Currently have the ff. specs in my office pc : P4 650 (3.4 GHz), ASUS P5GD1 PRO (i915P), 4GB PC3200, 300GB SATA, GeForce 9500GT DDR3.

I've been having problems playing games like NFS UnderCover and Tomb Raider Underworld though the specs meet or exceed minimum system requirements. I've also set IQ to medium-low settings. Why is this so?

What kind of problems are you having and when in particular are you experiencing them?

There'd be times the game'd get choppy. Sometimes as I start the game, sometimes in the middle.

The GeForce 9500GT is not a good videocard first of all, and your P4 is an even worse CPU compared to the newest processors. I assume that this is the reason you are experiencing lag in games. I suggest an entire new system to be honest(it's an option if you want to play the latest games and have the money), but if you had to upgrade just one part I'd say get a new videocard. Look for a HD 4850/9800GT for cheap, that should solve the issue. Otherwise, try updating drivers, cleaning up the PC and possibly reformat to see if that solves the issue.

a 9800gt would do you wonders and they're dirt cheap now.

Well done to Michael C... his best advice to build a new system...
You can guarantee solid, sensible advice from the young Canadian.. NOT!

Hey.... At least he didnt recomend a PS3, give him some credit for his restrain

Lee, agreed you should not be getting any problems with your setup.

Stupid question but I trust you have ensured you have all the latest drivers (esp vid).

When was the last time you installed new graphics drivers? did you clean out the old ones - if not sure, try the likes of CCleaner to rid you of unwanted/needed files as well as clearing crap from the registry of stray install files.

The guys n gals on here will assist - just keep giving them as much info as you can.

Edit:

Check the specs of mine below Lee, not a million miles away from yours and mine breezed Tomb Raider Underworld.

Shawn Langley said:


... also a touch of "derogatory" from Michael C about the originator's CPU.
No wonder HWA's getting its name dragged through the gutter with comments
from loons like this.... He can shove his PS3 up his arse for all I care...

My advice is a lot better than yours lets just say that. It's a fact that the P4 650 is outdated, it's not even a dual-core. It's a fact that the 9500GT is a terrible card, even compared to a 9800GT as Meats stated. How is this bad advice? He doesn't have to build a new system, it's just another option along with upgrading. It's obvious that that PC is going to lag in just about any game depending on the settings, it's just how it is. First I would try cleaning up the PC and even perhaps formatting before upgrading. And yes, I would much rather have a PS3 over that system.

Are you playing any of these games on the Internet? If so, it could be your internet connection speed that is limiting your experience (lag).

Michael C said:

LMAO I didn't give any advice on this thread. I commented on your advice.

Yeah upgrade the video card to something like a 9800GT,9800GTX+ or HD4770 or HD 4850 and all should be good.Does that board support dual core cpu's?If so find the best cpu that board supports and get it.Those older dual core can be found for well under $100 more like around $50

I know, I meant in general. Not specific to this thread...

oh snap.

To be honest, you should just buy a new PC and keep the HD. It all depends on how much money you have to spend, of course....and if it's justifiable to actually spend that much on a new setup, especially if you don't need the latest and greatest. However, if this is an office pc you can't replace...then that's out of the question.

As what these guys recommended, do a whole PC cleanup. Clear out your "C:\Windows\Prefech" folder get CCleaner and run it if you haven't already. It would be a good idea to run Disk Cleanup. After that, perform quite a few defrags using a good defrager program like perfectdisk 10, and DEFRAG YOUR SYSTEM FILES. Uninstall any programs you don't need as well, and do another cleanup. However, you said this is an office pc, so don't get yourself in trouble by deleting things that you shouldn't.

The minimum specs on the box are just that- hardware that can just barely run the game. Recommended specs are not much higher...just to run it at 30 frames per second on medium settings.

If you upgrade your video card- which is the smartest option here, there's a good chance will bottleneck your cpu. However, games will still run much better than it did. You don't need a ATI 4870 like some guys recommended. A cheap second hand card on kijiji or craigslist will do just fine. Look for NVIDIA 9800 or later (Geforce 1xx or 2xx) series or ATI 38xx or 48xx series cards...really just something under $100 CAD.

First of all, have you overclocked in any way your system?

Now, I would like it if you would describe more of your problem. I just read about the 9500gt, well I had to really, since I can't keep up with Nvidia's crazy naming schemes. Well, basically a 9500gt is the same as an 8600gt only with a smaller fabrication process 65nm to be exact. Ok, considering that the 8600gt is a tad better than a 7600gt which is very old but still manages current games decently with medium settings you shouldn't be having much problems playing those games you described. Even less if you;re balancing the settings out as you wrote.

So yeah, try the suggestions here and post back.

***EDIT***
Here are the benchmark results from the 9500gt:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-9500-gt-review/7

It does pretty good considering that they used most settings on max for the games. So we can agree that the card is pretty good for what you;re playing, so the point is that you're being bottlenecked by something else.

Sheer curiosity leads me to ask, get a program called prime95 and run it, at the same time get either everest / coreTemp / Speedfan and monitor how hot your CPU is getting while running it. My theory is thermal throttling kicking in as its over heating and slowing the CPU down.... again only a theory that doesn't involve spending money to find out. Then again it depends what state you let your PC insides get in if you clean it occasionally and remove dust from the nooks and cranny's the above may prove pointless.

to be honest lee, your rig should run just fine for those games. seriously. since it's an office PC you cant really much upgrade it, then just download the latest driver for your card.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us&ptid=...&pid=0

Al-CID said:

I believe he means is 'home office', rather than his actual workplace office. Lots of people have home offices set up with desktop PC's. Have to ask him directly though.