Recommended Video Settings for My Rig

[shotgunneeley]

Been having some frame rate issues lately while in game. Before playing, I allways make sure that my anti-virus has been disabled and all background tasks have been ended. I've already ran disk defragmentor and disk cleanup. Basically my frame rate will crest at about 40-50 FPS and then all of a sudden trough out as low as 3 FPS causing the performance to become very choppy. That limits the causes to either video settings or internet issues, which I get from a satellite provider.

I think the whole problem is related to my video settings so I'll focus on that. I do realize my system is getting a bit long in the tooth, but here are the specs:

a Dell DIM4500 Windows XP home edition
BIOS date: 2002
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80 GHz
Memory: 510MB RAM
Video Driver: NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Approx. Total Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display mode: 1024 x 768 (32bit) (60Hz)

With this sort of software, what should I set my AH video settings for optimum performance? Thanks

[Krusty]

Turn off detailed terrain. Set texture resolution to 128x128, turn off all FSAA, turn off weapons effects, skins, other players' skins, ground vehicle effects, and if there's an option to do so, just opt to turn it off (whatever "it" is) and you may be able to run this game okay.

When you're alone it might be fine but the question is in fights with multiple cons, somebody's on fire, or some hangar is burning, etc.... You may be able to play with that setup, but only just barely IMO.

[Spikes]

Damn! Krusty's got it...pretty much turn eveything down. You may want to look into investing in a new comp.

[Tigger29]

OK.  Yeah.. minimum is what you want.

1> Keep your display resolution at 1024X768, but you might want to consider dropping it further to 800X600 for better performance.
2> Make sure AA (Anti-Aliasing) and V-Sync (Vertical Sync) are both set to "Application Controlled" in your Nvidia Video Settings.
3> Load Aces High.  Don't select online or offline just yet, but instead select VIDEO SETTINGS.
4> Make sure the resolution matches your screen resolution (1024X768 OR 800X600).
5> Make sure the AA slider is all the way to the left, or NONE, or BEST PERFORMANCE.
6> Make sure TEXTURES is set no higher than 256 (128 will give you the best performance but the game will really look very, very poor)
7> Make sure 'disable v-sync' is not checked

8> Now go into offline mode and open video settings there.
9> Make sure both sliders (distance and detail) are all the way to the RIGHT (performance).
10>Open advanced settings and turn everything OFF except bump map terrain.
11> Disable "plane skins" and make sure you have no custom sound packs installed.

Now fly around and check your frame-rate (ctrl-i).  If it is acceptable you can move the distance and detail sliders to the left a bit and retest until you start noticing a drop in frame rate.  You could also try 512 textures from the first video menu (I used to run it fine with my 6200 back in the day, but I was also running a C2D processor and this was before they redid the graphics in the game).

I'm afraid this is the best it's going to get for you until you replaced that aged system.  Good luck!

[Krusty]

I know for a FACT he will want to. I've upgraded many times in my AH career. Usually I had low-end systems just barely able to meet the minimum playability, and as every once in a while AH needed a bit more, and a bit more, I couldn't keep up.

Not totally a slam on AH, as much as a sad commentary on the quality of my PC systems at various times.

A system like yours would barely be able to run AH2 when it first came out. Since then there have been many changes and upgrades to the game and its underlying code and the 3D and 2D graphics. You may find a very choppy and unpleasant gaming experience.


Tigger, he's only got 512MB of system RAM and running a very low-end CPU with a budget non-gaming card. I'd say 128 textures because of the ram and to lighten the load on the CPU/GPU. It will look bad, there is no doubt. I would NEVER suggest to him to try 512 textures and I'd say 256 is really more than he should expect right now.

[gyrene81]

   You have a very out of date system.

Krusty posted pretty much your only options at this point.

To do anything more you need another 1.5 gigabytes of RAM and a much better video card...but your processor is a little weak too...you're gonna end up needing a new system if you want to see anything but a flat cartoon world.

[Krusty]

You can run AH on 512 MB of RAM. It runs better with 1GB, to be sure. Faster, as well. Anything above 1GB and AH doesn't benefit (I've run 512, 1gb, 1.5gb, 2gb, all, and the only time I noticed improvement was going from 512 to 1gb).

His real problems lie in the circa 2002 computer trying to run a game in 2010.

It's not just ram, video, and processor... It's everything down to the motherboard.

His options on what he can put into that computer are so limited as to almost be nonexistent. The FSB on the motherboard is limited, the socket type limits only certain CPUs. He may only be able to load AGP 4x cards (not even 8x) and may have to check which voltage his AGP slot provides (the whole 1.3v thing), or he may be limited to PCI! The RAM may be maxed out and is probably PC133 or whatever.

In short, the system is essentially not a valid upgrade path. You can do emergency care on it to keep it running, but trying to put money into it would produce mediocre results.


So, we suggest what we can but I wouldn't encourage upgrading as much as saving the pennies for a newer system.

[Spikes]

He doesn't even have 512! (Hides behind couch)

[shotgunneeley]

so do I get the most obsolete pc award?

Yeah it seems my pc is just simply on it's last legs. It has performed well up until the last major updates, I'll bet that got a lot of folk with aging systems. Thanks for the responses, I'll tone down my settings for now until I find a new rig. It won't be pleasant for sure, but I'll work with it since my pc budget is a function of the expenses from my other activities, such as the gear I'm using right now to bag a turkey lol

[Krusty]

Believe it or not, there have been worse. They just don't get good results.

[fudgums]

I play on 512mb  and fly with a mouse

[Tigger29]

I know for a FACT he will want to. I've upgraded many times in my AH career. Usually I had low-end systems just barely able to meet the minimum playability, and as every once in a while AH needed a bit more, and a bit more, I couldn't keep up.

Not totally a slam on AH, as much as a sad commentary on the quality of my PC systems at various times.

A system like yours would barely be able to run AH2 when it first came out. Since then there have been many changes and upgrades to the game and its underlying code and the 3D and 2D graphics. You may find a very choppy and unpleasant gaming experience.


Tigger, he's only got 512MB of system RAM and running a very low-end CPU with a budget non-gaming card. I'd say 128 textures because of the ram and to lighten the load on the CPU/GPU. It will look bad, there is no doubt. I would NEVER suggest to him to try 512 textures and I'd say 256 is really more than he should expect right now.

I think you're worrying too much.  I used to run AHII with an old Athlon Socket A 1.5Ghz Single Core 32 bit processor, 512MB PC100 (if it was even that) ram, and an old GeForce 5200 64MB Video Card at 1024X768 with 256 Textures no problem.  I actually preferred to run it at 512 textures even though it tended to stutter with flames and smoke, and especially fog.. just because of the eye candy.  Of course, I had to be conservative with the distance/detail sliders but it was playable.

And while this was before the 'recent' graphics update, I've heard that if you turn off all the special 'eye candy' that it will perform even better than before on an old system.

Then I upgraded to a C2D E6300 (1.86Ghz), 2GB DDR ram, and a GeForce6200 128MB video card which improved FR at 512, and although I still couldn't run 1024 (high res), I could turn on a little AA to make it prettier.

I ran that for a few months until I got a new monitor (LCD), and had to upgrade to a 7800GT to maintain the performance at a higher resolution.  I ended up giving that system to my Dad, and built me what I'm using now:  C2D 2.8GHZ, 4GB DDR3, 9800GTX+ V/C.

It was about 2 weeks after I built this system that the Beta with the new AH Graphics was released, and I was relieved to know that I got my upgrade in just in time LOL.

A big reason I didn't even mention 128 textures is because the game is IMHO almost non-playable at that setting, but to say that that system can't handle 256 is not quite true.  True, you might not max out the FR at that setting, but it's possible.  If it doesn't work, the setting can always be changed later.

[Krusty]

And while this was before the 'recent' graphics update, I've heard that if you turn off all the special 'eye candy' that it will perform even better than before on an old system.

Sadly, I have found from first hand experience that this isn't the case. Back before my current system, I was on something just barely able of playing the game "okay-to-smooth" with everything off, but with every minor terrain update, and every little update (CVs getting more details, suddenly trees are different, new ground tiles = different clutter/more polys, etc) it couldn't keep up until I literally had to stop playing for a while until I upgraded.

I also had to fly for a while on a Radeon 9550 with ALL the goodies turned off and I had some issues with FPS, stutters, and overall quality. It wasn't really pretty, but it filled my addiction to AH for a while. The Radeon would run the new terrain with everything off, but it looked like Super Mario Land (square waterways, no water depth perception, ground devoid of detail).

My normal card fried so I had to use that as a replacement until my current card.

I've run AH from AH1 to now on
GeForce 256 32MB
GeForce 2 (AGP yanked out of some OEM box being scrapped) 64MB
GeForce Mx420 (PCI, no better than what I had so gave it to my sister)
GeForce 4400 Ti 128MB
GeForce 7600 GTS 128MB
Radeon 9550 128MB (passive cooling, that one)
GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB (current card)

Pentium 3 (the slot kind) 650 MHz with about 320MB ram
Pentium 4 1.6 GHz 533 MHz FSB with 512MB ram
Pentium 4 ~2GHz 800 MHz FSB with 512MB ram
E6420 2.13GHz C2D 1033  MHz FSB with 512MB, 1.5GB, 1.0GB, then 2.0GB of ram (current CPU)

And a countless number of many other little changes and upgrades along the way.

Seems AH, even when you turn stuff down (which hasn't always been available in the past) still requires more to run than it used to. Nothing leads to more frustration than having the perfect kill shot and the guy warps away or stutters out of our gunsight due to GPU lag. Trust me on that one