AMD 64 3200+ CPU running slowly in games

[hawk_eyeBF2]

Are those reading for the temperatures that you are getting from the BIOS or from sensors placed inside of the machine?

I dont want to make you feel silly or anything, but I think that it might be a good idea to check the heatsink and fan on your graphics cards. I dont necessarily think that there is any reason for your processor to be the main problem.

If you are overclocking the card, you might want to tune that down some and then post some results on that.

Even if you dont have it overclocked, I think that you should lower the PCI speed and see if you can get longer game play. I dont know how reliable your card is, and it is possible that your card could be crapping out. If at all possible I would switch that card out for another one and see if you can get extended gameplay.

Post results, I would like to know if you have any progress.

It is from the CPU temperature recording in my BIOS - so it isn't a case sensor.
I don't think it is the graphics card - if it was my graphics card - I should be able to get higher FPS by running games at low graphic settings, but there is no change in FPS between high and low graphics. And, that explains why the old BF1942 game (came out in 2002) runs poorly, it probably relies more on the CPU than on the graphics card - and because my CPU isn't working very well, it reflects that in the FPS.

The PCI speed is set to standard, and I don't think it will do much to play around with that. I'm not to sure what you mean by "extended gameplay" either?

 

[str8lazy]

Well the extended gameplay is now not worth mentioning, I was only referring to playing BF2 at 2.7Ghz, but I was misreading, my mistake.

Have you bumped your heatsink/fan, even though this seems highly unlikely it seems as if you somehow damaged your processor, I somewhat doubt that it was from the OC'ing that you did, because you didnt have it set like that for very high.

It just seems like there is more and more of an internal problem now. The only other thing that I could think of that would make the performance be so poor, was if it wasn't getting the proper amount of voltage so that it would function properly.

If I were you, I would go back to the old BIOS that you had, and then I would make sure that everything was set on default and start over from there again.

I am running the same motherboard that you are, with a 3000+ and I dont have any problems at all with the original BIOS.

So in the end you may just have to get another chip. Sorry I cant be of much more help.

Another thing that you could try, which I am sure you did, it upgrading the videocard drivers. That helps sometimes in situations like these.


Another side note that just hit me. AVOID computer shops that service your machine, because you really cant monitor what they do in those places, and you might get a machine back like this, its possible, but somewhat unlikely that they switched proccessors on you. That happened to a friend of mine once before. So just be careful of where you take your machine.

 

[magouster]

You'll have to get a temp monitor in Windows, preferably one that records temperatures, because as CrazeD said, a CPU cools down almost instantly. Have you checked that the CPU hasn't been swapped out with something weaker?

 

[hawk_eyeBF2]

They havn't switched my CPU for something weaker - I know that.
Is there any way to tell if the chip is actually damaged?

 

[Nitestick]

well i didn't have time to read the whole thread but i'm inclined to blame the BIOS flash you mentioned. it is the most significant change and they have been known to cause problems like this

 

[hawk_eyeBF2]

I'd be quite keen to rule out CPU damage, because then I know whether I have to shop for a new CPU some time later on.
If the CPU had damage, wouldn't it not run at all? I mean - suppose it is damaged - i'm still getting 20 FPS in BF2 on max settings, and it is booting and running windows fine..
What are the symptoms for CPU damage? (other than slow performance?)

 

[CrazeD]

Random system crashes, weird computer malfunctions, beeps, artifacts or no video, unresponsive, etc.

Run like Prime95 for 10 hours or so and see if you get errors. If you don't I'd say the CPU is fine.

 

[Sui]

lol ok... You definitly need to summerize all that .... info. Someone mentioned making sure that your running in dual channel mode, are you? You've ruled out driver vertions, but how about bios revisions? Some times newest isn't always better, go back one or 2. Uhm unplug that new HD see how you run without it. Try a slight OC of the video card to see if you get a boost in performance(this will point to vid as the prob). Theres a pretty good chanse that all the bios settings you were using got changed when updated. Grab a pen and some paper, write down every settings in your bios that you are unsure what it does(or isn't well described) as well as the values for that setting. Go online research them all. Kill off XP services that you don't need or use, maybe like system restore(I just format the OS partition and start over), print spooler, ect. Theres lists online of every service XP has......

That should keep you busy for at least a day.

 

[hawk_eyeBF2]

Random system crashes, weird computer malfunctions, beeps, artifacts or no video, unresponsive, etc.

Run like Prime95 for 10 hours or so and see if you get errors. If you don't I'd say the CPU is fine.

Well I havn't got any of that - so I presume the CPU is fine. I also talked to a computer geek friend of mine last night and told him the story - and he reckons my CPU should be fine too.

What is dual channel? How do i know if i'm running in it/where can I change it?

The problem with going back a few BIOS versions is that my new SATA drive won't boot in old versions. That's why the BIOS was updated in the first place, my older BIOS revision (v2.00 or something) didn't allow SATA drives to boot for some reason, but in the latest version it does. I'm not sacrificing 250GB for more performace. The BIOS version has to stay where it is.

I've already killed off XP services that I don't need, and as for the BIOS settings - I know pretty much what most of them do - but i'll make a list and post it here of what I am unsure of.

The only thing I still don't know about - and what no-one has mentioned - is the quality and performance options in Nvidias control panel. In the BF2 singleplayer thread I said that I turned on "Aniostropic mip filter optimization" or something, and that made a huge difference. Perhaps I need to fiddle around with these settings?
Could someone with a rig similar to mine post their full settings for that menu in Nvidia?

Here's mine:

Antialiasing settings: Application controlled
Aniostropic filtering: Application controlled
Image Settings: Quality
Color Profile: Not Available
Vertical Sync: Application controlled
Force mipmaps: None
Conformant texture clamp: On
Extension limit: Off
Hardware acceleration: Single display mode
Trilinear optimization: On
Aniostropic mip filter optimization: On
Aniostropic sample optimization: On
Triple Buffering: Off
Negative LOD Bias: Allow

EDIT: Oh, and I ran 3Dmark05 last night with 3 game tests, 2 CPU tests and default settings. Got 1818 3DMarks
My averages FPS for the two CPU tests were:

CPU test 1: 2 FPS
CPU test 2: 3.5 FPS

My CPU score was like 3600 or something.

 

[hawk_eyeBF2]

OK - Great news: BF2 seems to be running at the same performance level it was before this debacle began. I don't know what caused it, or what fixed it - but somehow something that I did has fixed it. It now runs how I want it to, except for one thing: I want more bots in my maps - but when I increase the bots to over 25 it starts lagging quite a bit in game. What do I need to upgrade to stop this? More memory?

I already have 1GB DDR, and i've heard someone say that there isn't really a difference between 1GB and 2GB+.. is this true?
What would be more benificial for me:
(ie. What do I need to upgrade the most)

1) Save up for a new Processor
2) Save up for a new Graphics card
3) Buy more memory now

My specs are in my signature.

Now, I'd like to say one BIG thankyou to all of the people who have helped me fix the problem!
THANKS A LOT!