[ComradeChernobyl]

Hey, all. I tried searching for threads on this topic and I couldn't find any that addressed this problem to my satisfaction, so here goes.
I've been playing the standard SCP download as available from Turey's installer for quite some time. My ancient 5-year old Sony Viao ran the game admirably with the Advanced MediaVP's omitted, and only long loading screens as a downside.
But I digress from my ultimate point.
For Christmas, I got a top-of-the line Dell Inspiron with the following specifications: 2.4 Ghz Dual-core processors, nVidia 8600 gfx card, and 1 gig of RAM (I suspect this might cause some problems), and running Windows Vista Home. When I decided to install FSO on this new computer with v-sync disabled, I noticed serious framerate stuttering- when monitoring FPS, I noticed fluctuations from 120 to 60 or less. Quite annoying, to say the least. So, I re-enabled v-sync- now the FPS caps out at around 60, but I STILL get some stuttering framerates (dropping to about 45-30). I tried using D3d rendering- the framerate basically never moved from 75, but the rendering looked horrible. Granted, the game is playable with the fluctuating FPS, but it is EXTREMELY annoying, especially on a rig that is a quatum leap from my previous machine. I have had other problems with the SCP on my new comp in the past, and solved them, but this issue simply eludes my efforts to solve it. Can anybody here offer a solution of some sort?
Edit: And, yes. I have tried messing with various optional settings, but to no avail. If other Vista users would like to include their own problems with FSO on the still-new OS, please speak up- preferably here.

[karajorma]

Which build are you trying? 3.6.9?

[ComradeChernobyl]

Yes, I am using the 3.6.9 build. Nothing fancy or wierd- I don't mod, I just play....

[FUBAR-BDHR]

My guess would be shared video memory.  Last time I checked Vista recommends 1gig and if you only have 1gig and the video card is using some of that then you are below specs for Vista.  I don't know how they get away with selling computers that way with Vista on them when they don't meet specs. 

[colecampbell666]

To catch suckers. (no offense Chernobyl, your family probably isn't PC-literate)

[Admiral Nelson]

Might be the memory -- taylor reduced memory requirements quite a bit in the 3.6.10 builds, I think.  I have no real issues with FSO and Vista.

[Davros]

ps: shouldnt you be using opengl

[Flaser]

Have you set the game to only use 1 of the CPU-s? If not you should do so.

[Wobble73]

ps: shouldnt you be using opengl

He is, he merely mentioned that TRIED d3d!

I think it may be a case of needing to set the games affinity to run on one processor only! 

(CTRL-ALT-DEL during game to bring up the task manager and under processes right click on FS2.exe and set affinity processor 0 (IIRC don't have a dual core meself ya lucky beggar    )

[colecampbell666]

To be a bit more clear about that, when playing, pause the game and minimize it by pressing the "Start" key. (in between "Alt" and "Ctrl". Press "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" once the game minimizes, and select the processes tab. Right click on the fs2.exe process, and set processor affinity so that it only uses one core.

[taylor]

If you use an Xt build it will automatically set the processor affinity to the second CPU/core, and you can override that with a reg option.

[Kazan]

If you use an Xt build it will automatically set the processor affinity to the second CPU/core, and you can override that with a reg option.

you know some of us actually have multicores that don't fsck the game up (Because we installed AMD Dual Core Optimizer)

[ComradeChernobyl]

Ok, I tried setting the processor affinity to use only one core- didn't help. If anything, it slowed my framerates down quite a bit. The slowdown was to about... hey, about HALF of what it was before changing the affinity. I'll try using the 3.6.10 build and I'll come back if that doesn't work.
Oh, @colecampbell: My computer was built to custom specs- I deliberately skimped on RAM in exchange for the higher-end GFX card. I intend to grab another GB stick as soon as possible. I don't want to get into a flamewar, but your comment was a bit... irritating.
Edit: BING! Downloading and running the new build solved the problem. Thanks!

[colecampbell666]

Oh, @colecampbell: My computer was built to custom specs- I deliberately skimped on RAM in exchange for the higher-end GFX card. I intend to grab another GB stick as soon as possible. I don't want to get into a flamewar, but your comment was a bit... irritating.

Sorry, I thought you said that it was a gift.

[CP5670]

you know some of us actually have multicores that don't fsck the game up (Because we installed AMD Dual Core Optimizer)

That may or may not fix the problem. I used to have that installed when I had an opteron, but it only worked for some games. Ideally, programs should be designed to deal with this themselves.

[Dark RevenantX]

That's odd.  I have no problems at all with my dual core processor and Freespace 2.  What is this dual-cpu trouble you guys seem to have?

[Zacam]

It can also depend on GPU driver settings. nVidia has an option for threading optimization that allows your _drivers_ to take advantage of multiple cores.

Try selecting a setting for the SCP Profile (make one if you have to) and force it to be always on.

[Solusphere]

Sorry for semi-necroposting, but I am suffering from this problem too, or at least a similar one. I get perfect framerate most of the time, but about every 1-2 seconds, the whole game seems to pause  for about half a second, even in menus. I took a look at my system performance while running the game, and it was using up only 40-50% of my ram, including the Vista costs, so no deficiency there. However, it was using up 99% of my CPU. Even games like supreme commander and crysis don't use up that much, so I doubt it's normal. I have Vista, running on a comp with 2gb of ram, an intel core 2 duo 3ghz, and a nvidia 8800 GTX graphics card, which should be more than sufficient for a game like FSO. Changing the graphics level doesnt seem to have much effect, although at minimum the effects are reduced somewhat.

Running it on DX8♠ works fine for framerate, but it also gets rid of most, if not all of the graphical benifits of running FSO, which kind of defeats the purpose.

It almost looks as if it is ignoring my graphics card completely, and just running off the CPU.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[Mars]

Some scenes (like asteroid feilds with jump nodes in them) seem to screw up my framerate pretty good (it normally runs at a near constant 75fps, but it will plunge to 30 in such conditions.

[colecampbell666]

That's cause we have HTL Hi-poly Normal Mapped, Glow Mapped, Shine Mapped, Uber-Graphical asteroids. (I was being serious there)