Diverting Power in your computer

[Crazyman3820]

I have a dell e310 with 230watt ps, 2 drives, 1 hard drive, a pny 8400 gs pci video card, and 1 gig of memory. The game i play is flight simulator x. according to the specifications the card, i am using should be perfect. however when i play the most i get is about 5-7 fps. i am sure i installed the card right i think the problem lies in my power. the card recommends 300 watts but it is running on 230. is it possible that the card isnt getting enough juice? if this is the case i was wondering if disconnecting the power to my cd drives would maybe give a little more power to the pci video card. any suggestions would be helpful.

thanks

 

[raybay]

First, you need to upgrade that computer memory to the 2 GB maximum, and be sure it is not value RAM... but rather high speed.
Flight Simulator will work fine on the e310 without changing the power supply.

 

[Crazyman3820]

first of all thank you for responding

will adding another gig of ram really solve my problems

 

[Tmagic650]

"will adding another gig of ram really solve my problems?"...

It can't hurt, and I would really change that power supply too. Get a quality supply between 450 and 650 Watts

 

[Crazyman3820]

that is why i was wondering if unplugging two of my cd drives might supply more power to the card

is it worth a try?

 

[LinkedKube]

drives only draw about 15-20 watts of power, and they do this when they're active, they arent a big issue. Upgrade you psu imo, to avoid the issue all together. The ram is a good idea as well. I play flight sim and it drags 2.5gigs of ram from my system.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

i think the problem lies in my power. the card recommends 300 watts but it is running on 230

that is why i was wondering if unplugging two of my cd drives might supply more power to the card

is it worth a try?

Pumping more power to the card won't make it go any faster. Just thought you might want to know that.

 

[Crazyman3820]

"Pumping more power to the card won't make it go any faster. Just thought you might want to know that."

is that true because could it be possible that the card is not running to the max?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Yes it is true. And the problem lies with your video card and CPU; nothing wrong with them in any way, but they're just too slow for a demanding game like FSX. This is especially true if you have a Celeron D CPU. You will need to lower your resolution and graphics settings a lot to get a playable experience.

Have you installed all the service packs for the game? They may improve performance.

 

[Crazyman3820]

so what is the problem really? the graphics card meets all the recommended requirements. it shouldnt have a problem but it does. should i

max out the ram

get a better psu

im out of ideas and really frustrated with my computer

 

[Tmagic650]

The power supply is weak, the video card isn't the greatest and what is your CPU, a Celeron? The power supply should be your first concern, then max out the memory

 

[Crazyman3820]

the cpu is a intel pentium 4 2.8ghz is there really any hope for results if i change the psu and max the ram

 

[LinkedKube]

Some hope yeah, not a whole lot with just the psu and the ram, I know that an 8400gs and 1 gig of ram is definately not going to cut it. You can use 1 gig of ram just downloading/transfering files and web browsing, in fact your os can use that much alone in some cases.

Have you tried turning the graphics to minimum settings? I wouldnt play flight sim on that pc, w/o 1. Having 2 gigs of ram, preferably more, and a better video card. Flight Sim X is also cpu intensive, moreso than most other games.

 

[Crazyman3820]

the thing i dont get is that my integrated graphics can run the game at about 18 fps at medium high settings.

the 8400gs barely gets 8 fps that is why i think its the psu because the card is not getting enough power

any input

 

[LinkedKube]

Integrated graphics on what, the same setup? The thing that amazed me was that you're playing that game with 1 gig of ram, I bet your hard drive never gets to rest. What drivers are you running btw.

 

[Crazyman3820]

i mean the integrated graphics that came with the computer and was installed into the motherboard intel(r) 82915G/GV/910GL Express chipset family

it runs better than the card

i have one disabled when im running the other

not sure what u mean by the drivers

 

[LinkedKube]

drivers, you know the things you have to install, the forceware drivers for the video card, lol. go to nvidia's site and make sure you have the latest drivers.

 

[Crazyman3820]

i know i have the latest drivers installed from the website
can u tell me what u think about the integrated graphics working better than the 8400gs

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

it runs better than the card

Excuse me, the integrated graphics run faster than the 8400gs?
Strange O.O, yes yes go install your drivers.

EDIT: We posted at the same time and I missed yours

can u tell me what u think about the integrated graphics working better than the 8400gs

Well if i didn't make it clear enough, I almost think that is not possible under normal conditions :/.
What is your processor?

i know i have the latest drivers installed from the website

Completely Uninstall all older drivers, reinstall the new ones again, the reboot, go into your bios, and disable integrated graphics.
I think this may be the best course of action, and the only one I can think of.

 

[Tmagic650]

The reviews I have read on the pny 8400 gs pci-e state that the card is pretty poor as a minimal gaming card. It is a PCI-e card right? It also shouldn't use much power, but the old P4 CPU does. I still strongly suggest changing the power supply before doing anything else

 

[Crazyman3820]

the card is actually a pci not a pci-e

 

[LinkedKube]

lol pci, well you gave us your answer right there.

 

[Crazyman3820]

thanks for nothing

 

[LinkedKube]

well you failed to inform us that it was pci, instead of pci E, which is the standard for games. At this point I'm not even going to suggest adding, ram, a psu or w/e. Save the money to build a 400 dollar budget system or something.

 

[Tmagic650]

I agree on not upping the total RAM just yet, but the replacement of the power supply would be a good move. I work on many "lesser" computers and more stable power will improve performance. How much you say... you can't really tell until you do it. I think it is worth the effort

Crazyman3820,
don't give up on this quite yet