[Huggybaby]

I have an enthusiast class motherboard, a socket 939 ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe.
My processor is fair, a dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, with 2GB of the best RAM available.
My video card is also fair, an ATI x700 with 256 MB RAM.

So, I have plenty of RAM everywhere, and should have enough CPU power.

I know ATI doesn't have the best OpenGL implementation compared to NVidia's offerings, but I still should be alright there I think.

AND YET, I still slow down occasionally, more than I think I should, much to my dissatisfaction.

I suspect my problem is my weakest link, the old slow 5400 RPM HDD I'm using. I read elsewhere in the forum that another user was having slowdown problems because of a slow drive, and they went away when he switched to a faster drive.

But I'm stubborn, eh? So I'm determined to fix this as best I can before getting a new HDD. If I can make things run as smoothly as possible before upgrading the HDD, imagine what performance I might achieve after---so I'm still looking at free optimizations.

I'm already using DaBrains beamglow optimizations and the shockwave fix as detailed here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,44757.msg913653.html#msg913653

So it occurred to me this morning to explore what effect I might have by changing processor affinity and priority, and I've just started experimenting with that.

I've already learned that changing compatibility mode to Windows 98 doesn't help, but it does change my gamma settings for some reason. I've also found that alt-tabbing out of FreeSpace, and changing priority and affinity in Task Manager isn't so great, because the settings are forgotten every time the .exe is run again, so  I'm currently searching for free utilities to accomplish that permanently.

Can taylor or someone provide some insight? I'm pretty sure FreeSpace isn't designed to use two cores optimally, since most programs aren't, and some simply cannot be due to timing issues.

I'm going to keep investigating, but I would sure appreciate anyone's thoughts and help, and also ideas regarding further avenues of exploration and testing I might approach.

Thanks much,

Huggybaby


<edit> I couldn't find a GUI version, but you you can use this executable and batch file. The folder includes a readme explaining how you can alter which Freespace exe you want to use it with, which processor, and what priority.

[mvmiller12]

Have you tried the AMD Dual Core Optimizer? I've found it to help somewhat with FreeSpace 2 Open slowdowns on my rig (AthlonX2-4200, Geforce 7950w/512M, 2GB PC800 DDR2, 7200RPM WD 250G, X-Mystique 7.1 Sound, WinXP64). There are other useful Athlon64 utilities on AMD's site that allow for your processor to dynamically scale CPU speed and power consumption based on load (Cool'n'Quiet) and monitor the current CPU status. These really do help the PC run cooler and there is no discernible performance loss.

AMD Dual Core Optimizer for WinXP (x86/x64):
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/Setup.exe

Note: If you use Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%, make sure you are using the latest versions as  installing this utility will cause BSODs if you are not - learned this the hard way. . .

AMD Processor Driver for WinXP (x86/x64):
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcpusetup.exe

AMD Power Monitor Utility for WinXP (x86/x64):
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/powersetup.exe

Note: After installing these, you will need to set your Power Management settings in Control Panel to "Minimum Power Management" for Cool'n'Quiet to work. You will also need to have Cool'n'Quiet support enabled in your BIOS.

Hope these help you.

[CP5670]

The dual core affinity issues in FS2 were fixed long ago. You won't get any improvement by restricting it to one core.

Your video card seems to be the weak link. The vanilla X700 is IIRC like a 9800 pro with less memory bandwidth. The video card is the main thing that affects performance in FS2, similar to most FPS games. CPU and memory speeds practically make no difference at all, although the amount of memory does matter to some degree.

[Huggybaby]

mvmiller12: Yes, all the AMD and Microsoft dual core fixes are in place. This rig was built to run Digidesign Pro Tools, which is a fully multicore aware application.

CP5670: Are you sure my video card is restricting me worse than my hard drive? I know there's only one way to tell, either upgrade my video card or my HDD. The HDD is a lot more old school than my video card, and will be cheaper to replace I think. It will be the first one to go anyway.

With my priority and affinity fixes, along with the free voice recognition program I found yesterday, I've sure discovered a lot in a short time!

[CP5670]

Where exactly does it slow down? The 5400rpm hard drive would slow down loading times but wouldn't affect ingame framerates. (if the game has to access the hard drive at all during a mission, it's going to stutter on any drive)

[Trivial Psychic]

Where exactly does it slow down? The 5400rpm hard drive would slow down loading times but wouldn't affect ingame framerates. (if the game has to access the hard drive at all during a mission, it's going to stutter on any drive)

What about the swap file?  That is read from the HD.

[Huggybaby]

It slows down during major explosions, even with the beamglow fix and explosion fix. Even when I play the mission over. So whatever it is isn't being read from RAM, or the RAM gets flushed between missions. I've already run -pofspew to preload my cache with ibx files, and Compress non-compressed images (-img2dds) doesn't help either.

[Turey]

CPU speeds practically make no difference at all

Actually, they do. If I didn't have my laptop plugged in, it would throttle back the CPU, and the game would get 5 fps, whereas plugged in it got 120.

[CP5670]

What about the swap file?  That is read from the HD.

It shouldn't need to access that during actual gameplay either, unless something else is wrong. (video memory filled up, etc.) Of course, that can certainly happen with things like the 1024x1024 shockwave and so on.

It slows down during major explosions, even with the beamglow fix and explosion fix. Even when I play the mission over. So whatever it is isn't being read from RAM, or the RAM gets flushed between missions. I've already run -pofspew to preload my cache with ibx files, and Compress non-compressed images (-img2dds) doesn't help either.

Does it only slow down for the first explosion in the mission or all subsequent ones too? It's likely to be a video card issue either way, but the former would mean that it's running out video memory while the latter would point to the GPU struggling.

Actually, they do. If I didn't have my laptop plugged in, it would throttle back the CPU, and the game would get 5 fps, whereas plugged in it got 120.

I bet it throttles to some stone age speed (600-800mhz) though, if it's anything like my laptop. I meant any CPU from the last three or four years.

[Huggybaby]

Does it only slow down for the first explosion in the mission

Yes. 256 MB of RAM on the video card is not insubstantial is it?

[Taristin]

Memory size is fine, bandwidth he said was the problem. It's not getting the data processed fast enough (that card of yours)