[SOLVED] Strange lag problem

Graveworm · 03-26-2008, 06:44 PM

Initially my system specs were:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Geforce 8400gs
2gb ram
ASUS M2V-MX SE motherboard

I could play games like Crysis(lowest settings), COD4, UT3 with perfect and consistent fps, although the graphics weren't very shiny. So I decided to get the new Geforce 9600gt from BFG. Currently the card is running at
GPU: 750
Shader clock: 1800
Memory clock: 1025
GPU temperature: 39 idle - 50ish while playing games.
After a recent graphics card upgrade, Ive been experiencing weird performance issues. I would load up a game, play perfeclty with no problems at all for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the game would start having something like "lag spikes"(those aren't lag spikes since I am reffering to singleplayer/offline) where the game would freeze for 1-2 sec, and then go back to perfect fps. Those "lag spikes" would occur once every 30sec after the initial 5min period. To take for example UT3, I tried lowering the settings from the usual maximum settings, to the lowest it can get, however it doesn't seem to solve the problem. Then I thought it could be an overheating issue, however my temperatures are as follows:
CPU:34 C idle
MB: 40 C idle
GPU: 39 C idle
My voltages seem to be fine to one decimal point, and the temperatures are not that high either. Still, I tried the cheapest solution for case-cooling(i.e. opening the case everywhere possible including unused pci slots, and lowering my room temperature to 10 degrees C...brrr) My performance did increase significantly, the games would take alot more time to start lagging if ever...So was this really an overheating issue? I am really puzzled since the temperatures stated above are pretty low already. A friend suggested that the PSU might be more efficient when i lower my room temperature, could it be the PSU?(my psu is 450W). Thanks in advance!

**koala** · 03-26-2008, 07:55 PM

Hi, welcome to TSF

Check the label on your 450W PSU. Does it have at least 26 amps listed for +12V?

Did you reinstall the graphics driver when you upgraded? Which version is installed?

Graveworm · 03-26-2008, 08:17 PM

Thanks for the quick reply! My PSU lists 18A under 12+ volts, my graphics card driver is up to date, more specifically the version is 6.14.11.7453, date is 11/03/2008

**koala** · 03-26-2008, 08:23 PM

All PCIE cards need at least 26 amps.

Enter your full system specs into this power calculator and set Capacitor Aging to 25%. Click the Calculate button, then add 30% to the total to allow for PSU inefficiency. Post back with this figure so we can recommend a more suitable PSU.

Graveworm · 03-26-2008, 08:47 PM

Hmm, according to this link I am recomended a 506W psu, to allow for inefficiency that'll be 658W. Oddly enough, this does make sense, my previous card was less powerful thus my power supply could handle it. What I do not get is why decreasing the room temperature and applying extra cooling to the case has such a curing effect on the power supply?

**koala** · 03-26-2008, 08:54 PM

When a PSU is underpowered and pushed beyond its limits it generates more heat. Do you have a fan at the front of the case pulling cool air in and one at the top rear blowing warm air out?

Check your temperatures and voltages with PC Wizard at startup with no other programs running. Then again during gameplay when it starts to lag (alt-tab out the game to see the results).

With your system being underpowered by so much, keep an eye on system temperatures and voltages while playing games until you can get the PSU upgraded. It's possible to permanently damage components like graphics card, RAM, hard drives, etc with a weak PSU.

Graveworm · 03-26-2008, 09:20 PM

I do not have any case cooling fans.
My startup info looks like this:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3...cwizardwq8.jpg
During UT3 lag:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5...ringut3jm2.jpg

**koala** · 03-26-2008, 09:29 PM

The +12V line powers the graphics card. During gameplay the +12V value drops below the minimum of 11.4V (accepted range of +-5% = 11.4 to 12.6V) and the +5V is way out. Your temperatures are ok though, which is surprising considering you have no case fans. Try replacing the PSU with a good quality 700W unit.

Graveworm · 03-26-2008, 09:36 PM

Alright thanks alot for the quick replies, Ill try to get my hands on a new PSU and tell you what happened.

Graveworm · 03-31-2008, 09:28 PM

Problem Solved! Today i decided to go ahead an ply some ut3 and see if it lags, and to my surprise it was perfect all the way! I noticed however, the pc was ALOT louder than it usually is, i checked PC Wizard and my chassis fan was running at 6k rpm compared to the usual 3k. So i decided to see if getting speed-fan to manually control the fan speeds and observe the results. Indeed when i run 3k rpm(which is aroun 35%), the games start lagging as described above, however if i turn the fan up to 100% everything works smooth as butter. Not sure about how healthy this solution is, but as far as I heard keeping the fan speed low and increasing it for 2hours of gameplay is common enough to be acceptable. I do still intend to get a psu since my voltages drop to very low during gameplay and this may harm my hardware, however just thought id share this solution with everyone first. Thanks alot for the help!

darkvalen · 06-01-2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koala

The +12V line powers the graphics card. During gameplay the +12V value drops below the minimum of 11.4V (accepted range of +-5% = 11.4 to 12.6V) and the +5V is way out. Your temperatures are ok though, which is surprising considering you have no case fans. Try replacing the PSU with a good quality 700W unit.

Hi had the same problem as mentioned above
3d games and applications at decent speed graphic quality and fps
till my screen suddenly goes lag spiking for 1-2 secs with some "tik" motherboard sound then fps goes back to normal till lag spike come again

i ve also checked all mentioned above and my temps are ok fans working ok drivers updated ..the thing is am using a 450w power unit since last upgraded - CPU/Video card/Motherboard/Hard Disk/Ram

System specc currently:
AMD dual Core 4800+
ASUS en8600SILENT
Albatron K8SNLI - AM2
x2 1GMB DDR2 RAM

I also want to add that with this system specc ave been playing decently with no problems at all for the first few months till spkies came i ve tried any windows xp/vista upgrade,riva tuner,and a ton of other utilities but spikes remain there..is a new PSU gonna make it come alive again? And why?

03-26-2008, 06:44 PM	#1 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	[SOLVED] Strange lag problem Initially my system specs were: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Geforce 8400gs 2gb ram ASUS M2V-MX SE motherboard I could play games like Crysis(lowest settings), COD4, UT3 with perfect and consistent fps, although the graphics weren't very shiny. So I decided to get the new Geforce 9600gt from BFG. Currently the card is running at GPU: 750 Shader clock: 1800 Memory clock: 1025 GPU temperature: 39 idle - 50ish while playing games. After a recent graphics card upgrade, Ive been experiencing weird performance issues. I would load up a game, play perfeclty with no problems at all for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the game would start having something like "lag spikes"(those aren't lag spikes since I am reffering to singleplayer/offline) where the game would freeze for 1-2 sec, and then go back to perfect fps. Those "lag spikes" would occur once every 30sec after the initial 5min period. To take for example UT3, I tried lowering the settings from the usual maximum settings, to the lowest it can get, however it doesn't seem to solve the problem. Then I thought it could be an overheating issue, however my temperatures are as follows: CPU:34 C idle MB: 40 C idle GPU: 39 C idle My voltages seem to be fine to one decimal point, and the temperatures are not that high either. Still, I tried the cheapest solution for case-cooling(i.e. opening the case everywhere possible including unused pci slots, and lowering my room temperature to 10 degrees C...brrr) My performance did increase significantly, the games would take alot more time to start lagging if ever...So was this really an overheating issue? I am really puzzled since the temperatures stated above are pretty low already. A friend suggested that the PSU might be more efficient when i lower my room temperature, could it be the PSU?(my psu is 450W). Thanks in advance!

03-26-2008, 07:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 9,143 OS: XP/UBUNTU My System	Re: Strange lag problem Hi, welcome to TSF Check the label on your 450W PSU. Does it have at least 26 amps listed for +12V? Did you reinstall the graphics driver when you upgraded? Which version is installed? __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

03-26-2008, 08:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	Re: Strange lag problem Thanks for the quick reply! My PSU lists 18A under 12+ volts, my graphics card driver is up to date, more specifically the version is 6.14.11.7453, date is 11/03/2008

03-26-2008, 08:23 PM	#4 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 9,143 OS: XP/UBUNTU My System	Re: Strange lag problem All PCIE cards need at least 26 amps. Enter your full system specs into this power calculator and set Capacitor Aging to 25%. Click the Calculate button, then add 30% to the total to allow for PSU inefficiency. Post back with this figure so we can recommend a more suitable PSU. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

03-26-2008, 08:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	Re: Strange lag problem Hmm, according to this link I am recomended a 506W psu, to allow for inefficiency that'll be 658W. Oddly enough, this does make sense, my previous card was less powerful thus my power supply could handle it. What I do not get is why decreasing the room temperature and applying extra cooling to the case has such a curing effect on the power supply?

03-26-2008, 08:54 PM	#6 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 9,143 OS: XP/UBUNTU My System	Re: Strange lag problem When a PSU is underpowered and pushed beyond its limits it generates more heat. Do you have a fan at the front of the case pulling cool air in and one at the top rear blowing warm air out? Check your temperatures and voltages with PC Wizard at startup with no other programs running. Then again during gameplay when it starts to lag (alt-tab out the game to see the results). With your system being underpowered by so much, keep an eye on system temperatures and voltages while playing games until you can get the PSU upgraded. It's possible to permanently damage components like graphics card, RAM, hard drives, etc with a weak PSU. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here Last edited by koala : 03-26-2008 at 08:57 PM.

03-26-2008, 09:20 PM	#7 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	Re: Strange lag problem I do not have any case cooling fans. My startup info looks like this: http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3...cwizardwq8.jpg During UT3 lag: http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5...ringut3jm2.jpg

03-26-2008, 09:29 PM	#8 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 9,143 OS: XP/UBUNTU My System	Re: Strange lag problem The +12V line powers the graphics card. During gameplay the +12V value drops below the minimum of 11.4V (accepted range of +-5% = 11.4 to 12.6V) and the +5V is way out. Your temperatures are ok though, which is surprising considering you have no case fans. Try replacing the PSU with a good quality 700W unit. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

03-26-2008, 09:36 PM	#9 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	Re: Strange lag problem Alright thanks alot for the quick replies, Ill try to get my hands on a new PSU and tell you what happened.

03-31-2008, 09:28 PM	#10 (permalink)
Graveworm Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP-SP2	Re: Strange lag problem Problem Solved! Today i decided to go ahead an ply some ut3 and see if it lags, and to my surprise it was perfect all the way! I noticed however, the pc was ALOT louder than it usually is, i checked PC Wizard and my chassis fan was running at 6k rpm compared to the usual 3k. So i decided to see if getting speed-fan to manually control the fan speeds and observe the results. Indeed when i run 3k rpm(which is aroun 35%), the games start lagging as described above, however if i turn the fan up to 100% everything works smooth as butter. Not sure about how healthy this solution is, but as far as I heard keeping the fan speed low and increasing it for 2hours of gameplay is common enough to be acceptable. I do still intend to get a psu since my voltages drop to very low during gameplay and this may harm my hardware, however just thought id share this solution with everyone first. Thanks alot for the help!