Underperforming Rig?

[Xjordanary]

Hey people, this may just be my foolishness (which is probable) but i am noticing that the pc gaming rig i recently got is not exactly living up to scratch, even though i 'think' it should be (again, im not entirely clever).

Basic Specs:
Intel i7 960 3.2ghz
6gb RAM
ati radeon hd 5970 2gb ddr5

Basically games that should be able to run on this setup with minor fps drops (such as crysis, gta IV) are not, and appear to be running slower with high settings. Again this could just be my foolishness, and this rig isnt infact great, but i believed it to be when i got it. Most games still run well (such as Just cause 2, batman arkham assylum, stalker cop)

-I have latest catalyst controll center
-I am NOT overclocking my cpu(though im guessing this will be most suggested to allow 5970 to run optimally)
-I have tried changing settings around in the catalyst control centre

Oh and I wasnt sure whether this post would be better for hardware or gaming

Any help would be really appreciated to optimise what i have...
help out a technologically-challenged user
Thanks

[liljim]

That machine should run great and no, i actually dont suggest OC'ing the cpu. Theres usually not enough gain from it to justify the extra heat output. It really dont do very much for your gpu anyhow but again, that particular gpu shouldnt be having any problems to begin with. Have you downloaded and compared actual framerates? Id start with that and lets see just exactly what amount of loss your seeing.

[Xjordanary]

[liljim]

yea thats no doubt under performing. Have you updated your motherboard drivers? Somethings definatly not putting out but hard to say what.

Swing through and run their test. It might help narrow down where the bottleneck is taking place. Run it in Internet Explorer, it works better with the test for some reason. Let us know the results.