Performance issues
TheGivingTree
Join Date: 2003-01-09 Member: 12070Members
Join Date: 2003-01-09 Member: 12070Members
<div class="IPBDescription">renamed; formerly "Question With 2.0"</div> Hi, I noticed that it 2.0 is suppose to make NS run alot faster and be alot less CPu intensive, as of now I am getting horrible fps and I hope that 2.0 will fix it. So has anyone that played 2.0 notice any difference at all? and if so is it dramatic?
Comments
the only way to increase your computer's performance is to get better hardware (faster CPU, better vid card) and up-to-date drivers.
i ran a GeForce 2 with its default drivers that was on the disk (about version 2.5-2.7) that came with the card and it was horrible in-game. when i upgraded the GeForce drivers to their current driver my performance increased dramatically.
get as many drives up-to-date as you can, and if performance is still in the toilet get a new computer.
As has been suggested, some ways to maximize your performance:
1) shut down external programs (e.g. P2P programs, chat programs, Winamp, etc)
2) make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card and sound card
3) defrag your hard drive (if you haven't done this in a long time, it may have an effect)
What are your machine's specs?
-Coil
You said to update my sound card driver? I'm not sure how to.. when I goto device manager and I double click on sound, video andgame controller about 7 differnt sound things pop down,
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
SoundMax integrated Digital Audio ( Which I think is the main one )
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
Video Codec
So I really don't know what to do or where to go to find a driver for any of these. If you can help me I would appreciate it thank you.
If you've tweaked it to all hell, chances are you've changed something you shouldn't; I'd suggest reinstalling HL and NS, clean, and starting fresh.
As for updating drivers: just go to card manufacturer's website and download the latest drivers. Run the executable, and it'll take care of the rest for you.
[edit]"SoundMax integrated Digital Audio" is your soundcard; from a quick Google search, looks like the onboard sound that comes with an HP system. Check HP's site for drivers.
BTW back to my original question, so 2.0 won't be less CPU intensive at all? or are they waiting to finish the balancing first, because I think a change like that would need a download and they would probably wait until its ready to be released.
Read this, make sure your fps_max is set correctly (mine was set to 75, so my fps wouldnt go higher, I set it to 100, and now I can leap HA with two leaps <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> )
Read it carefully, it's a very usefull guide, which should be stickied...(hint @ mods)
Cheers and good luck
This is not HL but NS. The maps are more complex, and there are more objects in the map, especially once bases start to get big. You can't expect to get standard HL performance in NS. Now, if HL is also sluggish on your machine, that might be something to worry about.
By the way, I'm one of those people who get 30 fps if we're lucky. From experience, I can say it only becomes really hard to play below 10 fps (which usually happens on caged, not sure why). As 2.0 is supposed to fix the jetpack and build speed fps bugs, low fps will matter even less annoying.
I was under the impression that swapfiles get fragmented only when their size is constantly altered by Windows. Setting them to a fixed size (about 3x RAM is recommended) should prevent all fragmentation, shouldn't it?
That may be true. In any case, going with the default settings is bad for gaming. I have it set to 2x though, is 3x really necessary?
I'm sorry I really don't understand this at all, can you explain it in lamers terms?
-Thing
Thank you for the post but I already used his guide. All I do all day is goto the NS forum, look for anything about increasing FPS performance, or sites to tweak my computer to run games better, but I really haven't found anything to concrete my fps..
Another thing about his guide, is whenever I downloaded one of those refresh tools ( and i tried it 3 times ) my moniter would go completly black and I would have to reformat my comp with quick restore.
Finally haha sorry about all the posting and writing, but I just read this in a forum.
"I have a Pentium III 850 MhZ, Geforce 2 440mx, and 386 MB RAM and I consistently get 99 FPS in non-action, high 80's in action. (50ish when comming)"
Now my computer is Pentium 4 1.6 gig, geforece 4 420MMX, and 256 RAM yet he is getting more FPS then me? I read this all the time where people with lower grade computers have higher fps then me and it makes NO sense at all.
First you go to the controlpanels (maybe called "settings" or "system settings", found in the startmenu), there you open "System". Click on the rightmost tab, it should be called performance[something]. Under "Advanced Settings" there should be a button that reads "Virtual Memory". Here you can choose what drive/partition to place the swapfile on, and the minimum and maximum size. Set them both to the same size to keep the size constant (obviously). As Twex suggests, this may indeed be the most important step. Be sure to defragment the drive afterwards.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps. "
Well I did everything you said BUT when I went to performance there is no advanced settings anywhere I checked all over. FYI I use windows XP so I'm not sure how much difference there is.
have you considered that perhaps fpses as high as 100 are outside your monitor's range?(this is from the monitor going black problem you've been having.) because i have taht very same problem, my monitor's top fps is 85 hertz, perhaps that's our problem?
How did you fix it? Also how can you find out what my moniter top fps are? I can set the refresh rate to 100 or even 120 and it works.
Read this, make sure your fps_max is set correctly (mine was set to 75, so my fps wouldnt go higher, I set it to 100, and now I can leap HA with two leaps <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> )
Read it carefully, it's a very usefull guide, which should be stickied...(hint @ mods)
Cheers and good luck <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I second this. I thought I had everything already tweaked out, but it turns out that the brain-dead framerate cap of windows2000 was still limiting me to 60 fps. Once I ran the program Roob suggested, my fps went up to my refresh rate (85fps,hrz), and without vsync it goes to fps_max == 100fps.
How did you fix it? Also how can you find out what my moniter top fps are? I can set the refresh rate to 100 or even 120 and it works. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Firstly you mean "refresh rate" not "fps", there is no limit to how many fps your monitor can show, only the number of screen refreshes per second and if you say your monitor. The best thing to do is download drivers for your monitor from the manufacturers website and get the latest drivers for your gfx card, then re-install whatever refresh locking tool you have (I recommend RefreshLock as it auto-detects the highest rate your monitor can show in all resolutions).
If you are using XP, the swap file is almost certainly not a problem. It autosizes fairly well as needed unless you've mucked with it. If you've maxed your fileswap on an NT-based version of Windows, you've got issues. I'd say forget about swap for now, your problems likely are elsewhere.
If you are only having problems when there are many turrents, your network connection may be maxed. Unlikely, but possible. You might want to read up on using the network monitoring built into HL. Use the "net_graph" command to determine if this is the cause. I won't explain the whole command, but can give you a link that will:
<a href='http://half-life.gamehelp.com/console/net.html' target='_blank'>http://half-life.gamehelp.com/console/net.html</a>
If you're still looking to change the swapfile size in WinXP (although I doubt this is going to fix it), the easiest way to do it is this: Hold down the key with the Windows symbol on it (usually it'll be next to CTRL) and while you're holding it down, hit Pause/Break (top right hand corner of the keyboard). This will bring up the system properties window.
From here, click on the 'Advanced' Tab (to the right), then click on the 'Settings' button located under the 'Performance' heading. Once you've done this, click on the 'Advanced' tab, then finally the 'Change' button down the bottom.
This will bring you to the screen where you're able to adjust your swapfile size and/or location.
Let me know if you still can't find it.
PS: Does your HDD thrash when your FPS drops?
"PS: Does your HDD thrash when your FPS drops?"
I'm not sure what you mean, but if you mean like making loud sounds or something I don't think it does.
'"PS: Does your HDD thrash when your FPS drops?"
I'm not sure what you mean, but if you mean like making loud sounds or something I don't think it does.'
Next time you're playing and your framerate drops significantly, quickly have a look at the little HDD indicator light (it's usually a red light in a cylinder type symbol on the front of your tower.) If this is constantly flashing, then it stops flashing & your FPS goes back to normal, you may need to defrag your drive as the other guys have suggested. I'd definately reduce that swap file size for starters though, 1600-2400 is much too big imo.
BTW back to my original question, so 2.0 won't be less CPU intensive at all? or are they waiting to finish the balancing first, because I think a change like that would need a download and they would probably wait until its ready to be released. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Your ram seems to be the issue, yes. Especially if you're running other proggies in the background while playing. If it's really that much of an issue, go and kill every single non-OS program before you play, or upgrade to 512 megs (or switch back to windows 2000)
..now what have you done with the sound?
I've found that a game that runs smoothly normally will go to complete crap simply because I've turned on surround sound, to say nothing of EAX.
Also, make sure you've cleaned your computer of as much stuff as possible. I don't mean just programs you decide to run, but also programs that Windows or certain ad-ware programs like to run. (Kazaa is horrible for this, btw) Try downloading and using Ad-Aware from LavaSoft, you never know what kind of stuff is silently trying to run itself in the background.
seriously though, try lowering resolution, colours, simplest possible hardware accelerating options, end any unneccesary programs running in background.. if all that don't work... it's time to upgrade <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
"PS: Does your HDD thrash when your FPS drops?"
I'm not sure what you mean, but if you mean like making loud sounds or something I don't think it does. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, that swapfile is pretty huge. While Windows XP treats the swapfile as actual RAM (i.e. the swapfile virtual memory is treated as a contiguous portion of memory space), it's still on the HDD which means that seek times to it are thousands of times slower than accesses to RAM. Generally the recommended amount of swapfile sizes are ~2-3x your physical ram.
HDD thrashing happens when there's a lot of read/writing going on from/to the hard drive. This happens especially when RAM is filled up and the OS is forced to put things into the swapfiles; things that are being accessed often. Normally when the RAM refreshes new data is loaded into RAM and the data that's been idle the longest is retired to the swapfile, but if RAM is full then a long string of swapfile-reading and writing happens.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->i have the same problem i can barely hold 75 frames on a 2 GIG P4, Gefroce 2 MX 400, and 512 ram. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
75fps is good for a geforce 2 MX.