Confused: Performance doesn't seem to live up to specs.

INTRO: (Skip to PROBLEM further down, if you don't wana hear my story)

Ok, so after having the same computer 5 years, its 3rd hard drive finally went out and so it was time for a new computer. I was psyched to be able to finally play all the great games that had come out over the past years but i was strapped for cash so I found, what I thought, was a great deal. An Acer for 500 U.S. duckets with

PROBLEM:

Athlon 64 dual core 5000+ 2.6ghz processors
4gig ram
Nvidia 8200 256mb dedicated 1.6 gig shared
Windows Vista Home Premium

The problem is the darn thing just doesn't seem to be able to play games that it meets or exceeds the recommended reqs. For instance, when playing Half Life 2, I should be able to run the thing maxed out full tilt no problems. However if I do this the game is laggy as all get out. And it's like this for pretty much all games I've tried. Most games have the feature where they auto-determine what settings they should be on based on the specs they gather from your system. However I have to run all my games at least a step below what they recommend (and what the hardware should be capable of) if not all the way to the lowest setting (Bioshock).

So, I know I've been long-winded, but my question is: Where do I start in terms of trying to figure out why my system doesn't seem to run up to spec?

 

Oh sry, Just wanted to note. I never play my games at any higher resolution than 1024x768 and even tried 800x600 though it seemed to make very little difference.

 

Get an Intel based computer.

 

it's the 8200. it's not a gaming card. on a budget, the 9600GT will suffice. but you will need a new power supply, like the corsair 450VX.

 

If you have an onboard video card, that is probably your problem.
The amd x2 5000 that you have is a very good cpu. I have a amd x2 4800 and it works as fast as any intel cpu. I have a ati xt1650 pcie video card (budget video card) and it plays half life 2 extremely well with no slowdown.

But also you have Vista as an OS and that is not a gaming OS. Vista will need access to the majority your video card output, leaving very little to play games, especially if you have the AERO desktop running.

 

Thnx. I turned off aero(didn't even know i could do that) as well disabling all the other vista enhancements. This helped a good bit. Um anything else i can try?

On a side note: Why is an onboard graphics card worse than a seperate one? I thought onbaord was faster because it was hard-wired to the motherboard? As for changing operating systems, I tried, failed several times and then did some research. XP does not have the drivers for several peaces of hardware and I have to make seperate driver discs of homebrew drivers(because the companies don't make the xp drivers) and load them first or something. The information got quite over my head and i gave up hope of being able to do that.

 

Also, probably wont be able to buy a seperate graphics card as i got one of those slimline computers and the only case slot(the part where your sound/vid/56kmodem/ect. stick out of the case, don't know what else to call it), that is open is about half the size of a normal slot. I'm starting to feel like this great deal i got was not so great.

 

i think what would help everybody is the model number of your computer, when i first read it, i was thinking you bought a laptop. yea im in agree ment with everyone else about your video card. you need to move away from the onboard video card. with the model number alot of use can give you an idea on which model of video card to go with.

and as a side note, i have been using vista for all my gaming needs and have yet to have a problem, but also im over kill on all the requirments for vista and most games hehe.

 

Model is Acer Aspire x1200

 

Graphics card is useless, as are almost all prebuilt PCs for games.

 

DELL XPS!!!!!
Or, you could save thousands of dollars and build yourself...

See where this is going?

 

Yes well, 'typical' prebuilt machines, not monolithic giants that are as tall as you are... Seriously, have you seen a Dell XPS in real life?

 

Unfortunately, yes. I own an XPS Gen3 that my dad bought a year or so before I knew how to build.



I have to say, after a reformat, that system runs like a beast:
|3.6GHz P4|Nvidia 6800|1GB DDR2 RAM|250GB HD|SoundBlaster X-Fi|
Pretty advanced for Sept. 2004 when I bought it.

It cost I believe $2,000

 

That's small compared to the current XPS...

 

Lol. I thought that was big.

 

I hate those cases.. They seem great.. then you shut them and an ide cable jams up on a stick of ram and no boot

 

Eh? I've had IDE cables run along RAM sticks before with no incident...

 

Same here. No problems with IDE cables on RAM, unless for some reason the slots are loose.

 

I usually end up with a cable in a fan, and that IS a problem... lol

 

Naa, you just have a quieter PC