fps drops in Counter Strike: Source

hi there,

so I switched from Windows XP to Windows 7 last week and I've been getting random frame rate drops..I got pretty good frame rates in Windows XP and didnt get any choke at all..in Windows 7 my frame rates are around 50-60 (which is fine) but they randomly and frequently drop to like 10-15 fps for 2-3 seconds. It gets annoying after a while obviously.

my computer specs are as follows:

Windows 7 32-bit
Pentium 4 3.2 GHz HT
1.5GB RAM
160GB HDD
nVidia 8800GS video card

has anyone else experienced this or can anyone recommend a solution to fixing the problem?

thank you

What set of drivers are you running?

I've been facing simmilar problem with with Win7. I play Counter Strike 1.6 alot, I used to get full 100fps with WinXP but when i switch to Win7, I get random FPS drops. Sometimes its 100 and sometimes it goes to 30. I've No idea whats wrong as i get proper FPS with WinXP

Win7 32 Bit
Amd 64 3200
6600 GT GFX
Nvidia 185 drivers ( latest ones released a week back )

Still facing issues, someone please provide a solution for it.

I have the SAME problem that the OP has. This happened with Fable too. I see that we all have Nvidia graphics card... :P so maybe it's the drivers.

well ever since May, there have been numerous nVidia driver updates and it hasn't fixed a thing for CS:S. I also upgraded my memory from 1.5GB to 3GB and it hasnt done a thing.

my fps still drops randomly to 20 or 30fps.

most likely it is due to the change of DX version. most of the HL source games (DOD:S and CS:S) are starting to include the HDRL - high dynamic range lighting, in the newer maps. There's also some stuff dealing with reflective surfaces in DX10 and above. check your video settings and play with it some. even if you had some of this stuff checked off in XP, it wouldn't be active since your DX didn't support it.