Vista - Graphics Performance (CSS)

Hi guys I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and
hopefully found a way round it!

System I'm running is:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2 Gig Ram
Audigy 2
ATI Redeon x1950 with Cataslyst 7.4 Drivers
Vista Ultimate 32 bit

Now when I originally upgraded to Vista, Counterstrike Source (A game
using the Half Life 2 engine) had a very very slow frame rate, almost
unusable, so I upgraded to the new graphics card I am using now, which
does run faster but I'm still only getting 15-25 frames per second
producing a less than smooth effect.

I've spoken to a few people whilst 'in game' who cliam to have similar
setups and got good frame rates, I've even read reviews for this
graphics card where it has been tested on Vista with this game and
produced several times the frame rates I'm experiencing.

I have tried wiping the drivers and going back to 7.3, but this didn't
solve anything, the machine itself doesn't have much software
installed to bog it down (but still manages to eat 35-45% of the
processor most of the time) and ina ll other respects runs very well.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
John

Hi John,

The main problem your getting is a CPU bottleneck with your AMD 3200. I had the same problem with my AMD 64 3800 and an 8800GTS 320MB. To fix the problem i upgraded to a dual core AMD X2 6000 3Ghz.. and now i'm getting 160+ fps in Source .

But yeah Vista is very CPU intensive and your graphics card can only render as many frames as it is fed. So if your CPU can't keep up to your graphics card which is currently the case, then thats why your getting those really bad frame rates.