PC freezes and lags on graphics manipulation

[MenaceInc]

At last guys, it was the RAM.

I downloaded Prime95. Made the Blend test. Waited 10 mins, and it didn't finish. I said oh well, and closed it. I tried the other tests. Benchmark finished correctly with no errors. I then tried an other program for CPU stability, no errors.

After that, I downloaded a stability and benchmark test for the GPU. Talking to my brother, I realized that we didn't actually change the GPU. When the program ran, computer recovered from freeze, and I ran the test. It said test failed and told me to restart computer. Upon restart, executed the program, and the test went on. After 30 mins, it didn't finish. I exited it noticing that there might be a chance for the GPU to not be the prime foul here.

After a while, I called up my friend to bring his computer. It has a Geforce 9400 GT with an upgraded CPU and 4 GB RAM. Then, I replaced his Graphics card with mine. Guess what? It was still freezing in games! That phased out the GPU, since his card works perfectly on his comp. Second, it was the RAM turn. Upon replacing them, no freeze! Launched the game several times, and it still didn't freeze.

That made me happy to know the truth since 2008. xD

Thanks you guys for helping me out here. Just 2 more questions. What would you suggest to upgrade? Is 4Gb good? 32-bit OS can use as a maximum 3.2 Gbyte of RAM. So would I benefit from expanding it?

Second, should I upgrade my GPU or the CPU for better gaming experience?

My CPU is fairly similiar to yours in clockspeed but Core2 Duo CPU's do better clock for clock than Athlon's so your CPU should do perfectly fine since mine hasn't given me any problems. I would recommend you upgrade the Graphics card since I'm fairly sure that it would be the bottleneck in your system. As for recommendations, I'm not too sure what to suggest considering I've no idea of budget or what current market prices are. Saying that, the 58** series by ATI seem to have impressed everyone lately so that would be a good start I guess.

As for the RAM thing, 4gb is perfectly fine for any gamer out there (unless you want to run UT3, Bioshock, GTA4, Crysis and Crysis Warhead all at the same time) but I would suggest you get a 64bit version of Windows. There's no real cons to 64bit anymore unlike back in the XP days and you can get full use out of your RAM (if you somehow run enough applications to fill it up ).

 

[elite]

My CPU is fairly similiar to yours in clockspeed but Core2 Duo CPU's do better clock for clock than Athlon's so your CPU should do perfectly fine since mine hasn't given me any problems. I would recommend you upgrade the Graphics card since I'm fairly sure that it would be the bottleneck in your system. As for recommendations, I'm not too sure what to suggest considering I've no idea of budget or what current market prices are. Saying that, the 58** series by ATI seem to have impressed everyone lately so that would be a good start I guess.

What about the i7 CPU series? Will it make such a difference? I guess I should stick with my current CPU.

So that series is fairly better than my GeForce 8500 GT?

s for the RAM thing, 4gb is perfectly fine for any gamer out there (unless you want to run UT3, Bioshock, GTA4, Crysis and Crysis Warhead all at the same time) but I would suggest you get a 64bit version of Windows. There's no real cons to 64bit anymore unlike back in the XP days and you can get full use out of your RAM (if you somehow run enough applications to fill it up ).

Yeah. 64-bit is surely faster than 32-bit. I said that I updated to the 64-bit version, but reverted back to 32-bit because I didn't find a compatible driver for my sound card nor my printer.

 

[MenaceInc]

What about the i7 CPU series? Will it make such a difference? I guess I should stick with my current CPU.

So that series is fairly better than my GeForce 8500 GT?


Yeah. 64-bit is surely faster than 32-bit. I said that I updated to the 64-bit version, but reverted back to 32-bit because I didn't find a compatible driver for my sound card nor my printer.

The i7 series is absolutely amazing from the results I've seen but it would require a new motherboard, DDR3 RAM (I believe yours is DDR2?) from what I remember and I'm certain a new PSU considering yours is only 300W. If you combined it with the 8500 that you have, it would be really limited when it comes to playing games.Just thinking about that, I reckon you may need a new PSU if you were to go for a high-end graphics card as well.

The 58** series have arguably the most powerful graphics cards available in the market today. Saying that though, the older 4k series isn't so bad either but it may not be as much of an upgrade from your 8500. It's really difficult to say what would be best, I always work off a budget.

Sorry about suggesting 64bit, didn't realise you had said about the drivers for the sound card or printer.

 

[elite]

The i7 series is absolutely amazing from the results I've seen but it would require a new motherboard, DDR3 RAM (I believe yours is DDR2?) from what I remember and I'm certain a new PSU considering yours is only 300W. If you combined it with the 8500 that you have, it would be really limited when it comes to playing games.Just thinking about that, I reckon you may need a new PSU if you were to go for a high-end graphics card as well.

I think I should keep my CPU intact. xD

The 58** series have arguably the most powerful graphics cards available in the market today. Saying that though, the older 4k series isn't so bad either but it may not be as much of an upgrade from your 8500. It's really difficult to say what would be best, I always work off a budget.

Thanks! I will check for prices online.

Sorry about suggesting 64bit, didn't realise you had said about the drivers for the sound card or printer.

Meh, not a problem.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 currently is 64-bit exclusive. That would follow the path for a 128-bit flavor. By that time, everyone would've passed on 32-bit OS versions.

 

[MenaceInc]

I think I should keep my CPU intact. xD


Thanks! I will check for prices online.


Meh, not a problem.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 currently is 64-bit exclusive. That would follow the path for a 128-bit flavor. By that time, everyone would've passed on 32-bit OS versions.

People probally said this about 64bit OS's back in the 90s but I couldn't see any real benefit for 128bit OSs just yet. The reason for the transition from 32bit to 64bit is mainly the memory address range issue. With 64bit though the limit has been raised to 18 exabytes... which is 18, 000, 000, 000 GB. We won't be seeing any system with that amount of RAM for quite a while I think.

 

[elite]

With 64bit though the limit has been raised to 18 exabytes... which is 18, 000, 000, 000 GB.

Woah! If that is 64-bit. 128-bit would greatly surpass that. But wouldn't 128-bit Architecture CPU be able to run Windows better than a 64-bit one?

 

[MenaceInc]

Woah! If that is 64-bit. 128-bit would greatly surpass that. But wouldn't 128-bit Architecture CPU be able to run Windows better than a 64-bit one?

Not necessarily faster. It would be able to handle larger interger values faster but considering that most software atm is made for 32bit enviroments, there isn't a lot of benefit for it.

 

[elite]

Okay, I bought a Super Multi DVD Rewriter 22* LG. My old one got defected. I am going to install it soon.

About the RAM, I will return to the shop tommorow and buy one. He said 45$. Searching through the internet, I found out that it is a good price for an original Veritech one.

About the GPU, I didn't find any ATI cards in his shop. Talking to him, I realized that he only sells Nvidia products. As of this, I want to know what is the best known Nvidia card compatible with my PC specs. I searched the site of Nvidia, found the 9400 GT. However, it is not that of an "upgrade" after comparing my card with that one. 9600 cards were quite good, but have a DDR3 memory, which is not compatible I guess. So, back to the question "what is the best known Nvidia card compatible with my PC specs?"

 

[MenaceInc]

Okay, I bought a Super Multi DVD Rewriter 22* LG. My old one got defected. I am going to install it soon.

About the RAM, I will return to the shop tommorow and buy one. He said 45$. Searching through the internet, I found out that it is a good price for an original Veritech one.

About the GPU, I didn't find any ATI cards in his shop. Talking to him, I realized that he only sells Nvidia products. As of this, I want to know what is the best known Nvidia card compatible with my PC specs. I searched the site of Nvidia, found the 9400 GT. However, it is not that of an "upgrade" after comparing my card with that one. 9600 cards were quite good, but have a DDR3 memory, which is not compatible I guess. So, back to the question "what is the best known Nvidia card compatible with my PC specs?"

The RAM type used on graphics cards isn't of relevance, it doesn't matter because it's only used by the graphics card...GDDR3 and GDDR5 would work the same in a basic system.

After looking up benchmark results for the 8500, I was really surprised how poorly it performed. Even if you were to get a 8800 Ultra (shoudl be fairly cheap now) it'd perform over 4x better than the 8500... this is all dependant on the rest of your system not being a bottleneck of course but it should be good enough.

For anyone who want's to see the benchmark results I'm talking about, here's the link. Your results may vary but generally you should do fairly well with an 8800.

EDIT: Scratch that, came across the bencmark results for the 9600 and they perform fairly well with the 8800 as well. If you can get one for a cheap enough price, I'd recommend getting it.
Benchmark results with 9600 results included.

 

[elite]

I think you are referring to the Nvidia Geforce 9600 GT SLI (3318.10 FPS). I will talk to the shop keeper soon about those cards. So, it is compatible with my PC? Just double checking. xD

 

[MenaceInc]

I think you are referring to the Nvidia Geforce 9600 GT SLI (3318.10 FPS). I will talk to the shop keeper soon about those cards. So, it is compatible with my PC? Just double checking. xD

Nah, the 9600 GT on it's own got a total FPS of 2451.80
The 8800 GT on it's own got 2751.30.

As long as your motherboard has a PCI-E x16 slot and your PSU can supply enough power to the 9600 GT, it should do perfectly fine.


EDIT: Also, to put it in perspective, the 8500 GT got a total FPS of 444.30. So there's quite a significant jump there.

 

[x3sphere]

A 300W PSU may not be enough for a 9600 GT / 9800 GT, unless you get the "green" versions of either. While slightly lower clocked, the green version requires no extra power connectors and runs off the PCI-E slot.

 

[elite]

EDIT: Also, to put it in perspective, the 8500 GT got a total FPS of 444.30. So there's quite a significant jump there.

Damn! We wanted the 8800 from the beginning. He brought us a 8500 one. :S

x3sphere, you mean this one?
In there, you can see two versions. One 59 Watt and one 96 Watt. I will get the 59 Watt. It has nice specs. So that is the latest VGA compatible with my hardware specs? I guess I need a better PSU anyways. Costs much?

---------- Post added at 10:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 AM ----------

I think I have PCI-E x16. No support for PCI-E 2.0.

 

[x3sphere]

Damn! We wanted the 8800 from the beginning. He brought us a 8500 one. :S

x3sphere, you mean this one?
In there, you can see two versions. One 59 Watt and one 96 Watt. I will get the 59 Watt. It has nice specs. So that is the latest VGA compatible with my hardware specs? I guess I need a better PSU anyways. Costs much?

Yes, you want the 59 watt version. Should not have a problem with the PSU as long as you buy that one. 300W meets the minimum specifications.

A decent PSU (500W and up) is going to cost at least $70. You will also want to find out if your case can fit the 9600GT. I believe it's around 9 inches long. That's much longer than your current card.

 

[elite]

A decent PSU (500W and up) is going to cost at least $70. You will also want to find out if your case can fit the 9600GT. I believe it's around 9 inches long. That's much longer than your current card.

My case is quite big. I think the card will pass by the RAM position and out of the motherboard. There is space.

 

[elite]

Okay guys. I have bought an LG Super Multi DVD drive and a 2 GB DDR2 RAM. Installed them, and they work flawlessly. It is time to go get the VGA.

 

[elite]

After 6 months , I bought the Nvidia 250 GTS with a 400 Watt Point of view PSU. It runs every game at max fluently except Crysis. It cost me $150 and the PSU $45.

The GPU is from inno3d. It has a special large fan covering the CPU.

The problem is that I had to remove one of the PCI slots to make room for the GPU. I removed the Wifi adapter and kept my sorround sound card. Is there any fix for this beside removing the fan of the GPU?

 

[Greyone]

After 6 months , I bought the Nvidia 250 GTS with a 400 Watt Point of view PSU. It runs every game at max fluently except Crysis. It cost me $150 and the PSU $45.

The GPU is from inno3d. It has a special large fan covering the CPU.

The problem is that I had to remove one of the PCI slots to make room for the GPU. I removed the Wifi adapter and kept my sorround sound card. Is there any fix for this beside removing the fan of the GPU?

nope.

You would need to water cool the gpu if there was no fan on it.