Fraps and Aces High

[BoilerDown]

I just tested Fraps with 22 processes running, including Fraps, TrackIR, and AlacrityPC, and it wasn't noticeably different than before.  As before, the Fraps files look fine, but the gameplay is way too choppy even if it claims about 30 fps.

[Chalenge]

Yes fps has always been misleading. Its more important that you get smooth video than whatever number you see. Your 260 is a nice card but it could be something faster. Which X-Fi are you using? 22 processes on Vista? I think the best I ever managed was 29 but probably I just dont remember correctly.

[BoilerDown]

Yes fps has always been misleading. Its more important that you get smooth video than whatever number you see. Your 260 is a nice card but it could be something faster. Which X-Fi are you using? 22 processes on Vista? I think the best I ever managed was 29 but probably I just dont remember correctly.

Nope it is XP SP3.

X-Fi Xtrememusic "SB0460".  I think I'm going to wait until the summer to really consider upgrading the graphics card again.

I may write the author of Fraps to see if he can tweak the software for Aces High, he often puts in his change log tweaks for other games.

[Chalenge]

Not sure why I thought you were talking about Vista.

Do you know your motherboard manufacturer and model?

[BoilerDown]

Do you know your motherboard manufacturer and model?

Its the Asus Commando:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131149
http://usa.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=wWs3CTw57UtxaaHw

[TequilaChaser]

BoilerDown,
you should be able to get down to around 13  or 14 processes with your  WindowsXP SP3......

I would say even lower, for some people can dip down into the 7 to 9 processes range...... but you are going to be using Fraps and also using your Track IR

WMLute almost always played AH at around 13 processes running when he was on his WinXP system.... and he was not using AlacricityPC ( because it itself is another process / service )

I myself would normally be around 17 or 18 processes....... and I would still have my ESET SS4 loaded up ( anti-virus, firewall, etc ) among other things and still played AH  but only totalled 17to 18 processes....

hope this helps.......

[Chalenge]

I cant recommend using that board with a Quad CPU either. I didnt get this board (or any other P965 MB) because they suffer from two problems. The first is a lack of direct IDE support from the Intel chipset itself. Im not precisely sure about what ASUS did to solve it but most manufacturers used the JMicron as a secondary controller and if thats what they did you might try removing the DVD/CD temporarily to see if you get a more stable system. Stability in this case might surprise you but without reading a lot more and researching this particular MB I cant say what issues you might be having even though you dont see them. If you have an updated BIOS its possible ASUS has resolved most issues.

The other problem the MB has is the voltage regulators which might have resulted in poor stability overall. Knowing that and seeing the board has the second PCIe slot (the one the size of the x16) limited to x4 is what led me away from this MB.

However the final nail in the coffin as it were is that the Intel Quad Core CPUs that would provide more power than what you already have are all voltage hungry CPUs and I would never consider putting one of them in this board. They will not be stable.

And that pretty much leads to the conclusion which is that the MB is limiting your performance and probably leading to more frames dropping than you would have otherwise although it is not the only factor as we already discussed. The more activity you are seeing in AH the more the load is on all components and the less likely the MB can provide adequate power at the same time. As the MB ages you will most likely begin to see random lockups followed by spontaneous reboots and finally memory controller failure.

So now that I said that just remember two things. If you hadnt read it you would be in the dark but happier. The second is if it isnt broken dont fix it.

[BoilerDown]

TC: I knocked off one more process, but based on the lack of improvement going from 36 to 21, I'm not going to attempt to reduce it further.  Its already in the recommended range for XP and I have the distinct feeling the other processes aren't doing much anyways.  Diminishing returns and all.

Chalenge:

Well the motherboard's features list "8 phase EL-Capless power design" which "removes any worries of capacitor problems once and for all."

But seriously, the MB is four years old, I wouldn't put a new CPU in it... if I upgrade my CPU I will get a new MB.  As an aside, this build is the most rock-solid stable that I've ever built for myself... as its stability has been flawless for four years.  Even so I'm leaning towards a Sandy Bridge Intel CPU, which has a release date one week from now, which will be on a new socket, which will require a new MB and new memory.  The only question is which variant of the CPU to buy (between 2300 and 2600K), and how soon to buy it... if there's a lot of price gouging going on I will certainly wait... if not then I might wait anyways.


I did send a note to the Fraps author about checking performance with AH.  I'll see if and how he responds.

[TilDeath]

You still take a FR hit with FRAPS even with an i7 and a GTX 580.  Not much of a hit but you do take one.  Lower end video cards will take a larger hit then higher end ones with i7.

TD

[Chalenge]

That statement doesnt take into account the difference between half-size recording and full-size recording. With half-size recording I dont get a frame rate hit with a Core 2 Quad (LGA 775) and the same would be true of an i7. The frame rate hit at full-size recording exists but is hardly worth mentioning since it is still smooth video which is all that matters. In effect I am doing this with a single GTX 480 since SLI doesnt do much except post-processing with AH and since AH doesnt use PhysX and since I only use x2 AA and x4 AF (which can be done with a single card)... not much of a hit on a GTX 580 at all.

Of course there are still weaker i7s and the user is always free to add a bunch of junk on his/her machine to drag down the performance so... YMMV.

[BoilerDown]

Well I got a response back from Fraps' technical support, but it was barely more than a form letter telling me to do all the obvious things that I said I did in my initial email to them, but that they didn't read.  I'll see where it goes from there.

[Vortex01]

not really familiar with this stuff but have you tried to use another recorder? I did a quik search and found camstudio witch is a free on screen recorder...

[BoilerDown]

not really familiar with this stuff but have you tried to use another recorder? I did a quik search and found camstudio witch is a free on screen recorder...

I'm familiar with CamStudio from a tutorial I made recently.  Its screencast software, not game recording software.  It simply won't work.

[Ack-Ack]

I'm familiar with CamStudio from a tutorial I made recently.  Its screencast software, not game recording software.  It simply won't work.

Yes it will, it's what I use in place of Fraps if I want to film anything I do in game seperate from the AH film recorder. 

ack-ack

[BoilerDown]

Yes it will, it's what I use in place of Fraps if I want to film anything I do in game seperate from the AH film recorder. 

ack-ack

Um... that's weird.  I thought it was really low quality and very big hit on the computer's performance, and not at all intended for recording games, as its intended for capturing the Windows desktop.  Would you explain how you configured it?

Also, now that you're here, Chalenge earlier said:

There is a program available that will allow you to do what you want to do from what has been said. I dont know from personal experience what the frame rates are like. Akak had mentioned it once in the hardware forum when this same topic came up before. I do not recall the name of the program but I do recall it was $700-800.

Can you elaborate?