Windows 7: Slow game performance

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I found this place after Googleing this problem I've been having.

I recently upgraded from XP 32-bit to Win 7 32-bit. After the installation i updated all of my drivers from the manufactures and went to windows update and installed anything that it found.



My problem is that when i am playing games (Call of Duty 4 & 5, Farcry 2; what I've noticed so far) the FPS are unplayable low, were talking 10 fps! COD 4 isn't as bad, it averages about 20, but that's still pretty bad! the weird thing is that back when i had XP everything ran great. Even weirder, when i turn the graphics settings down in the game to try to counter the low fps nothing changes. I turned all these games down to Lego pixel resolution and i was still getting 10 fps! I'm getting very frustrated with this. Does anyone else know what i can do to fix this.

My system specs:

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Motherboard - MSI nForce 650i
CPU - Intel P4 3.4ghz
RAM - 3GB DDR2
Video - Sparkle GeForce 9600GT 1GB
Hard Drive - Western Digital 1TB
Disc Drive - DVD RW

No ideas?

Did you update your DirectX files?

From my Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues ...

5 - Update your Direct X files - Contrary to popular belief, just because Windows 7 is DX11 capable doesn’t mean it has the latest DX9 files!!! Most game issues can be fixed by simply updating the DX files.

Click the bold link and get the Feb 2010 files.

Upgrading from one OS to a new one is never recommended as they aren't as compatible as they tell you they are and if you have issues with the old one, you will bring it to the new OS as well... it is always better to install a fresh OS, even if you have to install all your software again.

although, win 7 has a little utility that lets you sync all your old files so you can easily put on your new OS once you are done.

+1 on what sygnus21 said.

Thanks for the replies.

When i said i "upgraded" from XP to Win 7, i didn't mean upgrade as with what you can do when you have Vista and you upgrade to Win 7. Sorry for that mix up, I should have been more clear. when i installed Win 7 i did a clean install, just like the instructions say to if your running XP. Afterword, i installed new drivers and ran Disc Cleanup.

As for DirectX, when i installed Call of Duty 5 it wanted me to install DirectX 9.0c that came with the disc so i let it install. I guess i should have mentioned that back on XP, i had Bioshock installed but i could only play it if i turn all the graphics down to low. even then i was getting about 20 fps. Now that i have Win 7, Bioshock runs great with all the graphics at max and about 35fps. this is the only game that really works.

Thanks, I'll try downloading DirectX 9 directly from Microsoft and see if that helps.

Ok, i tried downloading and installing DirectX from Microsoft but when i when to install it, the window said "setup has found that a newer version of DirectX is already installed. No installation required"

OK so the last thing you can try is upgrading your sound & video drivers to the latest version for your OS

thats because you already have DX11 (which is backwards compatible with every other version) , you need to run the DX update tool.....

Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime

this will check for any incremental updates and install them as required although i doubt you'll need any

what resolution and settings are you running the games at , what fps were you getting before? what drivers are you currently running for your gpu and what version of motherboard chipset drivers

Already have.

Nvidia driver version - 257.15
Realtek HD Audio driver version - 6.0.1.6069

You might need to update the BIOS for your motherboard. I googled your board: MSI nForce 650i, but came up with nothing. I think the board is based on the nVidia 650i chipset, but has a different name.

Can you download CPU-Z and find out what your motherboard is and what version of the BIOS you have?
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php



Edit: After we get that info, we can find out if a newer BIOS was made available to use Windows 7/newer graphics/etc.