[Kevin1355]

After coming back to my computer with it being off for three days I have been getting some serious FPS and lag issues in games and even at my desktop. My normal 30-40 Frames is down to a near-constant 5-10 in most games, IE Wow or Left 4 Dead. My PC had not been touched sense I had left. I'm currently running:

Windows Vista Home Premium (32 Bit)

Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00Ghz

3 Gigs of RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

We have tried running some diagnostics, the RAM is fine, and apparently my graphics card, according to the bench mark I'm getting compared to other Vistas, is running half of what it is supposed to be, but we're not sure what's causing it. No one has touched my computer for 3 days, it had been shut down when I left, and it was working perfectly fine before I left and we've run out of ideas of what could be wrong .

[darkwade]

try reinstalling the graphics drivers.
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[Kevin1355]

Tried updating my drivers, didn't work and I'm still having the problem.

[Mosquito555]

Originally Posted by Kevin1355

We have tried running some diagnostics, the RAM is fine, and apparently my graphics card, according to the bench mark I'm getting compared to other Vistas, is running half of what it is supposed to be, but we're not sure what's causing it.

Hmmm, I don't get the "compared to other Vistas" part...What benchmarking program are you using and how do you come to the conclusion that your card "is running half of what it is supposed to be"?

Can you check your CPU and graphics card temperatures? Sometimes when a component gets too hot it slows itself down so possible damage can be avoided. Is your CPU running at full speed?

Everest may help you:

http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?...ang=en&page=10

You can find information on all of your computers parts and also temperatures.

If you are familiar with hardware you may want to clean your CPU/GPU and case fans of any visible dust.

[crjdriver]

The above is good advise; in addition post your temps here. Since you have a nvidia card, speedfan will show your gpu temp as well as cpu, mb, etc. Post all temps here.

[Kevin1355]

Hmm... my GPU is at 109 degrees C... I think I found my problem, because also apparently my fan on it isn't working...

[Mosquito555]

Originally Posted by Kevin1355

Hmm... my GPU is at 109 degrees C... I think I found my problem, because also apparently my fan on it isn't working...

109 Celsius degrees is quite high for a low-mid end GPU like the GF8500. I 've never seen a GPU of this category running that high, even fanless cards will peak at 70-80 Celsius under some serious load (at least the ones that I'm familiar with ).

To be honest though, software temperature readings may not be completely accurate. But since you checked the card and found out that the fan is not working I guess those readings are correct.

You could remove the card and try cleaning the fan. Also make sure that the fan power cable is in place, you never know...

The last thing you can do, if anything else fails, is finding a similar card. If your fps issues go away then I bet it's time for a new card...

If you want a card with similar performance you won't spend much while you will probably get a small performance gain.

[Kevin1355]

Yeah, I'm looking up some cards online, try and get an order set and then just leave my computer off until it comes >.>.

[Mosquito555]

If you want a cheap yet powerful card I highly recommend the ATI Radeon HD 4670. You can also check out the Radeon HD 4650 and the GeForce 9500GT.

Keep in mind that a more powerful card will probably require a better power supply unit as well. You can post the specs of your PSU if you want any help on that. They can be found on the sticker on the side of your PSU.

[Kevin1355]

I was looking into getting a MSI R4670, but I'm not sure if my computer will be able to handle it. Apparently I have a max Wat of 300, I can't really tell you more than that by looking in here. Let me know if there's anything else you'd need to tell me if it'd run or not.