Mobo and GPU recommendations
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PP Mguire
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May have said this in the other thread, but only a few things to look at for freezing:
1. Not enough power to the rig.
2. Heat. CPU or GPU overheating can cause throttling or Nvidia driver to stop responding.
3. A setting in the NVCP or game causing bad dips from VRAM capping or just not enough GPU power.
4. Slow HDD being bogged down by AV, background tasks, shadow copy process, or auto defrag.
Really these are the only things that can cause an issue you describe to my knowledge. Either that, or something being installed is causing an issue like a sour driver or something. If by freezing you mean the game actually freezes with no motion then starts again that sounds to me like the Nvidia driver is stopping. This is usually due to heat or instability. If you got the 660 then most likely isn't either. I can't exactly relate to what is going on especially in Crysis 2 as I've never had that problem.
1. Not enough power to the rig.
2. Heat. CPU or GPU overheating can cause throttling or Nvidia driver to stop responding.
3. A setting in the NVCP or game causing bad dips from VRAM capping or just not enough GPU power.
4. Slow HDD being bogged down by AV, background tasks, shadow copy process, or auto defrag.
Really these are the only things that can cause an issue you describe to my knowledge. Either that, or something being installed is causing an issue like a sour driver or something. If by freezing you mean the game actually freezes with no motion then starts again that sounds to me like the Nvidia driver is stopping. This is usually due to heat or instability. If you got the 660 then most likely isn't either. I can't exactly relate to what is going on especially in Crysis 2 as I've never had that problem.
Sean W.
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i gotta disagree with you PP, on the dual core bit.
quad core processors are so cheap now, the argument that common user applications dont use more than 2 cores is a bit out dated, that arguement was valid when a quad core chip was $300+. i got my 3570K for $160. i would not build a computer ( especially one with the intent of gaming ) with anything but a quad core. i know as well as you do that games dont use all 4 cores, but with them being so cheap now-a-days, it would be silly to do a build without one.
EDIT: blegh! my bad, didnt realize this thread was already so mature... i saw a thread with 2 replies and clicked on this thread thinking it was the one with just a few replies.
but my argument stands
quad core processors are so cheap now, the argument that common user applications dont use more than 2 cores is a bit out dated, that arguement was valid when a quad core chip was $300+. i got my 3570K for $160. i would not build a computer ( especially one with the intent of gaming ) with anything but a quad core. i know as well as you do that games dont use all 4 cores, but with them being so cheap now-a-days, it would be silly to do a build without one.
EDIT: blegh! my bad, didnt realize this thread was already so mature... i saw a thread with 2 replies and clicked on this thread thinking it was the one with just a few replies.
but my argument stands
Thanks for the suggestions but none of those things are amongst the possible causes, PP Mguire. Man I now regret every penny spent on this system. Heck I woulda been happier upgrading my 5-year-old E8400 system than this messy rig.. Coulda just installed a new GPU and been happy..
PP Mguire
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Not really. In a budget of 800-1000 maybe. An i5 3570k still goes for 219 on Newegg as the i3 3220 goes for 129. That is 90 extra bucks that you could put into the GPU which will give more of a performance boost over simply having a quad. That's the difference between GTX 660 and GTX 660ti which is better than a 580 that already plays all games maxed. Can't forget either, that the i3 has HT which is still 4 threads. IF the game is going to use more than 2 cores it has the HT to fall on too.
The argument only becomes valid if the user wants to buy the Phenom 2 965 for 89 bucks right now but I'm sure those will go quick. Even still, if you get an i3 3220 now in July you will be able to upgrade to Haswell for 229 or get the 3570k for probably around 175.
When we consider the fact that an i3 3220 in gaming will trample my i5 750 and it is a true quad, I think it's safe to say having an i3 3220 will be plenty for anybody who wants to game on a budget. The quad just isn't needed yet.
Edit: Any of them can still be the possible cause. You just need to find somebody there who can actually troubleshoot it in person and actually knows what they are doing. It's hard to give advice when all you have is "it freezes". If you have almost identical hardware then that leaves it to software or something installed wrong. It's only a matter of going through everything to find exactly what the problem is. When you finally get your stuff fixed you wont regret your purchases as the i5 will go a lot further than the e8400. If I had the system here in person it would probably take me less than 45 minutes to figure out what is wrong and fix it.
The argument only becomes valid if the user wants to buy the Phenom 2 965 for 89 bucks right now but I'm sure those will go quick. Even still, if you get an i3 3220 now in July you will be able to upgrade to Haswell for 229 or get the 3570k for probably around 175.
When we consider the fact that an i3 3220 in gaming will trample my i5 750 and it is a true quad, I think it's safe to say having an i3 3220 will be plenty for anybody who wants to game on a budget. The quad just isn't needed yet.
Edit: Any of them can still be the possible cause. You just need to find somebody there who can actually troubleshoot it in person and actually knows what they are doing. It's hard to give advice when all you have is "it freezes". If you have almost identical hardware then that leaves it to software or something installed wrong. It's only a matter of going through everything to find exactly what the problem is. When you finally get your stuff fixed you wont regret your purchases as the i5 will go a lot further than the e8400. If I had the system here in person it would probably take me less than 45 minutes to figure out what is wrong and fix it.
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PP Mguire
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1. Not really likely, but you could have tested with 2 units providing faulty power to the PC.
2. Heat maybe not, but the driver crashing and recovering causing a freeze is totally possible. It's been happening to me with a stock 580 in GTA4. I just ignore it.
3. I just had a friend come to me about random lag spikes in Skyrim and simply changing his forced Vsync setting fixed it. In general, any game can cause problems as every rig is different.
4. If you haven't physically disabled system restore, volume shadow copy, and defrag any one of these can be started (or all at the same time) causing reads and writes to the drive to be horribly slow.
There are also any amount of different problems in the software causing whatever it is that is happening in your situation. You could have 2 identical rigs and one still have problems. PCs can just be that way. When that happens it just takes patience (which is hard and frustrating) to figure it out.
For instance, I'm having a serious problem with Windows 8 and periodicly the start menu freezes on me. I can't click anything, can't shut down my PC or anything. I have no idea what is causing the problem but it's there and if I cared enough I would sit down to figure it out. My best guess already is trying to force a higher amount of supported RAM on the board. Thing is, 7 never did that.
2. Heat maybe not, but the driver crashing and recovering causing a freeze is totally possible. It's been happening to me with a stock 580 in GTA4. I just ignore it.
3. I just had a friend come to me about random lag spikes in Skyrim and simply changing his forced Vsync setting fixed it. In general, any game can cause problems as every rig is different.
4. If you haven't physically disabled system restore, volume shadow copy, and defrag any one of these can be started (or all at the same time) causing reads and writes to the drive to be horribly slow.
There are also any amount of different problems in the software causing whatever it is that is happening in your situation. You could have 2 identical rigs and one still have problems. PCs can just be that way. When that happens it just takes patience (which is hard and frustrating) to figure it out.
For instance, I'm having a serious problem with Windows 8 and periodicly the start menu freezes on me. I can't click anything, can't shut down my PC or anything. I have no idea what is causing the problem but it's there and if I cared enough I would sit down to figure it out. My best guess already is trying to force a higher amount of supported RAM on the board. Thing is, 7 never did that.
The Freezing isn't a permanent freeze, it's like only a freeze for a sec or so. The one that happens more frequently is like a large drop in FPS accompanied by a large drop in GPU usage ( according to MSI Afterburner ). Also, a game like NFSMW 2012 runs for like half of the time at low 40's even tho the GPU usage is like 50% or 60%. If the GPU gears up a bit more it runs at 60 FPS solid, but the gpu usage and the FPS keep dropping again.
PP Mguire
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Yea, the first thing you talked about sounds exactly what happens to me in GTA4.
In MW2012 my 580 is used about 50% as well but my FPS is 60 solid. The game doesn't use a large amount of resources.
Check your CPU clock settings and stability to make sure you aren't throttling. I know it sounds repetitive but things like that sound like some sort of instability.
In MW2012 my 580 is used about 50% as well but my FPS is 60 solid. The game doesn't use a large amount of resources.
Check your CPU clock settings and stability to make sure you aren't throttling. I know it sounds repetitive but things like that sound like some sort of instability.
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