Suspect : Newer Drivers And Opengl
SaltzBad
Join Date: 2004-02-23 Member: 26833Members
Join Date: 2004-02-23 Member: 26833Members
<div class="IPBDescription">An information thread</div> Since I'm definitely not the only one with odd FPS losses totally unproportionate to the system I have, let me just share my experience for a moment. After hours of experimenting with all sorts of tweaks and fixes over 3 GFX cards, I can only come to one conclusion so far :
<i>Modern drivers and HL don't mix.</i>
Here are the bad setups (craptastic FPS) :
Radeon 9800 Pro - Cats 3.1 - 4.5 (tested most of them). Minimum FPS in HL, ~5.
GFX5200 Ultra - Manufacturers drivers (50.xx) were a total disaster. Switching to 56.xx made it bearable in most games, but still horrible in HL. Minimum FPS almost as bad as the Radeon with 50.xx, and ~20ish with the 56.xxs. If anyone cares I'll lookup the exact version numbers.
GF4 MX420 51.xx drivers (latest you can use for a GF4 MX) - as bad as the GFX5200 with its drivers, basicly.
The one good setup :
GF4 MX420 with 29.42 WHQL cert drivers. I can join voogru with that setup, and barely get below ~35 FPS - and its alot stabler, and feels less noticable than the heavy control lag and extreme FPS fluctuations (yes, I tried using fps_max/fps_modem) on the other drivers. Unfortunately the FX5200 doesn't work with 29.42s, or I'm sure that'd be the bomb.
Incidentially, it was the same for another OGL game, Tribes 2. Its more graphics intensive than HL, but even there the 29.42 WHQL GF4 MX performs well - without the noticable slowdowns all the others give.
So what if you're having these problems? If your card supports it, switch to 29.42s. If it doesn't, look for older Catalysts. You can probably not go too old as long as your card supports it. I even uninstalled DX9 on my system (google DirectX buster if you want to), in the course of testing - it didn't help me, but it might work for you. For anything else, I suppose the newest drivers are okay. Or just do it my way, get yourself a used GF4 MX and OC it out the **** (205 mem/275 core seems to work fine on mine) - you're only going to keep it until HL2s out anyway <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Well, thats it for now. If you have a similiar case of <b>Really Bitchy Framerate Drop Disease</b> (RBFDD), go ahead and post any discoveries you've made here.
<i>Modern drivers and HL don't mix.</i>
Here are the bad setups (craptastic FPS) :
Radeon 9800 Pro - Cats 3.1 - 4.5 (tested most of them). Minimum FPS in HL, ~5.
GFX5200 Ultra - Manufacturers drivers (50.xx) were a total disaster. Switching to 56.xx made it bearable in most games, but still horrible in HL. Minimum FPS almost as bad as the Radeon with 50.xx, and ~20ish with the 56.xxs. If anyone cares I'll lookup the exact version numbers.
GF4 MX420 51.xx drivers (latest you can use for a GF4 MX) - as bad as the GFX5200 with its drivers, basicly.
The one good setup :
GF4 MX420 with 29.42 WHQL cert drivers. I can join voogru with that setup, and barely get below ~35 FPS - and its alot stabler, and feels less noticable than the heavy control lag and extreme FPS fluctuations (yes, I tried using fps_max/fps_modem) on the other drivers. Unfortunately the FX5200 doesn't work with 29.42s, or I'm sure that'd be the bomb.
Incidentially, it was the same for another OGL game, Tribes 2. Its more graphics intensive than HL, but even there the 29.42 WHQL GF4 MX performs well - without the noticable slowdowns all the others give.
So what if you're having these problems? If your card supports it, switch to 29.42s. If it doesn't, look for older Catalysts. You can probably not go too old as long as your card supports it. I even uninstalled DX9 on my system (google DirectX buster if you want to), in the course of testing - it didn't help me, but it might work for you. For anything else, I suppose the newest drivers are okay. Or just do it my way, get yourself a used GF4 MX and OC it out the **** (205 mem/275 core seems to work fine on mine) - you're only going to keep it until HL2s out anyway <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Well, thats it for now. If you have a similiar case of <b>Really Bitchy Framerate Drop Disease</b> (RBFDD), go ahead and post any discoveries you've made here.
Comments
however, did you test these gfx cards all on the exact same computer or on different ones?
remember, there are often twitches with each computer you have to deal with.
I did change around some system setup though, and trouble-shot in pretty much every imaginable way (BIOS flashes, changing every driver I ever used, installing obscure fixes for problems that sound remotely related to mine and so on).
To be honest, I believe that it is a hardware problem that you have. Three different video cards all having generally poor performance just does not seem video card related. Ask a friend to let you test the cards on his computer and see what happens.
Also, what are your actual video card settings on?
Maybe I should clarify what the "minimum FPS" bit means - thats how low I can push it, if I say, walk right into a heavily populated marine spawn with a gunfight going on. In other words, performance with the GF4 MX is pretty much fine (40-45 FPS in must gameplay situations is perfect).
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Also, what are your actual video card settings on?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They've been on everything. 16 bit to 32 bit color, force all sorts of different combinations of filtering and whatnot, tried factory defaults, tried recommended tweaking setups, tried random things for the hell of it.
I'm also running a 2ndary HD with a clean windows install with nothing else on it (just drivers+steam), just to run the tests.
Note: My brother has the same card, but he uses an AMD Duron 700Mhz. He gets 30 fps in most situations, but the screen seems to jump around a bit. That's why I think this problem may have something to do with your processor or motherboard.