New computer issues

I just put together a new computer, I have the following:

Intel Core I7 Nehalem 2.66 GHZ 1366 130W Quad Core processor
EVGA GTX 280 1GB 512 bit graphics card
EVGA X58 Motherboard
6 gigs of SDRAM DDR3 1600
WD Caviar Black 500gig 7200rpm's SATA 3.0
Vista Home Premium 64 OS
I use Comcast highspeed cable

My porformance in world is lacking highly. I am below 10 fps, and all my settings are set to minium.

Any clue what could possibly be wrong, or what i need to adjust to make SL run better?

The most recent video drivers from Nvidia are 182.08, are you using those? Are you having any issues in other games or just SL?

Yes I downloaded that exact driver earlier.

Second life is the only game I play, so I have nothing to test it against.

Operating system is totally clean and empty. The only thing installed on the computer is secondlife.

I am curious if you would have issues with another graphic intensive game. You could try a benchmark program like 3dmark 06 or Vantage, both have free versions. See what kinds of framerates and score you get.

Are your chipset drivers for your motherboard up to date? Vista 64 files and Direct X up to date? Direct X isn't built into the automatic updates so that's something you might want to look into.

Since its a new build for you, I'm trying to figure out whether this is something misconfigured in your system or an SL issue.

Another thing you might try is downloading evga precision. It will show you at what speed your graphics card is operating...I believe the stock clock for vanilla GPU is 602mhz or something close to that. Some people have issues with their 2xx card not shifting out of 2d mode. However, I have the same card as you, and never experienced that problem myself.

I have all the updates from EVGA and from microsoft. How do I tell which version of direct x I am presently running?

I had installed evga precision and I am getting the same number you had stated, 602.

I will go look for one of the bench mark programs now.

I believe this link should get you the latest one:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en


When I checked my dxdiag it just said Direct X 10. I don't think that's a specific version number though.

Installed that Direct X.

ok my results running the 3dmark 06 were not what i was hoping for. They are way low.

I scored as follows:

3DMark Score - 2739
SM 2.0 score - 914
SM 3.0 - 1016
CPU score - 4861

Graphics test
Return to Proxycon 7.42fps
FirelfyForest 7.82fps

CPU tests
CPU1 Red Valley 1.61fps
CPU2 Red Valley 2.17fps

HDR tests
Canyon Flight (sm 3.0) 12.14fps
Deep Freeze (SM3.0) 8.17fps

Side note... I have not flashed the bios.

The good news we can rule out an SL issue. The bad news is, something else is obviously amiss.

This is making me think something is not set correctly in your BIOS. Something like all 4 cores are not active or your multiplier or FSB is not right. There should be a place in your BIOS to activate and deactivate the individual cores. I don't have the same mobo/CPU as you so I'm not sure exactly where to tell you to look.

Without going into BIOS you could check your cores' activity in the task manager. It should at least indicate whether all 4 cores are activated. (control alt delete/performance)

I'd recommend getting CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php) and checking to see that your CPU is running at the correct speed. While you are checking the speed within CPU-Z make sure there's a load on the CPU because your CPU may downclock at idle depending on your BIOS settings.

P.S. - I just read that you said you didn't flash the BIOS. Even if with the latest BIOS, if something is set incorrectly it will still give you problems. I recommend evga's message board, they are great. (http://www.evga.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=68) It also has links to get you the latest BIOS if you decide to go that route. Let us know how things turn out.