Upgrading, need help beforehand.

[OsirisX]

Ok, specs first.

Celeron D @2.93ghz.

512MB PC3200 @ PC2700 3.3.2.6 due to lack of motherboard options.

Soyo motherboard w/ PT800 chipset.

9600XT w/ virtually no overclocking.

2 WD HDDs.

Benchmarks...:

Game Tests 3DMark Score: 3831

GT1- Wings of Fury 108.9fps
GT2- Battle of Proxycon 23.3fps
GT3- Troll's Lair 22.1fps
GT4- Mother Nature 29.3fps

CPU Tests CPU Score:218

CPU Test 1 29.8fps
CPU Test 2 3.0fps

Feature Tests

Fill Rate (Single-Texturing) 895.4 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing) 1910.9MTexels/s
Vertex Shader 15.2fps
Pixel Shader 2.0 35.2fps
Ragtroll 14.9fps

Sound Tests

No sounds 26.fps
24 sounds 22.0fps
60 sounds N/A

3DMark2001SE: Score: 8820

*sorry, I cannot provide compare links due to internet connection issues: cannot get connected to ORB.*

Other benchmarks:

88 second Super PI 1M

Sandra memory bandwith INT Buffed iSSE2 2170MB/s *Bandwith Efficiency 68%

Sandra Cache and memory 3149MB/s *Maximum memory bus
bandwith 3184MB/s

Sandra CPU Arithmetic Benchmark Dhrystone ALU 7921 MIPS

Whetstone FPU/ iSSE2 2105/3544 MFLOPS

Closest CPU Arithmetic competitor: P4 3-C 512L2


There seems to be some large yet unknown bottleneck present on this computer.


In the reviews I have read on the 9600XT, in 3DMark01 this paticular video card averaged 12000-13000,where as I scored 8202.

In 3DMark03 the card preforms overall right on par with the scores that reviewer benchmarking produced. But look at the CPU score:218. In a comparison of the Celeron D and the Sempron done by Xbit Labs, the same model CPU as mine managed to score 724,though with somewhat faster memory.

This bottleneck doesnt exist in just benchmarks though, 800X600 at medium, Half Life 2 is unplayable. In online play of Halo, even with only 8 players and a very graphically light map like Blood Gulch, 1024X768 at all high minus shadows, gamplay often dips into the mid/low 20s. I even edited the drivers to force use of Pixel shader 1.4 and Vertex Shader 1.1, and the FPS still dropped into the 20s. Need For Speed:MW, I play 640X480 all lowest settings and FPS at times STILL drop into the 20s.
COD2: I opted for the game to select best settings for me, 800X600, DirectX 7 rendering, upclose fire fight, bamb! 10FPS.

Sorry if I seem a little redundant. But I know what this computer SHOULD do, and Im ****ed at what is acutally does,preformance wise. And now I want to upgrade my computer, a 6600GT and maybe some more memory. But Im worried,that after spending even more money on this computer, Ill still be stuck having to play older games like Enemy Territory and Halo.

Could it be faulty memory? Wrong settings in motherboard BIOS?
OS issue? I am totally stumped as to what is causing this horrible preformance.Any ideas on how to fix these preformance issues are
really apreciated.

 

[reggie_da_man]

The Celeron is where your being screwed. The reason why the semperon is faster is that it has an on die memory controller which eliminates the use of the chipset thus increasing memory bandwith. Plus AMD is generally better for gaming, they use some extra instructions like 3DNow!. If your going to upgrade you could probably keep that card and buy a new Athlon and motherboard.

 

[tariqadkhan]

yeah i also think that the celeron is crap and u should go with amd. think u will get better bang for your buck!!!

 

[OsirisX]

I got this CPU for $40 minus rebate. With good air cooling they can be overclocked 4Ghz,which is what I will do when I get a better heatsink.
At any rate, no the Celeron D should not be holding me back, Tom's hardware benched a slower version of the Celeron D model I have, at 2.8ghz in gaming it equaled the preformance of a 2.5Ghz P4. And in 3DMark03 CPU score my paticular CPU beat the AMD Athlon XP 2800+ and Sempron 3000+HERE.
There IS a difference between the Celeron and Celeron D.


No, there is something else that is adversely affecting my computer's preformance.

Edit: Something else I just noticed. Under device manager there seems to be two video cards. Radeon 9600 Series (driver version) and Radeon 9600 Series Secondary(driver version). I know its unlikely,but could this have any wierd effects on gaming?

 

[OsirisX]

Ok I just tried a new benchmark, some free software by FreshDevices, anyway my memory scored WAY below the DDR they tested, it did worse PC800 RDRam. Now I know Sandra's memory benchmark would suggest the memory is running up to spec, but is it possible that this could be a memory issue? Its rated for 3-3-3-8 @ 200Mhz DDR, and the highest I can run it without my system rebooting or causing errors in games is 166Mhz DDR 3-3-2-6.


I also thought this could be PSU issue,because when starting a game or even my web browser, I can hear all 7 of my case fans slow down until there is 0 CPU usage.


Thanks for the help guys.

PS: I have all drivers installed, latest DirectX. As for my motherboard chipset, it beats a Intel 875P chipset. Not the newest,not the best,but still for this budget machine I think it will hold up.


Ok, Im upgrading to a 6800XT another stick of 512PC3200 and a new PSU. If its the memory or PSU it will be known soon.