My friend and I built pretty much the exact same computer. The only differences are that his motherboard is a p35 gigabyte and mine is a msi 650i and that i am running vista ultimate while he runs xp pro.

With this setup e6750, 8800gt, 2gb crucial ballistix 800mhz, msi 650i, thermaltake 500w, centurion 5 case i get unplayable fps in Call of Duty 4 with the same settings as my friend while he gets 100+fps stable with aa/af up and max settings. We even swapped video cards and nothing changed.

Is there any way to solve this problem? I've reinstalled graphics drivers too...other games run ok but i thought they would run better with the 8800gt like they do on his machine. I doubt its vista b/c theres no way vista cuts fps by over 75%...i get like 40 fps and it drops constatly...my card isnt overheating and neither is my cpu...

i hope thats enough information i really appreciate the help!!

My money is on Vista this is why,
1. Vista can run DX10 maybe the game you are using as a benchmark runs DX10 and XP runs DX9. If thats not the case and the game only uses DX9 still Vista will drag down the fps in comparison to XP.
2. Vista uses a lot more RAM than XP that could hurt game performance as well.
3. You swaped cards so you know it isn't something to do with the cards it has to be another variable. The most likely cause is Vista. not your mobo. Mother boards have no effect on game performance.

Yay. Chipset impact would be minuscule, whereas Vista drags down fps in just about every game and benchmark.

but it shouldnt be a 75% difference in fps...thats what i dont understand

Then install XP ( on a separate HD if possible ) and see if anything changes.

MAKE SURE YOUR DRIVER SETTINGS ARE CORRECT, sounds like you might have vsync and supersampling on, which will kill performance on any system. It can make a big difference in image quality and performance to have the right balance in your driver settings. Also make sure you have your services and OS settings set so you do not have all of your software running a service at boot, which can also really hurt your performance. Make sure that the drivers are uninstalled properly. I friend of mine that had problems with drivers on vista got big numbers after the driver was unintalled and installed properly. These images show my driver settings which are the same as what most test mag's and websites use. Its the right balance between performance and quality. vsync needs to be off and supersampling kills games with no real benifit in image quality.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745

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i appreciate the help but those 2 changes i made didnt help... =(


and what do you mean by this "Also make sure you have your services and OS settings set so you do not have all of your software running a service and stating at bootup, which can also really hurt your performance. "

ya it would not hit you at 75%, its your startup programs. You type msconfig in run or search on vista and you see what it running at boot it helps you use less ram. You can shutoff windows services and useless software services like quicktime, nero, etc. This will give you just a little performance kick, like 5% it's not the 75% issue you are having.
http://www.theeldergeekvista.com/

Your driver settings are the same as mine?

yea the driver settings are exactly like yours ill try looking at startup programs

Ok well I will get my friend to post on here. He had massive performance loss with his card and it was a driver issue. He had to uninstall everything nvidia on his c drive and he cleared the registry of nvidia as well, then he got the correct driver installed and his performance is now what it should be for 8800 gt on vista. You may have uninstalled driver with add and remove programs but that does not mean its gone, it can still be playing havoc with your system. It needs to be completley uninstalled.

check this thread for some tips:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] 70-problem

I bet you got a hardware conflict somewhere.

I guarantee it's not Vista. I would have accepted that answer a year ago but not today. I was running a 8800GT, 2GB of RAM on Vista Ultimate and it was flawless in COD4 at 1920x1200, maxed out. I'm guessing its a driver issue or you might have a defective card.

ok...i will try and wipe my computer clean of nvidia stuff...but when i reboot vista it will probably automatically install drivers for my card and i wont be able to stop it

Thats your problem, thats it! unconnect the net when you do it and hit cancel when that windows installer comes up.

Download the nvidia driver and SAVE it on your desktop

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvi [...] _whql.html

After you completely remove nvidia software you should be in 800x600......then
reboot with net disconnected and hit cancel on windows popup then install driver. It says that in the notes of the driver cleaner software link I left for you to download. You can not let windows install driver that is your problem 100%

ok looks good...but wheres the driver cleaner software link?