Video card performance slowly decreasing

[goldtoes]

I built a gaming machine a little less than a year ago with the following:

AMD 64 FX55
MSI K8N Neo4 Mobo
2GB RAM
GeForce 7800GT 256MB
500GB HDD

When I would play Call of Duty 2 online I would get a steady 250-350 FPS without a problem. Now, months later, my FPS drops between 85-125...a huge difference.

I have not changed any internal game settings or any desktop resolution or display settings. My case is cleaned out and free of dust, good cable management, and a great air flow. The LCD thermometer reads like 80 degrees inside the case.

I have tried updating the drivers to no avail. It is not a memory issue because I almost no virtual memory is being used. System has no malware at all.

Is this just because the card is old? I wouldn't think that it would just deteriorate this fast (< year).

I have tried re-seating the card, too.

Any suggestions are appreciated! TIA.

/gold

[kross]

Do you get a good frame rate when playing single user? i.e. not online?

[Freakin]

the card is not too old.

i would try using the nvidia driver remover (i forget what it's called0 and freshly updating the drivers after a clean sweep.

download 3dmark05 and perform a benchmark with basic settings; maybe some setting got changed on CoD and you didn't realize it.

[goldtoes]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you get a good frame rate when playing single user? i.e. not online?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know - I never played single player. I will have to try when I get home. I know single player and multiplayer use different cfg's so if something is screwed up, this might show it.

[ohgeetee]

Check to see if you enabled Anti Aliasing, this will show about the drop you mention. getting 85 is fine though. While the actually frame rate the eye can pickup is unknown and probably different per person, its definitely close to 72-85fps.

[goldtoes]

[ QUOTE ]
the card is not too old.

i would try using the nvidia driver remover (i forget what it's called0 and freshly updating the drivers after a clean sweep.

download 3dmark05 and perform a benchmark with basic settings; maybe some setting got changed on CoD and you didn't realize it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I found a pretty good tut here on how to cleanup the drivers, so I'll try that.

I'll run 3dmark and see what it turns up. Is there stuff that I can compare my results with? or does it tell me right in the prog if something is up? sorry - I have never used benchmarking software, well...extensively at least.

btw, does anyone know where you can download those drivers that people tweak esp for fps games? I've been looking for a while and have had no luck.

[ohgeetee]

3dmark will list what it has on file for systems close to your build. The effort involved in [censored] measuring with benchmarking software is really only worth it if you enjoy the circle jerk of posting the results on computer forums.

You could have 3dmark scores off the track but still get [censored] performance out of CoD2. Also, make sure you have the latest release of directX 9c. Lately they have gone to making releases without changing version number. There have been 3 9c releases since dec 05 I think.

[goldtoes]

[ QUOTE ]
3dmark will list what it has on file for systems close to your build. The effort involved in [censored] measuring with benchmarking software is really only worth it if you enjoy the circle jerk of posting the results on computer forums.

You could have 3dmark scores off the track but still get [censored] performance out of CoD2. Also, make sure you have the latest release of directX 9c. Lately they have gone to making releases without changing version number. There have been 3 9c releases since dec 05 I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am sure I haven't updated my directx in December, so that could be another cause.

One of the first things I might do is just cut out my custom cfg and use a stock one and see what my fps is.

[Freakin]

with that system i think your 3dmark score should be around 7-9k ballpark