Problems with new patch

[Schlitz]

The game ran fine until the last patch.  It runs fine with a frame rate of 70 and then it drops down to 9 after a few minutes.  Thanx in advance.

System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 8/13/2009, 15:28:18
       Machine name: SGTSCHLITZ-PC
   Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq-Presario
       System Model: NC696AA-ABA SR5710Y
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) Dual Core Processor 4450e (2 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
             Memory: 3070MB RAM
          Page File: 678MB used, 5663MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode


isplay Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 9400 GT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0641&SUBSYS_095B19F1&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 1779 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 499 MB
    Shared Memory: 1279 MB
     Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (72Hz)
          Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
      Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
   Driver Version: 7.15.0011.8208 (English)
      DDI Version: 10
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 2/18/2009 15:44:00, 6082560 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4501-11CF-515A-502901C2CA35}
        Vendor ID: 0x10DE
        Device ID: 0x0641
        SubSys ID: 0x095B19F1
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Revision ID: 0x00A1
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C ModeVC1_B ModeWMV9_B ModeVC1_A ModeWMV9_A

Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: Yes
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_103C2A5C&REV_1000
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5708 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 9/24/2008 12:31:06, 2171672 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
         HW Accel Level: Basic
              Cap Flags: 0xF1F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
            Description: Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)
  Default Sound Capture: Yes
  Default Voice Capture: Yes
            Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5708 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
          Date and Size: 9/24/2008 12:31:06, 2171672 bytes
              Cap Flags: 0x1
           Format Flags: 0xFFFFF

[Eagleclaw]

It may be a driver issue.

[Eagleclaw]

May be any number of things, viruses, programs, background updates, virus scans, any number of things can cause any number of problems for you playing aces high.

[Denholm]

See if reducing the paging file will help. If the game is running in the swap-space it will obviously run slower than if it were running in the physical memory (RAM).

[Blooz]

I'm betting vid drivers.

Two are shown and neither is the latest Nvidia driver.

[gyrene81]

Display Memory: 1779 MB
Dedicated Memory: 499 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB

That looks suspiciously like an onboard graphics chip. The system information looks like a laptop. If that's the case, you could try lowering your video adapter resolution to accomodate the 72Hz refresh rate or lower the refresh rate to 60. Then lower the ingame video resolution a few notches, set it to 256 textures and disable detailed terrain, water, object self shadow, other skins, custom sounds, and display horizon...just leave bump mapping on, move the object detail and ground detail range to the center. See what your frame rates are from there...if they remain steady at close to 60 then start with increasing the texture size to 512 and try again. If that doesn't degrade your frame rates, then turn on detailed terrain and proceed from there.

[Masherbrum]

Display Memory: 1779 MB
Dedicated Memory: 499 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB

That looks suspiciously like an onboard graphics chip. The system information looks like a laptop. If that's the case, you could try lowering your video adapter resolution to accomodate the 72Hz refresh rate or lower the refresh rate to 60. Then lower the ingame video resolution a few notches, set it to 256 textures and disable detailed terrain, water, object self shadow, other skins, custom sounds, and display horizon...just leave bump mapping on, move the object detail and ground detail range to the center. See what your frame rates are from there...if they remain steady at close to 60 then start with increasing the texture size to 512 and try again. If that doesn't degrade your frame rates, then turn on detailed terrain and proceed from there.

The 9400GT is a Graphics Card.   There is no "on board 9400GT".   

Also, Blooz mentioned "latest drivers".   Sometimes it is a crap shoot.   Some cards prefer up to date drivers, some prefer older drivers in the Archive. 

[Skuzzy]

The 9400GT is a pretty slow card due to the use of DDR2 RAM rather than DDR3.  The RAM is normally clocked at 800Mhz rather than 1600Mhz.  Basically, half the fill rate of the 9500GT.

That fill rate different is going to make a huge difference in how it runs the game.  If you cut the video resolution down, you might be able to run with "Detailed Terrain", but then again, you may not.  I have seen some 9400GT cards with really slow DDR2-667 RAM, rather than DDR2-800.

The "Shared" RAM is a feature of Vista/Windows 7.  Those OS's basically allow the video card to gain direct access to all but the lower 1GB of RAM.  One of Microsoft's more useless ideas of late.  It makes it blazing fast for the CPU to copy a texture to system RAM though.  The tradeoff being, it takes forever for the video card to be able to access the texture across the PCI-e bus, as compared to accessing it in its own RAM.

[Rich46yo]

The 9400GT is a Graphics Card.   There is no "on board 9400GT".   

Also, Blooz mentioned "latest drivers".   Sometimes it is a crap shoot.   Some cards prefer up to date drivers, some prefer older drivers in the Archive. 

Whats the latest? 190.15 or somthing like that. I have found graphics driver updates to be helpful.

There have been stories of other experinces tho. My general rule is "If it aint broke dont tinker".

[gyrene81]

The 9400GT is a Graphics Card.   There is no "on board 9400GT".   

Assumed the Compaq Presario was a laptop with that video memory configuration and that it was an upgrade to the 9400M G onboard graphics adapter. Thanks for pointing that out though.

None of my Vista builds on desktops have shown the split memory configurations on independent graphics cards.

The 9400GT is a pretty slow card due to the use of DDR2 RAM rather than DDR3.  The RAM is normally clocked at 800Mhz rather than 1600Mhz.  Basically, half the fill rate of the 9500GT.

That fill rate different is going to make a huge difference in how it runs the game.  If you cut the video resolution down, you might be able to run with "Detailed Terrain", but then again, you may not.  I have seen some 9400GT cards with really slow DDR2-667 RAM, rather than DDR2-800.

According to the Nvidia specs on that card that memory is slower than 800Mhz:
Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz) 400 MHz
Standard Memory Config 512 MB 
Memory Interface Width 128-bit 
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 12.8

Of course that doesn't mean a different manufacturer couldn't put fast memory on it.

[Skuzzy]

Physical clock is 400Mhz, RAM clock is effectively 800Mhz.  This is how all companies advertise the product.  No one shows the physical clock rate.  Marketing would not allow it.

[AKDogg]

Want a complete list of all specs of every type of video card made since the 90's to present?  Click on link below.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=0

This site tells you ram speed, core speed, memory throughtput, core throughput, etc..