Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: X2Lee on May 24, 2003, 10:56:06 AM
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My frame rate is usally mid 40s to 50s. Last week while in flight my frame rates dropped to the lower 20s. in smoke its down in the lower teens sometimes
I reinstalled vid drivers, DirectX8, the game, to no avail.
Installed directx9 and it seemed to work for a few hours then boom! Right back in half my frame rates.
My system checks well on benchmark and pc health programs and I am running out of things to do.
I loaded Rage3d tweaks but I dont know the best settings for AH
I am now on the edge of putting money into a new pc or card and its probably just a setting
heres my specs and settings,
thanks in advance for your input,
Tommy
running windows 98 SE latest drivers for vids and directx9 (now)
in game settings mitmappin on, palette textures off, 800x600, 32 colors
display settings are the same. mitmapping does not seem to effect FRs at all...
soundcard is on half speed (now) and graphic speed is 3/4 speed (as always)
open GL antialiasing disabled, fast write off, 4x agp speed
System Board ECS K7S5A 1.0
Processor AMD Athlon
Nominal Clock Speed 1000 MHz
Measured Clock Speed 1000 MHz
External Clock Speed 66 MHz
CPU Load 2%
Level 1 Cache 128 KB
Level 2 Cache 256 KB
RAM installed 384 MB
Windows RAM 384 MB
Total RAM slots 4
Max RAM module size 128 MB
Memory Type 256+128+00+00;|DIMM|SDRAM|;T5
Level 1 Cache 128 KB
Level 2 Cache 256 KB
Description Drive C
Partition format FAT32
Cluster size 32 KB
Size 38921 MB
Free space 32702 MB (84%)
Data fragmentation 11%
File fragmentation 1%
Cached speed 145.05 MB/s
Uncached speed 3.47 MB/s
disk
Brand/Model SAMSUNG SV4084H_
IDE details Master, DMA
_(Standard hard disk drivers) Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)_
(Standard hard disk drivers) Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)_Silicon Integrated Systems SiS 5513 Dual PCI IDE Controller_
Video Board
RADEON 7200 SERIES
Resolution 800x600 pixels
Colors 16 million
DirectX version 4.09.00.0900
OpenGL version 4.00
_
Monitor IBM 6558 P202
Max. Horizontal Resolution 1600 pixels
Max. Vertical Resolution 1200 pixels
Horizontal Size 40 cm
Vertical Size 30 cm
Viewable Diagonal Size 19.69 inch
thanks again
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Hi X2Lee,
My system specs are similar to yours (W98SE, Radeon 7200, Athlon 1GHZ, DX9). Although I've got a bit more RAM (512mb). I get 40 - 50fps, sometimes higher, a lot lower in smoke (20 - 25). All this at 1280*1024 32bit colour. Sound and hardware acceleration are both maxed. The only comment looking at your system specs is the External clock of the processer looks wrong. I thought Athlons were either 200 or 266FSB. I did not think they made a 66mhz one, but I could be wrong.
Comparing to my current resolution my FPS do suffer badly if I drop to 800*600. I get a slight increase over my preferred at 1024*768 but the image quality is so much better at 1280*1024. The old Radeons generally give no advantage as far as I know by using 16 bit colour. Are you running your desktop at the same resolution & colour depth as the game?
A really good Radeon tweaking guide written for use with the Rage3d tweaker can be found here http://atiguide.ionichost.com/
You could also try turning vsync off. I know I will get jumped on by the "Rubber Bullets" brigade for saying that but personally I find no difference (Can't land hits on or off) :confused: and I don't understand how an output device such as a monitor can cause this anyway. (Hits might not be displayed but they still happen IMO). But other evidence indicates differently. (You makes your choice).
Another area to look at is your monitor refresh rate. Sometimes capping the refresh rate can help considerably. Sometimes choosing a refresh rate you monitor cannot maintain makes the FPS drop by a half or more as the monitor will be constantly jumping between the rate you have set and whatever it can actually display.
TTFN
snafu
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Originally posted by snafu
Hi X2Lee,
My system specs are similar to yours (W98SE, Radeon 7200, Athlon 1GHZ, DX9). Although I've got a bit more RAM (512mb). I get 40 - 50fps, sometimes higher, a lot lower in smoke (20 - 25). All TTFN
snafu
TY snafu, I turned off vsync and my mon refresh is at 60
no diff.....
ty tho.
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I emailed you guys at HTC and posted this to the board.
Whats up with support?
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Originally posted by X2Lee
I emailed you guys at HTC and posted this to the board.
Whats up with support?
HTC is responsible for tweaking your system?
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Originally posted by Furious
HTC is responsible for tweaking your system?
bite me rat bastage. yeah tech support is included in the package
Now stfu
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No need to get nasty X2.
Here is my best guess. If the frame rate is doing a variable thing on you in the same graphic situations, I would suspect something robbing some CPU cycles from you,...or...something is getting ready to go out and is acting up due to heat.
Those are guesses. Something is changing in your system to cause these effects to appear. You may not be doing it, but something else may be doing it.
The heat thing is easiest to check. Open the computer case and get a lot of air moving in it. Make sure that all the fans are indeed running as well. See what happens.
If the same ole thing happens, then heat is elminated.
The next step is a bit more bothersome. Any number of things can cause the effects you are stating. Hardware interrupt flooding. This happens when a device may be going bad and it causes massive amounts of interrupts to flood the system which sucks CPU cycles like no ones business.
Another possibility, it could be some software is running in intervals causing it. Hard to catch these little buggers as they come and go from the task manager.
Shared interrupts with a USB bus can cause this. USB likes to issue interrupts.
Anomolous problems such as these are very difficult to diagnose without having the computer in front of you. I may be way off in what I am guessing. It could be something as simple as a driver installation done incorrectly or in the wrong order.
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
No need to get nasty X2.
Here is my best guess.
Thanks skuzzy, I have already checked the heat its ok. Ill check the other things now.
Please excuse the mean streak, I am frustrated about the damned PC.
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Lee,
I don't remember seeing what refresh rate you have yer monitor set at.
If I'm not mistaken the default refresh rate may be set at 60 HZ. WHen you check it you may find "optimal and default" aint "it".
If you can adjust your refresh rate you should turn it up to 75 hz and try it. Then go on up one increment at a time. If you monitor supports 100 HZ refresh rate then you FR will start around 90-100 depending on resolution you've set the game at.
Just a note top be careful. If you over crank your mnitor to a refresh rate its not rated for you might cook the monitor so check the specs before you up it.
It's also interesting to note that the FR seems to be cut in half when you get into a high pixel environment. As in a base in flames and smoke with alot of planes and gv's around. If you were carrying a FR of 50 and it drops it will go to 25.
Ren
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X2. Some things that helped me.
Turn off antialiasing
My card runs better at highr resolutions.
Make sure you dont have a bunch of crap gobblin up yer RAm running in the background . (XP is notoriius for eating up all your system resources for insignificant sht). Even if you installed stuff on puter puter over the years, it could be draining your sht when the goin gets ruff.
Get a hi speed connect.
Check for IRQ conflicts. When I installed my new gf 4ti4200 it conflicted with my modem. Created rediculously lo FR.