FroBoZZ May 20, 2006 Share FroBoZZ Member May 20, 2006 Ok, just getting sick of throwing little complaints here and there when I play. I am going to give you guys my computer specs and hopefully you can tell me the reasons for the fps jumps and the choke/loss 3200+ two 512 sticks of 2700 ddr sdr 200 gig hd ati 9800xt (bought three years ago) Ever since one of the updates in early February or March my comp has been faltering, bringing me huge choke and loss at times. Right now i get about 5 average and up to 20 in fights. My fps is another story. I have gotten up to 80 when its a 3v3 and i am alone, but whne i and fighting one or more people, it is usually in the teens or low twenties, hardly adequate. I really dont like complaining, despite what some might think and never do it away from this game. I have tried casey's config and that doesnt bring much more life to my game and all my settings are already on low; i even put my res to 1024 by 760 or watever, even though it is a samsung syncmaster 712n, a great LCD. Someone please help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie May 20, 2006 Share mookie GC Alumni May 20, 2006 (edited) Assuming your config can be ruled out, it's gotta be a hardware/system problem. A 9800 should give you decent performance; I run with a 9600GE and it does just fine. Run the Task Manager for a while. If you run CS:S in a window, you can watch the task manager as you play, if not I guess you'll have to switch out. HL2 will probably take a whole logical processor while it's running, but Steam should not. If you see Steam using a lot of clock time, try shutting the whole program down and starting again. Sometimes I've noticed large differences in performance just by restarting Steam (for better or for worse) which is probably caused by some non-determinism (always a sign of good coding) somewhere in its start-up. Look for any other applications that are taking a lot of clock time. Normally, I wouldn't expect anything to use more than a few percent, and only sporadically. See how much memory is being used by various processes. If there isn't enough memory available for HL2, the result might be that some of it gets paged out to disk (which is heinously slow compared to main memory). Check for viruses, which can waste resources. Run a program (e.g. MBM 5) to give you temperature readings. I don't know offhand what the normal running temperature for an AMD, but make sure it isn't running too hot. Open up the case and make sure all the fans are spinning. Check for dust, especially around the CPU. If you've got the time to spend, take everything apart and dust it all, clean out the case, and put it back in. Don't remove the heatsink from the CPU unless you have spare thermal paste around. Get someone whose machine you know to be good to lend you his PSU (hopefully 400W or more, the more powerful the better). Put it in your machine and see if the problem mysteriously vanishes. If so, it's time for a new PSU. Reinstall Steam completely, or even better do the whole machine. Whether this is a last resort or an early option really depends on how invested you are in the partition you're booting from. Edited May 20, 2006 by mookie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 20, 2006 Share Cujo Member May 20, 2006 just format and install the latest drivers. you're probably due for one anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher May 20, 2006 Share Preacher Member May 20, 2006 Also check your video card settings. Make sure everything is application preference. See if that helps. I couldn't get the game F.E.A.R. to play at all when I first got my new system and it turned out to be that. If not Cujo is prolly onto the best solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonfly May 20, 2006 Share dragonfly Member May 20, 2006 Welcome to the club of crappy frame rates. And my computer doesnt even bottle-neck: it just all around sucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 20, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 20, 2006 hehe thanks for all the advice. I will try to do mookies stuff tomorrow when i have some extra time. too bad my vid driver is up to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX May 20, 2006 Share NOFX Member May 20, 2006 reformat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tek-Almighty May 20, 2006 Share Tek-Almighty Member May 20, 2006 If you have not added any hardware or made serious changes (are you talking windows updates???) then I would advise testing hardware bit by bit. Get Sisoft's Sandra program and it will benchmark and test everything in your system. I would always advise firsts, you run at least 3 pieces of anti-virus/spyware and dead end that right away. It could be that your memory or gpu are crapping out on you. I bought a 9800 3 1/2 years ago, and the framerates starting dropping on that after a while. I get the latest ATI drivers and get the latest Bios for your motherboard. Let us know what happens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt May 20, 2006 Share Cobalt Member May 20, 2006 just format and install the latest drivers. you're probably due for one anyway. Yup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goofus Maximus May 23, 2006 Share Goofus Maximus Member May 23, 2006 What firewall are you using? I had worse choke when I used ZoneAlarm, and am doing much better now that I just use Windows Firewall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 23, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 23, 2006 i use windows firewall. i never had problems and all of a sudden it got bad a few months ago, and i didnt make any known changes to my comp. as for the drivers, explain wat format means to me; i have already tried the latest ati update and have since switched to the omega equivilent with no significant improvement. I am about to open my comp up and clean it out, hopefully that will help. If not, i shall be buying a new vid card to replace the 3 year old 9800xt i am using. any ideas on a very solid card that would be a good temp until maybe winter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie May 23, 2006 Share mookie GC Alumni May 23, 2006 If you're looking for a temporary replacement for your 9800, I wouldn't spend too much. You can get a 9600 from NewEgg anywhere in the $60-80 range. Keep in mind that if your motherboard is 3 years old you need to buy an AGP card. Better to find someone who can lend you a similar card first, just to see if it makes any difference. It's possible that your 9800 is just fine and that something else is your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 23, 2006 Share Cujo Member May 23, 2006 hmm well a 9600 doesn't really sub well for a 9800xt. what seems to be the problem with formatting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 23, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 23, 2006 um, someone tell me wat formatting is again. My comp is about 2 years old, a little older than my vid card. Cleaned it out, man u shoulda seen the dust fly outa that thing. I just dont understand how i can get upt o 100 fps when i am not near a fight (when playing a 5v5) and then 25 when i am shooting/being shot at. Are any of the new high performance cards out now worth investing in? Or are there better ones coming out relativley soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie May 23, 2006 Share mookie GC Alumni May 23, 2006 I only would recommend grabbing a 9600 because it seemed like you're only looking for a short-term replacement, and NewEgg does not seem to be stocking much in the way of 9800s. Again though, it would be better to prove to yourself that the video card is what's the problem before spending money on one. If everything's running fine, you should not have problems with a 9800 I don't think; I run with a 9600 and have no real performance problems (1024x768, tex/models on low, AA off, AF off, HDR off, windowed). If the 9800 has not crapped out and you're having big performance problems, replacing your card will probably not solve those problems and you'd be wasting your money. Reformatting would mean erasing all the data off your primary partition (C:) and reinstalling everything. This is not really that hard, but can be very time consuming if you're not familiar with the process and don't put all your ducks in a row before you start. A good format every once in a while makes everything run better. It will solve almost any software problem you could possibly have. If you've already cleaned out the machine, get a flashlight and look around while it's running. Make sure all the fans are spinning, especially checking for the big one over the CPU/heatsink and any fan that might be on your video card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 23, 2006 Share Cujo Member May 23, 2006 your video card being dirty would not be causing framerate drops in firefights. if you've changed no hardware then it's a software problem. formatting is wiping your hard drive clean and install windows again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 23, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 23, 2006 i guess i will try reformatting tomorrow. thanks for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 24, 2006 Share Cujo Member May 24, 2006 let us know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goofus Maximus May 24, 2006 Share Goofus Maximus Member May 24, 2006 The CPU being clogged with dust might cause this though. Firefights are really more about the CPU, memory and networking anyhow... I think. maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt May 24, 2006 Share Cobalt Member May 24, 2006 It is all about a combination of things in firefights. You are taxing the computer as a whole more during large battles because more information needs to be rendered. I still think that you should start with a clean installation of windows before pointing fingers at the hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 24, 2006 Share Cujo Member May 24, 2006 if it was overheating due to dirt i would think it would crash and freeze rather than run slower. i don't think hardware can do that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie May 24, 2006 Share mookie GC Alumni May 24, 2006 I only said to clean things out because it would be easier to spot dead fans and cooked chips. Besides dust caked right on a heatsink, it's not likely to have much effect on performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 24, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 24, 2006 aight, turns out i will have to reformat tomorrow since my friend cant bring his external HD today. Will continue playing with my usual complaining attitude. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie May 24, 2006 Share mookie GC Alumni May 24, 2006 Before you reformat, make sure you have your OS disc w/ valid key, drivers for all your hardware, and a firewall (or some facsimile thereof, e.g. a NAT). Also, copying at least all your GCF files onto your friend's HDD would not be such a bad idea (in case you weren't already planning on that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FroBoZZ May 24, 2006 Author Share FroBoZZ Member May 24, 2006 good idea, i will let my friend deal with all the technical things, but wat is a GCF file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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