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alexd10

Originally Posted by Jelly Bean

Hello alex just put old stick in first slot next to CPU and the new stick next to it.

See how she starts up.

Just did that. Very little improvement if any during gameplay. Games are still unplayable. This is so frustrating

alexd10

Could it possibly be a combination of two things?

1. Ram non-compatible with motherboard -> resolved
2. faulty video card???

Although the detail is very good on the highest resolution. Everything is very sharp. The games are just very very slow

Cobracon

Hello Alexd 10,
Do you have any software installed that will monitor your video card's temperature while you are running your games?? If the games start out pretty fast then slow down, I'd say it's a heat problem even though you said you have a couple of fans running. You might also want to monitor your CPU's temperature at the same time.

Are the core clock and memory clock speeds of your new card the same as your old card??

BTW, you can install faster RAM than your board requires, as the shop used your old PC3200 and your board calls for PC2700. Doing so will NOT potentially slow down anything. If you did the reverse though, install slower RAM than the CPU/motherboard require, then your speed will be affected. The faster RAM will just run at the slower speed by default. Of course you already know this because you tried it. The deal is, you wouldn't go out and buy faster RAM than you needed, but you already had it, so the shop was correct in installing it. They should be thanked for not bending the truth and selling you something you really don't need.

alexd10 · 02:23 AM

Originally Posted by Cobracon

Hello Alexd 10,
Do you have any software installed that will monitor your video card's temperature while you are running your games?? If the games start out pretty fast then slow down, I'd say it's a heat problem even though you said you have a couple of fans running. You might also want to monitor your CPU's temperature at the same time.

Are the core clock and memory clock speeds of your new card the same as your old card??

BTW, you can install faster RAM than your board requires, as the shop used your old PC3200 and your board calls for PC2700. Doing so will NOT potentially slow down anything. If you did the reverse though, install slower RAM than the CPU/motherboard require, then your speed will be affected. The faster RAM will just run at the slower speed by default. Of course you already know this because you tried it. The deal is, you wouldn't go out and buy faster RAM than you needed, but you already had it, so the shop was correct in installing it. They should be thanked for not bending the truth and selling you something you really don't need.

Thanks for clearing that up, I guess I will run 2 GB of ram now. With regards to speeds of the new card, I am sure they are more because this used to be a high end card when I got it. Heck, even when I was running my Nvidia fx5200, I could get 40 fps on counterstrike with the exact same system I have now except motherboard.

I'm downloading the Nvidia temperature software now, will let you know of the results. I should also add that at the same time I got the new motherboard put in, I installed a second fan. Before, I used to only have one and I believe the system used to overheat a good deal. However it would not decrease performance (the computer would just restart at a random time)

alexd10 · 03:35 AM

Here is a screen shot of my temperature monitor. This is just after restarting:

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/9061/tempski8.jpg

Immediately after playing San andreas for 15 minutes:

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3623/temps2zu1.jpg

Cobracon

OK, based on your screenshots, heat isn't a problem as they are more than acceptible. I didn't mention it before, but there are temperature programs that will log your data and you can go back later and view what's happening at any given time.

I did a quick search because of specifications you posted for the old and new card. Right off the bat I see that the memory interface for your old card could be TWICE that of the new card. 256-bit (old) vs. 128-bit (new). A larger/wider bandwidth will allow faster throughput, as in FPS (possibly??). I found a review that said even though the 9500 had only 128MB of RAM, it had a 256-bit memory interface. Now, my quick search found the 6800GT AGP card has a 128-bit memory interface and 256MB of RAM. That might explain the speed drop experiencd with your new card.

Since you are now running PC2700 and PC3200 RAM, the previous suggestion that you populate the 1st slot (or whichever one your manual calls '0' or 'A'- the first slot) with the PC2700 is exactly right. Many boards set the default parameters for all the RAM based on what is in the 1st slot. It's better to have the PC3200 running like PC2700 rather than the other way around.

Of course the core and memory clock speeds will add/subtract from the performance difference between the cards depending on which way they go, and the amount of difference vs. the memory interface rate is to be considered. I didn't look very long, but I came up with approximately: 350MHz core clock and 450-500MHZ memory clock speeds for the 6800GT. I'd guess they are a little slower for the older card.

I said all of that to say this: I'm still scratching my head. I have some other thoughts, but I'll wait to see if you've given up on me and/or one of the experts has the solution at hand and is willing to interject.

alexd10

Originally Posted by Cobracon

OK, based on your screenshots, heat isn't a problem as they are more than acceptible. I didn't mention it before, but there are temperature programs that will log your data and you can go back later and view what's happening at any given time.

I did a quick search because of specifications you posted for the old and new card. Right off the bat I see that the memory interface for your old card could be TWICE that of the new card. 256-bit (old) vs. 128-bit (new). A larger/wider bandwidth will allow faster throughput, as in FPS (possibly??). I found a review that said even though the 9500 had only 128MB of RAM, it had a 256-bit memory interface. Now, my quick search found the 6800GT AGP card has a 128-bit memory interface and 256MB of RAM. That might explain the speed drop experiencd with your new card.

Since you are now running PC2700 and PC3200 RAM, the previous suggestion that you populate the 1st slot (or whichever one your manual calls '0' or 'A'- the first slot) with the PC2700 is exactly right. Many boards set the default parameters for all the RAM based on what is in the 1st slot. It's better to have the PC3200 running like PC2700 rather than the other way around.

Of course the core and memory clock speeds will add/subtract from the performance difference between the cards depending on which way they go, and the amount of difference vs. the memory interface rate is to be considered. I didn't look very long, but I came up with approximately: 350MHz core clock and 450-500MHZ memory clock speeds for the 6800GT. I'd guess they are a little slower for the older card.

I said all of that to say this: I'm still scratching my head. I have some other thoughts, but I'll wait to see if you've given up on me and/or one of the experts has the solution at hand and is willing to interject.

Thanks for your efforts, but I doubt this has anything to do with the video card switch over. Here is a simplified timeline:

Day 1 - Performance of old card is good. Everything runs smooth.
Day 2 - Motherboard blows up. New, different one is installed. Fan installed. Old card reinstalled. Performance of system is terrible.
Day 3 - Friend gives me his USED but a higher end video card. Made no difference to performance. He may have been overclocking it at one point though
Day 4 - Upgraded RAM. Made no difference to performance

What I mean to say is that, it was the terrible performance of the old card with the new motherboard that prompted me to get the new card. I am sure that I did everything to install the motherboard correctly software wise.