PC Troubles. Help?

[SilverStrike]

So, my mate who I helped get a decent gaming PC is having some issues which baffle me and prevent us playing some games we have in common. His Graphics card is an Nvidia Geforce GT 545, I think.

Basically, it runs some games really well. Like Skyrim, Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, max settings, absolutely fine.

But when it tries to play Hawken, Magicka, or Chivalry on the lowest settings, or any setting, it's.. laggy. Low FPS, and isn't as responsive as it could be.

I've tried looking into Nvidia Control panel to make sure the games are using the Nvidia graphics card, not the intel, and if it were one game I'd look up specifically, but it's multiple games, and usually indie ones.

Anyone got some suggestions?

 

[Crises^]

Can I ask what cpu and ram he has as the gt 545 is on the recomended specs list here for Hawken
http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=1699&game=Hawken

Also have you updated the gpu drivers?

 

[Christopher Fisher]

Hmmm...yeah, that is odd. The first thing I thought was that it was just the internet connection (hence games like Hawken and Chivalry not playing well), but if GW2 can run alright, then it's probably not that; Lion's Arch is a fucking lagfest! Any chance you might have your firewall blocking those games like Hawken? Other than that, I would just suggest updating the drivers.

 

[Rack]

Had a similar problem with my laptop in that some games ran off the integrated graphics card rather than my specialised one. In the NVidia control panel you can instruct your system to use your graphics adapter for specific programs, or tp use the adapter all the time. The autodetect can be a touch shaky.

 

[yretsyMredruM]

Not sure about Hawken and Chivalry, but I know Magicka has performance issues, no matter what you're running it on. Well that's the popular opinion I've seen online and experience myself. However n=1 (and some X number of random people online...)

 

[Murrdox]

Had a similar problem with my laptop in that some games ran off the integrated graphics card rather than my specialised one. In the NVidia control panel you can instruct your system to use your graphics adapter for specific programs, or tp use the adapter all the time. The autodetect can be a touch shaky.

This is the first thing I'd check. It could also be a driver compatibility issue with the games that you have listed. There have been a couple of times in the past with NVidia drivers that I've needed to install a previous driver version in order to have one that was more stable with a certain game. If I remember the last game I had this issue with was several years ago with The Sims 3. I haven't had this issue with any games in recent years though.

Check your Event Log for any strange errors that correspond to NVidia DLL files.

 

[Laughing Man]

Not sure what the problem is here. The GPU that is running in the OPs computer may only be part of the last generation of GPUs but in terms of raw power it barely scraps above the 8800GTS I was running 3 GPUs ago.

To be honest we really need a lot more info about the computer, can we get

OS
Resolution being used in games
True settings (I seriously doubt Skyrim is being played with everything turned up full and without issue, the Vram usage alone would crush the 545, fuck my 560Ti would struggle from time to time.)
CPU (type and speed)
RAM (amount)
HD (regular or ssd)
Motherboard (to determine if it has any onboard GPU)

Had a similar problem with my laptop in that some games ran off the integrated graphics card rather than my specialised one.

If it's a desktop then it will either run on the onboard GPU or the dedicated GPU you have to select which one is used in the BIOS prior to booting. Laptops can switch between them because it's an option to save power, since power saving isn't an issue with desktops it shouldn't have that feature at all.

We need more info but right here and right now I am pinning it on an underpowered system.