Serious Performance Issues- High End PC

Haviland

Hi guys, this is my first post in the technology tavern.

First, my specs:
2x Radeon 5870 graphics cards
Intel i7 960 processor @3.20 ghz
EVGA x58 SLI mobo
3x 2gb 1600mhz Corsair Dominator ram
1 terabyte harddrive
Noctua cooling fans (unsure which model; no liquid cooling)
Razer Barracuda AC-1 soundcard
1000w TECHNPS PSU

Sennheiser 161 headphones
Razer Lycosa keyboard
Razer DeathAdder mouse

Nothing is overclocked and the system is built by Digital Storm.


I got a top-of-the line PC about a week ago, but due to work I haven't been able to get a shot at it until now. I started it up yesterday, and noticed severe performance problems very quickly. In World of Warcraft I was getting unplayable framerates until I dropped all the sliders to zero and set my resolution to 800x600, and even then I was only getting 40-50 fps. I tried to run Crysis: Warhead after that, and I got much better results, but not as good as I thought I would get. At 1600x1050 with half mainstream/half gamer graphical settings, I was pulling 30-40 fps. Frustrated, I installed an old copy of 3dmark06 and only scored 6300, with the GPU tests pulling around 15-20 fps and the CPU tests pulling an abysmal 2-4fps.

Obviously, this was very upsetting, so I took it to myself to install Driver Detective and System Mechanic and see how I would fare. Even after installing all the drivers I could and clearing my harddrive of nasty shit with System Mechanic, I still suffered from similar performance. In addition, I have only 51 gigabytes of space (out of around 900) on my hard drive occupied.

My computer's temperatures, as reported by SpeedFan (after around 2 hours of internet browsing):

TEMP1: 24C
TEMP2: 51C (reads as being "hot")
TEMP3: 32C
HD0: 27C
TEMP1: 26C
CORE0: 36C
CORE1: 36C
CORE2: 34C
CORE3: 34C

After playing Crysis for 30 minutes, the CPU cores went up to around 42-44 Celcius.


I have a feeling that the hardware may be at fault, as I have tried just about everything I can think of in Windows to try and improve my performance. I am a little new to gaming on computers, but I have been a console gamer all my life and I researched the build of my computer extensively before buying it. The company I bought this computer from (Digital Storm) seems to be reputable and I am fairly sure that all the components I ordered are included.

I would appreciate any help that you guys could give me on this issue. If you need any other information or more specific information, I would be glad to provide it.

Many thanks,
Oliver

Scrublet

I think your first instinct is right, hardware is fucked up. You literally cannot build a better computer than what you got. Call Digital Storm. ONE THING first though...check your antialiasing setting. I'm not talking about whether it's 2x or 4x or whatever. I'm talking about HOW it's being done...MSAA versus FSAA versus Supersampling. I recently was having some strange fps hits on Borderlands and when I pulled up Dark Forces 2 and was still having problems I got pissed and looked into it. Supersampling was turned on and that is an unreal completely unnecessary performance hog.

However, it shouldn't be causing problems to the degree you're seeing.

rndmhero

I'll second that. For a week old PC, you should not be seeing those kinds of issues. Call up Digital Storm and either get their support to handle it or RMA the thing.

Haviland

Thanks guys. I will be contacting Digital Storm tonight and see what answers I can get out of them. I checked my antialiasing Scrublet, and I am not running supersampling.

Scosglen

Yes, call them definitely. They either screwed up the assembly or the hardware is failing.

travathian

Obviously, this was very upsetting, so I took it to myself to install Driver Detective and System Mechanic and see how I would fare.

lol, wut? Video card drivers are hands down the easiest drivers to find. Why you would install extra software or spend money on driver fetching is beyond me. Next time you have computer issues don't just install random shit found on the internet which claims to fix it. 99% of it is bunk, malware, or spyware. Frankly I would just blast all the video drivers, uninstall all that crap, then just run windows update and let it install whatever the last WHQL certified driver is available and see what that does. Or you can go directly to AMD/ATIs website and grab the latest version they have available for your OS.

Using older versions of 3DMark is not an effective means of testing a system.

Scrublet

travathian wrote: »

Obviously, this was very upsetting, so I took it to myself to install Driver Detective and System Mechanic and see how I would fare.

lol, wut? Video card drivers are hands down the easiest drivers to find. Why you would install extra software or spend money on driver fetching is beyond me. Next time you have computer issues don't just install random shit found on the internet which claims to fix it. 99% of it is bunk, malware, or spyware. Frankly I would just blast all the video drivers, uninstall all that crap, then just run windows update and let it install whatever the last WHQL certified driver is available and see what that does. Or you can go directly to AMD/ATIs website and grab the latest version they have available for your OS.

Using older versions of 3DMark is not an effective means of testing a system.

I agree with your drivers statement (though I'd install manually over windows update), but your comment on 3DMark is pretty dumb. Some tech sites still use 3DMark06 in addition to Vantage, and if he already had 3DMark06 there was no reason to buy Vantage because any idiot can see that his computer should be pulling a fuckton more than 6300 marks. That score definitely indicates a huge problem somewhere.

travathian

Yeah, and any idiot can goto the 3DMark website and see the wildly different scores that remarkably similar systems get. I just pulled up a shitload of systems similar to my own, and in PCMark Vantage they ranged from 9000 to 14000. Same processor, same video card. Yeah some of it is because some of those have more memory, but that can't be the whole story with that wide of a difference. The tool is flawed and not a terribly accurate method to definitively say that there is a problem with the system. Do you remember Nvidia specifically tweaking their drivers in order to get outrageously good scores on 3DMark tests? I do, and I have no doubt that driver tweaks and other crap can seriously effect the outcome of the score.

It is a fun tool to play with and do some dick waving with your friends, but not the least bit accurate in seriously measuring system performance.

Scrublet

travathian wrote: »

Yeah, and any idiot can goto the 3DMark website and see the wildly different scores that remarkably similar systems get. I just pulled up a shitload of systems similar to my own, and in PCMark Vantage they ranged from 9000 to 14000. Same processor, same video card. Yeah some of it is because some of those have more memory, but that can't be the whole story with that wide of a difference. The tool is flawed and not a terribly accurate method to definitively say that there is a problem with the system. Do you remember Nvidia specifically tweaking their drivers in order to get outrageously good scores on 3DMark tests? I do, and I have no doubt that driver tweaks and other crap can seriously effect the outcome of the score.

It is a fun tool to play with and do some dick waving with your friends, but not the least bit accurate in seriously measuring system performance.

If we're trying to determine how big our epeen is I totally agree with you.

If you think that a system with TWO goddamn 5870s and a high-end core i7-960 that is functioning correctly would ever be capped at 6300 3DMarks, and that somehow a new version would yield more insight into an obviously fucked up system, I have some cool drugs for you to try.

DeadlySherpa

It sounds like there are other people with your issue, in regards to crossfire 5870s on certain motherboards, yours included.

It may just be a driver issue with ATI (or nvidia, i suppose) and if so it should be corrected soon.

Haviland

I finally got a response from the Digital Storm tech support, and they think that it may be a seating issue with a cable or stick of memory. I am going to try and get this thing fixed ASAP so I can get to actually using this thing.

DeadlySherpa, I did a few searches on Google, and I couldn't seem to find the other people with similar issues that you mention. If you could point me in the right direction on this, that would be fantastic. If this was a driver issue as opposed to a put-on-a-grounding-wristband-and-pry-open-your-computer kind of issue I would be elated.

The_Spaniard

Mind if I ask a high end PC low performance question?

I have a high end Crysis playing gaming laptop for travel. I decided to install Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil on it just to play through the expansion cause I've owned it for years, but never played it. I get TERRIBLE frame rates in it, I've turned off AA and a bunch of other features and it still hovers at around the same FPS. Is this a known issue with RoE on newer PCs?

RSP

Doom 3 is probably trying to use OpenGL. If you got your graphics drivers through the Windows 7 automatic service, they might be DirectX only - I know when I first installed W7, everything using OpenGL ran slowly until I got the driver from the card manufacturer's site.

DigitalStorm

@Haviland,

Hey bud, this is Alex from Digital Storm. I noticed your post and I wanted to chime in to help you out.

If you haven't contacted us already, please do. You can get a hold of us via a few methods:

1. Call: 1-866-817-8676 = if we don't answer, please leave a message as our staff is busy providing support to our customers.

2. Email: Feel free to email our Management staff and we can schedule an appointment for you with a senior tech: management AT digitalstormonline DOT com

3. Message: Feel free to send a message to our support staff directly in our 'Customer Service' section of the website.

4. Forums: Feel free to visit our forums and post int he "Technical Assistance" area.

I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Alex

1ddqd

Dugg for direct support.

D'oh, wrong site.