Improving Framerate

[Sonic the Vampire]

I've got a problem and it needs some serious solving. I've had this issue for over a year now, and no leads to help me fix it. Here's the problem:

I run a pretty solid comp. Asus Geforce3 Ti500 updated with the latest Nvidia drivers. A fairly new VIA motherboard with the latest 4in1 drivers. An AMD 2000+ xp processor, and a gig of DDR Ram. I also run a cable internet connection...

So why does my framerate drop down to 40 or below in a room full of people while playing ESF? Sure, it only goes down that low when I look towards the middle of the map, but with this rig that is no excuse. This is not a half life only problem either; my framerate in Quake 3 usually caps off around 80 and drops down into the 50s when there is a lot going on. I mean damn... 50s? I know people with Geforce 2s and half of the processing speed who pull off 250 frames a second in Quake 3. What the hell is wrong?

Again, I've got the latest drivers, I've made sure antialiasing and all that is disabled (v-sync too), I've got Directx 9.0a, and I don't run anything else when I play (aside from an instant messenger). I've virus scanned and used adaware, and I can't find out what the problem is. Most of the time my performance is acceptable to great, but it is just no where NEAR where lesser computers are performing around me. Anyone have any advice?


A note- For some reason, whatever that may be, I get an almost identical frame rate with all graphics settings, effects settings, and resolutions. There is about a 10 to 15 fps difference between 1600X1200 and 640X480... where is my bottleneck?

 

[orez]

huh i think it depend's on the server's speed no just your own

 

[Naz]

that's ping, not framerate. If you have everything updated, with that system, u should have a 100fps steady. Did u try and lower the quallity of the models in esf? That might give you more fps. The weird thing is though, that I have 99.0 fps with my pIII886 gf4ti4600. It might be something else in your config, u changed anything to it? Did u try to overclock your 3dcard or anything else?

grtz Naz

 

[Rebirah]

Yeah you could have overclocked too much and ruined your card!

 

[Jaredster]

I get 100 FPS (50 fps min when there is alot going on) on my Geforce 4 MX 420 AGP. I have a 2.4 GHZ p4. You might want to tweak your card. Get the tweaker at www.guru3d.com.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

No I never majorly overclocked my card. It's been like this. I tried using hte software that came with it to overclock it like 10% or something once, and I got a whopping 5-10 fps improvement. After that I just set it back to where it was.

No, not ping, framerate. Offline I get a better framerate, but not so much better that it is totally explained by my connection. I'll try tweaking it AGAIN but I'd like to hear from anyone who has ever had this kind of sitatuation with any other kind of card before.

 

[orez]

well in your config there is a command called fps_max its set default as 72 just turn that up to 100, you can type it in the console also set this fps_modem 100.

turn off his Vsync (can cause it to run worse) its in Desktop settings, under advanced Video card tab Opengl settings and just turn Vertical Sync to Always off.

plus if your os is xp has a refreshrate problem, you can download a program to unlock it program is called Reforce. use at own risk dont over set the Hz ratting can dammage your monitor. just select the default it gives select apply and reboot and you will see the difference already

And a link to reforce http://www.apachego.com/dl/reforce.zip

and with your rig u sood get 100 fps max

p.s. wen i had posted this huh i think it depend's on the server's speed no just your own. i was half awake

 

[lost]

uhm sorry to bother in but mine says i have 20 fps uhm is that bad? i dun know sh*t about fps and stuff.. i only watch my ping...

thanks in advance...

 

[orez]

ya 20 fps is way bad u sood buy a better vid card or if u dont have any money just over clock it

 

[lost]

hmm ... well.. game runs good... no problems.. dun want to waste money .. yet...

btw whats bad about it anyway?

 

[orez]

i think the best u sood have is 60fps any lower not sure on this but i think it's bad for your eye's

 

[lost]

I tryed to get it higher but no luck... hmm.. i run openGL at 1024 / 768 but i dun notice aything.. that aint.. good aint it... darn it...

but i have an TNT 2 model 64/ 32mb video card that is good enough to run halflife ..

 

[orez]

well if it aint broke dont fix it but if your head hert's from playing to long then u sood upgrade

 

[Mr. Satans]

Maps also play a part in this, like some custom maps have horrible r_speeds when you look in certain parts, but that shouldn't drag you down to much with what you have.


Try these settings:

fps_max "120"
gl_clear "0"
gl_cull "1"
gl_dither "0"
gl_keeptjunctions "1"
gl_lightholes "0"
gl_max_size "256"
gl_picmip "0"
gl_spriteblend "0"
gl_texturemode "gl_linear_mipmap_nearest"
gl_wateramp "0"
gl_ztrick "0"

 

[orez]

i dont think u can get over a 100fps in half life

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Well I was wondering if anybody else has experienced this with a similar setup before (as mine). Super fast card, processor, and memory, but crappy performance with all driver sets. There are other people out there with my hardware who get tripple my framerate, but I don't know why.

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

Sonic, I had a similar problem. I have a p4 2.4ghz, 512 megs of RAM, and a Radeon 9700 Pro, 128 Megs.

I fixed it by tweaking my config file (autoexec.cfg in the ESF folder) with the following settings:

fps_max "100" <--This one is obvious and self-explanatory.
gl_texturemode "GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR" <--This tells HL to use it's highest quality texture rendering.
gl_max_size "1024" <--The texture cache size, raised from 256 or 512, I think.
triplebuffer "1" <--Triple buffering on.
cl_showfps "1" <--Duh.
vid_wait "0" <--I'm still a little confused about this. It's supposed to enable or disable vsync, but it made no difference for me.
cl_rate "7000" <--this rate works best for my cable modem.
ati_npatch "0" <--THIS is the thing that hooked me up. It still doesn't run as good as it should (I should have a solid 100fps ALL THE TIME with my rig, but I don't, it's more like 60 minimum when a lot is going on), but obviously this won't help you much since you said you had a Nvidia card.

Sonic, by any chance do you have Windows XP? That was a major problem for me and that's when I actually managed to fix things...it was a refresh rate/winXP related issue.

 

[Cookster]

hmm... Did you have another video card prior to that?

I suggest reformat and make sure and install from the latest drivers.

If you've had different video cards in one system, drivers are very picky when being uninstalled, and often left behind - and still used, causing imporper usage of the card.

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

I upgraded from a Geforce2 Ti to a Geforece3 Ti500. They both use detonator drivers, so I doubt that's it. I've tried everything with these drivers... I've tried installing older ones, newer ones, the original ones... Reformatting may be the only real answer, but I don't want to do that yet. I have waaaay too much stuff I can't transfer anywhere for safe keeping yet.

Well Mr. Satan's scripts improved things for me, but keep in mind that this isn't only a Half-Life issue. This follows me into Quake 3 as well. In Quake 3 I'll buy that it's an XP refresh rate issue though, but it still slows down at points... how did you guys say you fixed the xp thing?

 

[Cookster]

ugh, reformat!

Installing older drivers? Thats instant death.

Its the only way to clear the registry and directories of hidden files. I have to do the same because I had a ti4600, then a voodoo 5, and now a 9700 pro - and all the drivers have been uninstalled, but some how still plauge my system. And school isn't out yet, soon though, then I will reformat.