Graphics Card Slow Downs

I recently built my first desktop with the help of a neighbor that knows alot about computers. Anyways, I have an ASUS M2N-VM DVI motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 x2 6400 Dual-Core Processor, 4 GB Ram, 22" DCLCD LCD monitor, and a Geforce 8800 GTX graphics card and a 500 watt-power supply.

When ever I would try to play games that require alot of graphics, my computer would start to slow down in even repetitions and only when I played games. Even games like Sim City 4 and Command and Conquer Generals would slow down! I thought it could have been my power supply, because it requires at least 450 watts to use and I read that my processor uses about 125W. I then recently purchased an 800 Watt BFG power supply thinking it might help the problem, but it still slows down! Any suggestions?

One way I found works, but not usually accepted is to turn memory usage to programs and disable virtual memory. You shouldnt need virtual memory because you have enough ram. This has worked for me in the past, but it can also cause memory errors in some programs. Try it, see if it works. If you dont know where to find it, it is under control panel-system-advanced-performance-settings-advanced.
Let us know if it works for you.

Turn off all that AERO crap and make sure that you have non essential services set to 'background' and not of a higher priority. Setting them to background will make sure that they're only active when your system isn't. I had dumb **** like my system trying to defrag one of my external hard drives during a game! Talk about slowing **** down considerably.

KingOfChaos makes a suggestion that might provide a bit of a clue. Are you running your games in windowed mode (i.e. not full-screen)?

The other things to check would be your power settings (make sure you're set to maximum performance) and your drivers. While I doubt this would be it, also check that you plugged the PCI-E power into your card as well (though I'd be surprised if the card could run without it).

I have played game in windowed version and full screen to see if it would change anything. I did notice when I turn on my visualization from my iTunes full screen, it would start slowing down, then I windowed the screen and it ran perfectly. I called Nvidia and I have to send back the card so that they can give me a new one. (oh by the way, I did have my memory card plugged in via PCI-E. I have to plug in two of them.) Thanks for your reply.

How do I turn off all of that Aero crap? I'm still new to some of the Vista programs and setup.

Thanks for your feedback. I did what you told me and I'm going to try it out. Ill let you know whats going on.

Do you think it might have something to do with either my proccesor or motherboard being defective? I don't know, but it's really aggravating for me to spend about $1400 and having a lot of problems with it.

I really don't think it'll have anything to do with the Aero stuff, since that automatically turns off when you enter a game.

It shouldn't have anything to do with your processor or motherboard being defective. The only thing i could think of would be some of the speeds on there. But if you spent that much, it shouldn't be that. I'm willing to blame the card, if nVidia took it back.