Page 1 of PC Slowdown - This is really getting to me, WHAT CAN I DO????

Been trying to play games recently on my PC, which is *quite* high spec. The problem is I`m getting stupidly choppy graphics.

I usually run the screen at 1024 x 768 (although my PC always tells me I can run it higher) and expect it to be fine - but its not!!!! I have noticed it most on the game "Mafia" - particularly at night-time in the game.

My PC is:-

2.00ghz Pentium 4
512mb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4400 128mb RAM
40 gig hard drive

I`ve ran a clean install of XP on my PC today, to hopefully clear up the problem - but no luck. I`ve got the latest drivers, flashed my BIOS - but still its no better.

I checked my 3D Mark on Madonion.com (think it was something like 7529, and people with the same spec PC`s (sometimes worse) are getting better results by far.

WHAT CAN I DO? This just doesn`t seem right - why can`t I run it smoothly? Please someone, help me to solve this problem!

Any help greatly appreciated.

:(

Finished the same game my self this week on the following spec

AMD 1.2 Athlon
256Mb ram
Gefroce 4 Ti4600 128MB
15Gb hdd

It did occasionally run a little chooppy especially at night (in the game) but only while it cached so I used to turn 360 degrees before setting out on a mission and then it was fine. Your spec should run it fine as you expect.

Do you have your AGP card running in 4X mode in the BIOS? You could try turning off FSAA and see if it run any better and make sure your drivers are DirectX compliant. I assume you have DirectX installed?

Great game though.

Hi

Some of the newer computers have the agp slot and onboard graphics and if the onboard is not turned off /wrong one selected you can get the machine running slow .This can happen with the pci slot graphics and onboard mix as well.
If that does not apply unplug any burner / cdrom and see if its now faster.I had a bad memorex drive that slowed my machine down.


bye

R.B

Think those things (e.g. running on wrong graphics card) would present themselves on almost all games though. Have you installed anything new lately that could be eating up processor/memory? Go to run and type msconfig and go to startup tab. Anything there that you don`t need at startup? Uncheck it and reboot..

Ste

Thanks for all your help.

The silly thing is, is that last night I whacked the graphics card up to full pelt on the game. ie. the highest resolution. It ran (and looked) amazingly, which I was very suprised about... that is until I played one of the night levels. Same old story on that, loads of slowdown and choppy graphics.

Only things new I have installed are programs I use and need, as like I said, I ran a clean install of XP yesterday, hoping it would clear up the problem - but clearly it didn`t.

I also usually turn off anything needlessly running in the background before I play games too, so it cant be that.

:(


*Update*

Just checked my BIOS and the graphics card IS running at x4. Had a look at the way it was set up, and I understood most of it, but weren`t sure about these:-

Memory Hole At 15m - 16m [Disabled]
Delay Transaction [Disabled]
Onboard PCI IDE [Both]

Could any of these make a difference???

Thanks

This item was edited on Saturday, 21st September 2002, 11:24

If your running Win2k/XP, you might want to try the new beta Detonator 4 drivers, link below. They claim up to 25% improvement but take that with a pinch of salt.

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=winxp-2k_40.41

Oh and make sure you uninstall any previous graphics drivers FIRST, then reboot, then install these. Otherwise you`ll have odd problems with the control panel.

Other things you can play with in the control panel involve turning off vertical sync which can improve performance.

OK - Will give it a go now.

You said about turning off vertical sync, but really should I need to do this with my PC specs? I mean the whole point of me getting a new graphics card was to keep up to date with the new games, so I could run them well, without any of the graphical glitches of my old GeForce 2MX.

I`m not doubting the graphical capabilities, but things like slowdown really shouldn`t be happening, should it?

*Update*
Just tried it, but there seems to be no apparant difference. The game still runs the same. Strange thing is though is that there seems to be no difference in the way the game plays whether I have it set on 1024 x 768 or higher. It plays like a dream on the highest setting, if the game is in daytime. Will just accept defeat on this matter I think. :(

This item was edited on Saturday, 21st September 2002, 12:49

Have you over looked the mother board chip set drivers?
the AGP driver springs to mind, but also the IDE driver and make sure the UDMA mode is on for its driver.

Also just because the AGP is set to X4 in the BIOS, dont asume the windows drivers are set to X4 mode for either the AGP controler or the VGA card

So how do I do all of that what you have said. I know about PC`s but I`m not a real whizz, so how do I check for the Windows drivers being set to 4x, and that the UDMA is on etc.

Thanks bud

Get rid of the 4.41s and go back to your previous ones, download rivatuner http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/ and check your setting, if antialiasing is on (AA) this makes things look smoother but kills performance on most games, try turning it off.
Also check your anistropic filtering (the higher the value the better the quality but again impairs performance)

Try raising your clock speeds (10% is usually safe but you`ll soon find out your cards limit) to help boost performance.

Vsync is best kept on for image sake but just try turning it off.