Anyone Have An Idea Why This Is Happening?

About two weeks ago, I got a new computer; specifically a Dell XPS 600. I was expecting framerates to stay always in the 60-100 range, no matter what settings I had the game or my video cards on. These are my specs:

Dual 256MB nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX video cards (with SLI)
Pentium Dual Core 3.0GHz processor
1GB DDR2 RAM

Now with two top of the line video cards, WITH SLI, and a dual core processor running at a decent speed, I would never expect to get framerates in the 20-40 range. Knowing theres many people out there that get higher framerates than this, I was wondering if anybody had an idea of what could be causing this, or anything I could do to increase my framerate.

Also, I have all the settings maxed out in NL and my video cards, running at 1600x1200 resolution, except the reflections are OFF (barely gave me any increase in fps and the graphics didn't appear to be any different).

Another note I should add: Direct X games run wonderfully. I can play Halo with every setting maxed, at 1600x1200 resolution, and there is no lag whatsoever.

Do you have the accelerated option on in NL?

[hyyyper]

dunno, but perhaps it's about what you run in the background, if i have some programs running my fps sometimes goes to 5 (worst case) and closing all the apps will highen it to 30-40, which is top for my pc, i believe one of the crappiest ever

Try reducing the resolution to 1024x768

Do you have the accelerated option on in NL?

If it's there, I probably have it on. Could you tell me more specifically what it's called in NL? Because there's nothing that has the word accelerate in it.

dunno, but perhaps it's about what you run in the background, if i have some programs running my fps sometimes goes to 5 (worst case) and closing all the apps will highen it to 30-40, which is top for my pc, i believe one of the crappiest ever

I get the same fps no matter how many programs I run in the background. Also, the point of a dual core processor is to be able to run however many programs you want at once and not have any program affected by it.

Originally posted by CodyL14

Try reducing the resolution to 1024x768

The native resolution for my monitor is 1600x1200, so if I reduce the resolution I will lose a lot of quality.

What I mean by making sure you can take advantage of the accelerated mode is using the best GL your computer can use. In the sim, go to SETUP then to ADVANCED and then make sure you are using the highest number GL you can use as well as the EXT if you can use that too.

It's at its highest (1.5). I'm not sure why it doesn't go to 1.5 EXT since I had a computer with a Radeon 9800 Pro that could go up to that. Except after reformatting the hard drive of that computer I couldn't get it to go up that high again...

[Brtnboarder495]

Update drivers, ensure that you are using two infact legit 7800GTX cards, Dell is known for being cheap and using "lite" versions of cards.

^I'm sure you've also made sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics cards and everything like that too. But if not, update.

Originally posted by Brtnboarder495

Update drivers, ensure that you are using two infact legit 7800GTX cards, Dell is known for being cheap and using "lite" versions of cards.

Drivers are up to date.

How could I check if the 7800 GTXs are legit?

Originally posted by IntaminFan397


the point of a dual core processor is to be able to run however many programs you want at once and not have any program affected by it.

and that's where you're wrong

it can run more than regular but its not as many

check your memory clock speeds
if you are running more than one program you might not have enough memory so it might have to start writing to the disk, which is WAY slower than ram (photoshop with 512mb doesn't run well at all)

you can also go to http://www.omegadrivers.net/ and get better drivers plus an overclocking tool (make sure not too much OC or else your fans might not be able to handle the heat)