Trying to get the most of my system

[Paladin3]

Howdy all, many of you flew with me back in early 2011 when I had to leave for RL issues. Long story short, I am back and with a machine that makes my original machine look like grandma's calculator. It is not a super awesome computer, but it is much more machine than what I had before. I have been playing Skyrim maxed out and it looks magnificent and fast. Now that I am back to my real addiction I want the most from my machine.

Specifications
Operation System   Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 bit,
CPU AMD Phenom II X6
Memory   
Graphics   ATI 5450 1GB
Above are my specs. I am only getting about 20 FR though and sometimes it is jerky. I do NOT have any of the new patch graphics settings enabled. My old machine ran all the water reflections, shadow and smoothing and such and my new one just won't smooth shadows for anything. I am running the high res texture pack.

I am sure there is some setting somewhere that I have flipped the wrong way and just need some help tweaking it. I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Paladin3

[titanic3]

Drivers. A new one just came out for AMD CCC, 12.1. See if that doesn't fix it for you. Or, if you did update the drivers, but now it's causing problems, roll back to 11.12.

[Paladin3]

I have version 8.9111.0.0 that says it is the latest and greatest and have not updated since before I started with AHII... I am trying to figure out how to roll it back as the option is not available under the Device Manager (it is grayed out). I will try it that way if I can.

[Skuzzy]

If you did not change anything, the new update could get slightly better frame rates, or stay the same.

There are some graphic options, which will use up video RAM and turning them off will not clear the RAM.  You can ALT-TAB to get the video RAM free again, or exit the game.

With the new settings available it is quite easy for the game to use up 1GB of video RAM.  It all depends on the settings used.  If resource issues are a problem, then reducing the anti-alias setting and/or the shadow texture size will help.  The anti-alias setting will cause the most dramatic change in resource usage.

[Krusty]

The 5450 is a REALLY stripped down, bare-bones, mini video card (not even full sized PCB). It is NOT a gaming card.

Most benchmarks I saw for it had it running 1024x768 just to keep FPS above 30 in games.

I would suggest flying Aces High with the following settings:

No more than 1280x1024 resolution
Textures set to 256
Anti-Aliasing NONE

in-game settings:
Default the ground detail slider, then nudge it "closer" a tad so you're less than default.
Default the object detail slider, then nudge it "faster" a tad so you're less than default.
No reflections.
No shadows.
Try disabling detailed terrain, but turn Bump Mapping on to compensate for it.


I'm not surprised at all that you're getting such low performance. I had sketchy performance on a rig better than that! It's going to be about managing expectations and lowering your settings. Then you might be able to play smoothly.

[Paladin3]

Thanks gang. I am just surprised that with this system that is litterally twice or more the speed of the old one that it sucks worse than the first system I had. Its what I have so its what I have to deal with, and maybe one day I will get a better graphics card, but sheesh with 1 gig of onboard ram on the card its silly. It simply isn't something I can afford to upgrade when I can barely pay to play right now 

[Skuzzy]

The amount of RAM a video card has, while somewhat important now, is not an indicator of the performance potential of the card.

[Krusty]

Paladin: It's a fact that companies will tack on far more RAM than a card can use just to make it look appealing. However the speed of the card, it's RAM speed, the bits of the RAM, and the onboard processors are what determing overall performance.

In this case your card has 1GB ram but it might as well have 256 MB for all it can do with it. It's one of the slowest RAM types (64 bit, when even budget cards are 128 or 256 bit), the memory frequency is slow, the card frequency is slow, and it has a very small number of onboard processors.

That card is actually worse performing than the now-ancient HD 2600 card. A basic HD 3650 outperforms it, as well.

The second digit in that card number is the class, for lack of better terms. The 6 and 8 series are what you might look for when shopping for a card to play a game with. The "4" cards are more tailored the budget "office computing" level.

[Paladin3]

Ah ok... Well when I replaced my old machine when it died on a lemon policy this was the best machine I could get... Still surprised it isn't as fast as that one, but oh well... Maybe someday I'll be able to afford a new graphics card to put into it and really rock it. I used your settings Krusty, and am doing a little better than what you posted, but it was a wonderful place to start. Thank you for the help sir <S>.

  to all, thank you!

[Bizman]

If you're tight on budget, why not try to find a second hand video card? I'm still doing fine the five year old HD3870, solid 60 without cockpit shadows. A quick search on Ebay found this vendor, having a bunch of them in stock, in mint condition, with 60 days warranty and free shipping for $35. Doesn't sound bad, does it? There are more alternatives, too, just find the one that suits your bank account.

[Paladin3]

Yeah thats pretty good, I may look around. Right now things are super iffy for me so even 30 bucks I look at and think... Gas? We debated internet and AH II for about six months before making the plunge in the household. Thanks though for pointing it out, I'll see how things go and start looking into it. Its been so long since I have been inside a box I'll have to do some studying.