Legit Reviews

Hi Friends !

My System Config is as below -

Intel Core 2 Quad
Intel DG33FB Mo Board
2 GB Ram
XFX 8600 GTS 256 Mb
Windows XP Pro
Norton Internet Security 2007

Now, after upgrading my system to the above config (which i feel is good enough for gaming), my problem is that I feel I'm not getting a good performance from the system. I installed Call of Duty 4 Demo and also played many other games, and the performance is really not great.

Could it be because of the Norton 2007 ? I feel that I'm not getting full performance from my Quad Processor... I just wanted to request you to kindly help / guide me if I need to activate or enable any settings for my processor ? What can I do to test if my PC is working to its full potential.

Please help me friends...

Thanks and Regards
Kush

Hello and welcome!

What FPS are you getting and what FPS were you expecting? Game lagging, slow, artifacts, etc? Check in the game options to see if there are settings to play with multiple cores / threads.

Do you have the latest Nvidia drivers for your 8600gts?

Which monitor and resolution?

Most programs today will NOT give you "full performance" from a Quad, including most games. Do you have a Q6600?

What speed is your ram...DDR2 800 Mhz?

You are running XP, so your system cannot take advantage of DX10. Therefore the 8600gts may be part of the problem. That card is mid-level and has a 128bit bus. With XP you might be better off with a 7900gs or 7950gt, which have a 256bit bus. Your system with an 8800gts would be a completely different story. The 8800gts has a 320bit bus and is the preferred gaming card...for now. Don't get me wrong, the 8600gts is not a bad card by any means, its just not your best bet for that configuration and for gaming.

I ran Norton for a while, and it never hindered my performance, but Norton has been knows to cause issues. A surefire way to find out is to uninstall it.

That motherboard should be fine, but check the settings in your BIOS.

You can goto cpuid.com and download CPU-Z to check some of your system specs...or maybe even SiSoftware Sandra.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but CoD 4 is going to be rough on your 8600GTS. If you load up the demo the easiest way to increase frame rates without taking too much away from the visuals is to turn down or off shadows and turn off AA. Also get rid of Norton, it is a giant resource hog and there are better free alternatives out there. Also keep in mind that 99% of games will not take advantage of all four of your cores. It seems now that games are starting to become multi-threaded to use 2 cores.