Upgraded GPU, games running worse now

[blackhydra866]

Hello all, the graphics card in my computer started showing its signs of aging (distortion, flicker) around 2 weeks ago so I set out to get a new card. My old card was an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT, my new card is a GeForce 9400GT. A modest upgrade/replacement. I don't know if it'll help but my old card was made by BFG Tech and my new card was made by Sparkle.

Now when I play games there is a noticeable stutter and greater frame loss than my other card. Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead are nearly unplayable as they will constantly stutter and run in the 10-25fps range. This is outrageous! My rates would be around 60-100fps fairly consistently. And i'm even lowering my settings to "push" more fps out when on my other card I could have everything nearly maxed.

Before any of you ask, yes I have the latest drivers from NVIDIA (191.07) installed and the latest DirectX. There were actually some beta drivers that were released today so i'll probably give those a try but i'm just wondering what you guys think about this.

Some random specs about my rig if needed:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
RAM: 6 GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L

 

[dirkpitt45]

It is because your "upgrade" was actually a downgrade. The 9400 may be newer, but it is not as powerful as the 8800. The next Nvidia card up from the gt 8800 would be the gt 9800, then gts 250 I believe.

 

[blackhydra866]

I understand, but this card has a gig of onboard ram while my old card had 512mb. I thought at least that could push it a little more? This shouldn't be that much of a change regardless.

 

[wafflehammer]

nope.....

memory doesn't mean much in GPU land :\ unless you have a really really really high res monitor it won't effect anything

 

[Muffin Man]

a more powerful gpu on a gfx card will give you more performance that just more vram and you cant base performance on memory alone, that just not how it works.

take a look here to give you an example. http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/graphics-performance-list-212331/ your 8800gt that you had before is ranked #27. your "upgrade", the 9400gt, is ranked #58

 

[bkolk]

9800gt is rebranded 8800gt, so dont think that'll be an upgrade either.