So a Dell, a Vista and a GF 7300 LE walk into a bar....

[DarkMageEQ]

<p>Hey everyone,</p><p> I recently bought a Dell Computer (Dimension E520) with these specs</p><p>- Core2Duo 4400 @ 2.00Ghz</p><p>- 4GB RAM DDR2</p><p>- Nvidia Geforce 7300 LE 256MB</p><p>- Creative Soundblaster X-FI XtremeMusic</p><p> - Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit</p><p> Kinda niche machine right ? Well, i think that too. Everything works like a charm, instantly. that is, until i tried running EQ2. The game is beautiful, it doesnt even lag on high quality (Shadows off, of course), BUT as soon as i start to move forward, things "skip" to me. I dont know if you understand what i mean, but it's not like lag...it's more that when objects come to me, they do it in a "skippy" manner, not really fluid. </p><p>I tried E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G to try and change that. First i got FRAPS, and it showed that i was running at around 10-12 FPS. On Extreme Performance, i get 20-25 but the graphics still "skip". I reinstalled every driver possible, didnt do anything. Changed Nivdia Control Panel options, nope...</p><p>I double-checked everything you guys can think of. Drivers, removing everything running in the background, fiddling with every graphical options in the game (kinda pointless though, since i was having the same problem on Extreme Performance), and many other things...</p><p>Then i decided to try 3DMark06, to see if the problem could have been EQ2. But OH MY GOD !! I have 2-3 FPS for the entire 3dMark thing !! Whats wrong with my machine ?? I even formatted, reinstalled ONLY Vista and Nvidia Drivers, then ran the game.....same problem. Ran 3dMark, same 2-3 FPS....</p><p>UGH !! I'm at a loss now, dont know what to do. And please, dont tell me "The problem is Vista" because deep down, i know that EVEN if Vista had problems, i still should be able to AT LEAST get more than 2-3 FPS on 3DMark....hell i have 4GB of RAM + a Core2Duo 2.x2GHZ......</p><p> Anyone has any idea ?</p><p>Thank you very much in advance</p>

[Wingrider01]

<cite>DarkMageEQ wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Hey everyone,</p><p> I recently bought a Dell Computer (Dimension E520) with these specs</p><p>- Core2Duo 4400 @ 2.00Ghz</p><p>- 4GB RAM DDR2</p><p>- Nvidia Geforce 7300 LE 256MB</p><p>- Creative Soundblaster X-FI XtremeMusic</p><p> - Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit</p><p> Kinda niche machine right ? Well, i think that too. Everything works like a charm, instantly. that is, until i tried running EQ2. The game is beautiful, it doesnt even lag on high quality (Shadows off, of course), BUT as soon as i start to move forward, things "skip" to me. I dont know if you understand what i mean, but it's not like lag...it's more that when objects come to me, they do it in a "skippy" manner, not really fluid. </p><p>I tried E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G to try and change that. First i got FRAPS, and it showed that i was running at around 10-12 FPS. On Extreme Performance, i get 20-25 but the graphics still "skip". I reinstalled every driver possible, didnt do anything. Changed Nivdia Control Panel options, nope...</p><p>I double-checked everything you guys can think of. Drivers, removing everything running in the background, fiddling with every graphical options in the game (kinda pointless though, since i was having the same problem on Extreme Performance), and many other things...</p><p>Then i decided to try 3DMark06, to see if the problem could have been EQ2. But OH MY GOD !! I have 2-3 FPS for the entire 3dMark thing !! Whats wrong with my machine ?? I even formatted, reinstalled ONLY Vista and Nvidia Drivers, then ran the game.....same problem. Ran 3dMark, same 2-3 FPS....</p><p>UGH !! I'm at a loss now, dont know what to do. And please, dont tell me "The problem is Vista" because deep down, i know that EVEN if Vista had problems, i still should be able to AT LEAST get more than 2-3 FPS on 3DMark....hell i have 4GB of RAM + a Core2Duo 2.x2GHZ......</p><p> Anyone has any idea ?</p><p>Thank you very much in advance</p></blockquote><p> 1. check the creative labs board, there are issues with the X-FI and 4 gb of memory</p><p>2. dump the video card, the 7300LE is a general purpose home user, for real time gaming it is a poor choice. If I recall the specs correctly the LE series cards utilize "hyper-memory" (or is it turbo-cache for the nvidia) - basicly it steals system memory to fill out a portion of it's video memory, again if I recall the specifications correctly it has 128 meg onboard the card, and uses 128 meg of system memory</p>

[Hardain]

Yep, that card you have is garbage with capital C. You really need new one.

[Matari]

Most of your computer is high end stuff that will work well for all current games. Your video card, is not. I'll recommend a few upgrades. -8800gts- Best bang for your buck out there atm, at least 5x improvement over your 7300. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130038" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814130038</a> If you can't afford the 8800gts, go with an 8600gt, only 130$, and as fast as a 7800, with dx10 as an added bonus. Still, the 8800 is 2x faster than this. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127286" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814127286</a> Your computer, with 4 gigs of ram and a decent processor, is ready for the future, but you really need one of the above upgrades to stop your system from bottlenecking at the video card.

[TSR-JasonC]

I concur on the comment about the GeForce 7300 LE being poor for performance.  It's almost as poor as the GeForce FX 5200 or GeForce 2 MX. It looks like there's a single PCI-Express 16x slot, so your upgrade options are pretty open.  However, I should caution that the power supply that is standard in the Dimension E520 is pretty weak (305 Watts... eek!)  You are looking at a pretty serious system upgrade (power supply + video card) if you are looking for better performance.

[Tebos]

<cite>TSR-JasonC wrote:</cite><blockquote>I concur on the comment about the GeForce 7300 LE being poor for performance.  It's almost as poor as the GeForce FX 5200 or GeForce 2 MX. It looks like there's a single PCI-Express 16x slot, so your upgrade options are pretty open.  However, I should caution that the power supply that is standard in the Dimension E520 is pretty weak (305 Watts... eek!)  You are looking at a pretty serious system upgrade (power supply + video card) if you are looking for better performance. </blockquote><p> On top of that, the OP will most likely have to purchase an upgraded power supply through Dell, as the form factor is slightly proprietary in those Dell computer cases (this is on purpose on their part), which will mean even higher costs opposed to going to the store and purchasing your own power supply.</p>

[TSR-JasonC]

PC Power and Cooling has a list of power supplies they sell for Dell computers.  It may be a less expensive option, depending on what Dell wants for the replacement/upgrade. <a href="http://www.pcpower.com/products/power_supplies/selector/dell.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcpower.com/products/pow...lector/dell.htm</a> Don't quote me, but I think the Dimension E510 might be similar to the E520...  Make sure you ask the seller if that model is compatible!!!!

[Phatt]

Why did they sell you 4Gb of memory with a 32 bit operating system? Also check that your hard disk is in UDMA mode.

[Tebos]

<cite>Phattie wrote:</cite><blockquote>Why did they sell you 4Gb of memory with a 32 bit operating system? Also check that your hard disk is in UDMA mode. </blockquote><p> Because when he went through the Dell configuration screen, he choose to add more RAM?</p>