I will first tell you my system specs, i have  a Dell 8250, P4 2.8Ghz, Windows xp home edition, Radeon 9700 pro 128mb video card {catalyst 3.2 ati drivers}, 1GB PC-1066 RDRAM, Sound Blaster audigy 2 sound card, 60Gb Hard drive, Direct x 8.1, minimal background tasks, no anti virus running, no firewall running.

Yesterday i started playing the online mmorpg game Anarchy Online, and i have noticed when i run around in the game, there is alot of choppiness, like when i run theres a hickup or pause in the frames of the graphics, it is very noticable and unusual for as i have a pretty powerful system.

My system does appear to be working normally, allthough i have experienced this choppiness and graphical hickups in other games, with Everquest when i installed the new exspansion packs, and i went into the nexus and plane of knowledge it was a complete slidehow for some strange reason, also i have noticed pausing and jerkiness in Asherons Call 2, and recently the Planetside beta test.

I got this system in febuary, and to tell you the truth im very dissapointed with its performance, another big issue is that the hard drive is noisy, when i leave the system alone or just surf the web, it grinds, like the sound you have say if your downloading a file from the internet.My old Dell computer never did this.

I am seriously thinking of calling dell and asking to get the hard driver replaced, i did call tech support and they got me to run a test, the drive passed it, but the drive is still noisy to me.

On the matter of the graphics issue, i checked my irqs and i saw that my Sound blaster audigy 2 is sharing IRQ 18, with, VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Companion controller, another VIA Rev 5 or later USB U niversal Host companion controller, and my Intel {R} PRO/100 M Network Connection

The Radeon 9700 pro is sharing with a VIA USB Enchanced Host controller on IRQ 16

Could the issue with my graphics be this sharing of the IRQ'S?