About Chris Morrison Expertise Installation of cards. Difference between card types. What card is best for your purpose. Driver problems. All video issues.
Experience 15 years experience with building, repairing and upgrading PCs. Technical support experience.
Organizations Help on the Net
Education/Credentials Associates Degree in Information Technology
A Certified
Expert: Chris Morrison Date: 7/23/2008 Subject: Slow GPU
Question QUESTION: Hi, i bought a graphic card around 5 weeks ago and I was able to play Crysis on high settings, but after 5 weeks of use the graphic card has slowed down ALOT, i used to be able to play the game on very high settings, i turned it down to high, and it still lags. I havn't overclocked it either. My computer has also slowed down alot since i bought. I do disk cleanups, full system virus scans and delete my internet files, and i clean up my hard drive. What is slowing it down?
ANSWER: first you'll want to make sure sure you have the newest drivers for you computer. Get the nvidia driver straight from their website, get the rest from your computer manufacturer's website.
Make sure you at least update the video, sound and chipset.
Next get cleanup http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=2...
say no to demo mode
also if you want to go further you can a fully functional Ashpampoo win optimizer 5 for 15 days. It will clean up the reistry and the defragmenter is a bit better than the windows one.
lastly open c:\windows\prefetch - delete everything there
make sure you can see hidden folders (open any folder and go to tools - view or options.). the go to c:\windows\system32\dllcache - delete any thing in there and reboot
Viruses and spyware like to hang out in those two places allowing them to be reinstalled when you get rid of them.
let me know how it goes
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi again,
I did the following that you asked. But i think its a problem with my ram. I opened up task manager, and 49 percent out of 2GB is being used when i dont have anything running. It's constantly at 49 percent. My screen is realy small and i dont have dual monitors so my GPU cant be taking up 49 percent. I got my computer to check for RAM problems using Windows Memory Diagnostic tool. It was supposed to check my RAM the next time I started my computer up but instead it came up saying the action failed.
Thanks
Regards
Jeff
Answer I think we need to check your processes.
You can check your ram quite easily if you have more than one chip. Just shut down and pull one of the chips. Reboot and check function. Then shut down and replace the chip and remove the other.
I don't think you have a RAM problem as from what you said something is sucking up memory and processes.
Even when you arn't running anything - you still are.
click start and type msconfig. Go to the startup tab. Check the entries there. Most programs DO NOT need to start with your computer.
Uncheck any startup entries for programs like quicktime, realplayer, and anything else you don't need. The programs will still function like normal.
If you are not over clocking your video card you can uncheck all the NV... stuff. It's just nvidia helpers. You don't need them to start.
If your not sure about an entry you can search the process in google.
I only have 4 things checked on mine (virus scanner, virtual drive, outlook, and messenger).
Now if you are running any virus scanner like McAfee or Norton you may want to limit their processes.
Click start-run. type services.msc
If you click on a service you'll get a brief discription.
Some programs add services you don't need. Example: I have Acronis installed and it adds update service and scedule service under acronis. I don't need these running so I set them to manual.
Most processes you don't want to stop. Just set to manual.
Your virus scanner processes will be here and you can turn off ones you don't need.
preocesses:
Messenger - disable (nothing to do with instant messenger)
Messenger sharing folder - manual
netmeeting remote desktop sharing - manual
Nvidia diaplay driver service - manual (the driver will still function)
remote access connection manager - manual
remote desktop help session - manual
remote desktop auto connection - manual
remote registry - disable
Task schedualer - if you don't use it set it to manual
telephoney - if you don't use a dial up modem set this to manual
uninteruptible power supply - manual
volume shadow copy - manual
wireless zero config - if your not using wireless on this conputer set this to manaual
You may also want to turn off system restore. There are other more secure ways to do backups like - acronis, ghost, and many programs that create backups to cd/dvd.
Control panel - system - system restore tab - check the box to turn off.
