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Poor performance on a 7900GS + Pentium D

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Reply 20 of 94, by wirerogue

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I use the 94.24 forceware drivers for my 7900 GTX and they work well with half Life 2, far cry, quake 4, call of duty 2, Oblivion, fear and others.

Reply 21 of 94, by The Serpent Rider

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Download Everest Free Edition, you'll most likely see correct measurements from CPU cores.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 22 of 94, by ENunn

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-07-01, 01:56:

Download Everest Free Edition, you'll most likely see correct measurements from CPU cores.

nothing

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Reply 23 of 94, by darry

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Ambient temp is fine at 70F .

Prime95 is a good choice for loading .

If the temp indicated does not move at all during gaming, it puts into doubt that temperature reading's validity (unless the CPU fan just happens to accelerate enough to compensate, which is doubtful, IMHO). Maybe that sensor is an internal case temp sensor (51 would be quite hot for an internal case temperature, especially with 70F (21C) ambient room temp) .

Reply 24 of 94, by ENunn

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darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 01:59:

Ambient temp is fine at 70F .

Prime95 is a good choice for loading .

If the temp indicated does not move at all during gaming, it puts into doubt that temperature reading's validity (unless the CPU fan just happens to accelerate enough to compensate, which is doubtful, IMHO). Maybe that sensor is an internal case temp sensor (51 would be quite hot for an internal case temperature, especially with 70F (21C) ambient room temp) .

Yeah I did a few minutes of Prime95 and it went up about a degree or two, nothing too special.

the

Reply 25 of 94, by darry

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ENunn wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:03:
darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 01:59:

Ambient temp is fine at 70F .

Prime95 is a good choice for loading .

If the temp indicated does not move at all during gaming, it puts into doubt that temperature reading's validity (unless the CPU fan just happens to accelerate enough to compensate, which is doubtful, IMHO). Maybe that sensor is an internal case temp sensor (51 would be quite hot for an internal case temperature, especially with 70F (21C) ambient room temp) .

Yeah I did a few minutes of Prime95 and it went up about a degree or two, nothing too special.

Did CPU-Z indicate any clock speed reduction ? Again, that 51C indicating sensor may not be the actual CPU temperature .

EDIT: If CPU speed stays at 2.8GHz in CPU-Z while running Prime95, I would guess the CPU is not throttling (not 100% sure, as it is not clear to me exactly how this CPU throttles when it does) .

Last edited by darry on 2020-07-01, 02:14. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 27 of 94, by wirerogue

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i've had zero luck with real time temperature monitoring on my dell machine with a socket 775, dell intel 925x motherboard and a pentium 4.
i doubt your dell intel 945p chipset board is any different in this respect.

Reply 28 of 94, by darry

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ENunn wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:13:

Doesn't seem like it, no.
2020063021123224.png

Well, if it is somehow throttling, it is not showing it . I guess we should assume that it isn't .

wirerogue suggested some older Forceware drivers he is using with his 7900GTX . Probably worth a shot .

Reply 29 of 94, by ENunn

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wirerogue wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:17:

i've had zero luck with real time temperature monitoring on my dell machine with a socket 775, dell intel 925x motherboard and a pentium 4.
i doubt your dell intel 945p chipset board is any different in this respect.

Wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:17:

Well, if it is somehow throttling, it is not showing it . I guess we should assume that it isn't .

wirerogue suggested some older Forceware drivers he is using with his 7900GTX . Probably worth a shot .

Already tried that and it didn't work sadly.

the

Reply 30 of 94, by darry

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ENunn wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:18:
Wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. […]
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wirerogue wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:17:

i've had zero luck with real time temperature monitoring on my dell machine with a socket 775, dell intel 925x motherboard and a pentium 4.
i doubt your dell intel 945p chipset board is any different in this respect.

Wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:17:

Well, if it is somehow throttling, it is not showing it . I guess we should assume that it isn't .

wirerogue suggested some older Forceware drivers he is using with his 7900GTX . Probably worth a shot .

Already tried that and it didn't work sadly.

Extreme long shot : Does your BIOS allow disabling one of the CPU cores ?

Reply 31 of 94, by ENunn

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darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:28:

Extreme long shot : Does your BIOS allow disabling one of the CPU cores ?

Yep, it does. Just disabled dual core, no difference.

the

Reply 32 of 94, by darry

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ENunn wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:32:
darry wrote on 2020-07-01, 02:28:

Extreme long shot : Does your BIOS allow disabling one of the CPU cores ?

Yep, it does. Just disabled dual core, no difference.

I'm stumped, at this point . I will post back if I have any other ideas . Sorry .

Reply 33 of 94, by cyclone3d

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Ok, how is the RAM installed in the system? Are you sure you aren't running in single channel instead of dual channel?

Have you replaced the thermal paste for the CPU cooler? Those Dell computers tend to have the paste break down and separate, causing hot spots on the CPU so even though the CPU temp may be reading normal, you may still have problems.

Is the cooler a heatpipe design or just a big hunk of aluminum? Either way, those idle temps seem high to me.

What does task manager say as far as the CPU usage at "idle"?

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Reply 34 of 94, by ENunn

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 03:20:

Ok, how is the RAM installed in the system? Are you sure you aren't running in single channel instead of dual channel?

Dual channel, 2GB.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 03:20:

Have you replaced the thermal paste for the CPU cooler? Those Dell computers tend to have the paste break down and separate, causing hot spots on the CPU so even though the CPU temp may be reading normal, you may still have problems.

I replaced it when I took off the heatsink while replacing the PSU. I had the same problem before the PSU upgrade/thermal paste change. I needed a new PSU anyways because a 300W wasn't enough to power a 7900GS.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 03:20:

Is the cooler a heatpipe design or just a big hunk of aluminum? Either way, those idle temps seem high to me.

It's one of these, I guess this is a heatpipe.

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 03:20:

What does task manager say as far as the CPU usage at "idle"?

Nothing out of the ordinary, around 0-6%.

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Reply 35 of 94, by cyclone3d

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Ok... Is there a PCI latency setting in the BIOS?

What IRQ is the sound card using? Is it sharing it with anything else?

What happens if you disable the sound in the games you are having trouble with? What about if you disable it in the device manager?

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Reply 36 of 94, by ENunn

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 05:14:

Ok... Is there a PCI latency setting in the BIOS?

Nope.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 05:14:

What IRQ is the sound card using? Is it sharing it with anything else?

Don't know where that is, it's just the built in sound card on the motherboard.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 05:14:

What happens if you disable the sound in the games you are having trouble with? What about if you disable it in the device manager?

Holy crap. Disabling my audio device in the Device Manager fixed the THUG2 stutering. HL2 performance still isn't that great though 🙁

I don't know what to do about the audio. I downloaded the drivers straight from Dell.

the

Reply 37 of 94, by cyclone3d

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What version of HL2 are you running? Is there a Multicore setting in Video -> Advanced. If so, try disabling it.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/290930/discuss … 91147597938859/

Also see here for stutters and I guess maybe low fps depending on how often it is loading assets:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/m … im-sure-for-me/

Also, if you need a specific older version of the Nvidia drivers, let me know. I downloaded the ftp when it was speculated that it was going to be going away.
I should have everything up to 178.24... actually, they are still available from the old nvidia download site:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/

There are drivers up to 93.71 on vogonsdrivers:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid= … &menustate=14,1

Did fps change at all in HL2 after disabling audio?

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Reply 38 of 94, by ENunn

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 06:04:

What version of HL2 are you running? Is there a Multicore setting in Video -> Advanced. If so, try disabling it.

Original 2004 version, 2187. ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶t̶r̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶u̶r̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶S̶t̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶S̶t̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶(̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶X̶P̶)̶.̶
I apparently already have the Steam version installed. Doesn't really make a difference sadly. It might be worse than the original but can't 100% confirm.. Disabling multicore makes no difference.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 06:04:

Also see here for stutters and I guess maybe low fps depending on how often it is loading assets:

Didn't work.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 06:04:

Also, if you need a specific older version of the Nvidia drivers, let me know. I downloaded the ftp when it was speculated that it was going to be going away.
I should have everything up to 178.24... actually, they are still available from the old nvidia download site:

I don't need a specific driver, I already got what I need. Thanks though 😀

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-07-01, 06:04:

Did fps change at all in HL2 after disabling audio?

A little. 2-3 fps or so? It still never reaches 60fps, my hardware is more than capable or surpassing that.

EDIT: Did a fresh format and clean install (needed one anyways), no difference. Something's wrong. My PSU is more than enough to power my GPU, my CPU should be fine. I'm stumped.

the

Reply 39 of 94, by candle_86

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Check your gpu speeds with Everest and check fan speeds, if the 7900gs has a fan failure or can't ramp up it defaults to 2d clocks, also change the 14 year old tim.

Those cards will stick to 2d clock if they overheat, don't get enough power, fan doesn't spin right.