socalGTOpilot

Hi all,

I just built a new rig recently, its by far not my first one, but it's performance is nowhere near what I expected it to be. My specs are as follows:
Asus M2R32-MVP mobo
AMD 64 x2 5600 at 2.9
2gb DDR2-800
two sapphire radeon hd2600xt 512mb GDDR3 each, pci-e with crossfire
500 watt cooler master ps
thermaltake m9 case

For whatever reason, when it comes to gaming, performance is barely different than the rig it replaced (athlon 64 single core, 1gb ram, overclocked agp x1600 pro) Flight Sim X gets about 18 FPS with medium settings.

I have the latest drivers for everything, as that was my first thought. Any ideas on what I am missing here? I didnt expect this to be some ultra machine, but for the money I spent after the old rig broke, I am kinda disspointed.

Thanks,
Jody

cohen

well for gaming AMD are not good for game and you should have come here first we could have recommended a really good system for gaming!

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Nevakonaza

thats not so true....AMD are good for gaming,maybe just not as good as intel atm

But i suspect its because of those hd2600xt...could be wrong though.

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Steelshivan

The video card setup is definately the weak spot for gaming. That processor will be easily fine for anything out now, as most everything is heavily GPU-bound assuming you have at least XX processor. (which you have)

For price/performance video card wise, check out Nvidia's 8800GT/8800GTS. Even a 9600GT is in that area. I don't know too much about ATI's line if you wanted to stick with them.

maroon1

You should have got either 8800GS or 9600GT instead of two HD2600XT

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hackapelite

You SHOULDN'T go with two lower-end graphics cards in crossfire/SLI as they won't deliver performance a single high-end GPU would... even if you pay the same price for 1 high-end or 2 lower-end cards, the single card will win by far.

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ScOuT

I am a fan of Nvidia based graphics cards, just my prefrence. The price of the graphics cards you bought are about $100 apeice from Newegg. They can't deliver the performance as a single quality GPU. For an extra $20 you could have bought EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit card. I would bet that this single card would out perform your two cards in crossfire mode. In a couple months or whenever, you could always get a second Evga card and run SLI. Then you will be crushing games. I just built a computer and purchased an Evga 8800 GTX. Don't have the money right now...but I plan on SLI shortly. I thought about going with two lower end cards at first but everybody said no. I wish you would have gotten the advice before hand like I did. Good luck with your build and if you ever have questions this is the place to come.

vanackertyler

ya, whats up with the 2 average cards in sli?

get an 8800gts and you will be lovin it

reddevil6

well because you have a crossfire board you should stick with ATI an get a 3870 then you will be able to max out every game out today accept crysis but you should still be able to go high with crysis

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socalGTOpilot

Thanks for the replies, I figured that the 2600's were my sticking point, but I got them for $80 a piece, so I thought it would be ok.

To all the nvidia lovers, I have no problem with their products, but I am more familiar with ATI. Like reddevil6 said, I have a crossfire board, so I will be sticking with ATI. The 3870 is a little out of my price range right now, any suggestions? (ATI only please, system specs justify my choice)

In the mean time, is there anything I can do to help performance? The games I play most are FSX, CS source, FEAR and GTR2. Thanks again.