Performance

[skier]

ok, heres the skinny, i got a P4 3.0, and my x850XT and 504MB of RAM(i know thats the main reason for bad performance), the pagefile is around 900MB(the thingdoesnt want me to change it, so it stays "system managed") and i'm playing NFS PROSTREET on it, it runs great considering shortage of RAM, i have it on all high settings, and it runs fine except loading screens, and right when races start(temporary slideshow), which it takes FOREVER(ie, about 10x longer than it should and it partly freezes up every once and a while) but the PC itself runs terrible in general, it takes about 3 min to Log on(not boot, just from logon to desktop), 10-20 sec to open a program and longer in general to do anything(except 3d apps, which run really well, when the PC doesnt have to think about anything else)

how can i get it to run even decently? because going from my PC which i game on (which doesnt run PROstreet in its dreams)to this thing is like sitting at every red light on any intersection you ever drive through, its torture

btw, CA Security suite, 305w stock PSU(i know, it probably shouldnt be running a 850XT, but it does), x850XT @ 587/587(1174) 2x256 RAM

[Major_A]

A few things come to mind....
1) Your hard drive could be on it's way out. I had a drive go bad and that was the first sign of it failing. Run some benchmarks and see if it running normal. (HDTach, ATTO, HDTune, etc...) If that checks out go to your drive's website and see if they have drive tools to check the SMART status of the drive.
2) You are suffering from OS rot. Basically after you have an install of Windows the constant adding and uninstalling of programs starts to take it's toll. You may consider formating your drive and installing Windows fresh.
3) Turn off your CA Suite when you game. Lately those Suite's use a lot of resources even when the computer is idle.
4) Disable any non-essential services you have running in the background. Here is a decent guide on what you need and what you don't. http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

[skier]

i figured it was an aging XP home, it was initially installed in '04 when we got it, but i couldnt really imagine the HDD being dead, it has never had more than 40% full, mostly being 10-25% of 145G and i defragged a couple times with the XP defragger, and gonna do jkdefrag tonight if i have time

when you say turn off, do you mean disable each section, or ctrl+Alt+del and quit everything that starts with ca, because unlike my AVG, it does not have the option to close it

[hnzw_rui]

Don't defrag yet. If I were you, I'd backup all important files if you haven't done so already and then do some hard drive health checks.

If you have an extra hard drive in the PC, move page file to that hard drive instead of the one where Windows is installed.

I have a P4 Williamette (1.80? forgot the speed), 512MB RDRAM, GeForce 4 MX-2 (I believe) and Avast Anti-virus in the background, and it's even a bit faster than your PC. It might just be the hard drive, CA Suite or a crapped XP install.

[vbironchef]

What I would do is run cc cleaner, do a disc check, run a anti-spyware program, run a anti-virus program, defrag., reboot a couple of times. Do a windows update, update all drivers, drink a beer. See how it runs, If all that doesn't help then just have another beer. You could try to run pc optimize.

[skier]

long bench.JPG (99.16 KiB) Viewed 3369 times

is that about right for a SATA drive?

[Zertz]

Yeah it is, average performance.

According to HD Tune, my average transfer rate is 63MB/s, so your results seems about right for the harware you're using.

[stev]

You are using only using 504MB of RAM for NFS:ProStreet on high settings?

1Gb of RAM with 256Mb GPU RAM is ideal for ProStreet on high settings for the PC.

The 3.0Ghz CPU should run it really well.

Currently, my box in the sig plays NFS and Halo very well on high settings. It's a 1Gb RAM machine with a 3.0Ghz P4c Northwood, and a newly Geforce 6200 256Mb RAM. In other words, I just meet the high settings for ProStreet.

Grab yourself some good RAM to stick into that machine. Memory right now is at a good price now.

Also, if you have a second HDD in that machine, make it your virtual swap space.

All of this helps a bunch!

[skier]

hey, the game has really good framerates on highest, it's just when it has to go to loading, or when i "windows" key out to do something that it freaks out and takes forever, but it takes a while to load anything at all(well, it takes longer than it should)

well, im not playing prostreet on it anymore anyways because my bro got pissed because he wanted to burn a CD, and i unplugged the CDR because the psu didnt have enough molex connectors to use the PCIe converter so the x850 is back on the table

another question- if a board uses a 4pin and a 24pin, can u use a PSU with 4 pin and a 20pin?

[stev]

another question- if a board uses a 4pin and a 24pin, can u use a PSU with 4 pin and a 20pin?

No, not directly, but YES with an adapter. You can go from 24-to-20 and 20-to-24.

I have a 600W PSU with a 6-pin (CPU) and a 24-pin (MOBO) that needs an adapter to make the 6-pin into a 4-pin.