[Win7 64] Performance optimisation and tweaking?

Curve

I'm asking here rather then tech support because I would rather avoid yet another thread on performance with the free weekend happening.

Im sure people playing at a competive level must have a few tricks up their sleaves to make the most out of their systems.

If any reputable individual has a few bookmarks or guides they use after a fresh instal?

I'm looking to do the following:

Tweak for graphic performance over eye candy
Reduce any non needed processes taking up my precious CPU's time
Probably remove any caching going on due to the SSD drive.

Any thing else specs are in my sig and thank you very much for any help offered.

joederp

I had to make sure all core parking was disabled for my AMD FX 8320. This made a huge difference but I think it may only affect AMD chips.

Gamerkatze

forget the graphic stuff. all you can do is change the on off keys in your option menu (most of the stuff is unnecessary and decoration). in beta it was possible to delete annoying shaders or effects from your game files but consistency check prevents it now ^^

ScardyBob

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

ezekel

ScardyBob wrote: »

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

joederp

ezekel wrote: »

ScardyBob wrote: »

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

The problem I think is with some chips, I believe certain Intels, they are throttling back when they should not be, almost like for some reason NS2 does not properly inform the system it needs more CPU power. I have read a few threads where a lot of people saw a big improvement by disabling ANY type of CPU throttling be it in BIOS or windows based software. Disable all that crap and run a benchmark.

koewi

if you are running the game on a shitty cpu like my laptop got one and you have your browser open with some flashstuff running, bumping the .exe to a high priority gives you 5-10 fps.

tested, before the gorgeous patch, on an amd quad core 2GHz.

ScardyBob

ezekel wrote: »

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

Yeah, they feel like they give me better performance, but I haven't done much in the way to verify it. Just providing the info in case the OP wanted to know what other potential tweaks are out there he could try.

SquishpokePOOPFACE

I turned on the TPU switch on my mobo, I can confirm that it probably does nothing.

Ironsoul

In terms of graphics suggestions:
Use a graphics card with 2GB of VRAM and do not use texture streaming.
Turn anti aliasing off in game.
Turn ambient occlusion to medium or off in game.
Those 3 graphical suggestions will yield the biggest improvement in terms of performance, as they tend to affect input lag more than anything else. Ambient occlusion is known to definitely cause input lag in NS2 specifically.

I remember the days when atmospherics crippled a framerate from 80 to 18.

Your 560 Ti is perfectly fine for ns2, I would leave textures on high even with a 1GB graphics card, consider reducing decals to low as possible though. Consider upgrading the 560 Ti in the future, not yet though.

reichs

joederp wrote: »

I had to make sure all core parking was disabled for my AMD FX 8320. This made a huge difference but I think it may only affect AMD chips.

I have an old i7, not sure which model, but i had this problem as well. I got a significant fps boost from turning parking off.

shonan

joederp wrote: »

ezekel wrote: »

ScardyBob wrote: »

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

The problem I think is with some chips, I believe certain Intels, they are throttling back when they should not be, almost like for some reason NS2 does not properly inform the system it needs more CPU power. I have read a few threads where a lot of people saw a big improvement by disabling ANY type of CPU throttling be it in BIOS or windows based software. Disable all that crap and run a benchmark.

I dont believe that until I see concrete evidence of it. Speedstep works so that it will increase clock speed when the processor utilization reaches a certain degree on the lower clock speed. There is no room for a "bug" like that, its just placebo. To make sure check clock speed with e.g. CPU-Z, it will be full on I'll bet on that.

shonan

The single biggest thing affecting performance for me is resolution. The game is unplayable on my desktop resolution, but when I turn it down the game becomes playable.

Otherwise I have found the following settings to be my sweet spot:



Of course, to find what works best for you, r_stats/net_stats and fiddle with them.

joederp

shonan wrote: »

joederp wrote: »

ezekel wrote: »

ScardyBob wrote: »

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

The problem I think is with some chips, I believe certain Intels, they are throttling back when they should not be, almost like for some reason NS2 does not properly inform the system it needs more CPU power. I have read a few threads where a lot of people saw a big improvement by disabling ANY type of CPU throttling be it in BIOS or windows based software. Disable all that crap and run a benchmark.

I dont believe that until I see concrete evidence of it. Speedstep works so that it will increase clock speed when the processor utilization reaches a certain degree on the lower clock speed. There is no room for a "bug" like that, its just placebo. To make sure check clock speed with e.g. CPU-Z, it will be full on I'll bet on that.

Um, ok. In my case it wasn't the clock speed being low it was some cores being parked. Hence why I suggested he disable core parking.
For my situation I started task manager so I could see all 8 cores in the performance tab. While running ns2 for a few minutes I quickly alt+tabbed back to task manager and found that I had 2 cores at high load and 1 core at low load. After I made these changes and repeated the test I had 3 cores at high load, 2 at medium load and 1 at low load. Also my FPS jumped up from about 35 avg to about 60 avg. This happened to me personally so that should be proof enough, unless you think I'm making this all up in which case.. well actually I don't really care at all what you think.

shonan

joederp wrote: »

shonan wrote: »

joederp wrote: »

ezekel wrote: »

ScardyBob wrote: »

Things I've done, but not necessarily tested, to improve performance are:
- Run NS2 as a high priority process in windows
- Disable the steam overlay
- Turn off C-states, EIST/speedstep in bios

These do seem to help, but it may just be a placebo effect.

I doubt any of those make a difference

1) If you have a strong CPU making something more high priority over something else shouldn't do much
2) I don't see a reason to do that
3) Speedstep is dynamic clocking, so when your computer is idle it can downclock to use less volts and make less heat, I actually recommend having that on

The problem I think is with some chips, I believe certain Intels, they are throttling back when they should not be, almost like for some reason NS2 does not properly inform the system it needs more CPU power. I have read a few threads where a lot of people saw a big improvement by disabling ANY type of CPU throttling be it in BIOS or windows based software. Disable all that crap and run a benchmark.

I dont believe that until I see concrete evidence of it. Speedstep works so that it will increase clock speed when the processor utilization reaches a certain degree on the lower clock speed. There is no room for a "bug" like that, its just placebo. To make sure check clock speed with e.g. CPU-Z, it will be full on I'll bet on that.

Um, ok. In my case it wasn't the clock speed being low it was some cores being parked. Hence why I suggested he disable core parking.
For my situation I started task manager so I could see all 8 cores in the performance tab. While running ns2 for a few minutes I quickly alt+tabbed back to task manager and found that I had 2 cores at high load and 1 core at low load. After I made these changes and repeated the test I had 3 cores at high load, 2 at medium load and 1 at low load. Also my FPS jumped up from about 35 avg to about 60 avg. This happened to me personally so that should be proof enough, unless you think I'm making this all up in which case.. well actually I don't really care at all what you think.

That isnt speedstep, its core parking.

You can use http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility to disable core parking.