low fps with a nice system

[WickedSlammy]

Re: low fps with a nice system

I just formatted my harddrives and installed Windows (this time w/o RAID) last night, in hopes of fixing my lame BF2 fps. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do anything.
My fps can drop to the low 20s, sometimes even 18. Usually in a nice firefight on Karkand it rarely goes above 30. When I'm just running around in a 64 player server, away from the players, the fps still stays at around 50 or lower. My setup is listed in my sig and I'm trying to play it on all high @ 1280x1024 and 2x AA.
To get a better idea of the fps I get and to compare it to what you guys get, I've made a nice little timedemo, which I use Battlelauncher to run. According to FRAPS, my average fps was 33.313 with a max of 71 and a min of 19. It would be awesome if some of you guys with a 7800gt could try it out... maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Edit: forgot to mention I'm using 81.98 drivers

Just some advice but you may want to consider getting rid of those 2 512mb sticks and adding another 1gb stick.With the way you have it setup you dont have dual channel and P4s LOVE dual channel because it keeps up with their high clock speed.

[WickedSlammy]

Re: low fps with a nice system

Regardless of the Intel lovers out there, the idea of Intel retaking the gaming market is silly. AMD has already established a firm foothold in the PC Gamer market. It makes me laugh when I hear about a gamer with a "rad" new intel-based system, with DDR2 ("it is soo much faster than DDR400", really, until you look at CAS Latencies like 3.0 and realize that this is just another failed technology from Intel.) Why waste your $$?
The price delta between Intel and AMD is even outrageous:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22218

INTEL PENTIUM D 950 3.4GH $652

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA21810

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800+ (ADA3800BVBOX) DUAL CORE W/512KB X 2 CACHE 90NM $295 (and this AMD outclasses the Intel)

A $357 Difference. You could buy a better (or 2 better) GPU'ss with the savings!

You my friend are a idiot. DDR2 is not a intel thing at all, just a new memory type to replace DDR. Oh and the next AMD systems are going to be using DDR2 aswell. Might wanna think before ya open your mouth.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: low fps with a nice system

Just some advice but you may want to consider getting rid of those 2 512mb sticks and adding another 1gb stick.With the way you have it setup you dont have dual channel and P4s LOVE dual channel because it keeps up with their high clock speed.

According to this, I should be using dual channel (its on page 18).
I would try the PB servers, but when I turn off the ranked and PB filters, I get very few PB servers and the ones that it does find have like 2 people in them. But honestly, I'm getting bad fps in the timedemo as well, which shouldn't have anything to do with PB.

Any other ideas?

[Rallica]

Re: low fps with a nice system

You're having the same problems as I. Been trying to fix it for the past few months with no luck.

Specs:

Athlon XP +3200
2x1gb sticks of PC2700 ram
Radeon x850XT PE 256MB
Sound Blaster Live

Must of tried everything to fix it, driver cleaners, disk defrags, and so forth. I'm beginning to think it's my CPU though.

[DFHayak]

Re: low fps with a nice system

anyone know if getting 65 dgrees C is bad while playing BF2?

I just wanted to put my 2 cents in about this comment. I dont care if its your fricken Video card or CPU Processor, anything that is getting 65 Celsius = 149 Fahrenheit is to hot. Look at your Video card and see if the heat sink is loose, that would cause your problem also. See if you have any thermal paste on your heat sink for your processor.

[Dethred]

Re: low fps with a nice system

VGA chips handle heat better than a CPU as far as I can tell. If you aren't getting artifacts, crashes, or have your CPU core slowdown threshold set below 65*C, you have no problem. My Card gets to about 50*C with Bf2 in a well ventilated case with an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 rev. 3

Benchmarks mean jack squat with real games. I got a 57xx 3dmark05 scores with my 6800GT at ultra speeds and got maybe an average of 10fps lower in BF2 than my 7800GT that gets 8197 in 3dmark.

Try doing some standard maintenance in windows, remove chipset + video drivers + clean them with Driver cleaner 3, reinstall chipset driver, install latest 83.40 nvidia drivers, overclock the card a bit using coolbits, then report back.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: low fps with a nice system

peeeimp! just found out about the Intel Desktop Control Center from tweakguides... I remember someone solving their problems by underclocking their processor a bit. Am I just supposed to lower FSB?
Anywho, I'm off to try what you said Dethred... hopefully something will work :)
Oh, and the 65 C was referring to the processor temp. Never really looked into GPU temp because I have yet to get any artifacts.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: low fps with a nice system

ooooooookay... the only intel related things in my Add or Remove Programs are the PRO Network Connection Drivers and Intel Desktop Control Center. Is it ok if I run drivercleaner without uninstalling my motherboard drivers?

[Dethred]

Re: low fps with a nice system

Driver cleaner should get rid of most or all of it, its just a precaution.

Your CPU is a little hot, but I've seen worse on a stock heatsink. I am glad I use AMD for that reason alone! If you don't have a warranty or built it yourself you may want to check to see if there was enough/properly applied thermal grease.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: low fps with a nice system

Okay, tried 83.40 and used coolbits to "Detect Optimal Frequencies," which it believed was 499/1190. I reduced that to 486/1150 and tried my timedemo, but got artifacts (lots of small squares and random flashing shapes). Tried the timedemo again at 475/1140, didn't get artifacts, but I didn't really get an improvement in fps (33.907 compared to the 33.313 earlier)
Meh.
Anyone know what I should do to underclock my processor with the Intel Desktop Control Center?

[Dethred]

Re: low fps with a nice system

Didn't know what that was...

Hmmm, I am going to see what my Average FPS is now. Go to your performance and quality settings above the clock frequency settings, set it to 3dmark06 or 05 and apply. Try again. Make sure you have Vsync off.

You shouldn't have to underclock your processor from stock speeds, if anything make sure your case is well ventilated.

[XgrimreaperX]

Re: low fps with a nice system

anyone know if getting 65 dgrees C is bad while playing BF2?

65 C = 149 F so yea that is a bit toasty. and intel will slow down alot if it gets too hot

my X2 hit 109 F max when playing BF2 and it's OC'd with stock FHS

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: low fps with a nice system

I just wanted to put my 2 cents in about this comment. I dont care if its your fricken Video card or CPU Processor, anything that is getting 65 Celsius = 149 Fahrenheit is to hot. Look at your Video card and see if the heat sink is loose, that would cause your problem also. See if you have any thermal paste on your heat sink for your processor.

65C is just fine, as mentioned eariler GPUs can handle alot more heat. IIRC thermal throttling for the 7800gt starts at like 120C. Before liquid cooling my 7800gt would peak at about 70C and I had no problems with it then.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: low fps with a nice system

made some progress... I was able to up the FSB by 4% (highest the desktop control center will let me go) and lower the temperatures at which the fans start turning, and got 3 more fps in the timedemo... only raised the temp 1 or 2 degrees

[virussnt]

Re: low fps with a nice system

The low fps problem is easily solved. Set everything to MEDIUM. With a rig like yours you will be getting 80+fps and I challenge you to tell the difference between high and medium settings. Having said that the next patch (1.2) is supposed to optimize static mesh rending (ie: buildings, earth....anything that doesnt move) this should see a large increase for many people in the FPS department.
But please take me seriously or at least try it. leave your resolution as is and even turn AA up to 4x but set everything else to medium...maybe leave geometry on high.