Gaming and IDE hard disks

i’ve run some games on a 64bit xp w/ a dual 6000 amd & 4gb ram + nvidia 8800
but most games run sluggish at just 1024x or 1280x resolutions
however, the hard drive is an “older” versions of an 80gb IDE (its has some years on it, i.e not one of the latest ide versions)
could it be the ide itself that’s slowing the pc?
will it help FPS if i switch to SATA?
10x in adv
Answer #1
I don’t have a solution to your problem..But changing the HD is not going to make any difference as the slowest HD will keep up with any game…Maybe do a defrag…
Answer #2
drats
but im noticing that the HDisk LED is almost always on whilst the CPU usage is mostly <10%
and defrag is not urgently needed as its just a clean install + 3games
Answer #3
I dont think a slower hard disk could affect FPS much as it should only slow down the game loading Try getting the latest Forceware driver
Answer #4
I dont think a slower hard disk could affect FPS much as it should only slow down the game loading Try getting the latest Forceware driver
forceware?
is this the defauly nvidias driver? or an add on?
sorry im not much into gaming X_X
Answer #5
I dont think a slower hard disk could affect FPS much as it should only slow down the game loading Try getting the latest Forceware driver
forceware?
is this the defauly nvidias driver? or an add on?
sorry im not much into gaming X_XYes mate !!!
the Forceware is the proper and default driver for nVidia cards
its HIGHLY recommended you use them for best performance
It seems like you are using Microsofts default driver which are slow as hell
anyways heres is the link to the forceware driver
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/178.24/178.24_geforce_winxp_64bit_english_whql.exe
Answer #6
could it be the ide itself that's slowing the pc? will it help FPS if i switch to SATA?
No
No
If the game runs bad @ low resolutions then it’s due to your CPU bottlenecking the rest of your system
If it’s higher resolutions then it’s the video card
If the game lags every now and then it’s a RAM problem
Answer #7
> oh yes that I downloaded (didn’t knew it was called forceware sorry)
^|^ > actually the game runs better with higher res
@ 1680x I got better FPS then 800×600 (still sluggish but better)
so its the cpu?
Answer #8
I would say yes
Answer #9
Try changing the value of ‘Maximum Pre Rendered frames’ to 0 in the nVidia control panel
Answer #10
I cant be the HD problem , anyways , as you said it has some years on it , if u have a spare HDD , send this one for replacement ,and site any reason saying it crashed….
But look at ur mobo and Ram , make sure the the CPU core temp is not getting to HOt , i’ve heard the 8800 at high temps lags a bit….
Answer #11
**UPDATE**
so guys i’ve tried every suggestion in here;
1st off the temp are ok – both of cpu and gpu (even hdisk temp is around 40-ish)
, I tried changing the Maximum Pre Rendered frames almost with every number avail. Was set to 3, changed to 0 -> 8
NOW I JUST FIGURED OUT ONE STRANGE THING…
Actually the game starts at full frames….like 100ish frame / sec
then it drops suddenly to 20/30ish FPS (just after few seconds of gameplay) BUT if I keep on playing with that lousy framerate, it gets back to 100 (sometimes more) FPS for a couple of seconds and then drops back to 20ish
This was most evident in Race Driver GRID
where you drive for 10sec w/ ultra smooth framerate
then you do another 30sec with sluggish dropdown; then again it gets back to (normal?) smoothness…..
this damn pc is making me mad