at the same time as the program in question. If he is running XP with all the bells and whistles it can take more than 256MB of RAM. But thats neither here nor there. If the program is not being loaded into memory and utilizing as much memory as possible, then there will be "performance issues". Therefore go with Vista 64-bit. Also the newer games require more and more resources now adays. I just got AION recently and that's an MMORPG and it requires a lot of resources to run efficiently.
Anywho, running a spyware check on it is not bad. In fact running it through multiple different spyware and virus checks will do. However, your best bet in the end if you suspect spyware is to do a clean install of the O.S. and format the drive. Its the only way to absolutely remove any issues with registry or malware. Especially if you have installed and uninstalled a lot of programs, the registry can get quite cluttered.

 

[KSoD]

Yes Prefetch is not as good as Superfetch or they wouldnt have dropped it. But the point is that XP with 2GB of RAM is MORE than sufficent. There is no reason what so ever to suggest going to 64 Bit and 8GB of RAM when what he has is already above and beyond better than what is needed to run XP and overload it to any degree.

Without knowing what the member does with their PC to base the answers off of what you need and do is inappropriate. They are not you and dont need the same things you do. So while you run Aion and need the extras, they may not. I dont and i can operate jsut fine with 2GB of RAM and 32 Bit as i have for well over 5 years. It wasnt till early this year that i jumped to 64 Bit and 4GB and i still have yet to utilize it all.

Performance is a myth. You can run benchmarks and all that stuff. But the fact is that different people have different needs. There is no way that running 3DMark is going to tell me i need a Core i7 with 16GB of RAM to do what i do.

My point is to ask questions for what THEY do. Get information from THEM. Dont suggest what you think they need based on what you do.