8800GT Frame Rate

I just built a new system with Vista64 Ultimate. Here are the specs:


Processor = AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core
Motherboard = Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
Power Supply = Antec TruPower Trio 430
RAM = OCZ 4GB PC6400 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2
Video Card = eVGA GeForce 8800GT w/512MB
Sound Card = AC’97 onboard sound
Display = Dell FP2001 20.1” UXGA LCD
Hard Drive = Seagate SATA 300GB w/16MB buffer
Optical = LG DVD-RAM (16x +/-R 10x –RAM)
Removable = Generic 7-1 Media Reader
Webcam = Microsoft VI-6000

When I play Dundeons & Dragons Online my framerate varies between 20-60 in populated places and 100+ only if I stare at the walls. This seems too low. I was getting better framerates running XP on a AMD 3800+ x2 with a 7600GS.

I've tried the nVidia 169.25 drives and the 171.20 betas from guru. Not much difference.

Is this a Vista 64 problem that will be fixed with SP!?..... or
Is this an nVidia driver problem that will be fixed with later drivers.......or
Is my power supply too weak?.......... or
Is DDO the problem?.......... or
Are my expectations too high?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

-Brad Dunlap

Welcome to the forums Brad!

60 FPS with an 8800 GT is good, especially in DDO (I have both myself). 20 seems a little low, can't say why, it could be a combination of factors which are causing this. It sounds like you've got the latest drivers. Maybe rolling back the driver may have some impact if the latest ones are not performing well.

You can download the 163 driver here: ForceWare Release 163

I wish I could give you a magic bullet to fix things. You might also try adjusting the settings within DDO itself.

Let us know how things work out for you.

Vista sucks up a lot more graphical resources than XP, thats why you are experiencing such a low frame rate.

I play Company of Heroes (a very demanding game) in XP with all settings on full. I get (on average) about 60FPS. But in Vista? I get around 30. At best

Joe,

I didn't try the 163 drives because they pre-date the 8800GT. Support for the 8800GT was added in the 169 drivers (and the 169 betas leading up to it). I guess I could try it, but I don't have high expectations.

NiTaS,

I realize Vista doesn't perform as well as XP. What I'm hoping to do is figure out why. If it's Vista's fault then it should be addressed in SP1 (I hope). If it's nVidia's fault, it should be addressed in a new driver update. If it's my fault (for the choice of components or configuration) I'd like to know.

Both,

Thanks for the helpful suggsestions. Both your comments are well recieved. Overall I'm happy with Vista64. I just want DDO to play like it did when I was running XP on a lesser machine. I am hoping there is something I can do other than wait for SP1 or driver updates? (or roll back to XP).

-Brad Dunlap

viking my advice is try a powerful power suply at least 550w cuz u got alot of devices that need power ... try it if u got the chance i know alot of ppl that had the same pb ... the devices they bought with high frequencies needs a lot of power to work at full capacity...