Improving FPS

Penfold · June 11, 2007, 09:21:38 PM

My FPS has gone south on me. I'm lucky to hit 20FPS.

I have reinstalled my system from acronis but no joy.

I know there's some pointers hereabouts on improving FPS and Ping but I'm darned if I can find them.

Anyone give me a pointer or url please?

Thanks

PEN

Lee · June 12, 2007, 01:00:35 AM

Ouch that's not a very fun FPS to have. I used to even get higher on my older AGP comp. I've noticed my FPS seems to be worse lately too, although still completely playable. You may know that the best thing in-game option you can do to increase your FPS is to lower your screen resolution. Do you think it could be a heat issue?
I came across this link which may help.

http://www.hlfallout.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10172&st=0 You might also want to try this config - http://www.fpsbanana.com/scripting/505.

What are your specs by the way?

suicidal_monkey · June 12, 2007, 09:14:37 AM

was this a sudden fps drop from like 60 to 20 with no programs or drivers installed in-between or like from 30 to 20? I know I've found it slowing a bit of late too (at least that was the impression I was getting)
more info!

Anonymous · June 12, 2007, 09:48:46 AM

Things to check:

Don't run in too high a resolution
Dont have too much AA or AF applied to image (0xAA and 4xAF is a good starting point)
has the display been set to run in software instead of hardware mode?
have you tried OpenGL instead of DirectX (or vice versa) - you can set this on the command line options for the game: more info
at:

http://home.covad.net/~k25125/SteamyThings/HL_Command_Line_Switches_FAQ.htm

delanvital · June 12, 2007, 10:13:13 AM

Well, if you did a reinstall from scratch and still have the same problems then.. hm... any performance drop elsewhere, as in other games etc? Did you recently upgrade your gfx driver and this driver is also the same you used after reinstalling windows? Then get the prior one again...

Penfold · June 13, 2007, 11:06:03 PM

Thanks Guys.

Yeah, specs would prolly have helped.

I have a boring, off-the-shelf Intel P1v 3.4ghz Dell with 2Gb of decent RAM from Norm. The graphics card is a Nividia Geforce 6600GT. I'm running forceware.

My FPS is actually worse now than it was with my previous card - a radeon 9800pro.

Not sure if heating is a problem, how does one tell?
I have made sure that I ran the power cord from the fraphics card to the mobo.
AA and AF? is that Anti aliasing and anti thingy filtering?
I am running at 1280 x whatever it is - so perhaps I need to drop that too.

Appreciate the help fellas

PEN

Othbarty · June 14, 2007, 12:48:22 AM

check that your PSU got enough juice to run the GFX card... Made that mistake myself...

DuVeL · June 14, 2007, 07:11:50 AM

Quote from: Penfold;193869Not sure if heating is a problem, how does one tell?

PEN

Get a program called SpeedFan (Freeware). With this program you can see your computertemperatures and also adjust the fanspeeds. I've put it on all the workcomputers.
PC Wizard 2006 is also a freewareprogram so you can check your computertemps and other compstuff.

delanvital · June 14, 2007, 11:01:35 AM

Speedfan for ya

So you changed gfx to a 6600 and graphics have been worse since, and that is all that has changed? Soz for being slow...

Lee · June 14, 2007, 05:00:13 PM

On my old computer i had a radeon 9600 which i replaced with a 7600gt, however i think the radeon was slightly better, i can't remember if i actually got the latest drivers for the 7600gt though, i don't think i actually got around to it. I assume you've tried to get the latest graphics driver?

suicidal_monkey · June 14, 2007, 08:31:12 PM

in theory a 9800pro (What I've been using for the last year or so at 1280x800 for CSS) is more or less equal to a 6600gt, although the 6600gt will probably pip the ati card to the posts in more tests. A 7600GT should be miles better then either of them. Miles. You should see similar performance with your 6600gt to what you used to get with the 9800pro.

If your motherboard drivers are not playing ball with your graphics card drivers, or if you failed to "properly" remove the ATI drivers you could be getting conflicts there that will slow down 3d performance. I've had trouble with motherboard AGP / smartGART drivers not working before and more or less halving my frame-rates in 3d games.

I found CSSource to be relatively cpu-limited on my machine (roughly equivalent to a 2.8GHz P4) as lowering the resolution below 1280 did nothing much for the framerates. Some of the custom maps totally kill my poor old PC ... and I too have noticed a slow-down in CSS in recent months. Could just be perceived slow-down ofc!

You can also try changing the advance settings of your gpu drivers so that openGL and direct3D operate in "maximum performance" mode (as opposed to max quality). try a search for your specific 6600gt maybe and look see what versions of the nvidia drivers other people recommend?

p.s. wrt to heating --> run the pc with the side of the case off and if you have one point a big old desk fan at the pc innards. Should keep it cool to rule out heat problems.

Penfold · June 14, 2007, 09:10:25 PM

Quote from: delanvital;193924Speedfan for ya

So you changed gfx to a 6600 and graphics have been worse since, and that is all that has changed? Soz for being slow...

yup
thanks

Penfold · June 14, 2007, 09:26:48 PM

Quote from: suicidal_monkey;194024A 7600GT should be miles better then either of them. Miles.

OK so I messed up getting a 6600gt :doh:

Is this the beastie you're talking about - will it honestly be MILES better on FPS etc?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-76GTA+

At the end of the day all I do on this PC is Play CS. If necessary I'll just buy a new machine but it seems a slight waste.

Do you think my PIV 3ghz is still uptodate enough bearing in mind I only had ATA and AGP etc?

PEN

PS Tried speedfan - IT comes up with results -

Not sure how to interpret them though?

delanvital · June 14, 2007, 09:31:16 PM

Quote from: Penfold;194031OK so I messed up getting a 6600gt :doh:

Is this the beastie you're talking about - will it honestly be MILES better on FPS etc?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-76GTA+

At the end of the day all I do on this PC is Play CS. If necessary I'll just buy a new machine but it seems a slight waste.

Do you think my PIV 3ghz is still uptodate enough bearing in mind I only had ATA and AGP etc?

PEN

PS Tried speedfan - it doens't seem to work? It crashes when it runs - trying to get another copy.

Pen, I have ATA and AGP (although an 7800GS), an Athlon equivalent of your Pentium, 1,25GB of RAM and the machine is fine in CS. If we are just talking CS, then just up the graphics. My 2c.

Speedfan - you can get others to monitor your temperatures - try MBM (MotherBoardMonitor). A bit more detailed and heavy as an app, but does the trick - you just need to identify your motherboard in the setup (that is, know make and model for the app to work with)

delanvital · June 14, 2007, 09:34:59 PM

Speedfan - that means the program cannot detect any sensors reporting gpu or cpu heat. All you have there is the temp of your HDDs.

Edit: the odds of some other app finding the cpu temp is low. Finding the temp on the graphics card could be done with some of the apps for such. Maybe RivaTuner?