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Need help - problems with my new rig
Hello everybody.
So I built myself a new gaming rig about a week ago. It runs like a dream outside of applications; it boots about 5x faster than my old comp, and it loads up programs way speedier. However, when I get into the games, my performance crashes and burns.
Tested out my new tech on CoD: Black Ops and Sanctum yesterday. The framerate was so unbelievably slow (under 10 fps easily) that it rendered the entire game, including campaign on lowest settings, completely unplayable. Same deal with Sanctum; my only gameplay was glimpses of the game in freeze-resume-freeze mode before the screen flicked over to an image of my dead body.
My graphics card is fairly shithouse (ATI Radeon HD 4250) but I wanted to see if there was another reason. I've downloaded every driver possible that is related to the problem, but its still doing me no good. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Do I need to manually adjust the graphics card to actually get it to work? Do I need a new one entirely? Any assistance is appreciated.
Specs: CPU = Four "Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition"s
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4250
RAM: 8gb
Monitor: SyncMaster BX2240
I'm really sick of the whole "There's a massive fanbase for X", or "Y would be a WoW-killer if it just had a chance".
There is no massive conspiracy waiting in the MMO playerbase.
There are no "sleeper-agent fans" waiting to convert once the X or Y is unleashed on the world.
Comments
There's your problem. You need a video card, and don't have one.
So you built a gaming computer and didnt buy a graphic card.........?
Nope, no other reason.
Graphics card is what makes 3D applications go. Bad graphics card = bad performance. It's not like the game detects your hardware and says, "oh look, the graphics card is pants...I'll run all my graphics on the CPU." It wouldn't work very well even if it did.
My thoughts exactly...
But the good news is you can pick up a decent mid-range video card for about $120 - $140.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
Yep... defnitly the vid card. When it comes to gaming, it's easily 85-90% of your framerate performance, unless you don't have enough memory(which you do).
Keep in mind ATI's number convention is a bit funky. Last 3 digits matter the most. If you were to pick up a 6250, for example, it wouldn't be much better. anything under #750 is not suited for gaming.
Thanks guys, very helpful. To be technical, I didn't construct all of it myself, some other people helped me with it. Obviously it might not have been a good idea to give somebody money for graphics and tell them to go get it - next time I might look into everything myself more closely.
Once again, feedback appreciated. The mystery is solved.
I'm really sick of the whole "There's a massive fanbase for X", or "Y would be a WoW-killer if it just had a chance".
There is no massive conspiracy waiting in the MMO playerbase.
There are no "sleeper-agent fans" waiting to convert once the X or Y is unleashed on the world.
It may be possible to fix the problem by adding a video card. Post the rest of your system specs, including your case, motherboard, and power supply.
Since those are console ports, you should be able to play those games with a 4250. Granted not on the highest settings, but still playable. In terms of graphics performance. Its about at the same level as the top range 5 years ago. Make sure in your Catalyst control center that everything is set to application decide, and Wait for Verticle Refresh is set to Always Off. Turn all your settings in game to lowest, test your frame rate, then slowly raise them until you get at a nice balance between playability and visuals.
Like everyone else has said... the graphics card is the problem. I remember a few years ago when i got Prototype i tried playing it with a GeForce 3150SE stock card in my HP..... it took more than 5 mins just to load the screen... movement happened in 30 second blips. I upgraded to my GTX 260... greatest investment ever. Still havent played a game that i cant play on at least high graphics, but most of them i play on Ultra. If i might make a suggestion... make sure you have the Wattage to support the new graphics card you choose and the rest of your system. I was unfortunate enough to not know that before i bought mine. Your system will just shut off within minutes(never a good thing). If you knew that already you probably stopped reading... if not seek further assistance if you need it, we're here to help.
A 6850 or 6770 will work with just about any system, even those with low wattage power supplies. Now it won't do anything for you if your power supply is crappy and blows up, but those cards don't take a lot of juice to run and give pretty good graphics, and for not a lot of money.