I'm struggling to understand what's going on.
I'm struggling to understand what's going on.
Hello. I recently acquired my father's vintage "desktop" and used it before too; I recall accompanying him to collect it from a local shop that built it in 2009. It's a solid machine, though it lacked a suitable graphics card. I upgraded it with a Radeon 4870 (512MB) and a brand-new 500W EVGA Bronze 80Plus PSU, which provided the necessary power after the previous unit failed to deliver adequate voltage and didn't have the required connectors. My goal was to transform this into a solid late-2000s gaming setup. To that end, I also sourced a 1440x900 widescreen monitor from Compaq (December 2008) and installed an older version of Fraps for Windows XP, along with the original Crysis game from 2007. I tested it at medium settings and native resolution, achieving smooth performance—typically 55-60fps—and even managed 250fps after adjusting sync. I also played Left 4 Dead at high settings, reaching up to 60fps. However, GTA IV isn't available on Steam at the moment, so I opted for Saints Row 2 instead. Despite the smoothness in most cases, there are occasional stutters and minor frame drops, especially at lower resolutions or when lowering settings. My system runs a 3.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, 4GB RAM, and a 500GB HDD with an ATI Radeon HD 4870 (512MB). I'm puzzled as to why it struggles consistently, even though the specs seem adequate except for the processor speed. Could there be something missing or an unexpected bottleneck? Thanks for your help.
Thanks for the update, it confirms 100% CPU usage on both cores after playing the game. Maybe a processor upgrade is worth thinking about.