Vista - Bizarre DirectX Performance with Windows Vista

First of all, I'm not sure whether or not this is a Vista problem.

I'm experiencing low framerates, in particular when running World of
Warcraft. Sometimes the framerates are low (12fps), sometimes they are
excruciatingly low (2fps) and sometimes they are not (60fps). This happens
with the character in the same geographic area of the game.

The problem is not related to CPU activity, disk activity, or memory activity
-- I've watched the task manager and generally the game is the only thing
running. There is no disk thrashing going on, and plenty of free ram.
Sometimes exiting warcraft and restarting will fix the problems. Other times
it will not, and I have to reboot to clear the condition.

I have verified similar performance oddities using 3DMark06.

When the system is running correctly, I get 5742 3DMarks. The 3DMark
framerates are 35fps/35fps for graphics tests 1 and 2, and 0.5/0.3fps for cpu
tests 1 and 2.

When the system is not working correctly, I get 1239 3DMarks. The 3DMark
framerates are 3fps/2fps for graphics tests 1 and 2, and 0.5/0.05fps for for
cpu tests 1 and 2. That's an order of magnitude drop in framerate.

The configuration is as follows:
NVidia 8800GTS with latest drivers
Core2 Duo CPU 2.6 Ghz (2 cores)
4 GB of ram
3ware hardware raid controller

The problem also occurred using an ATI x800xt graphics card (which prompted
me to upgrade to the nvidia). So it's not a graphics driver problem, as two
different cards from two different manufacturers exhibit the same symptoms.

At this point I am thoroughly baffled by what is wrong. I cannot think of any
other test that I can run to get to the root of the problem.

Does anyone have a benchmark that could get me some more detailed data about
graphics performance? In particular, I'd like to know how fast the card is
rendering from on-card memory, and what the bandwidth is sending data from
main memory to the card (i.e. I'd like to figure out if its a PCI-Express bus
problem)

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I guess the first thing I would recommend is to get Process Explorer. This
will help you see what's really running, and how much CPU time it's taking.
It's a nice little program from Sysinternals. Or dig deeper yet with Process
Monitor.
Other ideas: disable AV programs, system utilities (Norton, etc) - stuff
like that. Sorry if those are too obvious...
--
-me.
Let this forum know if this helps or if you figure out the problem, so
others can benefit. As far as I know the "notify me of replies"
does not work, so do not count on this feature.



"invader@xxxxxx" wrote:

> Other ideas: disable AV programs, system utilities (Norton, etc) - stuffI haven't used Process Explorer, but maybe I'll locate it and give it a shot.
I have tried all of the really obvious things, like disabling running
processes, etc. As far as I can tell, nothing else is consuming CPU while the
games are running, and there is always a surplus of idle CPU available. I
think WoW in particular is only using about 55% (looks to me like it's only
using one core).

I did rip a couple of cards out of the machine today. One was an extra 3ware
PCIe-x1 raid adapter. The problem started "around" the same time that I
installed this card.

The whole thing has the feeling of a bus speed bottleneck to me (i.e. the
games not getting data to the GPU's memory fast enough). The 3ware card was
in a PCIe-x1 slot and the nvidia GPU in the PCIe-x16 slot, so I don't see how
one could be interfering with the other, but who knows. It's too early to
tell if this has fixed the problem; I'll have to wait a couple of reboot
cycles to know if it reappears.

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A similar thing was happening with my nephew's machine. Problem with his was
that his CPU heatsink was totally clogged with dust and fluff. One fan
removal and some vacuuming later, and everything was fine...until another 6
months passed... :-)


<invader@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fiiaij01936@xxxxxx

<invader@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fiiaij01936@xxxxxx
Well... I must admit I'm not a DirectX SME... not even close. But... one can
only assume that some other process is causing you to get those widely
varying frame rates. If you're seeing the same problem with two different
vid cards, then one must assume some other process is screwing you over. My
son runs CoD 2 on a box with 1GB system RAM without issue. Don't recall the
vid card, but I think it's got 256MB RAM on it.

Good luck,

Lang

There are some good suggestions here. I have definitely had the "dirty
heatsink" problem on a couple of PCs I help folks with.

For the program(s) check out www.sysinternals.com. They've written some
really useful utilities. Good luck, & if you figure this out, let us know.

--
-me.
Let this forum know if this helps or if you figure out the problem, so
others can benefit. As far as I know the "notify me of replies"
does not work, so do not count on this feature.



"Lang Murphy" wrote: