Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: humble on May 20, 2005, 12:36:45 AM
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I've tried to keep a positive attitude....but there are serious playability issues here. I've got a AMD 64 3200+ with a gig of PC3200 mem (2.5) and an x800 pro and I'm getting slideshow framerates on occasion. Just spent some time in "tank town" and had framerates of 6 to 8 in F4 mode. Down on the deck in a furball frame rates are slow enough your "behind the plane"...and of course you wont even see a tree with enough time to avoid it.
At some point in time enoughs enough....I could care less about TOD....especially when your "core product"...the one that pays the light bill...is still suffering. How about taking care of the folks that take care of you a bit better. Either tune down the eyecandy or tighten up the coed....
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Or you can figure out what's wrong with your supposedly excellent system. That's always an option, too. Especially since we have people with way inferior machine specs running AH2 without any problems...
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Humble, I have aproximately the same system specs as yours.
I have no frame rate problems untill I get in an area with lots of trees/bushes... it then drops in the 10/12 FPS.
What I don't understand is... I turned FSAA x4 on (it was set to off before) ... and i got a 20 FPS boost since I did that. Makes no sense to me, but it worked.
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it took me a while to get it set right but i got my 1.66 ghz procesor and 1 gig ram ati 9600 se to run it at 800 by 600 with some aniliasing pretty well, just because with some options it doesnt play well or in some places doesnt mean you nead to make a big public attack your gonna regret in the morning.
dont give em any excuse to get their attention off TOD!
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Humble, my system specs are identical. My fps are over 20 most of the time. Only at places like dense populated burning bases it may occasionally go lower.
I play with 1280x1024 resolution and hires textures.
Check if you have some progs running in the background and check the AH graph settings.
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Originally posted by BlauK
Check if you have some progs running in the background and check the AH graph settings.
On a Game rig setup you should have less than 20 processes running. What is this "graph setting" thing?
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Originally posted by Kweassa
Or you can figure out what's wrong with your supposedly excellent system. That's always an option, too. Especially since we have people with way inferior machine specs running AH2 without any problems...
My specs are set exactly as skuzzy recommends for my type of system. The system benchmarks out appropriately. And I've never heard so much chatter on FR's and playability as I have in the last month or so....
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Actually AH2 is still IN beta...
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Originally posted by BlauK
Humble, my system specs are identical. My fps are over 20 most of the time. Only at places like dense populated burning bases it may occasionally go lower.
I play with 1280x1024 resolution and hires textures.
Check if you have some progs running in the background and check the AH graph settings.
My system runs "pegged out" (75 FPS) most of the time. As a general rule in a furball I'm in the 40's...but once I drop to the deck my FPS can often slow down dramatically with no warning into the semi slideshow range. In "ground view" my normal FR is 28-32...but it will sometimes drop to anywhere from 2 to 10 FPS with no warning with very little apparent change in surroundings.
I'm running 256 tex all skins etc preloaded with 2 x AA and texture pref and mipmap detail set to "performance".
In game sliders are set about 1/3 in from left edge across the board. The Aquamark bench is 62,000+ and I've bumped it to over 70,000 with no noticible diff in AH so I reset it to stock. I do use the onboard sound on a Nv250 chipset. I ran the ziffdavis audio99 bench someelse posted and had very little CPU drain even under max load (less then 10%) with average loading under 1% thru all but 1 segment of the benchmark.
I do have more processes running then "optimimum"...but with very little overhead. I've turned all but the "essentials" off with no noticable effect. Again these are all running for benchmarking. I've got 15+ years building PC's and have built 200+ over the last 15 years and played online flight sims for 10. Even old dogs can learn new tricks...I'll run out any ground ball that makes sense.
However, I think the real issue here is the underlying engine. I'd guess my system is about 2/3 of the way up the "pecking order" and it shouldnt labor to play a game to this degree.
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Originally posted by Edbert
On a Game rig setup you should have less than 20 processes running. What is this "graph setting" thing?
Technically your right, and I do have double that. I've cut it back to 17 with no measurable difference. The real issue is do you have a "gaming rig" or a family PC. Now I've got 4 desktops + 2 laptops in the house with 3 others just sitting in closet. The other three are all AMD barton core 2500 or so (one for wife and each child) but mine gets used for a bunch of stuff. I've always simply added horsepower vs lowering "demand'...now I cant see a meaningful upgrade I could make that would "solve" the issue. Even going to a 3700+ wouldnt offer a guaranty. I'll probably bumb the mem to 2 gigs and see what that does...but 1 gig "should" be fine...I'm not looking to be the fastest box in town...just want the game playable again...
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Take it easy humble, life will get better soon :lol
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What I find strange is that I find the game playable at my rig... a 2Ghz P4 with 500MB mem and a 9600XT 25MB card.
But I got detail sliders border lining too low for my taste atm.
I do get slide shows every now and then but not very often.
But then again I guess I accept it better because I know my rig is old and needs a upgrade. I guess Id be pooed off if I upgraded and the improvment was marginal.
Still though I do think you can tweak your setup quite a bit. Drivers, spyware removal, shutting down processes, ingame tuneing ect ect...
Tex
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Originally posted by humble
The real issue is do you have a "gaming rig" or a family PC.
In my particular case yes I do. Each memeber of my household has their own PC, then there's the server and my laptop, for a total of 6, all connected with Gig-E (copper).
But I understand your point. In case you want to have both setups but only have one machine try MSCONFIG.EXE, it is pretty simple to use and quite handy for killing off services and TSRs. When you are done with a gaming session just click the undo button and you are back to having 50 memory consuming processes again :D
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I'm not familiar with MSCONFIG.EXE....I'll check it out....
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Originally posted by humble
I'm not familiar with MSCONFIG.EXE....I'll check it out....
start / run msconfig
startup tab, you can turn off TONs of stuff usuallly
also see skuzzy's post about services you can stop.
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humble
there are manythings you can do to tweak windows to optimized performance, also i always turn off my firewall and antivirus along with anything else not needed in my task manager, before logging into ah.
one more trick i learned a long time ago, to up frame rates is, log into any arena, let everything settle down, then log out and log back in, youll notice that it takes only a second to log in the second time, and your frame rates will be higher, youll have to do this every time you reboot your machine but i promise it works.
if you need any advice on whats ok to disable let me know, ive got a dozen or so pc magazines dedicated to this type of stuff.
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Go to http://www.blackviper.com and learn how to make a profile for your PC. I made a gaming profile that shuts down all uneccesary processes.
Blackviper site is down at the moment but here is link to an archive article about making profiles. I haven't researched all of this archive. I do know on the original one on his site he gives you suggestions to which one to shut down for the best gaming experiance.
Archive 1 (http://web.archive.org/web/20041130034628/http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/xpprofiles.htm)
Once Blackviper is back up and running it's a great source of info.
Hope this helps.
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Originally posted by humble
Technically your right, and I do have double that. I've cut it back to 17 with no measurable difference. The real issue is do you have a "gaming rig" or a family PC. Now I've got 4 desktops + 2 laptops in the house with 3 others just sitting in closet. The other three are all AMD barton core 2500 or so (one for wife and each child) but mine gets used for a bunch of stuff. I've always simply added horsepower vs lowering "demand'...now I cant see a meaningful upgrade I could make that would "solve" the issue. Even going to a 3700+ wouldnt offer a guaranty. I'll probably bumb the mem to 2 gigs and see what that does...but 1 gig "should" be fine...I'm not looking to be the fastest box in town...just want the game playable again...
You should be able to get it down to around 13 depending on your system. Check my post in the Technical Support forum Re: hardware proifiles. I've listed a number of services and processes that you can safely turn off.
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150447
I noticed in one of your posts you are using AntiAliasing? Do you really need this? This will hit your frame rates hard, especially low in the trees. I'm running a Intel Prescott 3.2 with a GeForce 6600GT and I get 40+ fps in the trees.
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Originally posted by eilif
dont give em any excuse to get their attention off TOD!
Yep, please don't try to fix anything. Nothing is wrong and nothing has ever been wrong. We will fix our issues and you keep rolling out the preety changes :rolleyes:
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I have a Dell P4 system 3.2gig with HT
I have an older Nvidia 5200 vid card and a decent sound card. I set my videa settings to 45 to 60 fps and have had no problems overall. I play at 1024X768, and with exception of occassional glitches, I have no problems.
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I posted my system specs in the bug forum here (http://hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148099). Mine is a 'family pc' bought off the shelf from Sam's Club. My GeForce 64 meg card is the only addition.
Since that post I turned up textures to 512.
During the Coral Sea scenario I was able to strafe gv's attacking Port Moresby town with no frame problems or stutters. Consistently just above treetop level. I only mention that because I've been told that the map had max # of trees to simulate a jungle, and I'm not sure how much more of a furball you can have than gv's, pt boats, cv groups offshore, and friendly/enemy a/c all over the place.
I'm not a great system person, I guess I'm just lucky to have good frame rates. Hopefully a system whiz can help you out here humble.
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Originally posted by dedalos
Yep, please don't try to fix anything. Nothing is wrong and nothing has ever been wrong. We will fix our issues and you keep rolling out the preety changes :rolleyes:
haha, amen!
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I also Sim race and When Nascar 2003 season came out, the same FPS issues happened. One good thing in that sim was in the setup/control panel of the sim you could turn things on or off
i.e. shadows, textures, solar glare. speqcular highlight, reflections etc so depending on your system specs, you could adjust the amount of eyecandy to make your system be able to run the sim.
Maybe something like this is needed in AH. I know there is already adjustments that can be made, but if was expanded maybe this would help out alot.
I have a fairly good system and really have no FPS issues but there was a FPS drop when the update came out.... No doubt about that.
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Originally posted by Clifra Jones
You should be able to get it down to around 13 depending on your system. Check my post in the Technical Support forum Re: hardware proifiles. I've listed a number of services and processes that you can safely turn off.
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150447
I noticed in one of your posts you are using AntiAliasing? Do you really need this? This will hit your frame rates hard, especially low in the trees. I'm running a Intel Prescott 3.2 with a GeForce 6600GT and I get 40+ fps in the trees.
I will turn AA off when I get home and see the diff...I had it set on application pref. before. Skuzzy had posted settings for 68 devil for a very similiar machine as recommended so I used those....
I'll go ahead and pare down the process's over the weekend and see what difference I get....
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Originally posted by Fury
I posted my system specs in the bug forum here (http://hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148099). Mine is a 'family pc' bought off the shelf from Sam's Club. My GeForce 64 meg card is the only addition.
Since that post I turned up textures to 512.
During the Coral Sea scenario I was able to strafe gv's attacking Port Moresby town with no frame problems or stutters. Consistently just above treetop level. I only mention that because I've been told that the map had max # of trees to simulate a jungle, and I'm not sure how much more of a furball you can have than gv's, pt boats, cv groups offshore, and friendly/enemy a/c all over the place.
I'm not a great system person, I guess I'm just lucky to have good frame rates. Hopefully a system whiz can help you out here humble.
I'm certainly open to the possibilities, my overall frame rates are good. But when you get down into the nitty gritty parts where the game really is played they rapidly deteriorate. I had FR in single digits at "tank town" today (although was as high as 28 at timnes)...I dont even fly much right now since invariably FR crawl once I get down and dirty.
I just dont see any reason why a reasonsably "powerful" system that appears to checkout and benchmark on spec should have such issues or require special attention to play AH....
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Originally posted by Kweassa
Or you can figure out what's wrong with your supposedly excellent system. That's always an option, too. Especially since we have people with way inferior machine specs running AH2 without any problems...
To the best of my knowledge there isnt a thing wrong with my system. It benchs right where it should and is both worm and virus free. The only real potential issue is the fact that I use an onboard sound card. But even the best sound cards have very limited upside with AMD 64 systems. The onboard sound is actually more efficient then some sound cards. If the system benchmarked poorly then I'd be posting asking for help in the tech forum. Like I said in the original post...I'm hearing 10x the traffic on FR issues compared to a couple of months ago.
Part of it may be expectations, I've always upgraded as needed to maintain a reasonable system and expect quality frame rates. If I cant get it with "2nd generation" technology I think you have a significant playability issue....
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Originally posted by humble
To the best of my knowledge there isnt a thing wrong with my system. It benchs right where it should and is both worm and virus free. The only real potential issue is the fact that I use an onboard sound card. But even the best sound cards have very limited upside with AMD 64 systems. The onboard sound is actually more efficient then some sound cards. If the system benchmarked poorly then I'd be posting asking for help in the tech forum. Like I said in the original post...I'm hearing 10x the traffic on FR issues compared to a couple of months ago.
Part of it may be expectations, I've always upgraded as needed to maintain a reasonable system and expect quality frame rates. If I cant get it with "2nd generation" technology I think you have a significant playability issue....
Well, if it's an AC97 Realtec I'd disable it and get a sound card. those things are the suck. Even wiht that on-board sound it shouldn't hit you as hard as it seems tobe,.
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If I may make an observation........
You guys with the 64 processors should be kicking my butt. I'm not even going to post my aquamark scores, for fear of the riot that would ensue when I keep getting better fps in AH than you do. Thing is, most of the people I see posting these days with frame rate problems have newer, more powerful computers. My old Barton XP2600+, just from internal design alone, should be inferior at almost any processing chore than a Athlon 64. The only difference I can see is, I have a dedicated gaming setup where most of you guys are using one setup for both gaming and everyday stuff.
And I dont mean I have 2 computers on my desk either. Just 2 hard drives, with 2 totally separate copies of WindowsXP. I'm running 11 processes at startup on my gaming setup (just stripped down WinXP, Aces High, and drivers). The BIOS is cleaned up and optimized to reduce memory usage. I've gone over every tweak guide I can find and set my video card and Windows settings to allow for best performance, while still giving me some quality.
http://www.tweakguides.com
You can find Windows tweaks, BIOS tweaks, video card tweaks, you name it he has it there. There are others I use too, but that one has some of the most current info, and the most all in one place.
Seriously, I dont look at it as a matter of pride that my system beats newer ones in AH, I look at it as people trying too hard to compromise home and game use. Skuzzy has posted a formula to use for your AH settings and video card settings to make sure you arent overloading your video memory. Tweaks are there for anything you want. Use them and you can be happy instead of frustrated.
:)
One other thing. Registry cleaners. Learn to love them. Even your registry can slow down Windows if it gets clogged enough with old junk (or even new junk). The more programs you install, the slower that computer is going to run.
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I'm not so sure that it's the game rather than your system needs some additional tweaking.
I'm currently using an AMD Athlon 2800+, 768meg of RAM, ATI 9600Pro XT 128meg and an Audigy ZS sound card. I'm averaging around 80fps in the sky (dips to about 78fps if in clouds) and around 48 to 54fps on the deck in large furballs over bases with plenty of puffy ack being thrown in the sky. Logically speaking, if you were having so much troubles with your high end system, then I'd be having major troubles with my mid-range system. But I'm not, so I'm less inclined to point to the game as the major cause.
On the other hand, I am still using a 32-bit processor while you're using a 64-bit one and it could be that the game isn't quite yet tweaked for 64-bit processors, which could explain why I get better performance with a 32-bit processor in a mid-range system while you're suffing performance issues with a 64-bit processor in a high-range system.
ack-ack
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Originally posted by Saintaw
I have no frame rate problems untill I get in an area with lots of trees/bushes... it then drops in the 10/12 FPS.
Sounds like a problem to me. Are you talking GVs only or airplanes too?
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to be honest i dont get it either..
i must have the lowest end system in this thread:
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System Information
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Time of this report: 11/8/2004, 10:31:23
Machine name: ######
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2.030422-1633)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-6380
BIOS: Version 1.00
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 104MB used, 1774MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0902 32bit Unicode
---------------
Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce4 Ti 4800
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0280&SUBSYS_90001462&REV_A1
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor: ViewSonic E771-4
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.5672 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/24/2004 09:04:00, 4274560 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
Mini VDD Date: 3/24/2004 09:04:00, 1895648 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-41C0-11CF-FA61-0AB000C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x0280
SubSys ID: 0x90001462
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Revision ID: 0x00A1
that is pc2100 RAM running IIRC at 133....
i get into the low teens over a base with everything on fire, and 20 planes up... but i dont care, because i dont spend much time vulching in a horde
i can get high 60's even 70's in the sky, even with 2-3 squaddies flying in formation with me in view
something that hasn't been brought up alot, but i swear by it....
keep your clipboard zoomed in to about 2 sectors showing max. your FR will go up at least 5 or more
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Originally posted by Ack-Ack
I'm not so sure that it's the game rather than your system needs some additional tweaking.
I'm currently using an AMD Athlon 2800+, 768meg of RAM, ATI 9600Pro XT 128meg and an Audigy ZS sound card. I'm averaging around 80fps in the sky (dips to about 78fps if in clouds) and around 48 to 54fps on the deck in large furballs over bases with plenty of puffy ack being thrown in the sky. Logically speaking, if you were having so much troubles with your high end system, then I'd be having major troubles with my mid-range system. But I'm not, so I'm less inclined to point to the game as the major cause.
On the other hand, I am still using a 32-bit processor while you're using a 64-bit one and it could be that the game isn't quite yet tweaked for 64-bit processors, which could explain why I get better performance with a 32-bit processor in a mid-range system while you're suffing performance issues with a 64-bit processor in a high-range system.
ack-ack
I dont think its a 32 bit vs 64 bit issue ack ack. Obviously there are alot of variables within the game. I'm running 256 tex with everything preloaded. My system is usually pegged at 75 (LCD mon) up high and I have zero problems at any alt in the DA...but in the MA it crawls at times. Now I usually fly low and I'm in the weeds when the issues occur. I can and will pare down all the variables and see how big an impact it has.
My question is really pretty simple, since my rig benchmarks well on Aquamark (skuzzy feels thats closest benchmark) "as is"...why is my AH performance so bad? Just doesnt make sense to me.
It is funny though, lot of folks who are having problems DO have AMD 64's...so maybe your right....
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Star....
System is a pretty new build but I'll check registry just in case. I agree you can certainly do alot if your set up as a gaming rig....however...
My understanding is that AH is heavily CPU dependent. For the most part your system overhead is taking up memory not CPU cycles. So if my overall memory availability is above a given level then I'm suffering no performance loss unless I've got another active process in background (or am I wrong on this).
About the only thing I can think is that I've got enough memory tied up that I reach a point where I dont have enough at the extreme. I'm planning on running "as is" then killing all process's I can and duplicating to see difference. I can also drop to 128 for tex and see how much diff that makes as well.
Do you have a list of the "essential services" handy or what your running...?
added at edit....
I think my memory available after "overhead" is about 740 meg...
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Originally posted by Clifra Jones
Well, if it's an AC97 Realtec I'd disable it and get a sound card. those things are the suck. Even wiht that on-board sound it shouldn't hit you as hard as it seems tobe,.
Realtek ALC850 8CH audio CODEC
My understanding is that this is about the most efficient onboard sound available (basically the Xbox chip). It's actually better then many soundcards still out there....
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Still going to eat up resources. If nothing else, just from the lack of hardware buffers. Still, cant see it making THAT much of a diff.
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I just want to add that the ATI cards, at least the ones since the 9700 Pro, like the anti-aliasing where the NVidia type cards hate it. It's just one of those things. Like one of the previous posters wrote that he gained 20 FPS with it on, I believe it, I have the 9700 Pro and it seems to react favorably to 2X or 4X AA. But, if you have an NVidia based card you will definately lose FPS with it on.
I too struggled with FPS in Nascar 2003, now I'm struggling to stay alive LOL.
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I have an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 gig of CorsairXMS ram (CL 2), Gigabyte K8NS motherboard (n-force 3 chipset), Audigy sound card and a heat damaged ti4200 vid card atm.
In game settings: 1024 x 768, 512 textures, preload textures and skins to system memory, AA x 2, vsync on, others skins on, weapon and gv effects on, mipmapping, transitions, horizons on, detail sliders are at default settings, none more than halfway to the left.
I have seen fps as high as 159 (with vsync off). When OzKansas was up even over Furball Island with scores of gv's and planes I never saw a slideshow. (Once I even forgot to turn off all back ground processes and didnt notice any difference in game play) Most of the time my fr is pegged at 85 (monitor refresh rate), the lowest I have seen it go is 36. When I attempted to turn AA up to x4 I saw a pretty big performance hit and my fr would drop into the mid 20's at times.
Before I upgraded I was running an Athlon 2000XP (1.66ghz) and 512m ram, I had extreme difficulties running the game at acceptable frame rates. I had turned all video options off or as low as they would go and still couldnt maintain acceptable frame rates.
Humble with your rig you really should be able to run the game with very good fps AND with alot of the eye candy turned on.
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Humble,
Just curious what type of motherboard and ram are you using. I am kind of in the same boat. Recently I overclocked my vid card and I am seeing improvement.
Is aquamark 3 a good benchmark for Aces High. If so I am only getting around 22000...
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Originally posted by Elfie
I have an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 gig of CorsairXMS ram (CL 2), Gigabyte K8NS motherboard (n-force 3 chipset), Audigy sound card and a heat damaged ti4200 vid card atm.
In game settings: 1024 x 768, 512 textures, preload textures and skins to system memory, AA x 2, vsync on, others skins on, weapon and gv effects on, mipmapping, transitions, horizons on, detail sliders are at default settings, none more than halfway to the left.
I have seen fps as high as 159 (with vsync off). When OzKansas was up even over Furball Island with scores of gv's and planes I never saw a slideshow. (Once I even forgot to turn off all back ground processes and didnt notice any difference in game play) Most of the time my fr is pegged at 85 (monitor refresh rate), the lowest I have seen it go is 36. When I attempted to turn AA up to x4 I saw a pretty big performance hit and my fr would drop into the mid 20's at times.
Before I upgraded I was running an Athlon 2000XP (1.66ghz) and 512m ram, I had extreme difficulties running the game at acceptable frame rates. I had turned all video options off or as low as they would go and still couldnt maintain acceptable frame rates.
Humble with your rig you really should be able to run the game with very good fps AND with alot of the eye candy turned on.
My old card is a Ti-4200, actually is a great card...you know it might be interesting to swap out the 800 pro and see what FR I get with the Ti-4200 :)
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Originally posted by Pollock
Humble,
Just curious what type of motherboard and ram are you using. I am kind of in the same boat. Recently I overclocked my vid card and I am seeing improvement.
Is aquamark 3 a good benchmark for Aces High. If so I am only getting around 22000...
Motherboard is a DFI lanparty NF3 U250Gb
http://www.lanparty.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2840&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&SITE=US
Memory is Mushkin PC3200 (2.5 cl)
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Originally posted by humble
My old card is a Ti-4200, actually is a great card...you know it might be interesting to swap out the 800 pro and see what FR I get with the Ti-4200 :)
I just ran Aquamark on my system with the heat damaged ti4200 card and achieved a score of 12,000 :lol
I cant wait for PNY to ship me a new card to replace the FX5700LE card that failed. They might not warranty the card since we didnt have the original reciept anymore. We did go to Comp USA and they reprinted the reciept for us but it looks nothing like the one that prints out of the cash register.
If my ti4200 card wasnt heat damaged I just might tell PNY to eat that old FX5700 card for breakfast. Imo the ti4200/4400/4600 cards rocked. The fan went out on mine but I caught it before the card fryed, but not before the card itself became discolored from heat on the backside of the gpu. The card does work, but I see freezes at times and sometimes the card just wigs out and all I see is a white blank screen or, blue diagonal lines on a white background then I have to hard boot my comp to fix it.
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I cant believe CompUSA didnt just swap the card for you. They took mine back. I bought a 5700 before I got my current 5900 and had to return it. It was also a PNY.
Word of warning, check the new card (if they send you one) as PNY is known for flaky stuff. One card will be junk, the next is a treasure. They dont have much consistency. Save the reciept.
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Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
I cant believe CompUSA didnt just swap the card for you. They took mine back. I bought a 5700 before I got my current 5900 and had to return it. It was also a PNY.
Word of warning, check the new card (if they send you one) as PNY is known for flaky stuff. One card will be junk, the next is a treasure. They dont have much consistency. Save the reciept.
The FX5700 card is 11 months old, it's not Comp USA's problem at this point, it's PNY's. I tryed PNY memory awhile back and had to return 3 sticks to the store because they were faulty before I got a good one. I doubt I will ever buy another PNY product.
This PNY card had a lifetime warranty when I purchased it. PNY has since canceled that lifetime warranty. (Flaky imo, you either back your product or you dont.)
A couple years ago I had an ATI card that failed on me. When I called their tech support they immediately shipped me a new card and requested that I ship the faulty card to them. They also asked for a CC # so they could charge us for the new card if we failed to return the defective one. This whole warranty process with PNY is just crazy imo.
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Originally posted by humble
My old card is a Ti-4200, actually is a great card...you know it might be interesting to swap out the 800 pro and see what FR I get with the Ti-4200 :)
My old rig in Guam plays AH fluidly at 1280x1024 using a Ti-4400 and it is an XP2100 witlh a gig of crucial and an old SB Live Value.
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with my rig mentioned above, i had AA on to 2X..
im going to try it tonight with it off....
we'll se ho high FR's go
humble, it is not the game, i can almost assuredly say
if i can run playable with what i got, you should be able to play an awsoem game
i have been using 1204x768 res, 512 textures, and a bit higher than default detail settings.
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humble i have the same set up as u , i find in the trees with a gv that i get 20- 30 fps in ground view mode , when alot of traffic comes over ive seen 18 19 fps. i have xp stripped down to 12 proccess and have made many registry tweaks , but i still feel that in gv mode the game is hard on systems. flying isnt an issue at all , usually at my refresh cap. might see 60's at times. but i can agree with your feeling , i thought that this rig wouldnt have any issues with any type of game play , guess i was expecting too much.
38
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512 textures
1280 x 1024
2x AA
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Originally posted by 38ruk
humble i have the same set up as u , i find in the trees with a gv that i get 20- 30 fps in ground view mode , when alot of traffic comes over ive seen 18 19 fps. i have xp stripped down to 12 proccess and have made many registry tweaks , but i still feel that in gv mode the game is hard on systems. flying isnt an issue at all , usually at my refresh cap. might see 60's at times. but i can agree with your feeling , i thought that this rig wouldnt have any issues with any type of game play , guess i was expecting too much. 38
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512 textures
1280 x 1024
2x AA
I'm usually fine...but when it goes...it goes. I loaded the 5.5 drivers and they seemed to help the GV rates under F4...was at 32-34 with an occasional 38. Under "load" burned out base multiple planes & GV's it stayed at 18 or so. On the other end FR at alt was actually down a bit 72-74 vs pegged at 75. Flew 1 hop goon hunting in a 190 and it was fine down in the weeds...much improved over before but obviously loads differ...will need a few more hours. I went ahead and set up a seperate AH profile and will pare everything down and report back on difference...at least get some type of general "benchmark" on what performance hit you take optimized vs "normal"....
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I created a second profile and chopped about 1/2 the running processes (need to go a bit slower after that) but noticed that the changes didnt stick. When I rebooted in "AH" mode I had my default set up. How do I save the changes when using the "computer management" screen??
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Humble, I use this program FSAutoStart (http://www.kensalter.com/fsautostart/) I too use my computer for a number of things, and it can get memory clogged at times after running art programs and such. With this program you can clean out the memory cashes as well as turn off as many processes as you like. Its alot like a re-boot to a gaming set-up like your trying to do, but the nice thing is after you close out the game, it automatically restarts all the processes you had turned off. My family knows better than to try and "print" anything when I'm flying as the printer is connected to my computer, and thats one of the processes I turn off. :)
Give it a go!
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Originally posted by MaddogJoe
Humble, I use this program FSAutoStart (http://www.kensalter.com/fsautostart/) I too use my computer for a number of things, and it can get memory clogged at times after running art programs and such. With this program you can clean out the memory cashes as well as turn off as many processes as you like. Its alot like a re-boot to a gaming set-up like your trying to do, but the nice thing is after you close out the game, it automatically restarts all the processes you had turned off. My family knows better than to try and "print" anything when I'm flying as the printer is connected to my computer, and thats one of the processes I turn off. :)
Give it a go!
Will do....
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1st off....
FSautostart is a great utility. IMO it should be "stickied" here somewhere.
I ran one benchmark (aquamark) "as is" with my system in its normal state....total processes 47 overhead mem ~380
Score 61,942
I ran the second with the over pared down using FSautostart...process's at 24 overhead mem at ~175...
Score 62,080
About what I expected since overhead has almost no effect on performance unless the box runs out of resources.
Determining the difference in AH is much more subjective since we dont have an Ah "benchmark" but overall the pared down processes and 5.5 drivers seem to have smoothed out the bottom somewhat although the actual top end performance might have suffered a frame or two.
As far as I can tell my rig is correctly configured and performing as should be expected. I dont see any reason for its often mediocre performance in AH. Hopefully as things move forward the code will continue to be optimized....
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Ctrl-I = Depression. I've worked for many years for a cure, here it is............ Do this,....... Never ever use Ctrl-I !!.........
Its a known cause of AH2 player Depression/suicide syndrome. Frame rate number virus gets into your blood system, flows to your brain causing you to see shudders, white spots, brain freezes <-- also known as screenfreezer, makes you see jagged edges on everything (even your woman , kids , dogs) <-- for rizem yo..
This is fast becomming a killa epidemic , Its highly contagious, spreading fast!!!! It must be stopped!!!! If ya wana survive, ya gotta get treated.
call my office for treatment
1-555-CtrlIdepressiontreatmentframeratesucks ext 1
If no answer try: 1-555- justspent400dollarsonnewcarda ndstillusedCtrlIandgotdepress ed call after 5pm every third saturday of the first passover month only during odd years.
edit: fees very, call for current pricing
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(http://www.azhacker.com/images/GVsnapshot.JPG)
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Something's very wrong there, humble. This may sound obvious, but when you switched video cards, did you completely delete the old drivers? My system isn't really that different from yours, except I have a socket 939 3500+ and a Leadtek GForce 6800 GT. 1 gig of DDR 400. I don't usually bother stripping down my OS install. Since I upgraded, the only time I see less than 30 fps or so is when taking off or spawning in a wooded area. Then it bogs to about 20 for a few seconds and rebounds to the 40-60 range.
I run at 1280x1024, with 4x AA and 4x AF, image settings to high quality and VSync off. Why does your video memory display at 380 meg in ctrl-I? Mine displays at 256. I run the 512 texture set with the sliders in AH set pretty high.
Even though your CPU is a step or two down from mine, that X800 pro should be neck and neck with my video card. Yup. something wrong there I think.
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I wonder if it's the x700/x800 ATI cards. I upgraded my system a few months ago and have a pci-e x700. Framerates are horrible on the deck especially in the MA. I just figured I was doing something wrong or was trying to get more detail where I didn't have the horsepower to do so.
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Originally posted by paulieb
Something's very wrong there, humble. This may sound obvious, but when you switched video cards, did you completely delete the old drivers? My system isn't really that different from yours, except I have a socket 939 3500+ and a Leadtek GForce 6800 GT. 1 gig of DDR 400. I don't usually bother stripping down my OS install. Since I upgraded, the only time I see less than 30 fps or so is when taking off or spawning in a wooded area. Then it bogs to about 20 for a few seconds and rebounds to the 40-60 range.
I run at 1280x1024, with 4x AA and 4x AF, image settings to high quality and VSync off. Why does your video memory display at 380 meg in ctrl-I? Mine displays at 256. I run the 512 texture set with the sliders in AH set pretty high.
Even though your CPU is a step or two down from mine, that X800 pro should be neck and neck with my video card. Yup. something wrong there I think.
I'll go ahead and clean up the drivers to be certain....but it benchmarks where it should. It is reporting wrong though....
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Originally posted by humble
I've tried to keep a positive attitude....but there are serious playability issues here. I've got a AMD 64 3200+ with a gig of PC3200 mem (2.5) and an x800 pro and I'm getting slideshow framerates on occasion. Just spent some time in "tank town" and had framerates of 6 to 8 in F4 mode. Down on the deck in a furball frame rates are slow enough your "behind the plane"...and of course you wont even see a tree with enough time to avoid it.
At some point in time enoughs enough....I could care less about TOD....especially when your "core product"...the one that pays the light bill...is still suffering. How about taking care of the folks that take care of you a bit better. Either tune down the eyecandy or tighten up the coed....
Wierd. I have an Athalon XP 1600+ (1.4 gig), 512 mb DDR RAM, and a GeForce 4 128.
Very rarely do I suffer from what you describe. Granted, all my game settings are at "default", but I find little fault in the game itself.
W~
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Originally posted by Wind
Wierd. I have an Athalon XP 1600+ (1.4 gig), 512 mb DDR RAM, and a GeForce 4 128.
Very rarely do I suffer from what you describe. Granted, all my game settings are at "default", but I find little fault in the game itself.
W~
That screen shot is with the "detail slider" set to left of default about 1/3 of the way from the left edge. Middle slider at default and bottom "ground detail" about 1/3 from left edge as well....
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Wiped drivers (using ATI utility) and reloaded everything...benchmark went from 61,942 to 62,183...so functionally the same.
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Have you tried the Omega drivers for the ATI cards? They're a lot better than the stock reference drivers ATI releases.
ack-ack
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Originally posted by Ack-Ack
Have you tried the Omega drivers for the ATI cards? They're a lot better than the stock reference drivers ATI releases.
ack-ack
I'll give them a try....
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Humble, you should be able to get down to less than 15 processes running. Try that then run your benchmark again and compare to the first benchmark :)
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Jump in a gv, get near to some trees, jump in #2 main gun, and zoooooooom in on the trees. KILLS your fps. I'll drop from 30fps to 5-8. Single digit's bad. And it's only when zoomed in. I can drive my tank thru/around trees fine, but when I zoooom in at all my fps get hit HARD.
I have a video of the trees where they are shuddering/sparklin' ish kinda looking. The bark is all "sparkly" looking (don't think glitter, think of thousands of pixles all moving more) On my FE, we have 2 types of trees. From a distance, say 1-2k out, they fine, kinda blurry, but when they suddenly "pop" into focus, my fps take a HUGE hit.
Not sure why the "bark" on the trees shimmers like that.
SOMETHING is wrong, and y'a can't say it's all on our end. I run about as clean a (low/med end) system as one can get. Only thing this computer does is run AH, so I have it streamlined.
It's them trees. They need changed.
shimmering tree bark film avail. upon request.
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Agreed WMLute.
I play other games that are more graphically demanding than AH2 yet get consistantly better performance with them.
Something just aint right, and no amount of playing with sliders, killing processes, or black magic is gonna fix it.
Since the last 'patch' I now get frequent discos when diving on a GV with eggs. No warning just a straight 'host connection lost' message.
Didn't happen PRIOR to the latest patch.
Of course who can forget the patch that caused all GV's to spawn on top of the hangers!!!!
I for one would rather current stuff was sorted out before anything new is added which may mask the current problems.
The ditch/captured/successfull landing model still doesn't work as has been explained on this BB numerous times by both HT and Skuzzy.
Heres a classic - DH367th got a kill on Waffle while sitting in the tower. Why a classic? They're both Bish!!!!!
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I running a AMD 3200 64 with 1gig ddr400 ram, ATI x800XT 256 meg card. I getting about the same maybe alittle better as humble. My sliders are as follows:
Amount of detail is 50%
Object size is 100%
Distance is about 2.5 miles
When I zoomed in gun I about 15 fps with 4xAA at 1280x1025 res 512 textures. I am agreement with kev on the tree thingy. No reason for these trees to make our machines take such a hit. Must be a graphic bug sucking up all available resources on these trees.
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Originally posted by Elfie
Humble, you should be able to get down to less than 15 processes running. Try that then run your benchmark again and compare to the first benchmark :)
I'm not quite there yet but I'm down to 19 and the benchmark diff is almost nothing. The omega drivers actually bench a little worse then the 5.5 drivers but diff is ~61,800 vs 61,900 with 47 proc vs 19 proc. Now "overhead memory" is much less but even with 47 processes running system still had ~750 meg vs about 890 streamlined...
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I have it down to 17 process's running before I go into AH, AH being 18th process. Now yesterday I did a ctrl-alt-del when in tower. My processor usuage was 90%. I then went back into AH and took off. After about 5k alt I then hit ctrl-alt-del, my processor usuage was only 20%. Kind of strange but I did only do this test once. I gonna do it again tonight when I get home from work.
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I have my processes down to 13, AH being the 14th.
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Lot of people always forget about there mother board drivers and bios updates. Do any of you update your motherboard drivers and /or bios? for the bus and all that? Even though you may have a new mother board etc.. 95% of the time they already have new drivers out. For fixes and inhancements.
On just about every mother board I've bought over the years, even though it was "newly out" for only a few months (3 to 6 months).... I'd go to web site and "ta da" what do ya know, New drivers out already! These updates have always made my units perform much better. This goes for all hardware made for computers, modems , video cards, sound cards, all that stuff.
but mother boards are most forgott'n.. Sure does make a difference!
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Originally posted by tactic
Lot of people always forget about there mother board drivers and bios updates. Do any of you update your motherboard drivers and /or bios? for the bus and all that? Even though you may have a new mother board etc.. 95% of the time they already have new drivers out. For fixes and inhancements.
On just about every mother board I've bought over the years, even though it was "newly out" for only a few months (3 to 6 months).... I'd go to web site and "ta da" what do ya know, New drivers out already! These updates have always made my units perform much better. This goes for all hardware made for computers, modems , video cards, sound cards, all that stuff.
but mother boards are most forgott'n.. Sure does make a difference!
I'll certainly take a look, howver I tend to be reluctant to flash thew bios unless the board had a built in backup....all it takes is once to swear you off an unneeded bios update:)
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The bottom slider that handles tree's (and also GV's) visibility distance is the one that most effects my frame rate. I put it at the far right minimum (no trees) for air to air, and I mapped a hat switch to toggle the F4 ground detail view on and off. That way, even if I am going GV hunting I can leave the trees off until I need to have them on so I can see GV's at max distance. Sometimes in the F4 ground detail view I get frame rates in the low teens or single digits, but smooth frame rates are only a button push away so its a livable compromise.
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Originally posted by Grits
The bottom slider that handles tree's (and also GV's) visibility distance is the one that most effects my frame rate. I put it at the far right minimum (no trees) for air to air, and I mapped a hat switch to toggle the F4 ground detail view on and off. That way, even if I am going GV hunting I can leave the trees off until I need to have them on so I can see GV's at max distance. Sometimes in the F4 ground detail view I get frame rates in the low teens or single digits, but smooth frame rates are only a button push away so its a livable compromise.
For me Gritz its the opposite...
I can run with ground detail at 3 miles as long as I either use F3 view or have sliders slightly right of default. Of course the trees look like a wall of vines till I'm 10 ft away from em:)....
If I crank detail up to 2/3 then I have a problem regardless of bottom slider in F4 view....
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humble I'm with you on BIOS flashing, use extreme caution. Mobo drivers, OTOH, are something I always used to keep updated when I was running VIA chipset boards (I've had several of 'em) and was always pleased with the results. I'm on my first Intel chipset board in years now, no opinion there yet.
I've never really looked at frame rate since I got my latest box running AH. Its simply worked well enough I had no reason to. To add to this discussion, I've just been doing that.
The lowest I could push 'em looking through a Panzer tube on full zoom was 20. That's with a full set of trees and a couple of brick buildings and fuel trucks all in the view.
I'm running a current P4 3.0GHz (6XX series) on the Intel 925X chipset, with a gig of PC4300 DDR2 SDRAM and a GEforce 6800 (not the GT, plain vanilla) video card.
Looking at published benchmarks, I'd say you have a slightly (10-12%) better video card than I do. My memory is somewhat better than yours, in terms of speed, but I wouldn't think that would affect framerate much. And I would suppose your CPU compares favorably to mine.
So, IMO its back down to setup or something.
I'm running the bottom two graphics sliders full left, and the top one somewhat right of center (*just* left of the "M" in "More Performance").
Playing with it, I found that moving the bottom two sliders toward "More Performance" made relatively little difference in frame rate, until pushed to extremes. OTOH, moving that top slider even a TAD more left caused a significant drop.
I have no complaint with the way the game looks. I do see that "trees covered with vines" effect you mentioned, but it goes away before I get very close to 'em - I can drive an M3 at full speed toward 'em and see the gaps open up in PLENTY of time to decide where to weave through 'em. Other than that, I don't see any anomalous video effects. The game simply looks beautiful.
I hope this helps.
culero
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culero....
If you push your top slider all the way to the left what framerate to you get in gun zoom in F4 mode???
Also what tex are you running???
Thanx for the comments...I'll check MB drivers tonight....
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I'm running 1024X768 res and 1024 textures.
Top slider all the way left tanks me, down to single digits. However, I don't see any reason to do that, given everything looks great where I have it.
culero
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cc...was just curious.
The top slider is the touchy one...very small incremental changes can really impact framrates. If you were running 20+ zoomed in F4 then I'd say I need to dig harder in my machine. All in all I'd say were somewhere in the same ballpark, maybe just a different section. In the air the marginal improvement has yielded big change with regard to "lagging the plane"....but last two fights I was in I hit tree's that "popped up" right in front of me so that part is still a theeth grinder.
The problem GV wise is that the guy in the treeline at 2000-2500 has a distinct advantage since he can clearly see you but you cant pick him out of the clutter if your settings are dialed back. Now once your in zoom...if your settings are off and you go into "slideshow" mode engaging successfully is almost impossible. 1hunglo gave me a great tip about using F3 view instead there and it did really help as well....
It's just dissappointing that in many aspects the skill level is dumbed down and hardware is the deciding factor. Basically the guy with the better machine has the edge more than ever before. Whats funny is I have none of these issues in the DA at all...
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Yes, agreed the settings are critical but this is a fairly recent release, and it makes sense its going to require fairly recent hardware for that reason.
My point is, I've managed to arrive at a "compromise" in my settings that avoids the problems you cite - I see the trees in time (its just that sometimes I'm waking up too low and fast to do anything about it ;)), I can pick out enema GV at those ranges just fine if they're exposed (and if they're hidden it makes sense to me I shouldn't) and I never have any slide-show effect.
I'm hoping that if you keep fiddling you'll be able to arrive at a combination of settings that allows acceptable performance, too.
culero
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47 procceses?..that is rediculous
it MUST be under 20..atleast..
start with that...I woudl careless if you say no big difference..It is to ur CPU
I use Omegas..seeems a bit bettr
I still need more cpu I think..Im overlocked all she can go captain"sounds like scotty"
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Originally posted by humble
I'll certainly take a look, howver I tend to be reluctant to flash thew bios unless the board had a built in backup....all it takes is once to swear you off an unneeded bios update:)
Get a BIOS saviour by IOSS.
Plugs over your existing BIOS and gives you a backup you can flash instead of the main. Switch allows you to flick between the two BIOS'es.
Around $30-40 depending on CMOS type.
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Originally posted by humble
Whats funny is I have none of these issues in the DA at all...
I cannot explain why but I am convinced that having a large population in the arena is an issue with the lower FPS figures. That would also explain why folks can run other graphically intensive games without stuttering yet in AH2 they see video lag. IL2/FB/AEP/PF flows like glass offline in perfect mode for me, but I see little laggyness online when there's more than 24-30 players in the arena, I think other than the lack of MMOL code smoothing networks and server support there's more to the reasoning behind limiting the number of players in that game.
Anyone with more expertise able to prove/disprove this theory that large populations cause video slowdowns?
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Originally posted by wonton
I wonder if it's the x700/x800 ATI cards. I upgraded my system a few months ago and have a pci-e x700. Framerates are horrible on the deck especially in the MA. I just figured I was doing something wrong or was trying to get more detail where I didn't have the horsepower to do so.
I switched from X700 Pro Abit card to the Abit X800 platinum edition and my FPS went up about 40 from 119 to 160.
I have tweaked and tuned my bios and windows settings including tweakgin the paging file and turning off all programs via msconfig that arent needed. Before tweaking I was getting a HORRIBLE 35 to 50 FPS. The biggest jump was when I tweaked the bios settings. Some folks will argue and say tweaking bios isnt neccessary but I can speak from experience it works. I have been doing this since the days of Air Warrior and everytime the bios tweaks increased my fps by at least 10 or more FPS depending on the system. Of course this does depend on whether or not your using a name brand system like Dell or HP with a basic bios or if your using a board such as Abit or Asus that can really take advantage of the settings in question. I'll be glad to help anyone with tweaking bios if needed. email me at dalosiman@msn.com or look for me ingame in the MA.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/images/headless-horseman1.jpg)