PC> lowering gfx... same fps

c-note

hey dudes
i was running gta san andreas on ma pc maxed out and was doing between 30-50 fps according to fraps.

i have 2gfx cards 7800gtx's in sli, so i enabled the second one to see would it make a difference.. no still 30-50fps

so i dropped the settings to bare minimum 800*600, 16 bit color, no anti-aliasing, min draw distance etc etc
and guess what
still 30-50 fps??

why do you think this is?
ii was wondering is it stg to do with a bottleneck else where? cpu for eg,
i've got a pentuim D 840 at 3.2ghz, 2 gig of ram, a raid 0 array at 10000rpm?
i was expecting to see the fps steady at 60 at base settings??

cian1500ww

What are you using to measure your FPS ?

DirkVoodoo

Sounds like your CPU may be the bottleneck in the system there. Might be time to upgrade to a dual or quad core. A high clock dual core can be found cheap enough im sure.

Sorry i cant provide more details, im a bit out of the loop these days regarding computer bits and bobs.

JPA

I think there is a setting to limit frames in San andreas.
Might be set to on.

Cy_Revenant

I still fail to see the problem, you're getting a perfectly playable framerate.

Though your Pentium D might be holding you back, it may have two cores, that doesn't mean its good. Presuming you're on socket 775, a core 2 for less than €200 should work wonders.

Not that you need it at all.

If you really want best of the best, a single modern card will give better performance than your two generation old models SLIed.

But honestly, 30fps average is playable in any game.

PogMoThoin

Turn off v-sync (sometimes called buffering), then your framerate will rise, but may become choppy. San Andreas is not Sli-enabled, therefore no performance gain from Sli

cherryghost

theres no fps limiter on san andreas. i get 90fps or so with my 9800gt

Spunge

i was having a similar problem.
my 4850 was getting bad fps in crysis, no matter what settings it was on and the fps never changed much.

I think it was the motherboard bottlenecking it.
I got a new mobo and cpu and it was fixed.

So it could be a bottleneck somewhere, maybe the cpu or board.
I havent played Gta4 yet so cant comment on that.

c-note

thanks for the replies lads,
i thought the old pentium D was still a decent processor! maybe not!

i was using a program called "fraps" to measure my frames per second

the frame rate limiter was off

i know 40 fps is very playable but this whole thing was sparked by my concern over gta 4! (i'd be hoping for 30fps at decent settings)

i think it may be the processor though! the taskmanager shows cpu usage during gta at a solid 50%, i.e. one core has its hand completely full!

i'll see what other cpu's my mobo supports, i've been thinking of building my own rig, i bought my current xps 2yrs ago at one year old for €1200.
its not bad enough to get rid of and i dont feel like dropping any bills on a new rig.
at the same time theres no point spending on a new cpu or new gfx card to try to pep up an ageing system. sigh!
maybe i'll give up and buy an x box! (i prob would if you could use mouse and keys with it!!)

Spunge

someone on here before said they played call of duty 4 on xbox with keyboard and mouse. Said it was good.

Ross_Mahon

c-note wrote: »

hey dudes
i was running gta san andreas on ma pc maxed out and was doing between 30-50 fps according to fraps.

i have 2gfx cards 7800gtx's in sli, so i enabled the second one to see would it make a difference.. no still 30-50fps

so i dropped the settings to bare minimum 800*600, 16 bit color, no anti-aliasing, min draw distance etc etc
and guess what
still 30-50 fps??

why do you think this is?
ii was wondering is it stg to do with a bottleneck else where? cpu for eg,
i've got a pentuim D 840 at 3.2ghz, 2 gig of ram, a raid 0 array at 10000rpm?
i was expecting to see the fps steady at 60 at base settings??

Just wondering, Is your computer a Dell Dimension 9150?

jonny72

You don't have to spend a fortune..

Nowadays you can get chip, motherboard and graphics card that will play GTA for about 300 euros..

You can get a v good PC for 600 euros that will play everything.



Firstly, though, you should wait till GTA is out. Then try it out on your current PC. If its slow, get down the latest Nvidia drivers. Secondly, get rid of all the ****e and junk and itunes and hundreds of items that are running in the backround processes, its amazing how many people with good PCs let all this rubbish accumulate and slow everything down. If its still slow try to overclock the processor a bit.. I mean if you can do that you should be able to get the processor up to 3.5 ghz without having to do much.. you can also overclock the graphics card a bit too (read about overclocking before you try it though, it can screw up your PC).

If you don't want to try that, then try to find the best processor your motherboard will take and grab a cheap one on ebay or whatever..

Zillah

JPA wrote: »

I think there is a setting to limit frames in San andreas.
Might be set to on.

Why would anyone include such an option? Aggh, the framerate, it is so smooth and seamless, it burns!

Stephen

Because on crappier hardware the framerate will be bouncing up and down and it feels weird.