Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: neodad on February 20, 2017, 10:55:32 PM
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Gentlemen,
I have been having "frame rate" issues for quite a while, going back to AHII days. From 69 to 2 in a blink of an eye and then back again. Real pain when you're in a fight to have everything lock up for that split second. Happens always in the MA and mostly in FSO. I have the same problem running DX9 and DX11. The eye candy is down and environment map is set to 0. Windows is set at high performance. Wired internet connection.
Here is an excerpt from my DXDIAG:
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_ltsb.160611-0600)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: XPS 8700
BIOS: A08
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12240MB RAM
Page File: 1491MB used, 12603MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.17415 64bit Unicode
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Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 750 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1380&SUBSYS_37593842&REV_A2
Display Memory: 4037 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1989 MB
Shared Memory: 2048 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
I have pretty much given up on this rig. Fed up, frustrated etc.
I have been thinking about a new box from Digital Storm. Looks like:
i7-7700 (Kaby Lake)
ASUS/MSI motherboard Z270 chipset
16GB Ram
240GB SSD
1TB hard drive
GTX 1080 8GB (NVIDIA Founders Edition)
In the neighborhood of $1800.
The question - might I have the same problems as now?
Your comments would be appreciated.
neodad
ex CO ~~~UNFORGIVEN~~~
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Your current rig should work fine on the settings you described. There's no actual bottlenecks visible in the DxDiag excerpt. A more complete version of it might reveal potential driver issues and such but if you're using the original Dell installation the drivers shouldn't be the culprit either.
People run AH, both 2 and 3, on much weaker systems without major problems. I know, I'm one of them. My current one still keeps me above 30 most of the time. The only single digit drops have been at certain spots over a crowded field, an issue in the terrain rather than the system.
I suspect there's quite a lot of background activity going on. If they're programs you're deliberately chosen to run, a new rig won't fix that. Then again, if it's something you don't know about, getting rid of background clutter is the first thing on the to-do list. The worst scenario of course is well hidden malware hogging your resources. In any case, that should be fixable.
The video card you're using scores about the same as mine, the rest of your system being superior. For what I've learned from people having similar systems than mine, a GTX 1060 would triplicate my frame rates. If you're planning to get that monster system, replacing the video card only might give you the desired result. Oh, and possibly the power supply, too, depending on your video card choice.
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If you have not taken the time to clean up the OEM bloatware from the system that is probably where your computer is losing so much processing power. That system should run AH3 decently with the settings only slightly altered from the default.
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From my limited knowledge, I agree with Biz. Only thing I might want to do on your current rig is upgrade video card to a 1060 or 480. I have the 1060 3gb and it runs AH with everything maxed out @ 60 FPS.
Do you play any other games? Do you have a 4K monitor? If it's JUST for AH the 1080 card is waaaaaay overkill.
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Bizman, Skuzzy,
Thanks for the info. Any recommendations as to the best / easiest tool to use to identify and eliminate the bloat?
Cav,
It's just AH. The 1080 is overkill but I figure if I am going to hit the bug with a hammer I will use a very big hammer.
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I do it the good old fashion way.
I look at the background processes and Google what I do not recognize and ask, "Do I need it running all the time?".
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Same here. There's sites and programs that might help, such as Should I Remove It? (http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/) and File.net (http://www.file.net/). Note that many of these sites and programs would like to make you install various "helpful" programs which can make your system even more bloated!
Even if you find some background program mostly useful, letting it automatically check for updates on a daily basis isn't necessary. Also, ask yourself whether you need them constantly running or on-demand onlyt. Go into the settings of each and change their behaviour.
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Bizman, Skuzzy,
Thanks for the info. Any recommendations as to the best / easiest tool to use to identify and eliminate the bloat?
Cav,
It's just AH. The 1080 is overkill but I figure if I am going to hit the bug with a hammer I will use a very big hammer.
Is still go with a 1060 or 1070 and take the hundreds that I saved and buy myself a really nice HOTAS, maybe Track IR and/or a comfy chair to sit in.
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I took Skuzzy's and Bizman's advice. Purged a lot of background processes. I now have 23 background and 23 windows processes running. My cpu shows 0% and memory is at 8%.
In game the Vid Mem is 1989.8 and Used starts at less than 900 and steadily climbs. By the time I gave up tonight it had just exceeded 1200.
My frame rates were all over the place and never stabilized for more than a few seconds. Flying, driving, tower, large field, small field, didn't matter.
FWIW my squad uses ventrilo.
Any ideas?
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Any ideas?
First, there's been quite a lot of complaints about frame rates drastically dropping lately. That might be either the latest patch or a certain map, or certain areas on the map. There's a thread going on about the 4 mile airfields (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,385305.msg5123292.html#msg5123292).
Another idea is about Ventrilo. I know some squads use it and it shouldn't affect gameplay too much. However, if you're using a USB sound device instead of a sound card your USB controllers and you still have the original power supply and you don't use a powered USB hub you might suffer from lack of power during heavy radio activity. There's a lot of if in that sentence...
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Bizman,
Those 'ifs' are worth checking.
I am using a USB headset, etc. I'll try it tonight without Ventrilo and see if it makes a difference.
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Bizman,
Those 'ifs' are worth checking.
I am using a USB headset, etc. I'll try it tonight without Ventrilo and see if it makes a difference.
Ventrilo wont be making that big of an impact unless its is set to a high codec. I run the regular GTX 750, which is lower than your Ti, and I have no problems running TeamSpeak, Aces High, TrackIR, and usually steam as well.
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Remove what you don't need from the control panel, then Ccleaner, then malwarebytes, then hijackthis if you're feeling brave.
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Consider reinstalling windows from scratch, if you can't get it running more consistently. Hard to tell what drivers and services might be causing issues that won't show up as "processes" in task manager.
Also, I've read in many many places over many many years that sound drivers are the first place to look for strange system problems. So... Consider updating your sound drivers.
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When you've updated video drivers in the past did you do a clean install by first removing the old drivers manually? If not there could be remnants of old drivers creating problems.
Also you said you have a USB headset. Did you uninstall your sound card or onboard sound drivers before installing that? Multiple sound drivers can cause big issues.
If it was me I'd run Malware Bytes then back up my data, do a clean installation of Windows then clean installations of your sound, video, motherboard and network drivers. Once complete turn off any auto updaters then check processes turning off whatever your sure you don't need.
After that if it's not running like new you might have a hardware issue.
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Update from last night.
Of course the map changed so this wasn't a real apples to apples compare with the map as a constant. :bhead
I found every single video and graphics options and increased them all and re-started the game. Then I set them all down as far as possible and re-started the game.
That seems to have corrected the problem. My frame rate stabilized at 59. :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
Next step, maybe, when I get over the happiness and elation of being able to play this game again :airplane: will be to move them up one at a time and see what happens.