Optimising New Gaming PC

tmcpartland

Hi There,

I recently built a new PC, getting parts from komplett. Here is rig :

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz
1Gb of OCZ Gold PC3200
Point Of View 7900GT 256MB
MSI K8N NEO4-F, nForce4
Power 400WT

Its running very well but just got F.E.A.R. on the go a couple of nights ago but its struggling on max settings. I think that i definately need another Gb of RAM, and will do soon once i get funds together.

I'm completely new to overclocking and havnt a clue about it but i gave it a go anyway with the AMD. Downloaded easy to use MSI core center and got the processor from 2.2 up to 2.44. Did this by incementing fsb to 222, also upped the vore to about 1.49V.

So now i tested this with F.E.A.R. set to max using the check settings in game options where it runs a cut scene and tells you the frame rate after. Was surprised to see that i was getting better frame rate with no O.C. Brought settings down to high and checked with O.C. and no O.C. but both gave exact readings.

I could realy do with some advise cause i think i have a bottle neck somewhere but dont know how to go about testing for it. e.g. software for benchmarking. never did this before and dont know how to .

Also i was checking overclocking options for my 7900gt and its set at 450/620. i thought the 7900gt were supposed to be 450/1320. if i select overclock option the highest i can bring it is to 450/800 but of course i didnt apply setting as i dont have clue what im at. I Have a hunch that the 450/620 means 460/1240 so didnt wanna put it on fire.

Would be very gratefull for some advise on what to do. will the extra gig of ram make a big difference? and should i not bother with O.C. till i get it and then see how its performing.

Thanks again

8T8

What sort of numbers do you get from the inbuilt FEAR benchmark ? Also what settings are you running at max everything minus soft shadows and AA/AF ?

Max:
Avg:
Min:

...% above 40fps
...% between 25-40fps
...% below 25fps


In regards the 7900GT the memory speed is DDR of course so that is 620Mhz but it's effective speed is 1240Mhz so you have to keep that in mind when overclocking so for example 650Mhz = 1300Mhz.

There is anomaly there alright as the stock speed of a 7900GT should be 450Mhz for the GPU and 660Mhz for the RAM which is where the 1320Mhz comes from. It may be yours is clocked slightly lower then normal but POV's own website says their 7900GT is clocked at 450/660.

Try using another program to detect the clock speeds just in case there is something else going on like Rivatuner, run it & under the target adapter section click customize, then from the pop up menu select the graphics subsystem and diagnostic report (the blue computer icon) in the new window scroll down to the bottom you will see memory clock listed with the effective speed also displayed.

tmcpartland

hi ya

thanks for reply. i cant remember the exact readings from the benchmark test but with the amd O.C. the lowest i got was around 19fps but not sure of %. will check later tonight again, sometime in between all the world cup mania :-) . When amd not O.C. its was around 30fps for min

as regards settings, i just had everything possible turned on, and up to the max.

good to know about the speed readings of the graphics card, thanks, that clock speed check sounds good.

Brend

I would definalty get the Ram, a couple of hoggets, and some good fencing wire. There is a great sheep mart in 2 mile borris in Tipp and a mighty co-op as well. here's the link.

http://www.twomileborris.com/page/twomileborris?catname=Local%20Shop

Now get back to work Tony.

layke

tmcpartland wrote:

Hi There,

I recently built a new PC, getting parts from komplett. Here is rig :

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz
1Gb of OCZ Gold PC3200
Point Of View 7900GT 256MB
MSI K8N NEO4-F, nForce4
Power 400WT

Its running very well but just got F.E.A.R. on the go a couple of nights ago but its struggling on max settings. I think that i definately need another Gb of RAM, and will do soon once i get funds together.

I'm completely new to overclocking and havnt a clue about it but i gave it a go anyway with the AMD. Downloaded easy to use MSI core center and got the processor from 2.2 up to 2.44. Did this by incementing fsb to 222, also upped the vore to about 1.49V.

So now i tested this with F.E.A.R. set to max using the check settings in game options where it runs a cut scene and tells you the frame rate after. Was surprised to see that i was getting better frame rate with no O.C. Brought settings down to high and checked with O.C. and no O.C. but both gave exact readings.

I could realy do with some advise cause i think i have a bottle neck somewhere but dont know how to go about testing for it. e.g. software for benchmarking. never did this before and dont know how to .

Also i was checking overclocking options for my 7900gt and its set at 450/620. i thought the 7900gt were supposed to be 450/1320. if i select overclock option the highest i can bring it is to 450/800 but of course i didnt apply setting as i dont have clue what im at. I Have a hunch that the 450/620 means 460/1240 so didnt wanna put it on fire.

Would be very gratefull for some advise on what to do. will the extra gig of ram make a big difference? and should i not bother with O.C. till i get it and then see how its performing.

Thanks again

Recommended: 3GHz or higher Pentium 4 or Athlon 3000+; 2GB RAM; fast DX9 graphics.

Firstly, yes to the RAM as the FEAR engine is a VERY demanding engine. Also you may want to think about investing in a 512mb card for that game.
Why the hell would you want to overclock that beast? It's near cutting edge and you may end up with smoking processor, I advise against it, you don't need it.

8T8

tmcpartland wrote:

hi ya

thanks for reply. i cant remember the exact readings from the benchmark test but with the amd O.C. the lowest i got was around 19fps but not sure of %. will check later tonight again, sometime in between all the world cup mania :-) . When amd not O.C. its was around 30fps for min

as regards settings, i just had everything possible turned on, and up to the max.

good to know about the speed readings of the graphics card, thanks, that clock speed check sounds good.

Well don't run the game with soft shadows turned on that will kill performance stone dead for comparison here are my benchmarks with FEAR at 1024x768 all details set to maximum minus - soft shadows, texture quality was set to trilinear for first results below.
Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 7800GTX, 2GB RAM

Max:184
Avg:76
Min:28

83% above 40fps
17% between 25-40fps
0% below 25fps

And same as above but with 4xAA and 16xAF, TrSS-AA & Gamma correct
Max:160
Avg:65
Min:28

81% above 40fps
19% between 25-40fps
0% below 25fps

PogMoThoin

Ya should score higher than that. I can. Have you tweaked your rig. I suggest GameXP. Turns off half the rubbish in Windows and gets you running at better speeds.
Download rivatuner rc 16 (Amazing prog). it can adjust overclocking for 3D and not overclock for 2D. Also you can adjust the fan speeds so that your fan isnt going at full speed at all times (cuts noise).
3dMark05 and 06 is great for benchmarking your system. You can compare Your rig with others with similar specs. Their forum is great for info. I got loads of info there.
FEAR is very heavy on RAM. I suggest you invest in another gig. Not that dear on ebay. Also there is a mod to be able to get FEAR to run at 1280x1024 if your system can handle it.

Dooom

layke wrote:

Firstly, yes to the RAM as the FEAR engine is a VERY demanding engine. Also you may want to think about investing in a 512mb card for that game.
Why the hell would you want to overclock that beast? It's near cutting edge and you may end up with smoking processor, I advise against it, you don't need it.

Nonsense!

A 256mb card is fine for FEAR, I've a 7800GTX running it with everything maxed and I don't get any slowdown (although I do have 2gb of RAM, which definately helps). 512mb cards are only an (alleged) necessity with things like Doom 3's Ultra quality setting.

As for overclocking, why not? It's quite hard to destroy a processor when oc'ing it, and the 3700+ is a brilliant oc'er. There's various fail-safes in place that automatically shut the comp down if it's pushed to far to prevent you destroying something.
All you have to know is the vague limits of your system (and not to push the voltage to high..) and it'll be fine.

8T8

Do not run that GameXP program PogMoThoin mentions it is nothing more than snake oil and degrades the image quality of games in order to achieve it's gains. It also unnecessarily disables systems services which disables functionality of the OS with the net gain being next to nothing.

As has been said FEAR is a program that likes lots of CPU and GPU power, the game should be perfectly playable with your current setup and max details enabled sans any AA/AF (though it should handle that too).

To repeat what Spike said a 512MB card is not needed, having 512MB only helps in games that were made to take advantage of it of which there are less than a handful & FEAR is not one of those games.

PogMoThoin

I ran GameXP 2 change all settings except visual windows settings (changes Xp themes etc). Makes a small but noticable difference 2 your system. Windows has lots of unnecessary ststem services that can be turned off. (Then again I only use my system 4 gaming, internet and music, nothing else!!!).
You should be getting more out of your system. Get Fraps and measure framerates in other games as well. (Can also take screenshots and record games with Fraps). Also definitely get 3DMark 05/06. its great for benchmarking your system to compare against others. post your results on the forum and others will tell you exactly what you should be scoring.

tmcpartland

8T8 wrote:

What sort of numbers do you get from the inbuilt FEAR benchmark ? Also what settings are you running at max everything minus soft shadows and AA/AF ?

Max:
Avg:
Min:

...% above 40fps
...% between 25-40fps
...% below 25fps


In regards the 7900GT the memory speed is DDR of course so that is 620Mhz but it's effective speed is 1240Mhz so you have to keep that in mind when overclocking so for example 650Mhz = 1300Mhz.

There is anomaly there alright as the stock speed of a 7900GT should be 450Mhz for the GPU and 660Mhz for the RAM which is where the 1320Mhz comes from. It may be yours is clocked slightly lower then normal but POV's own website says their 7900GT is clocked at 450/660.

Try using another program to detect the clock speeds just in case there is something else going on like Rivatuner, run it & under the target adapter section click customize, then from the pop up menu select the graphics subsystem and diagnostic report (the blue computer icon) in the new window scroll down to the bottom you will see memory clock listed with the effective speed also displayed.

settings i used was max on everything with no soft shadows and no aa/af

Max:61
Avg:53
Min:29

92...% above 40fps
8...% between 25-40fps
0...% below 25fps

checked out settings of graphics card and its running at 450/660 alright so thats ok.

i think i probably just need to overclock processor and more ram and should be ok. Thx

tmcpartland

Spike wrote:

Nonsense!

A 256mb card is fine for FEAR, I've a 7800GTX running it with everything maxed and I don't get any slowdown (although I do have 2gb of RAM, which definately helps). 512mb cards are only an (alleged) necessity with things like Doom 3's Ultra quality setting.

As for overclocking, why not? It's quite hard to destroy a processor when oc'ing it, and the 3700+ is a brilliant oc'er. There's various fail-safes in place that automatically shut the comp down if it's pushed to far to prevent you destroying something.
All you have to know is the vague limits of your system (and not to push the voltage to high..) and it'll be fine.

Hi Spike,
Would you mind recommending any oc software for the 3700+ and other software for benchmarking to see if its making better or worse cause with my overclock using msi core center (2.2 - 2.4) i got worse performance with fear benchmark test.

Thx

Dooom

Something sounds a bit wrong if you're getting worse performance, that shouldn't happen at all.
Download 3dMark, and bench your system with that with and without overclocks.

Also, pop into the BIOS and have a look around there - there'll be various CPU settings such as multipliers and fsb's. If you're not comfortable doing that, there's numerous walkthroughs about the place, just google for it.

I'd be more specific, but I'm trying to rid my self of a blasted trojan at the moment, if I get a chance later I'll give you some links (or just have a look at the Tweaking/Modding forum, there's some useful info in there).

8T8

tmcpartland wrote:

settings i used was max on everything with no soft shadows and no aa/af

Max:61
Avg:53
Min:29

92...% above 40fps
8...% between 25-40fps
0...% below 25fps

checked out settings of graphics card and its running at 450/660 alright so thats ok.

i think i probably just need to overclock processor and more ram and should be ok. Thx

Well the good news is that is shows the vast majority of the time it is above 40fps so the game will be perfectly playable at those settings.

Your Max 61fps I'm not totally sure about I though it would have been a little higher but nothing to worry about.

Do check some other things beforehand;
You don't have AA or AF forced on in the NV control panel
V-Sync is disabled in game
Make sure your using recent drivers like the 91.28 or 91.31 (I had strange control panel issues with the 91.31 though)
Do install the latest FEAR patch 1.05 also get the UK English one not the US English one to save yourself downloading the wrong (& large) file.

Last but not least make sure the rest of the system drivers are up to date, don't know what kind of motherboard or sound you have so here is the only one I can be sure on the AMD CPU driver.

If all the above don't improve the frame rate by even a small amount then your best overclocking the CPU to get any more gains out of it.

_CreeD_

Yup looks like Vsync is enabled (Check the Nvidia CP to make sure it isn't forced their either, also the FEAR profile should be set to Application controlled in case you changed it).

tmcpartland

8T8 wrote:

Well the good news is that is shows the vast majority of the time it is above 40fps so the game will be perfectly playable at those settings.

Your Max 61fps I'm not totally sure about I though it would have been a little higher but nothing to worry about.

Do check some other things beforehand;
You don't have AA or AF forced on in the NV control panel
V-Sync is disabled in game
Make sure your using recent drivers like the 91.28 or 91.31 (I had strange control panel issues with the 91.31 though)
Do install the latest FEAR patch 1.05 also get the UK English one not the US English one to save yourself downloading the wrong (& large) file.

Last but not least make sure the rest of the system drivers are up to date, don't know what kind of motherboard or sound you have so here is the only one I can be sure on the AMD CPU driver.

If all the above don't improve the frame rate by even a small amount then your best overclocking the CPU to get any more gains out of it.

Hey Thanks.

Got the frame rate sorted. VSync was turned on. turned it off and its flying

Min - 36
Aver - 86
Max - 238

0 below 25
8 between 25-40
92 above 40

Never knew what VSync did. Checked it out and saw conflicting comments on whether its best to use it or not. Mine is far better with it off. Fear Runs smoothly with other programs running in background. I still have soft shadows off, i think that needs to be saved for when i get another gig of ram. pushing it with only 1.:)

K.O.Kiki

tmcpartland wrote:

I still have soft shadows off, i think that needs to be saved for when i get another gig of ram. pushing it with only 1.:)

I know I'm late to the party, but words of advice: even another gig of RAM won't make running with Soft Shadows ON anything but painful.
Plus, it doesn't even look that good. Save your moolah for something else.