Periodic sluggishness in games

[Joel Konkle-Parker <jjk3@msstate.edu>]

I'm experiencing periodic sluggishness when I play 3d games like Unreal 
Tournament (natively) and Max Payne (WineX). It's not a framerate 
problem, because there's no choppiness, it's periodic (a minute of 
slowness, a couple minutes of normal, a couple of slow, et c.), and 
there's no apparent relation to the complexity of the action when it 
happens. The effect is as if the game itself is going into a slow-mo 
mode (yes, I know, Max Payne has a slow-mo mode, but that's not what's 
going on here).

I have a new Dell 5150 with an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 using the latest 
nVidia-supplied drivers. I don't have any apps running while I'm playing 
the games, save for Gnome and its applets and such.

Does anyone have any clue what could be the problem here?

Thanks in advance.


--
Joel Konkle-Parker
Webmaster [Ballsome.com]

Phone     [+1 662-518-1636]
E-mail    [jjk3@msstate.edu]