Help....

The memory limitation is a function of 32-bit operating systems.  It isn't a "problem" per se; it's just the way things are.  You need to go to a 64-bit OS for all 4GBs to be utilized.

 

The x8 lane limitation makes little practical difference.  Tom's Hardware tested various lane configurations (I can't readily find the link right now.)

 

Take a look at the "highly viewed XPS threads": Clicky

 

These may be of help. 

 

 

That has put my mind to rest regarding vista, its not even as though i really need 4 gig of memory it just would have been nice :) I've had a look at highly viewed threads and to be honest they just confirm my worries. I was gonna ring tech support tomorrow anyhow to see if they can shed anymore light on the various crashes etc, just thought i'd check for more info. Cheers for the quick response.

Well first i think you have one 9800GX2 as dell doen't offer dual 9800Gx2. The 9800 GX2 is two 9800 cards on one card for one slot on the motherboard. They are already linked together. So there would not be an sli option. About the 8x slot take a look at these test comparing 16x 8x 4x 1x  PCI E slot with an 9800 GX2. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2-0,1915-10.html

As you can see not much a performance gain from 8x to 16x

 

As for the 4 GB of memory, showing as 3 GB in windows. That is a 32 bit operating system limitation. If you got windows XP from dell that is 32 bit will still have 3 gb or less shown. You need to get a 64 bit OS to show and use 4 GB. If you install SP 1 in vista it will show 4 GB but not use it.  

Thanks Salvadoran for finding the link!

 

Dr B, what specific problems are you having?  

 

Games should look great as long as the settings in the games themselves are correct.

 

You may want to try turning the fan speed up for the graphics card when playing games as GPUs don't like getting hot and will lock up the system if your card gets too warm. 

Performance issues, slow down etc, I thought that buying this system would let me play newer games like crysis (still waiting for farcry2) etc in full res at high textures (although not highest). can only run it in 1600 x 1200 in medium. I know crysis is notoriously difficult to run in full spec, i just thought i could push the 630 a little further than i can. Runs doom3 and quake 4 (minus the blue screen crashes but thats another issue) a dream, but how old are these games. even stalker has problems in full res and that game engine is over 4 years old. its not a case of lock ups and stuff (although that might explain the blue screen?). Was maybe just expecting too much but, for the cash i paid, i did expect it to look better than the 360. Ridiculous optimism? You'll have to excuse me if I come off as a little naive, I do know a bit about hardware, but not enough and thats why im here :) Always eager to learn.

Many thanks.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to play Crysis on high settings with a 9800 GX2. I run dual 8800GTX in SLI and I can still run Crysis at HIGH settings with all the eye candy turned on (trilinear, AA 16q, etc) at a 1920x1080 resolution on a 24" HD lcd with no problems when running just ONE of my gfx cards.

Crysis should not pose a problem.

 

Have you tried setting the card's fan speed up to 65% or more?  Again, these cards do not like heat.

 

Also be sure to turn off all unneeded processes before loading the game - it's a memory and resources hog. 

Cheers salvadoran, yes that does make sense regarding the gfx card, and i guess i'll just have to wait till i can afford the 64 meg version of vista to make the most of the ram. I have been thinking and does the card i own have 1 gig of graphical power as advertised on the dell site (and my invoice)? i did read on one post that this might not be the case, because it does seem to be running at 512 and if it is a 1 gig card do we think that it may be faulty? B

PCI cage fan? Not doubting your knowledge, but does that really make a difference to in game performance? would that be the reason why stalker is good for a while then slows down, makes sense now i think about it. I never even considered fan speed as a problem. sooo much to learn....

Ta. B

Not one of the case fans, but rather the fan on the graphics card itself.  The card has a quiet little fan that helps keep the card itself cool.

 

Case fans can also help keep everything cool, but in this case I would start with the graphics card fan itslef.

 

The nVidia control program has a feature for controlling the various fans. 

Nope, mine doesnt, I called tech support, and it was worse than awful, i spoke to 4 different people, none of which had any idea what was going on, they reformatted my hard drive (which i could have done myself) and lost my dynamic bios settings from the control panal. Anyway, thanks for your assistance, tech guy coming tomorrow (conclusion of the 8 hour phone call). If he cant help i may be back. grrrrrr.

 

Grrrrr is a reasonable response. :) Hopefully you will get things set straight. Let us know.

And my xps saga continues, even the tech guy didnt know what was up, superfetch? he looked at me blankly and wrote it down for future reference, brilliant, nice guy tho. So the card has been replaced and nothing doing, starting to really upset me, india rang me again the same day and i sorta yelled at them to just send me a replacement, the guy hung up on me. how hard would it be to just send me a new working one? Then yesterday i got another phone call when i was at work (the worst thing about this call was the fact the guys english was good and i couldnt actually field it, due to being at work), so i phoned back when i finished, india, again, bad english but the conclusion of the conversation was that they were going to come and pick it up on monday to return it to the factory and replace certain componants until they get it working, i was promised this would be the solution. Excuse me while i remain sceptical. Just thought I would leave an update. frustrating times.... Do not call the tech support people, waste of time. Many thanks, Stu.