I think I fixed it, what I did was I uninstalled all ATI drivers using Driver Sweeper, I then used the original installation disk and installed the driver off that, although it's an older driver version, it seemed to increase the performance of my GPU, cheers to those who replied.

well, to answer your question, generally I think my computer has always been underperfoming, it's only recently I've actually noticed that's it's not playing games as well as it should be (before I thought this was the max I was going to get out of the system, but apparently it should be doing much better)

as for the drivers, no I can say that I have the 11.5 drivers from the ATI website and they are not beta, I just scanned recently for viruses using both AVG and Malwarebytes, no infections or anything.

in accordance to background programs, I've used Gamebooster, which made no impact by closing down unnecessary programs.

CPU-Z also says that my RAM is running at 333mhz, could that be the bottleneck?

I've updated all my drivers, including the GPU, I even flashed the BIOS that made no difference.

I was joking about the floor thing btw, I'll have to install Crysis again gimmie half an hour.

could you do me a favour by maxing out BFBC2 and playing in Atacama Desert on a full server and tell me what fps you get? Cheers

I get 20+ fps in Crysis when my computer's on the floor, I think I'll keep it there.

yeah, it's still in it's XPS case, but I check the temperatures and they seem fine, could it be the RAM or the XPS 420 MOBO?

did a test on BFBC2 the temp remained around 50-56 degrees C with 95 - 100% GPU usage

so, I just did a 3dMark11 benchmark, this was my result:http://3dmark.com/3dm11/1307626

btw I clocked the cpu down to 3ghz for the test.

Thanks for the reply, yes, on GPU-Z it says: 'PCI-E 2.0 x16 @16x 2.0' I have 650w Corsair, and my computer's basically an xps 420 with win7, a 5870 and a new psu,

and I just downloaded the latest 11.5 drivers off ATI website (a couple of days or so)

hey, well I feel as though my computer is significanly underperforming, this is my rig:

XFX 5870 1024MB

3.2GhZ Q6600

3GB RAM

and Win7 64-bit

I get 30-40 fps on BFBC2 on med-high settings (no HBAO or Bloom)

In Oblivion I get 60+ indoors whilst 20-30 outdoors?

(Crysis 2 I get 30-40fps on Hardcore and about 60+ on gamer)

any help?

(all my gaming is usually on 1650 by 1050 res)