New graphics card with massively low fps in counter strike source

[piano_elegy]

Hello gurus. I should first start off by saying I am not very savvy by any means and I don't understand a lot of technical language so please bear with me if anyone get's into helping me out. So here is my issue.

I was playing counterstrike source on my toshiba i3 laptop with an itegrated graphics card. On all the lowest settings, I was able to squeeze out 60 fps on non busy times in the game. I know laptops suck for gaming so I decided to buy a new gpu for a desktop I had sitting around.

Here are the system specs for my desktop currently:

windows xp 2000 media center edition

300 watt power supply

pentium 4 cpu (single core apparently)

GPU: Geforce GT 520

2 GB memory


I have installed all the drivers I know about.

The guy at best buy said that GPU should work fine at max settings with very good fps with my power supply in a game like CSS since the game is designed for single cores anyway and doesn't require too much power from that GPU

Turns out even on the lowest settings and a 1080 resolution, I am getting awwwfullll fps around 10-25 - game is not even playable now.

What could be the issue? bad OS? CPU is not compatible with GPU? Power supply doing something strange?

All fans are working fine...other than that, I am clueless.

Thanks for any help!

 

[acerinpa]

Well- while I am far from the "techie Lord" that many people are on this site I will take a shot at giving you some insight. The laptop you were using to play with has an i3 CPU, which is far superior to the Pentium in the desktop. I also assume the laptop is using Win7 as the i3 is fairly new vs the XP on the desktop. The integrated graphics card in the laptop - while probably not equal to the Geforce 520 regarding specs on paper - may be matched pretty well with the i3 - so they perform better together. The very old CPU ((the Pentium) cannot "push" the new graphics card you bought to perform up to its potential. The 520 should perform as well as an older 9600 although it is much more efficient and therefore can use the 300 watt power supply you have. So, the CPU is causing your bottleneck. It is kinda like buying super great speakers, but matching it with a very poor receiver or other audio source- no matter how good the speakers you buy- they aren't going to sound better with the same bad audio source. We could actually get into comparing the motherboards and the Ram as well - chances are the i3 laptop has both more/better RAM and a much better motherboard as well. Sorry to say, but the chances are that old desktop is unable to play even older games to the level that your can enjoy it ( enough FPS) on a server type scenario (multi-player mode).

I am sure other more knowledgeable people with help more.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

a pentium 4 really just isnt going to cut it for anything out there right now. that and the system in general is holding back your performance. it is single cored with an old architecture, as compared to the i3's dual core and modern architecture.

the 520 cant really be considered a modern gaming card. i hope you didnt pay more than $50 for it.

im sure the system is working fine, it just isnt made to play cs:s