Team Fortress 2 lag (not internet or graphic problem)

[BlueL]

I bought Orange Box 2 weeks ago and I have been having lag problems with TF2.
my specs are Intel T5550, 4 GB of ram, 64 bit vista home premium, ATI HD 2600 2 gig of the memory.
It isn't like a 60 second interval, its more like I can play 10 minutes GREAT and then it starts lagging for 5-10 minutes at 20 fps. Then I can play great. Its very random.
I can play other games like BF2142 and CSS with no lag. In the server my ping does not spike, its just my fps that goes down.

Also I play TF2 and all my other orange box games on high setting with no lag (except in TF2 for those periods of lag).

Can someone please help?

 

[Sabor]

When it happens try minimizing and pulling up your task manager and see if your PC Usage is locked up at 100%

I don't know what might cause this, if it's just one game, then You would think it's the game

 

[MenOpaws]

Something doesn't add up here, you say you have a T5500 CPU which is a intel CPU designed for laptops. The video card you list (ATI HD 2600) is a desktop card (unless you omited information) and is max 512Mb, and not 2Gb as you state. Anyway, it looks like the problem is caused by you video card. TF2 makesa lot more use of you video resources then CSS (I don't know about BF2142). You need to pay attention to the amount of players and maybe certain maps as well. I would first start playing at a lower video setting or default, and try that. I run myself with very similar hard/software 2.4GHz core 2 Duo, 512Mb video, 2 Gb ram, Vista Ult. 64bit. however I was having problems as well till I updated my video driver.

Good luck

MenOpaws

 

[xenophek]

I had similar problems and it turned out to be a bad driver download/install.

 

[Davincivirus]

Blue are you on a college campus by any chance???