Do I need to buy a new video card?

johnnydoe · Post by **johnnydoe** » 19 Jun 2009, 07:40

Hello, it seems that when I'm running a game (any game, for example I just tried out overlord II demo), and everything's smooth until randomly in about 8 minutes or every 8 minutes frame rate drops suddenly and then goes back to smooth. Is it because my card getting old? I have the geforce 8800 gtx. Drivers are updated and all. What should I do?

Thanks for any help.

Tommy Trauma · Post by **Tommy Trauma** » 19 Jun 2009, 10:34

That almost sounds like the CPU is throttling down. Is the inside of your case real dusty?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 20 Jun 2009, 13:46

Background process kicking in? Like antivirus or anti-spyware check or something?

Post by **Gilly** » 20 Jun 2009, 15:50

hows the CPU and gpu temperatures?

Cynagen · Post by **Cynagen** » 20 Jun 2009, 16:04

hows the CPU and gpu temperatures?

I'm going to say it's not so much CPU/GPU temps, but more than likely less ram causing the windows kernel to hit the pagefile a lot harder, that'll slow things down on an almost regular basis. See if there's any specific scene elements that are common at every slowdown, whether it be a large textured something, or possibly a rendering effect.

If you want to follow up on the CPU/GPU temp idea though, you'll need 2 programs.

GPU-Z for GPU temperatures, and SpeedFan for all other thermal sensors (including inside your harddrives).

Post by **g00seberry** » 20 Jun 2009, 16:38

Sounds like the kinda problem I had. Are you using Vista? Try disabling Aero and see if it persists.

johnnydoe · Post by **johnnydoe** » 22 Jun 2009, 05:33

I also have a thermaltake armor case, so i don't think cooling or heating would be a problem. Tommy, are you saying amount of dust can interfere with graphics card? Think i should leave the case open and see how it runs?

perhaps i just should give up pc gaming and enter the world of consoles...

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 22 Jun 2009, 14:49

If you live in a fairly dusty environment (and if you live in a big city, it's gonna be dusty) then any computer that doesn't use dust filters on the fans is going to get dusty. Quite quickly, too. The graphics card can suffer the most from it, as the heatsinks aren't huge and the fans spin very fast. So a little dust clogging the heatsink up can really make temperatures rocket.

Don't run with the case open... well, actually, yes, you can (point a desk fan at the open side) and see if that makes any difference... but have a look at the heatsinks and fans and see how much dust is built up. If it's a lot, take a can of compressed air to it to get as much off as possible, then CAREFULLY Hoover the dust up.

If dust is the issue, modern consoles will suffer just as much - both the PS3 and the 360 run rather hot, and rely on good airflow to keep cool.

skeeder · Post by **skeeder** » 22 Jun 2009, 18:27

sounds like driver issues.

johnnydoe · Post by **johnnydoe** » 23 Jun 2009, 00:53

Ok, can anyone give me a list of what actually bothers the graphics card? Thanks.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 23 Jun 2009, 10:22

Dust. Air flow. Drivers. Power supply. And sometimes it seems like even the phase of the moon.

Post by **g00seberry** » 23 Jun 2009, 14:16

Sounds like the kinda problem I had. Are you using Vista? Try disabling Aero and see if it persists.

Are you? Have you? Because this was the exact problem I was having and this solved it.

The FPS plummeting down to single figures then restoring to a smooth amount again doesn't sound like overheating to me. Overheating has never reduced my frames like this. It's resulted in artefacts then lockup.

If you run a game windowed, then click off it, the frame rate drops terribly in the game whilst it's not active. I'd say there's some kind of background process which is popping under and running taking away priority from the game.

Look at software, forget hardware for now IMO.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 23 Jun 2009, 17:07

I'd say there's some kind of background process which is popping under and running taking away priority from the game.

Look at software, forget hardware for now IMO.

That was my first thought too - hence what I said originally.

It's easy to blame problems on hardware... but more often than not, when it's something like that rather than an out-and-out failure of the entire system... it's software that's the problem.

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