We need help narrowing down nVidia problems

[Guest AlfieE]

I’ve got the following spec’d machine:

Intel Core 2 CPU 6.700 @ 2.66 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM

MS. Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2, 2 x Nvidia Geforce 7950 GT display adaptors on a ASUS P5nSLI motherboard.

I’ve rolled back my drivers to 94.24 and display at 1440 x 900 pixels.

VSync: On, 3D models: improved, 3D textures: best, AA: On.

Sadly, I've had to turn shadows off because having them on is too detrimental to play.

These settings are fine for small games upto company size, but big maps with large quantities of units runs very slow.

When I enable SLI configuration though the Nvidia Control Panel I’ve discovered that I cannot give orders to units directly. I can only access the order menus by clicking on the green arrows at the top of the screen.

I can ‘fix’ this by disabling the SLI settings and reverting to one display adaptor.

Hopefully, this will be remedied in the 1.03 patch?

[Cougar_DK]

Hi, I posted my findings with the "Allah's Fist" scenario some time ago, but tried it with the 163.44 Beta drivers released for BioShock.

My pc:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+

RAM: 2 GB

GFX Card: Nvidia 8800 GTS 640 OC2

OS: Windows XP SP2

DirectX: 9.0c

I have installed the AMD driver and the MS fix.

My dxdiag info: DxDiag.txt

Here is my findings in "Allah's fist", starting the mission, looking at the burning wrecks:

Vertical Sync: OFF

AntiAlias/Multisample: OFF

High Priority Process: ON

1680x1050 (LCD Screen native resolution):

3D Model Quality / 3D Texture Quality / FPS

Fastest Fastest 8

Balanced Balanced 8

Best Best 6

1024x768:

3D Model Quality / 3D Texture Quality / FPS

Fastest Fastest 9

Balanced Balanced 9

Best Best 8

And this has NOTHING to do with FRAPS running. Its right that FRAPS eats some resources when you have an older pc, like my old AMD XP 2800.

The mouse feels sluggish and the camera lags with or without FRAPS running when looking at those burning wrecks.

(My old post about Allah's Fist: Link)

[mike_in_texas]

Thanks for the advice, SlapHappy. I've already tried the MS hotfix with no noticeable difference in performance, unfortunately.

The difference in framerates can be drastic. For example, in the Al Hawl scenario with everything set to 'best', I can get anywhere from >100 down to 4-5 FPS depending on what's in my camera's FoV.

Mike

[thelmia]

When I enable SLI configuration though the Nvidia Control Panel I’ve discovered that I cannot give orders to units directly. I can only access the order menus by clicking on the green arrows at the top of the screen.

I can ‘fix’ this by disabling the SLI settings and reverting to one display adaptor.

Hopefully, this will be remedied in the 1.03 patch? [/QB]

I fixed it by downloading the newest forceware.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

[Sotoro]

Originally posted by mike_in_texas:

Thanks for the advice, SlapHappy. I've already tried the MS hotfix with no noticeable difference in performance, unfortunately.

The difference in framerates can be drastic. For example, in the Al Hawl scenario with everything set to 'best', I can get anywhere from >100 down to 4-5 FPS depending on what's in my camera's FoV.

Mike

Yes, same here. Seems to be some sort of problem with the camera dicretion.

[Dwayne Matheson]

Hello, I am experiencing very low frames too.

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

If you are experiencing very slow framerates with an nVidia card, please post your specs here:

Operating system (make sure to specify the SPECIFIC flavor of XP or Vista)

Processor (brand, speed, and # of processors)

RAM

nVida card model

nVidia driver version

It would also help to know what your Combat Mission graphics settings are in the Options panel.

Thanks!

Steve

Windows Vista Home Premium

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4 GHz no overclocking

2 GB of OCZ Gold XTC PC-2 6400 DDR-800

EVGA G8800 GTX

Driver 7.15.11.6311

Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme Music

Driver 6.99.991.1302

DX 10

Options:

Sound - On

Display - Desktop (1280 x 1024)

V Sync - Off

3D Models - Improved

3D Texture - Improved

Anti-Alias - Off

High Priority - On

Lang - English

Scenario - Allah's Fist. Looking toward Phase Line Charlie from behind the 7 M1s my frame rate was 6!

[Holman]

I'll be the control in this experiment, as I am having no problems at all with framerate.

My system:

Intel Dual Core 6700 @ 2.66GHZ

2.00 GB RAM

Win XP Pro SP2

Nvidia GeForce 7900GS 256MB

Drivers Forceware 94.24

No overclocking or anyfink

CMSF Settings:

Display 1152 x 864

Vert Synch: Off

3D Model: Improved

3D Texture: Improved

Anti-Alias & Multisync: On

High Priority: On

Looks great and runs like a dream. I see a noticeable drop in FPS when I bump up the model and texture settings. Also, I believe I got better mouse response when I set High Priority on.

Edit: Bumping up the resolution doesn't affect things as much as bumping up the model and texture settings.

[ August 26, 2007, 07:55 AM: Message edited by: Martyr ]

[peleprodigy]

martyr-you would be a control if you had a 8000 series card, but you don't.

[Andro]

Operating System: Windows XP Professional V 2002 SP 2 (5.1, Build 2600)

Processor: Intel, 6700 @ 2.66 GHz , 2 CPU Cores

RAM: 2 GB

nVida card model: GeForce 8800 GTS

nVidia driver version: 6.14.0011.6218 (162.18_forceware)

Extra info:

Mainboard: Abit In9 32 X Max Wi-Fi, AwardBIOS v6.00PG

2. Monitor on the PC

CMSF Settings:

Display 1280X1024

Vert Synch: Off

3D Model: Balanced

3D Texture: Balanced

Anti-Alias & Multisync: Off

High Priority: On

Cant look a normal map from one side to another, low frames.

[ August 26, 2007, 07:01 AM: Message edited by: Andro ]

[kevinkins]

How do you display the FPS within the game?

Kevin

[Holman]

Originally posted by peleprodigy:

martyr-you would be a control if you had a 8000 series card, but you don't.

Hmm. The original post was asking for nVidia generally, and I do have dual-core (which seems to be part of the mix).

[peleprodigy]

Right. But the majority (maybe even everybody but one person) of the people with problems have 8800/c2d combinations. So a 7 series card is no more a control than an ati card. Your input does show that there is no problem with 7 series cards, but that was found out about 3.5 weeks ago.

[stikkypixie]

Vista 64-bit Home Premium

GeForce 8600m GT; driver: 162.22 (WHQL)

Intel Core Duo T7500 @ 2.20 GHz

2 Gig of RAM

They game runs ok for smaller maps, the bigger ones are a whole lot laggier. I realise that I'm running a laptop video card, but other games (graphically more demanding) seem to run fine so...

[Holman]

Originally posted by peleprodigy:

Right. But the majority (maybe even everybody but one person) of the people with problems have 8800/c2d combinations. So a 7 series card is no more a control than an ati card. Your input does show that there is no problem with 7 series cards, but that was found out about 3.5 weeks ago.

Steve asked for information (including different models of nVidia cards) less than 48 hours ago in this thread's original post. I provided it. What's your beef?

[peleprodigy]

That you are suggesting it is a control rig of some sort. It is not, it has a different video card than the majority of those with problems. That is my beef- of course you could have gleaned that from my posts.

[Holman]

I think Steve should decide whether the information he asked for is useful or not.

[peleprodigy]

I am not talking about what Steve said,I am talking about what you said. Of course Steve thinks the information he asked for is useful.

Here is how he ended his request, and I quote:

"If you are experiencing very slow framerates with an nVidia card, please post your specs here:

Operating system (make sure to specify the SPECIFIC flavor of XP or Vista)

Processor (brand, speed, and # of processors)

RAM

nVida card model

nVidia driver version

It would also help to know what your Combat Mission graphics settings are in the Options panel.

Thanks!

Steve "

end quote.

So, are you experiencing slow frame rates martyr? If not, how is your information in line with Steve's request?

[Dennis50]

It's all good ....jeeeesuz

I said, you said, they said, she said ...

Regards,

Gunz

[peleprodigy]

Sorry for my frustration with this. I, and it looks like several others,have been waiting for 4 weeks for this game to run on up to date, current generation hardware, only to hear that the developer just yesterday got a pc with which to test. A pc that has a different processor than mine and - voila! -has no problems.

I get a little riled when someone like martyr comes in and says "my pc, which is different than those with problems, runs this game fine" I have been hearing that for 4 weeks now. My mood is not improved now that the developer can join in on the chorus.

[Dennis50]

I know how you feel ...but I think steve and the boys can sort through it and read between the lines ..they'll come up with something to help, I'd be willing to bet on it.

Regards,

Gunz

[rune]

Pele,

You assume Charles was the only one to get a system.

Vista Ultimate 32bit

Intel Quad Core 6600

4 MB DDR2 memory

eVga 8800GTX with 768 memory

163.44 beta drivers [also tested with the 162.22]

Game settings balance/balance at 1280 X 1024, Dell Monitor @ 60mhz

Allah's first scenario, default screen US which everyone is complaining about, 14-16 fps. With FSAA turned off, I got 25 fps.

I tried with single core and multcore and no difference. I have been emailing with Charles doing tests.

Rune

[peleprodigy]

Thanks Rune. Just so you know, I have confidence that battlefront are trying to solve this, and I appreciate that greatly. I just don't suffer through nonsensical arguments very well.

Also,I was making my assumption based off of the original post and was unaware there were other systems out there with the development team. So it looks like you are getting sub par performance as well...shoot man, you should be blowing this game away with that rig, especially at that resolution.

[Cpl Steiner]

Its hard to be helpful when I don't know exactly what frame-rate I should be expecting from CM:SF if it is working perfectly. However, in a very simple scenario today I had a frame-rate of only 6 or 7 at times using FRAPS. Playing games like "Call of Duty 2" my frame-rate averages about 40 or 50 and is often a lot higher. Judging by this I'd say I was suffering from low frame-rate playing CM:SF compared to other games.

My PC Spec:

Athlon 64 Dual Core 3800+

2.01 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM

Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2

nVidia 7600GT PCI-E

SLI Motherboard using just one card at the moment.

Latest nVidia drivers (tried others too but made no difference)

Affinity: 1 CPU only, the second one.

Priority: Normal

Dual Core Optimizer NOT installed

Game Settings:

x2 Antialiasing (looks awful without due to the slat armour)

x4 Anistropic Filtering

Better 3D Detail

Better Texture Quality

VSync Off

Desktop Screen Res (1280 x 1024)

[ August 26, 2007, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Cpl Steiner ]

[Battlefront.com]

Cpl Steiner,

Its hard to be helpful when I don't know exactly what frame-rate I should be expecting from CM:SF if it is working perfectly.

hehe... ditto for us! The problem is that there are hundreds of hardware/software combos out there and thousands of possible configuarations when card and CM settings are thrown into the mix. Each one of these has the potential to generate a different result in terms of framerate. This makes it hard for people to gauge if their system is running fine as well as us trying to figure out if something is wrong.

What we have been able to conclude is that there is some sort of problem with a couple of nVidia cards running on multi-processor systems (and that includes AMD) with either XP or VISTA. The problem is best summed up as rate lower than 10fps pretty much no matter what the game settings are. There should be a HUGE difference in framerates even in something like Allah's Fist. But the people affected see no significant increase in rates when settings are changed.

This is very frustrating for everybody, trust me. Knowing that there is a problem but not knowing the cause is the single worst thing about being a software developer. The time spent tracking down the problem usually dwarfs the time it takes to fix it.

Steve

[Cpl Steiner]

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Knowing that there is a problem but not knowing the cause is the single worst thing about being a software developer. The time spent tracking down the problem usually dwarfs the time it takes to fix it.

You have my every sympathy there. I was in software development for a long time (no longer unfortunately) and although it wasn't games software there were many occasions when things ran slower than expected. In business software it was usually due to reading some files in the wrong order, like getting the header of a document for every single document detail line instead of just once for the whole document - that sort of thing. In the end the only way to find out what is happening is to step through the code line by line in some sort of debugging tool. Often you find it doing some very weird and wonderful things you would never have expected!

Hope you find the solution soon.