Geforce Tweaking Guide

[Guest Orbital]

This just a reply to Hendryx, Lamb and hurricane, but It has some good tweaks that I should post as topic already.

 

 

Okay, first to Hendryx and Sacrificial Lamb, the thing is, you probably haven't tweaked your geforces correctly. I am on a geforce 2 ti 200. It's the highest model for the Geforce 2's, and I get a constant 100 fps, but when things are crowded, I get around 70-80, just because I can tweak my video card correctly. See, if I were both of you, I'd get RIva Tuner from this website: http://www.nvworld.ru/index_e.shtml . You can find a bunch of help topics, but I'll post a guide to using it soon enough. It's a good way to make your Geforce Card run at optimal effienciency.

 

I don't have a lot of time at the moment, with colelge apps and all, but here are my settings for Riva Tuner:

[Oh, and one other thing, d/l the Nvidia drivers 40.72 from www.nvidia.com They were realeased about a week ago.]

 

I have overclocked my video card to:

254 for the Core Speed [Default is 250]

411 for Memory speed [Default 400]

You can try them out yourself, at your own risk mind you, but most cards can handle around 4-6% increase, most Geforce 4's can handle about 10%, so it's basically your own confiugartion.

 

For Mipmapping in the OPENGL tab, I'm at -.03, it makes everything look a little sharper.

 

My Vsync is ON, since I run at 1024x768 now, vsync is better for me, I do not have any image tearing [image tearing is a process in which computers without vsync on, contain image tears, where it looks like something is happening, but it actually isn't. It's a basic lag spike in lamen.] I'll explain how to fix it later on.

 

I'm using Block Transfer, because it's better for the Half-life Engine, it's a better type of buffering made for our simple Quake 2 baby.

 

Rendering Quality I put at 16 bpp [bits per pixel] because I run my desktop in 32 bit color, but in all my games, I run at 16. To run at 32 bits in games takes too much memory and processing power, for Hendryx, with a Geforce 4, you shouldn't care about this, but if you just want all the beef from your card, turn it to 16.

 

ANisoptirc Filtering: TUrn it to Performance Optimization

 

Default Degree of Anisotropy: (1) Off Default

 

Compatability tab: I'm at Max Acceleration for Hardware Acceleration

 

 

 

See, Microsoft has made the refresh rate on your computer at 60Hz for default. This is stupid, but there is a way to fix it. This means, if you turn vsync ON, you get 60 fps. If it's 100hz, you get 100 fps. COmprende?

 

GO to the Driver settings tab, and select the little diagonal arrow, and go to the picture where it says: 60 Hz.

 

Now , click the single arrow at the bottom of the window that popped up.

 

Now select the One Big Arrow and the one SMall arrow in the middle that are grouped together. ANd it tells you to put a minimum frequency in. Put 100, for if you go higher, CS can't handle it. SO, just put it a minimum of 60. Install it and restart your computer.

 

For ANti-Alasing, go to your desktop: Right-click: properties: Settings: advanced: Geforce Tab: Then go to 3D anti-aliasing: Select Manually select the anti-aliasing mode: And select either 2x, 4x or 0. and most DEFINETLEY click the "texture sharpening" box.

 

See, with Anti-aliasing, the problem is, it makes your computer look a lot sharper, but takes up more ram and power. What I like is 0x, because it takes up no power, and I don't notice a difference in the way it looks, since my monitor is so huge. You should try them all out for yourself, find out what setting is better for each of you.

 

Hendryx, custom skins do that to you, they eat away a LOT of fps, I had all these knarely custom skins, but they ate up too much of my fps, even on my great computer, so I reccomend putting everything at default, and if you want one or two guns with really cool skins, leave those. I have a REALLy awesome awp skin and a cool knife skin, everything else is default. So yeah, custom skins do that, sorry bro.

 

Sacrifical:

See, there is a problem with cl_cmdrate and cl_updaterate.

First the default settings again are: Cl_cmdrate 20, cl_updaterate 30, rate 9999.00000.

 

If you get choke: Change your cl_cmdrate lower.

If you get pakcet loss: Change your updaterate.

Rate is only a variable to your cl_cmdrate and cl_updatrate.

 

Think of it like a ratio, so it's 20/9999 and so when you change the top number, you have to change the bottom numbers. Heh, so math DOES help in life !

 

See, if you know a serve ris beefy and can handle a lot of bandwitdh, try these settings:

Cl_cmdrate 60

cl_updaterate 40

rate 20000.0000

 

These are just everything doubled, and can really help you game better, because if you every experience a time where you THINK you are htiting someone, but you aren't, it's probably because of choke/loss. SO these settings will help.

 

Also, the maximum rate for cl_cmdrate and cl_updatreate are 99, and the max for rate is 20000.000

 

You have to fiddle around with them yourself to get the most out of that particular server.

 

And another DISCLAIMER: If you tweak your CS reguaraly and change the settings constantly, you should msot definetly save EVERYTHING in your Cstrike folder and save the favser.dat [in C:|Sierra|Half-Life folder , which has the list of your favorte servers] Back it all up, and unistall Half-Life, and erase EVERYTHING in the registry that has to do with Valve, Sierra, Half-life, or hl.exe and resinatll it. You will notice a lot of stupid glitches, even if everything is at optimal settings, due to the crappy Quake 2 engine.

 

 

 

Now for Hurricane:

gl_ztrick Is a relativley useless command that takes up more processing power on most lower end video cards, to fill up cracks in walls when you are far away, I have it off, because I don't want it to take up any of power, I rather have just for cutting up heads

 

Now, I think I have settled a lot of your questions, if you have anymore FEEL FREE to post something up, I am ALWAYS glad to help anyone in need, just as long as you post on the guide saying I have helped you, and that you spread the word around. Because,e veryone deserves to be helped in cs a lil' bit.

[Hendryx]

Haven't tried any of it yet, but WOW! Quick and very informative response! Thanks alot man! If this works, I'll send you my old Intel740 card!

 

Thanks again! Time to go try this stuff out....

[Guest The Hurricane]

thanks

[Hendryx]

When he says do that stuff at your own risk, he means it.

 

Shortly after installing RivaTuner, my linux hard drive (the one i boot off of) decided to die. Started making clicking noises and wouldn't load. So I took that out and put in Shadow's 40 gb hard drive with a bootable WinXP partition. Well, apparently my motherboard can't detect RAM anymore. Bah.

 

This certainly isn't Orbital's fault and RivaTuner probably works wonders on other machines. Just giving you guys a headsup before you try anything. Back up stuff!

[TheBugs]

i just tweaked my voodoo 3( ) out to the max.

 

Bet they have never looked this good before!!

[Hendryx]

Anyone know why I can't get anything to work on it anymore? I'm not getting any monitor 'activity'!! I formatted the hard drive on my other machine and will be installing WinXP Pro on it tonight. But, how can I get my monitor to work again? I've tried 4 different video cards, all of which work on my other box. Please help! That was my gaming box.

[Hendryx]

bump

 

My other box (shadow) died too!! AHHHH!!!

[urk?!?]

Rate over 10000 clogs the server under 1.4+ It doesn't do anything but introduce more choke.

 

You should set your cl_cmdrate and cl_updaterate to something that's divisible aroudn the avg for your FPS in a good firefight.

 

IE if you get 60fps you should set BOTH variables to 60.

 

if you get 75, run at 75.

 

These variables change some from server to server as well. If you start seeing choke in your netgraph (set this to 3 for onscreen display), then you should reduce the rate by 100 increments until it clears up.

 

I set my config to readonly since alot of HLguard and WWCL servers will overwrite yer config when u quit HL.

[Guest Orbital]

Thanks for the info, but sadly, you're mistaken. They changed the settings from 25000 to 20000 max rate. You can use over 10000, easily. Do not tell people something that you have not proved yourself. I use Cl_cmdrate 60, cl_updaterate 40, rate 20000 and get 0 choke.

 

 

-Blurg. Please read my counter-strike tweaking guide, I have explained it very well in those, I think.

[Guest The Hurricane]

thanks for the info urk

[urk?!?]

Orbital,

 

Not sure if you being beligerant there deliberately, but you came across as terse.

 

Perhaps I could have introduced my post as "In my experience" --which is exactly what I was relaying. You may not experience choke at a rate of 20000. But I guarentee that I do. Ergo, in my eyes, I _have_ proven it. Rate above 20000 does choke the server, perhaps not for you, but definately for other players. It's also pointless unless you're on LAN. You're just increasing the window size for the number of packets that the "crappy Q2 engine" can use if it needs to. I didn't say anything at all about what the max_rate was, so I'm sure you weren't referring to that.

 

As for the cl_ rates, the information I relayed is common knowledge after one of the HL devs posted that information several years ago during beta 1.3. I'm sure you can find the post on it somewhere on the CS forums if you want to double check. Aside from that, your guide was correct in what you conveyed. I was adding additional information to it that indicated that you didn't need to have the variables at different values.

 

Either way, thanks for posting the guide. And thanks for being open-minded.

 

rotten.

 

P.S. Not sad. Just glad.

[Guest Orbital]

... I can imagine that we are both butting heads here. And I do apologize for that, and I am not neglecting what you have seen, but no it is not pointless unless you are on LAN.

 

You probably experience choke because the server-side protocols limit the rate on a server. This is for servers who don't have the best connections, [i.e. ADSL, Half-T1], but to those servers you live closely by, and get great latency on, it can mean a world of a difference. I do not want to go into a completele descritption of rate, I am quite sure you know it yourself. I am very happy you are trying to help people, and keep them well-informed, the same ideals of why I write these guides.

 

When using 20000 rate, it does not choke the server, that just means the server isn't up to speed, and then you must lower the rate because the server cannot handle it. This is in the case of a server you play across the country to, [i.e. Me to MMMM Plat, from CA to Texas]. It was a T3, but didn't have the greatest latency, and was limited in how much bandwitdh it could use, and also, I think Fat or Dirk limited the rate on MMMM to 9999.0000, so that is why most people would get choke, I have already stated that it is something on a personal client side, the same rates shouoldn't be used for all servers.

 

I play on a server that is 2 miles away from me, I get 15-20 ping to the server on average, and it is a fully dedicated T1, that can handle 15000 or20000 for rate. It is not just "my" experience, it is on everyone. That is only why I got a little flustered with your post, it is not that I am trying to bash what you know, please, I would never, it is just that you are telling me I am wrong, when this is soemthing tested and proven. So, you can see where I come from.

 

Many of my friends use such high rates and get no choke, it is all server side, and this, as I already have stated, is in the guide I have written. I wish you would have throughouly read it before you stated your post.

 

I am extermely sorry if I sound mad or anything, I don't mean to be, I am not mad what so ever, or beligerent. I am.. just.. scuffled. And, it is my pleasure to write the guide.

 

-Sincerely,

Orb

[urk?!?]

Orbital,

 

Thanks for clarifying. You're 100% right. I didn't read your guide sufficently, and after looking into it a bit, your follow up explanation is also correct. The server side params ARE what determine what your effective rate is. On the flip side though, it really doesn't make much of a difference what your rate is once you clear 10000.

 

I tested that on a bunch of different servers ranging from DOH, to 3d (in texas) to CA, to a euro server (where playing with a 100+ ping is equivalent to self-mutilation... gawd those cats are good). At 10k+ rate, it really becomes a mental issue if you aren't experiencing choke. There's no percievable difference in how your shots register or not... and I'm mighty finicky about phantom shots.

 

On another note, if everyone on the server has their rate set to 20k and the server can only handle 7500 or 10k, then it _WILL_ cause choke on that server. The server is going to expend cpu cycles rejecting packets that exceed it's buffer/param size. That causes delayed responses from the server, ergo, choke/lag.

 

Again, this is my experience. I've been in more than one scrim/match where everyone had their rates tweaked to max it out, and everyone's connection has been choked to timbuktu and beyond, including spurts of lag and ping spikes exceeding +150ms due to the config tweaking.

 

I'm not too sure if you were agreeing with me or not on the cl_cmdrate/updaterate, but those are (in my experience), best set to coincide with your FPS avg/min/max. The reason being that you want to have your commands (ie, click to shoot) sent to the server at the same rate that you're percivieving them on your screen. Ergo:

 

"Frame 1" I see the target

"Frame 2" I click to shoot (assuming I actually have lightning reflexes)

"Frame 3" My target dies from a headshot because the server recieved my shot in Frame 2.

 

If your cmdrate is not comparable to your max_fps (and the actual FPS that you experience in game), then you're going to get a shot that happens in Frame 3 or 4 or even 5... and the server will not register your shot where you think you put it since the target has moved 2-3 frames since you fired.

 

Updaterate is the reverse flow (unless I'm mistaken, and pls correct me if I am). It's the server communications to your client. Ergo, you want that to be set roughly the same as your cmdrate.

 

One last note, I owe you an apology for not complimenting you on your guide earlier. I saw information (re: the various rate settigns) up there that was basically accurate, but didn't have a couple things taken into consideration and I posted in haste.

 

rotten

 

P.S. Having gone thru this exercise with you, I've since adjusted my config.cfg to rate 20000. I adjust it in game as needed. cl_cmdrate and cl_updaterate are still set at 75.

 

P.P.S. Another sidenote, on Gf4 cards, the HL engine actually runs better under 32bpp. It's not a perceptible difference either way, so it's really immaterial (like Orbital said). Check madonion for details.