Horrible pauses and low low FPS

[Mister Fork]

Ok, my machine isn't a Ferrari, but it's no slouch either.

I'm getting pauses every 5 seconds that last one second.  My FPS are taking a hit too.  Anisotripic filtering and Antialiasing is turned off (and prior was set to Application Controlled). Video card is a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT. AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ (with patch).

Before 2.14 - I was getting a solid 60fps (with vsync - over 120-200 without) - even in quaker hordes, burning carriers with planes thick as skeeters, and bases afire with swarms of spits and la-la's.

Here is my DXDIAG.TXT.

[Scratchman]

Yes and here is the fix!!!! That's right finally got my computer to run with NO STUTTERS!!! It seems for whatever reason all of us who are having stutters have either Intel or AMD multi-cores, with graphic cards that give us great frame rates till the "hiccups" occur. What I did even after freeing up all system resources,
( I have 4 gigs of ram ), put more of the work load on my video card. By bumping up my Maximum pre-rendered frames to 4, I am able to use 75%-85% of my video's ram, versus of a setting of 3 Maximum pre-rendered frames and using only 50% of my video ram. Not sure what is in the coad that affects us multi-core users but the flow of data from the CPU to the GPU seems to be the key. I have now flown with everything on gettin 73-75 fps and NO lock-ups or stutters for over 3 hours now. Keep in mind with however much ram you have on your video card you may need to tweak the numer of frames that suits your ssytem best. But with 512 MB on my video card this setting seems to work the best for me. Wish everyone luck, and hopes this works for you. 

[Mister Fork]

Unfortunately, I think it's something simpler.  Tried the 4.  Tried disabling water textures. Tried disabling bumpmapping. Tried lower resolutions. It's all the same - choppy stuttering at 12-26fps. Weird. Really really weird. 

But I appreciate the suggestion scratch. 

[Mister Fork]

Forgot...

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
  DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
      Display Tab 1: No problems found. DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.
        Sound Tab 1: The file RtkHDAud.sys is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL).  You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer. DirectSound test results: All tests were successful.
          Music Tab: DirectMusic test results: All tests were successful.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
        Network Tab: No problems found. DirectPlay test results: All tests were successful.

[Scratchman]

Unfortunately, I think it's something simpler.  Tried the 4.  Tried disabling water textures. Tried disabling bumpmapping. Tried lower resolutions. It's all the same - choppy stuttering at 12-26fps. Weird. Really really weird. 

But I appreciate the suggestion scratch. 

Hmm...worked for me, the only other thing I did was under Video Settings on the clipboard before you go to the game to manually set the custom view to manual but left the grayed out default number, ( for me is 86 ), instead of letting the game do it automatically. Maybe that is what is wrong? Sorry my previous post didn't help.

[gyrene81]

Fork...did you try reducing your video adapter resolution to something lower then kick your adapter/monitor refresh rate to 72-75 Hz?






Your video card and monitor might be able to handle the resolution with no problems but...your taking hits in AH now because it's rendering and caching the objects differently.

[Mister Fork]

Interesting points guys.  I have a LCD monitor - it's refresh rate is 2ms - frequency no longer an issue though I tried disabling vertical sync to see if it was.  I start getting my stuttering right at the main menu and it continues into the game.  It's like something doesn't like my setup.  If Skuzzy doesn't have any ideas, I'll reinstall from scratch to see if it helps.

I'll keep testing. Thanks for the suggestions! 

[Mister Fork]

Figured it out...

1. In 2.13 - I had the hi-res pack installed and textures at 1024.
2. In 2.14, default was 128x128 res.
3. Setting the texture back to 1024 restored frame rates and eliminated all stuttering.  Like I said, something simple.

FPS is at 59fps (max for LCD) with ALL advanced video options checked (reflections/shadows/everything). 

[Scratchman]

Figured it out...

1. In 2.13 - I had the hi-res pack installed and textures at 1024.
2. In 2.14, default was 128x128 res.
3. Setting the texture back to 1024 restored frame rates and eliminated all stuttering.  Like I said, something simple.

FPS is at 59fps (max for LCD) with ALL advanced video options checked (reflections/shadows/everything). 

Woo Hoo glad to figured it out!

[Motherland]

Figured it out...

1. In 2.13 - I had the hi-res pack installed and textures at 1024.
2. In 2.14, default was 128x128 res.
3. Setting the texture back to 1024 restored frame rates and eliminated all stuttering.  Like I said, something simple.

FPS is at 59fps (max for LCD) with ALL advanced video options checked (reflections/shadows/everything). 

That's weird.... setting textures to higher resolution resulted in higher FR's?
That's really really weird...

[Skuzzy]

That is actually normal for modern day video cards.

[Scratchman]

Well I went nearly 6 hours of gameplay until my video locked-up. But now it seems every 1/2 hour or so I lose my connection that causes these "lock-ups". Seems to be happening more of late since the new release, but I know that shouldn't make a difference. Here is my latest tracert, everything seems to be o.k there.

Trace Route for http://206.16.60.39/ by Trellian Trace

http://206.16.60.39/
1   192.168.1.1   unknown   0ms
2   206.16.60.39   unknown   32ms
3   68.85.253.33   unknown   16ms
4   68.85.244.85   po-12-ur01.royalton.tx.houston.comcast.net   32ms
5   68.85.244.90   po-11-ur02.royalton.tx.houston.comcast.net   32ms
6   68.85.244.93   po-14-ar02.royalton.tx.houston.comcast.net   32ms
7   68.85.244.130   po-17-ar02.greenspoint.tx.houston.comcast.net   32ms
8   68.86.91.193   te-0-1-0-5-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net   32ms
9   206.82.142.5   Vlan549.icore2.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net   47ms
10   209.58.47.13   Vlan6.icore1.DTX-Dallas.as6453.net   47ms
11   192.205.35.57   unknown   47ms
12   12.122.139.106   cr1.dlstx.ip.att.net   32ms
13   12.122.139.157   gar23.dlstx.ip.att.net   47ms
14   12.122.254.154   12-122-254-154.attens.net   32ms
15   63.241.193.22   22.0/26.193.241.63.in-addr.arpa   32ms

[gyrene81]

Interesting points guys.  I have a LCD monitor - it's refresh rate is 2ms - frequency no longer an issue though I tried disabling vertical sync to see if it was. 

The 2ms is not "refresh rate", it is response time as in 2 milliseconds for it to respond to inputs...the "refresh rate" is measured in Hertz as in 60 Hz per cycle to refresh what you see on the screen.

In very simple terms the higher the the dots per square inch (resolution measured horizontally and vertically) that you push your video card into squeezing onto the screen forces a lower refresh rate to prevent high frequency burnout of both your video card and monitor...there are some very high end monitors can handle the resolution you're pushing at higher refresh rates but they are pretty much commercial use units..

I'm going to reassert...Lower the resolution a few notches then increase the refesh rate.

[Scratchman]

gyrene81- not sure why you quoted me and talked about refresh rates, for I wasn't referring to refresh rates. I have a 30" LCD monitor in which is not part of my problem. However you are correct in your assertion about refresh rates.

[gyrene81]

Sorry scratchman...quoted the wrong thing.... DOH!!