Author Topic: framerate increase for a simpleton (Read 588 times)

Pollock · « **on:** October 10, 2004, 07:41:33 AM »

I need some help increasing my framerate, currently in furballs or at bases with heavy smoke i drop into the low teens sometimes.'
In the air I run around 60fps average.

I do not think i have a slouch of a system but I may be wrong here are my specs:

System Info Version:   2.2
Operating System:      Microsoft Windows XP
Processor:      Intel Pentium® 4 @ 2.40 GHz
Graphics Card:      RADEON 9700 PRO
Total Physical Memory:   512 MB ddr pc2100
Free Physical Memory:   308.73 MB
Motherboard Manufacturer:   ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model:      P4B266

any suggestions I would greatly appreciate, but remember my pc tweaking skills are limited.

Pollock · « **Reply #1 on:** October 10, 2004, 07:44:00 AM »

I forgot to mention:

My video setting is 1280 X 1024 32 colors

Blooz · « **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2004, 10:54:41 AM »

You'll need to reduce your video settings and graphical details sliders to get better frames.

In the vid settings reduce your resolution and try to pre load textures to vid memory. Textures can be reduced until the vid memory check box is active.

In the graphical settings move the sliders farther to the right and uncheck the mip mapping box at the bottom of the window there.

If you want better farmes it comes at the cost of the eye candy unless you can drop a ton of money for the latest and greatest hardware.

38ruk · « **Reply #3 on:** October 11, 2004, 08:47:21 PM »

LOL blooz great sig LMFAO mind if i use it as a quote?

Blooz · « **Reply #4 on:** October 11, 2004, 10:35:57 PM »

Be my guest.

I haven't heard anything from Mr. Churchill about ripping him off so I guess he's cool with it too.

bustr · « **Reply #5 on:** October 14, 2004, 05:15:29 PM »

I have an ATI 9700 Pro 128.

Last night I went into the ATI control panel tab for 3D rendering and set Vsync from "enabled" to "always on". My game loaded faster and the graphics got nicer. I stopped haveing occasional hitches getting near big furballs. 1G ram tends to run the game better. AH tends to load 600-700 Meg into memory if it has the chance.

I also installed the latest OMEGA ATI drivers.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #6 on:** October 14, 2004, 05:40:48 PM »

Do you have anti-aliasing enabled?
What texture size is the game set to use?
Do you have any of the "preload" options checked in the video setup for the game?
Have you changed any of the sliders or made any adjustments int he game video settings?

How many background processes are running on your computer?
What version of the ATI drivers are you using?
Didi you install the new ATI Catalyst Control Center?

bustr · « **Reply #7 on:** October 14, 2004, 07:48:22 PM »

Pollock,

At 1024x768 on your desktop with AH turned off, what refresh rate are you running? My monitor can support 1024x768 @ 120Hz. In the game my FPS varies from 119 to 65 FPS depending on whats happening.

Have you checked in the ATI control panel for what refresh rates the card has detected it can support for your monitor? Has XP detected the monitor and loaded a profile other than generic monitor? Your 60 FPS max in the game suggests at the desktop you are 1024x768 @ 60Hz. If your monitor is less than 10 years old you should be able to support 85Hz.

Shane · « **Reply #8 on:** October 14, 2004, 11:24:43 PM »

I have a similar setup... more ram would be helpful, i went to 784 from 512 and saw an improvement. i think 1gig would be even better.

i use 1024*768 monitor res.

I still think HT needs to optimize vid card performance for the radeons, there's no reason why we can't get a solid (monitor limited refresh) rate in all situations with all sliders maxed out, imho. sooner or later i imagine it'll be done.

eskimo2 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 16, 2004, 12:10:58 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Do you have anti-aliasing enabled?
What texture size is the game set to use?
Do you have any of the "preload" options checked in the video setup for the game?
Have you changed any of the sliders or made any adjustments int he game video settings?

How many background processes are running on your computer?
What version of the ATI drivers are you using?
Didi you install the new ATI Catalyst Control Center?

Skuzzy, these questions to someone like me are just questions.
If my biggest concern is frame rates,

Should anti-aliasing be enabled?

I run it at 256 texture size. Should that help frame rates?

Is it good to have "preload" options checked in the video setup for the game?

Have you ever posted a guide to optimize frame rates?

Thanks,
eskimo

FOGOLD · « **Reply #10 on:** October 16, 2004, 05:31:07 AM »

This tends to be trial and error I'm afraid.

YES. Preload textures, it will help stuttering.

Don't be too frightened to move the graphic detail sliders to the right. It really doesn't make that much difference to the look and will help Frame rates.

DON'T have Anti Aliasing or Anisotropic filtering enabled. Forget about them. Set to Application Preference or off. They will cripple you.

Press Shift + f1,,f2 or f3 for view distances. I found that f2 or 3 helped Frame Rates CONSIDERABLY on my machine.

I have a similar machine to you (see below) and these days it's mid range going on bottom ! Don't expect too much. If you can stay above 30 FPS in a heavy scene that's good. Remember, AH is VERY demanding and processor intensive. All flight sims are like that.

I have 1gig RAM, but it's too expensive really especially if you are thinking of upgrading any time in the next year. 2100 RAM is obsolete now and you won't want to move it to another machine. I don't think 1gig RAM made all that much difference in AH. If you could pick up 512 second hand somewhere it might be worth it.

Reboot your machine before starting AH, especially if you've been playing other games. Make sure there are no programmes running in the background. You don't need real time virus scanning for example, although i would leave firewall up.

Be careful of more esoteric processes tweaks, you can screw your machine for not much benefit!

Thats about it really. Make sure your drivers are current BUT AVOID THE NEW ATI CONTROL PANEL!

Updating drivers is an exagerrated passtime actually. If it's running fine on fairly new drivers you won't get much benefit from the latest.

Good Luck

2000XP @ 1700 (Ambitious overclock:rolleyes:
9800 Pro
1 Gig PC 2100 DDR
MSI K7T 266
Cat 47 Drivers I think
SB Audigy Player

FOGOLD · « **Reply #11 on:** October 16, 2004, 05:38:37 AM »

Yes I know my 9800 is overpowered for my Processor. It was SOO cheap though!:D

MAJOR gripe I've got is this mobo wouldn't accept Thoroughbred processors without some soldering job (The heck with that)!