I'm trying to run Counter Strike Source on my computer, but everytime i go into a server with 10 or more people it lags alot.

My specs are:

Pentium 4 3.2GHz HT 1MB Cache
1GB Ram
256 MB Nvidia 6600 Graphics Card
2MB Internet connection


First of all i thought it was my RAM so i upgraded to 1GB ram from 512MB, that didn't do anything so i decided to swap between a Radeon 9600 and an NVidia 6600, nothing seems to be helping it out. I run CS Source on all the low settings yet it says it shud be running on high settings.

I dunno whether its the graphics cards or not, my friend USES a NVidia Geforce FX 5500 and his works fine.

Any help is welcome.Your system seems fine, nothing should be bottlenecking... have you tried lowering the in game/out of game settings. if you have the graphics set too high that could lag it... and you said it's only with 10 or more people? so it runs SMOOTH with 9 or less people right?All in and out of game graphics settings are set to performance not quality and set to low not high. Well basically it works fine with few people in, but when i try go in a public server that has loads of people in it lags.a lot of people on a server would MEAN the server is under stress. if your hardware upgrades are not helping, or helping up to a point, it is the problem of the server you are playing on. ask some other people on the server about the speed. if they are getting the same kind of performance then i am right (for once )play on a server with about 5 or 6 people.This problems nothing to do with servers, its to do with my computers configuration and setup. My friends run fine on the same servers, we all have around 20-30 latency so its not the connection or the server.

This morning, i turned my PC on played CS on a server with 20 people worked fine for bout 30-40 mins, then it started slowing down. Im starting to fink this is due to a COOLING issue, yet its never happened before. I'll have to open up my computer and check the fans are working properly and their not clogged up with dust or owt.run some temperature monitors or something to, speedfan is good.On a similar topic, although not so much to do with Lag in large servers but to do with graphics cards; my computer had an inbuilt 128mb Intel Chipset Family Express graphics card.
This works perfectly fine at all other times, but when I play Counter Strike: Source online the graphics quality declines massively (although I've never used it with another game).
When I insert another 128mb graphics card into my computer, disabling the inbuilt ONE, the game runs fantastically.

My computer has 512mb of RAM and a 2.66MHz processor. As I say it works fine when insertation of another graphics card (of the same capacity) takes place, but why will the game not perform as well under the inbuilt graphics card?

Any help appriciated. Thank you!!PS. I've reduced the in game and out of game settings to a mimimum. So it can't be that, equally it isn't a cooling issue!Ok mine turned out to be a cooling issue, i cleaned out my CPU fan and heatsink and added 2 more new fans in. It works perfect now. According to a friend my motherboard has no temperature monitors. Is there any other way of getting CPU temperature or something.@Clem,
Yes the inbuilt can prolly run some games fine, np, but when it comes to gaming you just can't beat a good graphics card; even if they have the same amount of memory, there is more to it then gpu memory. plus, you all ready solved the problem: "When I insert another 128mb graphics card into my computer, disabling the inbuilt one, the game runs fantastically." Therefore, insert the graphics card, disable you inbuilt, and voila problem solved. Built-in graphics are just not for gaming, if they can game great, if they can't, don't be surprised

@crazy,
i don't believe your going to get a CPU temp without a sensor... there's prolly something you can get, drive bay wise or something, that can display the temp in the case. this isn't entirely useful, but it could give you an idea at what temp your pc is running. other than that i'm not sure.