BleepingComputer.com: Mid-low FPS in games, Choppy performance.

I do not know if this is a hardware issue, But since i just recently reformatted my computer, I can only imagine my bottleneck exist there.
More Info below Specs.

• Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS Black / Red Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case¹
  
• EVGA LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard
  
• EVGA GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16²
  
• ENERMAX INFINITI 720W Power Supply
  
• Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
  
• OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory
  
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
  
• SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner

^{1:I have since added two more fans and XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler
2:Was planning to SLI but money never came around, considering upgrade.}

Basically I created this computer to be amazing, a friend helped me build it. I wanted it to take me gaming for the next few years, but it has yet to perform as amazing as I thought it would, money was tight so I have been very lax at fixing the problem. Usually i have taken to dropping the graphics settings down and pretending i never saw the beautiful Ultra settings[Pretending hardly works]. In the End, I am very very confused why my computer is running slow even after a fresh reformat. Any help and suggestions would be great. I have included a Dxdiag.txt if it will help. I can do anything you need me to on the computer itself, but I am not as hardware savvy, so my apologies in advance if its something stupid on my part.

 DxDiag.txt (31.78K)
Number of downloads: 5

Maybe the CPU speed is a little low? Maybe an over clock would help? [Never messed with Over-Clocking] Or a replacement?
Is there the possibility I over looked something that is sucking my performance? [I usually game with a few programs running but nothing major]

This post has been edited by Krenos: 24 December 2011 - 10:00 AM

I would say your issue is the video card. That card would be on par with a 4850 which is far from what you would need to run those games on Ultra settings. I would look to upgrade to something of the 6950 level at a minimum in order to get to the performance you are looking for.

Can you make me a few suggestions on what I am looking for?

I prefer Nvidia, but i have some spare cash not a crap ton to shell out on hardware.

Would it be better to get two cheeper cards and SLI or one bigger more expensive card?

First, bump that BCLK to 166 to get that i7 920 where it will do some good.

Your videocard is a slug. Not going to ask what tempted you to put that card in the system.

Budget? Monitor resolution? What games? ATI 6850/6870 are good cards for the price. On the NVidia side, GTX 560, or GTX560 448 core is the upper mid range.

dpunisher, on 25 December 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

Again i bought these components over 2 years ago >.> MY friend said it was comparable for the time, idk if he was all that he was cracked up to be!

dpunisher, on 25 December 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

I have toyed around with some overclocking in the past few days but do you seriously just want me to bump it up? Do i still need to toy with the voltages to create stability?

dpunisher, on 25 December 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

Budget? Not sure, I was thinking about waiting for Tax return which will be pretty good, but I usually at least have some extra cash.

I usually play at 1920X1080[Playing on a 47" Samsung ATM]

Games? EVERYTHING
MW3 [On default no issues, haven't really played it all that much.]
Skyrim [On Ultra but seems choppy]
World of Warcraft [On Ultra, but fps dips way lower than it should]
Diablo 3 [On beta with no issues on Ultra, but is a pretty low impact game]
Starcraft 2 [Slows down on High or greater with a decently-low amount of units onscreen.]
I have a few others but no real issues.

Yup, bump it to 166 from the stock 133 in the BIOS and see what happens. The vast, vast majority of 920s run at 166 BCLK without any tweeks. Worst that happens, you reset your BIOS and try again. I have built 3 i7 920 rigs (1 for me and 2 for clients) with Asus and Gigabyte boards and all 3 were dead solid at stock voltages running 166 BCLK. One even made it to 3.7ghz at stock voltage (not mine unfortunately).

At that resolution you are really looking at the cards I suggested as a minimum for semi smooth framerates. Skyrim is a case where the CPU plays a big role in framerate as well. I don't see how you are running it at "Ultra" settings without it looking like a slideshow. You should notice a bump in playability with a CPU overclock, try and see. It will get a lot better once you have a decent videocard. Even with top flight cards (570/580/6970) you still have occasionable stumbles with Skyrim. Some modders are rewriting some settings/code for Skyrim that supposedly really speeds things up, but I haven't played with it. Skyrim is the Crysis of this generation of videocards.

no dice on the 166, i couldn't even get the Dummy OC in the bios to get anywhere...

C0 or D0 stepping?

dpunisher, on 26 December 2011 - 06:18 PM, said:

No idea sorry!