Author Topic: Help, need faster frame rate advice. (Read 496 times)

Fedral · « **on:** January 22, 2007, 06:30:24 PM »

I currently am running a P4 2.8 ghz system that is custom built. I am using 1024mb ram and running an ATI Radeon 9800 pro 128mb card with a Viewsonic VP930b monitor.

I just downgraded the graphics from the 512 texture to 256 and turning off as many background applications as I can to try to help system performance. I am running in 1280 x 1024 with default slider settings and loading textures in to ram first, and I am still getting slow framerates.

When in normal flight in the main areans, I am getting 60 to 70 fps. When I get in to a decent amount of other players and combat...it drops to 40 to 50 fps on average...with major furballs even lower. When I do the FSO, when we encounter a large group of enemy, say 10 of us vs 20 of them, the framerate can drop in to the teens. Or when flying formations on bombing runs, I have dropped my bombs and the entire game crashes. Why is it that what runs at 40 to 50 fps in main arena, drops to teens to 30 in FSO?

I know my beloved Radeon 9800 pro is a little on the old side, but was wandering if there is anything else short of getting a newer video card or building an entire new system, could help performance.

I am currently debating about building an entire new system, or would upgrading to a newer, but still fairly cheap video card, could help out the frame rate performance... especially in FSO.

Thanks for any advice that could be offered.

Krusty · « **Reply #1 on:** January 22, 2007, 06:41:41 PM »

Shy of reducing your resolution to 1024x768, there's not too much you can do. I had a Ti4400, which is somewhat close to the 9800 in performance. I could only squeaze so much out of it before it conked out. Areas it had trouble with included areas with lots of cons, lots of trees, or a few bombers.

If you have 1GB ram and are preloading textures, I would disable skins, as it will speed you up a little (it doesn't have to load them into memory). Mind you I can't live without the skins enabled, m'self, so I won't blame you if you don't take this word of advice

Try getting a discount video card. They have x800s and Ge6800s for around $60-$80 (maybe less). Barring that, save up for one in the future. Or just grin and bear it. I suffered for a while before upgrading simply because I had no choice.

Fedral · « **Reply #2 on:** January 22, 2007, 08:48:33 PM »

Thanks for the quick reply.

I had one other question that is currently bothering me as I start doing research on building a new system.... hadn't done that much since last major up grade a few years ago.

Sound Cards vs onboard audio?

I am still currently using my old soundblaster live value card from way back when... when motherboards didnt have built in sound.

I have been reading that of course, a sound card is better than onboard audio for two reasons...one, better sound, and two, better game performance.

Any idea how say AC97 onboard sound, vs. Audigy SE, vs. X-FI Extreme Gamer compare to each other as far as sound quality in AH2 and game performance.

I just bought the Bose Multimedia II companion speakers to upgrade my old 2.1 Labtech speakers that are like 10 to 12 years old. They definitely sound better. I am currently using the soundlaster live.

Thanks again for any opinions and help offered.

Fedral

Soulyss · « **Reply #3 on:** January 22, 2007, 10:48:38 PM »

I noticed a significant jump when I finally dumped my old SB live for the X-fi audio of something of that sort. I think I paid around $80-100 if memory serves, and that was last year sometime. Not sure if there's anything else going on w/ your system but it might be a worthwhile upgrade. SB Live is pretty old, and it has some Directx9 issues I believe.

Something else may help if you can post your Dxdiag text someone who knows more than me might be able to spot something.

airspro · « **Reply #4 on:** January 23, 2007, 04:19:44 PM »

Change to 1024 by 768 and set your pc to "best proformace" etc . You should see a decent fps gain .

A new video card won't do what you want IMO . I tried it and didn't really work out that well for the bucks spent .

Krusty · « **Reply #5 on:** January 23, 2007, 06:14:03 PM »

Sound cards:

Anything above an Audigy is good. Audigy 2 is a good low-end minimum. SB Lives have some issues here and there (I had one for years), but the quality of even an Audigy1 is better.

Sound cards have their own processor chips, but on-board sound (AC97, etc) use cycles from the CPU to produce sounds. This means that ANY sound card will give better performance than an on-board chip.

However, most CPUs these days (including dual-core chips) have the extra cycles to spare. I used onboard sound in AH for a while and didn't notice any drop in performance. In fact I liked the way it sounded. I no longer have that motherboard, though.

So, if your system is fast enough, you can get away with on-board. If you have a little extra money, I say get an Audigy2 or something, just for the extra quality and to ease the reliance on your CPU.

Zwerg · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2007, 05:47:52 AM »

I get some extra FPS by running AH (and Windows) with 16bit color.
Change it in the video8.cfg file.
I have yet to reset this value preceding a restart of AH whenever I changed video settings in the game (eg. gamma slider)

38ruk · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2007, 09:45:32 PM »

Maybe i missed it but are you running any ANti Aliasing ? IF you are turn it off in the radeon control panel . Also if your not running catalyst 4.12 ati drivers or omegas , you should be . A Video card would really help that system , 7600GT or 7800GS if you like nvidia , X1950 or X1650 if you like Ati.

Here is a good review of an older (and slower than your current rig) system with some of the new AGP cards added as an upgrade. They compare them to the 9700 pro that was in the old system which isnt much slower than a 9800pro .

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/10/agp-platform-analysis/

Here is where its tricky , you have to decide if you want to throw 200 bucks or so into an older system . If you have the means to build a new rig then i would say dont waste the money on a video card . If its going to be a struggle money wise to build new then maybe a 200 dollar band-aid might hold you over for another 6-8 months maybe even a year depending on what you play . Maybe im not moving with the time's quick enought , but i still think a 2.8 P4 should be capabile of delivering smooth gameplay in AH . GL

Fedral · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2007, 10:28:47 PM »

Thanks for the input. It does seem to come down to a choice....a $200 or so bandaid....or build new system.

Oh why does computer technology still have to expand and grow at such a quickly outdating pace

38ruk · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2007, 12:33:57 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Fedral
Thanks for the input. It does seem to come down to a choice....a $200 or so bandaid....or build new system.

Oh why does computer technology still have to expand and grow at such a quickly outdating pace

Lol i hear ya , i'm kinda in the same boat upgrade wise . I have a water cooled 3700+ running at 3ghz (alittle faster than an FX57 ) and a 7800GT with 2gigs of corsair Xms and 680W psu.

I'm considering going with a dual core socket 939 before they are all gone , AMD changed their roadmap and is killing off the 939 so it's either do that or rebuild to a conroe box. This still plays AH fine , but i dont want to get to far behind cause it makes it more expensive to catch up . I've had this a year now and its the longest ive went without upgrading ,we had our first child in 12/04, so the fun money just isn't as easy to spend .8) It's either a cpu or video card for me , it's just deciding which hehe . Good luck with your rig , 38

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2007, 02:02:34 PM »

Make sure your PSU is OK with some of the newer vid cards. My Guam rig still runs AH smoothly @ 1280x1024 and 4xAA at 512 textures with AH sliders almost maxed. It is a Barton 2500+ with a gig of RAM, 6800GT, 480w Antec and Onboard Nforce Soundstorm. I stole the Audigy 2 to put in the Conroe.

Prior to building the Conoroe and moving the Barton to Guam, I ran a REALLY old AMD 2100+, gig of RAM, 9800XT and SB Live @ 1280x1024 using 512 textures. It ran AH OK but did have an occasional stutter.

I haven't actually installed the Audigy 2 in my Signature rig because I haven't found a good reason to do it. Obviously, my Conroe can handle a few extra CPU cycles. SPDIF from the Audigy 2 shows as Pro Logic II on my 7.1 receiver and as Dolby Digital from the onboard. Both sound great for MP3s and AH. I don't have any vox problems with the onboard and sounds all come from the correct positions in 5.1 Surround. My fps are ALWAYS maxed at my display's refresh rate with everything maxed at 1024 textures.