What sort of frame rate should I be getting?

[Urchin]

Short version -  I fired up AH last night in offline mode to make sure my stick still worked, but I noticed I wasn't getting a very great frame rate - usually between 30 and 45.  

In game settings are as follows -

1680x1050 resolution, 60 FPS cap.  Hardware vertex processing is checked, as is optimize objects and terrain.  Max texture size is set to 1024 - I think I have the hi-res textures enabled but I'm not certain.  

Short computer info - AMD 4200+ Dual Core CPU, ATI Radeon 4850 512 mb, SB Audigy (the first one), 4 GB RAM (although Dxdiag only shows 3).  I do run the FSAutostart program to kill everything I don't need to have running while I play.

I just feel like this system isn't performing like it "should", if that makes any sense.  Thanks in advance.

DXdiag report is too long to post - if someone can tell me what the relevant portions are I'll put em up. 

[Skuzzy]

Just curious.  What frame rate do you get at 1280x1024, loading the high resolution textures, with vsync disabled, on NE runway of ndisles, in a single B24J?

I have a 4850 available at home and in a Core 2 E8400 (clocked at 3.7Ghz), with 4XAA forced and 0 anisotropic filtering, I am showing between 142 and 158 FPS.

My computer only has 2GB of DDR2-1200 RAM (571Mhz clock).

Two sound cards can cause some performance degradation as Windows has to call each sound card routine to see who is supposed to be playing what.  Never a really good idea to have more than one sound card in a Windows system.

[Chalenge]

Well MS should fix that! Headphone audio for communication and 5.1 (or better) system for effects/engines/etc would make things more engrossing.

[Urchin]

Skuzzy -

I only have one sound card (I disabled the on board one) - I meant I have an Audigy I.  I think I've seen Audigy 2's on up, mine is sort of old.

Ok, I loaded up AH in 1280x1024 mode with 4x anti-aliasing through the catalyst control center, anisotropic filtering is set to 'application managed', in AH i set the FPS to unlimited, and in CCC I set 'wait for vertical refresh' to OFF. 

When I just load up AH without shutting down background processes (like virus scanner, etc, I have ~45) I got 36-37 FPS. 

When I use FSautostart, I get 38-40.

I sat on the NE runway of A1 on NDisles in a B24J, and I redownloaded the hi-res textures but it looks like they were enabled already.

[Skuzzy]

Hmmm, would like to see the top portion of the DXDIAG output along with the video card information.

There is definately somethng amiss.

[Urchin]

Skuzzy -

DXdiag info follows.  I want to include two things that looked really weird to me, from the "System Devices" section, but there are to many characters so it won't let me post it.My sound and video card listings under the "system devices" setting have very long lists of file names.  My question is should there be a list that long for "drivers"?  Most of the other things listed in that section have 3 or 4 entries.
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/8/2009, 10:49:15
       Machine name: STEVE-B21EA8E35
   Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
       System Model: System Product Name
               BIOS: Phoenix - Award BIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
             Memory: 3072MB RAM
          Page File: 1134MB used, 3822MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
  DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
          Music Tab: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
        Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x9442)
         DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9442&SUBSYS_E810174B&REV_00
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6844 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 7/31/2008 23:32:35, 311296 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 8/1/2008 01:38:20, 3266560 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-D702-11CF-476E-1AC8A1C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x1002
        Device ID: 0x9442
        SubSys ID: 0xE810174B
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D
 Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalSt retch
                   {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalSt retch
                   {3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalSt retch
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
 D3D7 Test Result: Not run
 D3D8 Test Result: Not run
 D3D9 Test Result: Not run

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: SB Audigy Audio [8000]
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: Yes
            Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00511102&REV_03
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1241 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 4/10/2007 04:20:38, 520488 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Creative
         HW Accel Level: Full
              Cap Flags: 0xF5F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 4000, 191999
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 64, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 64, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
               Registry: OK
      Sound Test Result: Not run

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
            Description: SB Audigy Audio [8000]
  Default Sound Capture: Yes
  Default Voice Capture: Yes
            Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1241 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
          Date and Size: 4/10/2007 04:20:38, 520488 bytes
              Cap Flags: 0x41
           Format Flags: 0xFFF

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Try removing the 60 cap inside AH I've noticed that it drops fps to 45 or below in practise in one of my computers. So leave fps unlimited but tick the vsync tick on in catalyst control panel (i.e. vsync mode always on).

[lengro]

Urchin, check that you haven't maxed out 'object detail' and 'ground detail range' - set them at default.

[Krusty]

What motherboard do you have? You have a slightly older CPU (4200), but the 4850 (and even the 3850) line of cards are PCIe 2.0 (x16) cards. They will function in non-2.0 slots, but won't have the bandwidth to reach full potential. I don't know if anybody has done any "bottleneck tests" per se, but I wonder if that is what you are experiencing here.

[Urchin]

Lengro -

Yes I have the details settings maxxed out.  I'll try it again with them set to default.

Krusty -

I have an Asus A8N-SLI motherboard.

[Krusty]

I just looked it up on newegg, your mobo only has PCIe x16 (not PCIe 2.0), so that may be a reason you're not getting full potential.

[Fulmar]

I just looked it up on newegg, your mobo only has PCIe x16 (not PCIe 2.0), so that may be a reason you're not getting full potential.

I don't know about that.  My Asus P5NE-SLI is non 2.0 and I have no problems maxing out my FPS at 1680x1050, 4x AA on my 8800GTS 640mb.

[BaldEagl]

I don't know about that.  My Asus P5NE-SLI is non 2.0 and I have no problems maxing out my FPS at 1680x1050, 4x AA on my 8800GTS 640mb.

I'm getting 59 FPS solid (locked with vsync) at 16x AA and 16x AF with my 512 8800 GTS although I do have PCIe x16 2.0 slots.  Something definitely wrong with Urchin's rig.

[Urchin]

Changing the ground view distance and the object detail sliders back to default made a big difference - with both of them at default the FPS jumped up to 58-60, with the ground view slider set back to 3 miles it dropped to 50-55 or so. 

[drdeathx]

Changing the ground view distance and the object detail sliders back to default made a big difference - with both of them at default the FPS jumped up to 58-60, with the ground view slider set back to 3 miles it dropped to 50-55 or so. 

Also you may be experiencing "bottlenecking". Your CPU may not be able to keep up with the nice card you have. Make sure you have the AMD Duo core optimizer. XP also has a patch for AMD duo cores. I think you need to d/l this first then install AMD duo core optimizer:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C2AB5A48-8240-4934-BBD8-34FB8A0FCE3B&displaylang=en

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

If you are capable maybe overclocking your CPU a tad may raise the frame rate to what you have your refresh rate set as. You are running at 2.2G and maybe a slight bump on CPU may help a bit. If 2.2 is stock you can easily get another 10%(2.4-2.5G) out of it but If you have never overclocked be careful.

The next thing is maybe turn your textures down to 512 and not run Hi res. I always prefer to run better performance over quality.


Get your processes down to as close to 20 by using enditall2 or fsautostart. Keeping your processes low will help performance of CPU keeping up with video card.

http://www.docsdownloads.com/enditall-1.htm