9800GTX based machine, sudden performance drops.

Alrighty guys, I built this computer and I love it, but I am having a few issues. I play star craft and its good and smooth..... most of the time, I have one freeze up and it tells me to lower my performance settings to get a better quality. What settings should I use for my over all computer to keep up with all that the game needs? When I first downloaded the game it said I meet the minimum requirements that starcraft needed to run and I would love to meet the full standards so I can enjoy the game more. Plus I tried to play a demo of modern warfare and it cracked out and went crazy colors and froze. I have spent way to much money on this computer for the quality to be equal to my grandmas 10 year old ACER. Please someone help me get this PC full throttle.

 

I did the fur test and showed a constant High quality output from the video card and the game does great most of the time, every now and then it tells me to adjust my performance options to get better game play and I have no clue what to adjust because I'm a dumb newbie. I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX. Any help is appreciated.

 

First post a dxdiag so we can see what drivers are installed. To run dxdiag=> Windows_logo_key+r, dxdiag. If you have 64-bit windows, click the button at the button that says "Run 64-bit DxDiag," Then save all the data by clicking "Save All Information..." zip/rar the text file and attach it to the post. Instructions on how to zip here. To create a rar file, first download and install winRAR then read this guide here.

You are talking about StarCraft 1 now, correct? We'll start getting the system in good health first. Post the dxdiag in this thread. What virus protection are you using? If you have none, install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, and its light on system resources. It's also damn good.

 

How long did you run Furmark? I usually run it overnight to burn in the graphics card. Needless to say, I have adequate cooling when I do so. While the issue with SC2 might just be because the card isn't fast enough for that specific scenario, the fact that it gave you all those errors and froze while running another game points to a hardware error. Admittedly, it may also be a driver issue. However, I suggest stress-testing the heck out of your build while you're still within the return period - Memtest, Linpack/Prime95, the works. Oh yeah, monitor system temps while you're at it to see if anything's overheating. HWMonitor usually works for me.

As for quality, are you currently using ultra? If so, consider dropping down settings to high. Minimal image quality loss for a massive performance increase.

 

9800GTX should run SC2 flawlessly and Modern Warfare 1 & 2 as well... if it flips out like on that modern warfare then first of all make sure the drivers are up to date 258.96 version i believe it is. If that doesnt fix your problem it could very well be a defective card so since the PC is new just RMA it and get a replacement.

Something worth noting there are lots of issues with SC2 and Nvidia Drivers not playing nice right now so we just need to wait for official releases of updates patches etc.

Best thing i've done was set everything to ultra then drop shaders and shadows both to medium and it runs a lot smoother. Lowering texture quality will also help.

Though your video card is not the only thing that matters in getting good fps #s CPU and RAM also makes an impact aswell as the power needed to have it all juiced up

 

I will paste what all I put into my computer at the end of this post. I have not ran the dxdiag yet but will soon. I did run fur mark for 8 hours straight and it stayed very cool. I played again last night and everytime I would complete a mission it would start to go ack to the ship or another screen and it would just be all black on the screen almost like it was confused on where to go. Graphic have been great yesterday and today but will still mess up going between parts of the game. Some times the mouse wil be on the black screen but that is all. Usual if I let it set it will either take me back to my decktop or will completely reboot my computer and want me to send an error report.

My Build:

EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800GTX 512MB DDR3 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics Card

Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply compatible with Intel Core i7 and Core i5

Cooler Master RC-922M-KKN1-GP HAF 922M ATX Mid Tower Case (Black)

Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5C 4GB XMS2 PC2-6400 800Mhz 240-pin Dual Channel DDR2 Desktop Memory

Samsung 22X DVD/RW SATA Drive SH-S223C/BEBE (Black)

Cooler Master R4-LUS-07AR-GP MegaFlow 200mm LED Case Fan (Red)

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKB 500GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor - C3 Revision HDZ555WFGMBOX

 

I find it odd that you would have an EIDE ATA hard drive in this machine, why not SATA? Any SATA hard drive would offer better loading performance. Are you using an 80-conductor cable on the hard drive (If not, then this most certainly is your issue)?

As for your motherboard model, is it missing a letter?
GA-MA785GMT-UD2H or GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H? It's just a few letters off... XD Just want that information so the dxdiag will make more sense...

 

Same Problem

So i have the exact same issue as Lost Cause 44. My computer is very close to the same specs as his as I built if off the main article that Joneagle wrote. Only real difference is I have a GeForce GTS 250, which has the exact same tech specs as Lostcauses Geforce 9800

Bottom line, I cannot run Starcraft 2 on ultra smoothly. It freezes for 2 seconds every 30 seconds. I feel i've installed everything properly, but before you go on about how I should run programs to check it I wanted to ask this,

Is it possible that our video cards just aren't powerful enough? We both have the same issue.
Thoughts?

 

I'm using a GTS 250 and I get smooth framerates on ultra unless I enable AA. Albeit, I'm using a faster CPU (Core i7-860) than the Phenom II X2 550. I suggest dropping down the CPU-dependent settings (Reflections & PhysX) to medium or high and see how that affects framerates.

 

The hard drive that I have is a Western digital 1tb blue edition. It hooks up through sata to a sata port on the mother board. Some of the stuff you are asking you may have to dmb down for me just a tad. I am a total newb at this computer building jazz. I feel I have done ok for my first build but just need some guidance. When I get home from work I will get you the dixdg or whatever it was you were asking for and see what you say. I have no clue what kind of cable you are refering to.

 

Both models exist, albeit, I think one of them is out of production.
785G = chipset
P = sideport memory (although I could be wrong about this)
M = microATX
T = DDR3
UD2 = Ultra Durable 2
H = HDMI? (again, could be wrong about this one)

Since you're using SATA, ignore the cable comments. Doesn't apply to you. You posted the wrong hard drive model in the specs you gave above.

 

This is my dxdig or whatever it is. If you need all of it let me know, I didn't know if you just needed the system info or more.

System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 9/2/2010, 21:10:46
Machine name: COOPER
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: GA-MA785GM-US2H
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 555 Processor, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 507MB used, 4702MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode
DxDiag Previously: Crashed in system information (stage 4)

 

I want the entire DXdiag.. although I'd just stop. Windows XP is a poor choice for your setup, you are loosing out on 1GB of system RAM because of the 4GB memory limit (so your video cards RAM takes priority over the last 1GB of system RAM).

Okay, so the drive isn't EIDE..... awesome. XD

Follow the previous instructions I posted on saving your dxdiag and zip+attach to a post.. or skip that for now, go install Windows 7 64-bit and THEN run 64-bit dxdiag.

I am going to post my 9800GTX configuration for nVidia soon. *edit* Posted them here.

 

it might be the amount of vram u have
sc2 can eat up to half a gig plus whatever windows uses

 

What I am running into in other threads too.. is just.. I can't find REAL SATA drivers for AMD chipsets. There are these drivers that "claim to be" SATA drivers, but the driver inf's do not show any hardware strings that are close.

Plenty of people on similar configs but with AMD video cards are having this issue too... just seems many of them are appearing now.

As for THIS thread... I can't really look into any problem until after a DXDiag is posted, because I have no clue what drivers are installed and what is missing (and how to track down those drivers) until I see a full report.

 

I apologize it has taken me so long to get back, i have had some things come up in life. I will get on my build and pull up my dixgig or whatever its called and have it posted tonight.

 

attached zipped file with my DXDiag in it. please give me some advice. I am in the process of trying to get windows 7 64 bit on my computer.

 

I'll leave it up to you if you want to try Windows XP first, go to your motherboards website and download the following drivers from its downloads page:

-AMD Chipset Driver
-Realtek PCIe LAN Driver
-Realtek Function driver for Realtek Azalia audio chip (Including Microsoft UAA/HDMI Driver
-Microsoft UAA

You also need the newest XP nVidia driver.

Even after installing Windows 7, you will need to install this same software, just the Windows 7 64-bit versions. Let me know what you want to do. Might as well give XP a shot if it will take awhile to get Windows 7!

Chipset software seems the most important thing to install on AMD motherboards of the SB7xx and SB8xx series.

Feel free to post a new DXDiag after installing all of that software, although I get the feeling your'll be busy playing StarCraft II.

 

I have now put vista home primium 64 bit on my desktop and will install the drivers as you suggested and will let you know how it goes. I appriciate all the help you have given to a newb. Most people wont take the time out of there lives to help others.

 

Vista 64-bit would work just as well. Don't worry about the time.. i got plenty of it while I look for work.