Performance Issues with good spec PC.

-ADREN-

Specs:

AMD 2500XP @ 2.2ghz
512 Ram
Radeon 9800pro 128MB
Sata 120gb HDD

Now the problem is mainly revolving around half life 2, or at least thats where im noticing it the most.

Last month I put together another pc, not as good as the one listed above, it was a xp2600, 512ram, 9200se 128MB, 80gb Sata. I put it together just for normal office/browsing etc. When I loaded up Half life 2 on this, it pritty much ran perfectly, apart from the od slow down in FPS, because of the 9200se. Loading times were fine.

When I loaded hl2 onto the good system, I noticed loading time were considerbly slower, and when the game loaded, i found it was quite jerky in areas, (not fps jerkyness), as in turning into new ares etc, the game would slow down, and then go back to being at 60+ fps, but then would do the same slow down again at some other random time.

Now to me this makes no sense what so ever, that the other system was making hl2 play fine, and the stronger system isnt doing well with it at all. (fps wise its fine) but loading time and, this jerkingness are seriously not on.

There are two things I can think of that might be the problem, but I dont know how to fix them, or if they are acctually to blame for it.

1. Is that I installed hl2 on the new system pritty much the second it was put together. (not many other programes, or stuff on the hard drive)
2. That my sata hard drive on the better comp, is not directly linked to the motherboad, but has to go through a PCI card Controller first.

Now I dont think either of these should make such a diffference, but does anyone know whats going on? Or what can be done?
Any response would be seriously appriciated.

Thanks,
-Coz.


*typo*

Wertz

Speaking from experience of a different game with equally demanding graphics and the host of problems I had, I'll say that it's most likely that you've got a driver clash issue. Most likely clashing with an AV or firewall. This can be especially a problem if you installed your drivers or HL2 after installing AV/firewall.
If all else has failed I'd say try uninstalling your AV/firewall, then your drivers and HL2 and install the whole lot in the order above.

Oh one last thing: you have patched HL2 right? If it's unpatched that could be the route of the trouble. There was a lot of unhappy noises about the Steam client around the time of HL2 launching...

astrofool

its because hl2 is a massive texture hog, and on the lower end system, the texture settings would be down alot lower.

The slowdown is probably due to agp thrashing, the 9200 isn't a full dx9c if I remember correctly (might be wrong there), so alot of the more graphical intensive features won't be being used.

-ADREN-

ok lets see,

wartz, when you say patch half life do you mean when steam updates it? Cus if thats what it is, then yea ive updated HL2. Do you think I should update my ATI drivers? what are the latest drivers for the 9800?

I still dont understan though why loading time is sooooo much slower then that of the other system, I mean its terribly slow

Astrolfool, is there anyway to speed up this texture thingy ma jig?

Sniipe

Latest ATI official drivers

I'm surprised its running as slow as u are making it out. Driver updates will deffo help.

Could u turn down some graphics in the options??? Try some, it may be one type that is doing the damage...

-ADREN-

Well the latest drivers dont seem to have made much of a difference, ill give turning down the graphics options ago now.

Still should the loading times have anything to do with the graphics?


And if a mod is about, could you move/copy this to the Half Life board for me, might get some good responses there. Thanks.

-ADREN-

could an admin move this to the half life board?

Dempsey

Do ya have the latest chipset drivers. Make sure your HDD is running UDMA mode.

Mr. Presentable

The "older" pc may have other processes running, may have a fragmented file system.

Defrag your HDD.

Disable your antivirus if running (it checks every file accessed every time its accessed, thats a lot of processing).

-ADREN-

Dempsey, how would I check if its running in whichever mode?

Spannerhead, im not running any anti virus software anyways at the moment, but ill give the HDD a defrag tonight, thanks.

Dempsey

Device manager> IDE ATA/ATAPI controller> Primary Channel Look at the Advanced Settings Tab.

Its probably in DMA mode, no harm to check though

vishal

is it by any chance audio stutter? if so this is a bug in the game. google it, there are ways to minimize it.

-ADREN-

Now that you mention it actually, yea I think it might be audio, its often when Music starts etc. But the stuttering is most noticable straight after a loading area.

Does any one know how to disable the Direct X 9 Features to see if its thats whats making the loading times take so long and/or causing the stuttering?

the_syco

-ADREN- wrote:

the game would slow down, and then go back to being at 60+ fps, but then would do the same slow down again at some other random time.

This sounds like slow loading time. Slow loading time is to do with the rate of your hard-disk.

-ADREN- wrote:

That my sata hard drive on the better comp, is not directly linked to the motherboad, but has to go through a PCI card Controller first.

The SATA drive would usually go @ 150MBps, and AFAIK the PCI bus is limiting speeds of the SATA to 100MBps.

This may slow it down somewhat (normal IDE ATA, I think goes at 133MBps), but someone may know better.

=-=

As for the sound stuttering in HL2, check out; http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=210485

Dempsey

Doesnt matter what bandwidth the interface offers. Current IDE/SATA drives dont go higher than 66 MB/s. AFAIK.

-ADREN-

That sound problem helped only slightly, the loading times are still ridiculous, and ive turned down my graphics so as it looks pritty much ****e atm.

I could run doom3 with alot of features on and loading times on that wernt so bad, must check that again.

Its just in comparison to the not as good pc, the loading times are very slow. Which just doesnt make sense.

Will buying an extra 512 ram help the situation anyways? I was thinking of getting some.

I have one 512 ram Module in my memory slot atm, if I want to add more, must it be the same make? Or can I buy another other 512ram stick?

astrofool

what motherboard ? it could also be an ide driver issue then.

vishal

i am sure it is a stuttering issue and not a hardware issue although an extra 512 will reduce loading times and may reduce stuttering. i will fine a link for you.
http://www.tweakguides.com/HL2_3.html
http://www.blep.net/hl2stutter/

here are some commands that may help:
cl_forcepreload 1
sv_forcepreload 1
cl_smooth 0 (try both 0 and 1)
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware 1 if you have an ati card and 0 if nvidia

you have to do this one in luanch options in steam:
+snd_async_prefetch_priority 1

-ADREN-

Thanks for the info Vishal, just after taking a quick look at it there, and it has 2 things that I can try out to try and reduce the loading time.

Also I found out how to use dx 8.0 rendering as opposed to the set dx 9.0.

if you enter -dxlevel 80 into the "lauch options" it changes it to 8.0.

This has helped the loading times slightly, but I still dont think they are as good as the not so good machines times. Though im hoping coupled with that tweak guide ill get them down to a tollerable level.

Its an asus A7n8x-x, why would it be and IDE issue it im using a sata drive?

Also the memory upgrade question, does anyone know if I must get the same make of memory?

astrofool

because the sata drivers are usually installed seperately. Have you installed the nvidia forceware motherboard drivers yet ? (at version 5.1 i think).