Need a little pc help

[cypherx]

Ok so here it goes... I did something that most pc experts will say was not the smartest maybe but I was eager to experiment and maybe save some money.

I have a cyberpower pc that I had built in 2010 that was decent in most ways for the game but I wanted to upgrade the gfx card so I did. That one works fine. Next my wife decides she wants to play so I have a really old desktop and a freshly removed gtx 460 card. Game ran perfectly in b4 and scored around a 5k on desktop high on the benchmark. For the past few days however she gets like this invisible wall where she can't run any farther and then suddenly the grass loads and people appear and I guess it catches up or something. Also when she goes to accept a quest or whatever the npcs take forever to load.

I have turned everything down to as low as it will go but I'm perplexed. It doesn't do it all the time and on my computer which is on the same network everything is fine. 1 time she got blue screen and the pc crashed. Maybe 3-5 times she got "Final Fantasy XIV has stopped working" which might be because of all the alt tabbing/graphics adjusting. I have monitored the temperatures through razer game booster as it clearly shows them there and the cpu/gfx card never even get out of the 50c range. I installed an extra case fan to make sure there would be no over heating issues.

So heres the stats on it as well as I can remember since I don't have it in front of me.

Windows 7
Foxconn RS780M03G1-8EKRS2HMOD (No BIOS update ever performed as that is a bit beyond my knowledge)
600gb 5400 HDD
gtx 460
4gb of ddr2 (Elpida GU342G0ALEPR692C6CE)
amd Athlon dual core 2.85 ghz
500w corsair psu (I put this in to meet the standard power requirements for the gpu)

Windows is updated, I have tried NVidia drivers 314.22, 320.18, 320.49 (current). Tried all manner of settings. I just don't get why it would perform so well in b4 and so bad in EA. Also as it stands I have invested a total of $50 (psu) and $7 (case fan) into this project so if it isn't gonna work that's ok as I'm pretty good at turning a buck on ebay. If there are some cheap parts I need to make it work that would be great. Any help is much appreciated and thanks in advance.

[khovel]

I am by no means an expert in computer hardware... but this sounds like an internet latency issue. I assume you both are playing off the same connection. Are one or both of you wired to internet, or all wireless?

[cypherx]

We are both wireless. She does however have an older usb wireless receiver (D-Link Wireless N-150 Mbps USB Wi-Fi Network Adapter (DWA-125)). We are about 25-30 feet away from the router with 1 wall between us and it. The router is Airport Extreme 802.11N (5TH GEN).

[khovel]

We are both wireless. She does however have an older usb wireless receiver (D-Link Wireless N-150 Mbps USB Wi-Fi Network Adapter (DWA-125)). We are about 25-30 feet away from the router with 1 wall between us and it. The router is Airport Extreme 802.11N (5TH GEN).

That could be the issue then. Try having here plug in or get a new wifi reciever to see if that makes a difference.

[cypherx]

Ok thanks I will try that. In the mean time any other suggestions or is everyone too busy sharpening their pitchforks outside Yoshi P's house? ;P

[cypherx]

Shameless Bump

[PsychicKoala]

Sounds entirely network related to me, I've never seen bad hardware do things like that. Try to plug the laptop in manually to the ethernet and tell us if the issues persist.

[cypherx]

Sounds entirely network related to me, I've never seen bad hardware do things like that. Try to plug the laptop in manually to the ethernet and tell us if the issues persist.

Well I'm home now and I managed to get on for about 30 mins and play with the settings. Its a desktop so I unplugged the d-link usb wireless card and am running the game through ics via a macbook pro. It says my connection is excellent now where it only said good before so you guys may have been on to something.

Now as for how shitty the game runs even though it scored decently on the benchmark. What do I need to improve to give it the little extra it needs?

[cypherx]

Also sound is badly out of sync.

[Raist]

It's VERY CPU hungry at the moment because of the DirectX 9 (a lot of stuff gets emulated in anything newer than Windows XP), and memory bandwidth can have an impact. Even on the XP Pro box I tested with (generally runs DX8/9 stuff well), I saw a directly proportional change in performance just by changing the core bus speed. No tweaking to the GPU, and PCI-E stayed the same speed. Just ramping up the core bus speed to change my dual core from 3GHz to 4GHz garnered a near flat 25% increase.

So, if you feel up to it, could try to score a deal on a better CPU if your motherboard can support something higher. You can try a slight overclock to see if you notice an impact. Sometimes even just a 5% increase in the bus speed can have a noticeable effect. If it does, then you could look into a CPU upgrade.