ok so after reading some of the other posts i went and found a GPU moniter (nothing special just some windows gadget) to see why after 5 min of playing my FPS drops to 9 and my ping shoots up to 400+.

I have a Ge 9100 that use to play the game just fine up untill about 6 months ago. Anyway, during game play when everything is normal and working fine my monitering thing reads my GPU temp is 250ish, 98% load, and is using 176/256MB

BUT, when the game goes to shit my GPU droped to only haveing a 6% load

Does anybody know what this means? or how to fix it? or an i just overworking the damn thing and need a new one?

oh and this is the exact model of machine i have
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pavilion-p6210y/4507-3118_7-33777301.html?tag=mncolBtm;rnav

so i think i only have a PCI Express x1 - DIMM 240-pin expansion slot to use which really limits what i can do(i think)

It seems like there is an issue with your fan. It may be completely dead. I don't know if your GPU monitor allows you to do it, but if you use a program like rivatuner, it will let you control the fan speed. By default, nvidia cards run at <= 30% of fan speed. Try bringing it up to 100% using rivatuner (it will be loud), and try playing the game and monitor the load temperature. See if you see a noticeable difference. If you see a noticeable difference, use a compressed can of air to clear any dust on and around the fan and the card. Then use rivatuner to bring down the fan speed to 50%. I recommend you keep it at that level (it will still be a little bit loud) unless you are planning on replacing the card.

You can get rivatuner here - http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner.

i have rivatuner downloaded and installed. but because i have an integrated chip i dont think i can change the fan speed

The specs mentioned on the website are wrong. There is no such thing as a PCI Express DIMM slot. DIMM slots are for RAM only.

On the pavilion p6210y, you certainly have a PCI-Express x16 slot which you can use to install a good 3d card. I can guarantee you this.

So the best solution is for you to upgrade your video card right now. There are so many models from nvidia and ATI in the $50-$150 market which is a lot more than enough to play the latest games without any problems. You can get a great Radeon 5x series or nvidia GT 4x series for around $50.

So go out there and a get a good card, and never look back at the integrated card anymore :)

Yeah, I'd listen to reborn on this one. If you need help finding a card, ask strange/bleep.

ah righty then, sounds good.

anybody know a good brand to keep an eye out for?

Depends on who your lookin for. nVidia i like EVGA because of their lifetime warranty. AMD has alot I run Sapphire but Asus makes great cards too. From what I have heard stray away from XFX from now on. Their customer service is losing significant rep on many of the sites I check and they usually use their own cheaper pcb's instead of reference or higher quality boards.

whats better for gaming (although i know non of these are true gaming cards)

GT 220
GT 430
Radeon 5570
9800 GT

keep in mind im trying to keep it below $80 cause im cheap and only have a 300W power supply

The 9800GT is the most powerful of the bunch but requires at least 400W.

All of them are more than powerful enough to run even the latest games at high settings on a decent resolution :)

Here you have GPUs benchmark: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
Here GPU power consumption: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/781-6/d ... iques.html
Your PSU has about 80% efficiency, so you have ~240W available. Decrease power consumed by CPU, take off on average 10W per each HDD / optical drive, take few watts for mother board, and see what you can buy and not burn your PSU.

He can draw 300 watts from the PSW what that efficiency is if he is using 300 watts (on the dc lines 12/5/3volt) then on the 120volt line it will be drawing more than 300 watts on the 120v line. Its the efficiency of the ac to dc conversion.