Team fortress 2 low fps, upgrade cpu?

Hi. i recently purchased tf2 over steam and i swear my fps should be higher. in intense gun battles my fps drops to about 5-10 rendering it umplayable. the same is also happening to CS:S too and really im quite frustrated. i have the latest driver etc but im really quite stumped at how my fps is so low. my pc specs are:
OS: Windows Vista
CPU: P4 3.0GHZ HT (would it be worth upgrading to 3.4ghz?)
RAM: 2 X 1GB DDR400
Graphics: Leadtek 7600GT
Mobo: Asrock P4i65g
HDD: 3 X 120GB
Case: Aspier X-cruiser


Any help or suggestion are very welcome. Plus, should I bother upgrading my cpu to 3.4ghz as I have heard that CPUs can really bottleneck some systems:
Thanks

How about the fact that you're running the most power hungry operating system available. That might do it.

You probably have a video driver problem. Try reinstalling DirectX 10 and then your video card driver again.

Vista is a power hog, usually sucking up 1.5Gs of ram just for the os, not to mention it requires quite a bit of video juice. My suggestion is either downgrade to xp(if you can bank that) or get a better gpu. In most benching of newer games like F.E.A.R, BIOSHOCK, etc there is a 10-15 fps difference in xp and vista.

I heard that Vista usually sucks up about 800MB of memory, and I doubt that the OP's computer behave's like this all the time with VISTA installed. He probably had good frame rates at one point or another. Counter Strike Source has been out for a while but Team Fortress 2 is new. Both games run on the Source engine so both would need about the same computer specs to run smoothly.

Oh I'm sure both of these games could run smoothly on vista, but you cant deny that the game issues might be due to the os itself. Most people I know playing CS run xp with no problems.

I will agree that XP usually does get better frame rates than Vista and that Vista is a resource hog.

I have a similar computer with XP, 3.2GHz Pentium IV, a GB of PC3200 and a 6800GS OC. I'll put another GB of memory in and see how she runs Counter Strike Source. If my computer can run Source at fluid frame rates then your computer should too.

How old is this install of Vista? Did you install the chipset drivers?

I believe that a 3.4GHz processor will not raise your frames rates enough to help much in this situation, but a dual core processor would help but your motherboard does not support those processors. Basically, if your computer is just to slow for this game then you'll have to buy a new computer to get the frame rates you want.

What rez & settings are you working with? The 7600GT isn't bad, but isn't exactly a gameslayer either. If you're running at max settings with even 2x AA, I'd say the performance you're getting is absolutely normal for your system... especially when you factor in Vista!

im playing at 1280 x 1024 with medium/high settings. i turned down AF to bilinear and AA down to 2x.

Some may disagree, but based on your rig and in-game settings that sounds about right... turning of AA should give you a 10-15 frame boost and running at 1024 x 768 should give you another 10-15.

if your cooling system is clogged with dust then i would highly suggest cleaning it out because this can increase performance significantly

Guys the 7600 nvidia board is a consumer card, budget. You get a budget card, you get budget performance. Thats about right, those frame rates. Soo its upgrade time.

I have a similar rig for my wife albeit a slightly slower CPU (2.8) and a little less RAM. a 7600GT also. Only difference is its running XP not Vista and it runs TF2 on med/high settings fine. Trust me its not the card. The 7600GT should cope with that engine. Even if you sort this prob out I'd suggest you dual boot Vista/XP in future if possible. Fact is Vista just isn't worth it for gaming right now.

yeah you get what you pay for, but we're talking about CS here, not F.E.A.R on max settings. I say get rid of vista and you'll see a difference, while you're ingame trying to enjoy yourself, vista is like a thief in the night, waiting for the right moment to suck your computer dry. Then some other guy is yelling headshot and you're all ticked off.

ok the day after tommorow im gettin a new rig, hooray!! I want your opinions though.
CPU: Intel core 2 duo e6400
ram: 2gb ddr2 667
graphics: 8600gt pci-e

what are your thoughts?

What motherboard or is this a Dell type situation err computer?

no this isnt a dell or anything this is custom. not sure what the motherboard is though but i will try and find out asap.

p.s what are your thoughts so far?

Me thinks you could get faster memory so far, but what is your budget?

Oh I just installed CS:Source on my 3.2 GHz Pentium IV, 1GB of PC3200, 6800GS OC with Windows XP and had no problems getting 83-84 average fps in the video stress test.

really?! wow thats pretty good compared to mine. what socket is that p4 3.2ghz?
i dont really have a budget but the problem is that ive already own the ddr2 memory so i dont really see a point in shelling out on slightly improved version of an already reasonable pair of sticks tbh

That RIG should be fine. DDR2-667 is only about 3% slower than DDR2-800.