Hello everyone. I'm not very happy because of my PC's performance. Such games like GTA:IV, NFS:Undercover runs laggy on my system. My PC looks like this: Intel Core2Quad Q8300 2.5GHZ, Gigabyte ATI HD4850 1024mb/256bit, Gigabyte EP43-DS3L Motherboard with updated BIOS, 2x2GB Apacer 800mhz RAM, Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200RPM 32mb cache Sata-II hdd... what else can I add... I'm using a 17" LCD monitor with 1280x1024 resolution.
My system is running on Windows Vista Ultimate X64 SP1. All the Vista's performance ratings are at max (5.9) except of Memory(RAM) which stands at 5.3. After playing these games, I can see that my graphics card's usage was only about ~30%... You can see the temperatures of my system after playing GTA:IV in the picture added. So, the question is, why I don't get a decent performance with this computer? OS is without any viruses or something and this computer is almost new. img3.imageshack.us/img3/2126/kompas.jpg

It looks like you're running 16:10 resolution on a 17" monitor. Try a 16:9 setting like 1280 x 768 and see if that doesn't help. You could also try shutting down a few services that your not really needing. I just went through mine not too long ago and shut off a couple of things I don't use and my performance improved by 15%. For one, I don't use a dial up modem so I disabled telephony. I don't use voip so I disabled Application Layer Gateway. I disabled Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) which is always trying to open port 251. Windows Firewall still works, but now other programs are not able to change the settings. I disabled TCP/IP print server. I disabled a couple of others, but my performance definitely improved.

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Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz-Intel P965 Express (DP965LT)
AMD HD 3850 512MB VRAM-Creative SB X-Fi 64MB XRAM
4GB RAM
250GB SATA boot drive-750GB SATA game drive
450w PSU-KDS 19" LCD monitor

it's not a widescreen monitor, so 1280x1024 is ok

more ideas?

You can try adding more RAM. You have 4GB, you should be able to install 8GB. I'm guessing with 800Mhz your timings are something like 5-5-5-15. That's about what it should be. Double check to make sure they are in the right slots for dual channel mode.
Hard to say without looking at your system. You should check your IDE controllers to make sure they are set for DMA and not PIO. PIO would slow your HDD read time down considerably. Go to your Device Manager, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers right click on your Primary and Secondary Channels to open Properties, click on the Advanced tab and make sure your settings are for DMA.

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Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz-Intel P965 Express (DP965LT)
AMD HD 3850 512MB VRAM-Creative SB X-Fi 64MB XRAM
4GB RAM
250GB SATA boot drive-750GB SATA game drive
450w PSU-KDS 19" LCD monitor

Well have you tried re installing the the driver ? There must be some glitches happen to the Video card or how about reinstalling the game. Your specs is just fine to play really high graphical games.

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With your system, I wouldn't think you'd have any problems whatsoever.

If you've made sure all your drivers are up-to-date, I'd start looking at your antivirus/internet security solution. I know that some (bitdefender,kapersky) have a low-load gaming mode. Also Avast! is pretty low load, I use the free version and it works well for me. F-Secure and Norton used to be pretty high-load. I'm not sure about the newer versions.

If you want to test whether it's your antivirus or internet security solution, just turn it off briefly, reboot, run the game with it off, then turn it back on once you are out of the game. Some of these things bog down the most robust of systems.

After doing all this, go with the old tried and true. Disable your startup items in msconfig. If the performance issue is cleared up by doing this, start enabling things you need and test after each reboot. You'll eventually find out what is causing this issue.

Thank you they were not in the right slots now I changed them to Dual mode and everything is ok (tried NFS:Undercover at maximum preferences)

the performance of my pc hasn't been good either.

Fair enough.... thanks for that.