[ryladine]

hiya im have an issue with lag when i play my game, it only occurs in career (as far as i can tell it happens when im playing a song and theres stuff going on in the background) but my system req should meet the min or up for the game i think is either ram or video but im not sure

also as a side note some lag issues with oblivion as well (in case its something like a seting they share in common that could cause it)

im running:


Number of CPU(s) One Physical Processor / 2 Cores / 2 Logical Processors / 64 bits
CPU Full Name AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+
Number of GPUs 2
Display Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Video Processor GeForce 8400 GS
Video memory size 512 MBytes
and about 1536 Mb ram

Operating system

Xp Home

Note: i can play most other games fine, such as hl2,hl2dm, garry's mod, counter strike: source.

[Mosquito555]

Hi mate!

I'm not sure about GH3 but the lag on Oblivion is related to your graphics card. The GF8400Gs is not a gaming card, it will play games but with reduced graphical settings in most cases. I suggest reading the following guide:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6147127/index.html

For GH3 you can try lowering the graphics settings as well. Make sure that anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are off. Play with the settings until you are happy with the performance. Also, to be honest, I remember reading that GH3 had performance problems in general. You can try the game's official site, they may have released an update which probably fixes some of the problems.

The rest of your games are based on the Source Engine, an excellent and highly optimized engine, that's why they run lag free. Well, they are a bit older as well.

I almost forgot, you can try updating your graphics card's drivers as well:

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

[ryladine]

would going to a lesser card work something like a Nividia Gforce 7600 (i think thats waht it is) or a Nvida 6100 nforce 405? (a chip-set that came installed in the computer) also could my monitor be causing some of it?

[Mosquito555]

The 7600 Gs (I had that card by the way), will be slightly better than the 8400Gs but it's not worth spending your money over it. As for the 6100 chipset, just forget it...

Monitors can't cause "lag" (aka slow frame rates), but if they don't refresh the image fast enough you may experience something called "ghosting"...

Anyway, if you really want to upgrade, you can get a cheap Radeon HD 4650 or a GeForce 9500GT...Those are cards that can be found for $ 50 and will provide acceptable performance for at least a couple of years.

The rest of your computer is fine, the CPU is a good one...Adding more RAM could also help.

[ryladine]

i dont have a pci express slot, any suggestion as to a card that uses pci?

[Mosquito555]

Are you sure that you only have PCI? What about AGP?

The best PCI card that you can get is the 9500GT...Something like this for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187083

The 9500GT will provide similar performance to a Radeon HD 3650,8600 GT...It will be restricted by the low bandwith of the PCI slot but it will be an improvement over your current 8400GS...

My only concern is the price...This card is an overkill, for that price you could get a better PCI - E card...I'm not sure if it's worth it mate, it's blackmail. But if you really need the upgrade then the 9500GT is the way to go.

In case you have AGP check something like this out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102851

[ryladine]

im usualy pretty good with software but im not great with hardware, at least not the names, would that be what most other cards plug into? soundcards ect? ive got 2 other empty slots but i have no idea what they are for heres a terrible diagram of them

| |===|============| is on top
|
| |==|===| is under it
|
|
| |==============|======| my pci slot on the bottom
|
^
back of pc

either of those what you meant? they are both yellow by the way......

[ryladine]

i need as cheap as possible those cards above a a bit out of my range would something cheaper run these games any better than my current card i got this one as a gift? im not likely to run anything much more detailed (again prices )