A bit disappointed. Should I be?

[WxMan]

Over the past several weeks I made major hardware upgrades and retuned my box to what I consider a fairly high end system.

System specs:

Antec ATX Case with 400W Allied power supply and 3 case fans
Intel P4 2.8 ghz cpu
Asus P4PE motherboard with onboard LAN and sound
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Video Card
512 MB DDR- 2700 memory (1 stick)
50X Toshiba CD-ROM
Sony 48x24x48 CD-RW
1.4 mb floppy drive
100 GB Western Digital HD
10GB Maxtor HD
19” KDS Avitron AV195T Monitor
Zoom 56k modem
Cable connect – AT&T
Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Microsoft IntelliMouse
HP Scanjet 3570 Scanner
HP 970Cse Deskjet printer
Windows XP Pro – SP1
Norton Anti Virus
Zone Alarm

The concerns I'm having are two fold. First I'm getting constant video stutter when turning or when view panning. I never had that with the old MX card.  Secondly,  the fps I'm getting is lower than I had anticipated and much lower than I have seen reported in this forum for similar systems. At 1600x1200 32 bit, fps is no higher than 60. At 1280x1024 32 bit, fps is no higher than 76. Both have unlimted fps checked in the video setup.

I disable most of the apps (NAV, Messenger, etc..) before I go into the Game.

The OS is a clean install on a new hard drive. However, I have left everything at the default level, both in the OS and video.  I have the feeling this is where the work needs to be done.

Any advice on how to tweak this system would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

WxMan (WeatherMan)

[Skuzzy]

1)  It appears your frame rate is being capped by your vertical sync rate of the monitor.  That is not a bad thing.  You can disable vertical sync in the ATI control panel if you want to see what it will do.
Don't bother running the video resolution less than 1600x1200 for that card.  It actually runs better at higher resolutions than lower resolutions.

2)  My bet is there is a shared interrupt going one here, which would cause some stutters.  I have heard about stutters with the 9700Pro, but never experienced them myself.

[Nwbie]

Ok Dumb question of the day then,
I am not very proficient in computer geek speak:)
But, is it even a concern that fps are 60 ? isn't that more than adequate? And 76 fps -sounds like an incrediblew rate to me.

How many fps can you process with your brain anyway so that it would make a difference?
I am trying not to be a smart*** here, just am curious as to what the advantage to being more than 60 fps is?

NwBie

[Pongo]

I get 85fps with half the system you have. But I also crash AH once a night. Which seems the average of the people in my squad.

[Siaf__csf]

60hz is not even remotely acceptable if you have a crt screen..

If your monitor has 60hz refresh, fix it asap. The flickering is not healthy for you especially if you're using a big screen.

I reckommend that you set your refresh rate to a minimum of 75hz, which is the limit advised by work ergonomy professionals. The eye gets strained from anything less than 72hz and individuals like me get a headache from anything less than 85hz.

Other than that, with those system specs you shouldn't have to disable anything before going to the game. That setup should be able to handle two AH's easily with framerates capped.

If you get stuttering, try a different display driver version. Also reload your sound drivers. Do you have Intel application accelerator installed?

Any problems at setup like yours indicate that there's something very wrong with the system, not only that you have XP as OS.

[qts]

I had the problem of stuttering in AH after I replaced the motherboard in my machine (though it was like for like) and the solution was to reinstall AH.

[Wlfgng]

9700 pro
P4 2.8
512 mb pcram
SB audigy 2 sound card...

I usually set my fps to 60 (in AH) and keep it there...
no change in fps no matter what/where/how I fly.

they eye can't see faster than that anyway so why worry about being faster as long as you're never slower?

[SKurj]

DO you have zonealarm running?


SKurj

[bloom25]

I've heard that both Direct X 9 and some of the older Radeon 9700 series drivers cause stuttering problems.  Use Direct X 8.1b and update the drivers for the video card.

As for the 60 Hz thing, that's an old Direct X issue where Windows 2000/XP limits refresh rate for full screen direct x games.  You can manually set it higher by going to start -> type "dxdiag" -> click the farthest tab to the right (I can't remember what it says) and then set the override to your screen refresh rate for the resolution you play AH at.

Edit:  Win2k allows this to be manually set, but WinXP maybe does not.  There are refresh rate fix utilities available though that you can use.

[Wlfgng]

Skuzzy.. are you asking me?

if so then yes, I do.

[FOGOLD]

Watch that override thing in DX. I overrid the refresh to 85. Was getting complete system freezes all the time in AH and couldn't get to the bottom of it. Then  - aha-  the refresh rate fix!  Reset DX to default and no more system freezes.

Strange but true.

[WxMan]

I disabled the vertical sync rate in the ATI control panel. My fps  with a resolution of 1600x1200 has skyrocketd to as high as 147 .

More importantly, the video stutter is also gone.

Thanks Skuzzy!!!

Thanks also to all who replied. It's one of the reasons I think this community is so great.

Wxman