Extremely crappy fps

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bigwilly

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Joined
Mar 22, 2008
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I am getting an extremely crappy fps lately, mostly during higher traffic periods of the evening. At lunchtime, for example, it's almost normal. Here is my (old) comp that I built awhile ago:

P4 2.5 GHz
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Wireless internet (DSL)
Win XP

I have played TF2 with this config successfully since October (70 ping or so), and the image quality settings haven't changed. I've tried disabling all background programs, Antivirus and steam community to no avail (and neither caused problems in the past). Even reducing image quality settings helped little. I know I need a new comp, but I'm too po right now thanks to taxes. Any ideas?
 
well your vid card is def 1 of the biggest issues. i have a p4 3.2 & 2gb of mem, so im very close 2 u, but then again it depends on what kinda mem u use. but id say that you def need to upgrade ur vid card & if possible your mem.
 
same thing happens to me sometimes man i can drop down to as little as 9 fps...is that card agp? i recommend going into your BIOS and setting your agp aperture size to 256 mb....helped me out some
 
Yes, its an AGP vid card. I believe I've already set the aperture size to 256 mp, but will check. The thing that gets me is I haven't had this problem before. My comp always bogged some during extremely heated battles with close clusters of players, but now its pretty continual. Prior to 5:00 pm EST, I don't really get this problem too much. After 6:00 pm EST, I can forget about playing.
 
When was the last time you dusted your rig out? This may seem like a long shot but it might be worth checking out.

If the processor is taking on a heftier load during peak playing times, it could possibly be overheating due to dust, but at the same time it could be fine when it doesn't have to be at full load because it creates less heat, therefore the dust would not effect its performance as much.

Anyways, how hot is your processor during the times you get playable framerates compared to the times that you get horrible framerates? Also, when was the last time that you cleaned/dusted the inside of your rig?

The [possible] dust issue could be with the video card, as well, so check the temps of the GPU as well (if possible, I know that older chips don't always have temp. sensors).
 
TF2 is also a HUGE ram hog... 1gig is pushing your luck. With only 1 gig, parts of the game that start to get crowded or the intensity picks up, like 10 people in on area with a lot of explosions going off, will fill your ram up quickly and push it to its limits. If dusting and whatnot doesn't help like doobs said, and you need a quick fix and don't have the money for a new comp, see if you can get a cheap 1 gig stick from newegg. Other than that, it's probably time to upgrade.
 
Also, preform a spyware and adware scan if you havn't already, and do a disk defrag. All of these can increase performance. Another thing you will want to do is get the latest drivers for your video card... before your install it though, you might want to make a system restore point on your machine.... incase for some reason you get the BSoD. Your system should make one on it's own, but I would go ahead and do one myself.
 
It was OK earlier today, but soon it will probably be slow again due to traffic. I know more ram will help, but the problem I'm having is something I didn't have before. The vid card drivers are the latest so it's not that. I'll try the spyware/adware scan and see what happens.
 
disable antivirus scanners too....i didnt c much performance difference when i did this but it might help you ;)
 
How long have you had that video card? It might be burning out if you have had it for like 2 years now... Stuff starts to fail over time :)
 
Thatguy, I think you are on to something. I got the vid card not too long after it had come out, so it's old. I went to dust out the comp, and noticed the vid card fan was moving slow, especially compared to the CPU fan. I touched the back of the card, and it was hot! I don't know how much longer this card will last before dying. What are my options for replacing an AGP vid card?
 
I did the spyware check, fixed a few problems, still no change. I also did the disable virus scan, but didn't help either.
 
I am in a conundrum. Computer 1's statistics are as follows:
Intel Core Duo 1.8Ghz Processor
1 GB RAM
ATI x1650 128 MB VRAM
Windows XP
Wireless Internet

Computer 2's statistics are as follows:
Intel Blar de Blar something four 2.7 Ghz Processor
ATI XPress 200 Series
1 GB RAM
Windows XP
Wired Internet

Computer 1 used to play TF2 seamlessly. It was a verily joyous experience to watch it play. Computer 2 played it, albeit with lowered graphical settings, to a similarly satisfactory standard.

Recently, however, computer 1 seems to be having a lot more lag. It is apparently client-side, because the ping is irrelevant. Computer 2, on the other hand, seems to have been having a lot less - even though the average ping is around the same.

Am I turning insane?
 
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