Brand new PC Build, COD Advanced Warfare Lags on High

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magepker

Honorable
Oct 2, 2012
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10,530
Heres my current rig:

CPU: i5 - 4690k
GPU: GTX 970
Ram: 16GB (4 x 4 1333mhz)
Mobo: MSI z97 gaming 5

I have to play advanced warfare on medium settings and it STILL lags during loading screens... any suggestions? Is it the game or is my rig really unable to run COD AW?
 
Solution
It's definitely not your spec, it's the game, but make sure you use the latest Nvidia drivers, and try betas too. Also make sure your audio driver is updated too.

First off, the game is a RAM hog, so disable any background programs you can and reboot before playing to free up RAM. Also disable desktop composition and themes via the game's shortcut (right click shortcut, properties, compatibility).

Try running in Windowed Borderless mode vs Fullscreen, and try it with and without VSync. For some this has greatly decreased or eliminated cutscene stutter. It may only stop or minimize the audio part of it though, as the out of sync video on load scenes seems to be specifically a memory leak problem with the game.

If you continue to get...
"Fixed rare save game issue affecting playthrough progression"

Seriously? This is all they acknowledged was wrong with the campaign?

These guys have their heads up Activision's arses. Nothing at all regarding optimization.

I guess unless AMD and Nvidia can pull off some wizardry, we're stuck with a mess of a game.
 
For me the solution was simple. Turn off Sync Every Frame.

That fixed the issue with the loading cutscenes to lag inconsistently.

I have the following specs:
i7 3,4 GHz
NVidia GeForce GTX970
8 GB ram
256 GB SSD

 
Everybody I've seen on the 4790k says they have no issues in any games, but then they typically have 16GB of RAM and a decent GPU.

I saw an in store only promo special on the 4790k a couple days ago at Fry's in my email for $240. It's dropped to $280 at Newegg. I won't trust Fry's anymore for in store specials though because my current i7 950 was bought there on a similar deal and after buying it online they messed up the will call info and made me think it wasn't in stock.

After a half hour of their CS people giving me the run around I finally got it. Then when I finally got it I found out months later it won't OC worth a damn. I got the feeling it was B stock or a return. Fry's shouldn't even be selling high end PC components. They're clueless about them and they don't give a damn.
 


My friend upgraded from a 4670k to a 4790k and now everything is perfect.

This game is great with a 4790k and gtx 980 and even better with a ROG swift...
The Gsync high refresh rate makes a big difference...
 
Meh, there's got to be a better solution than GSync. Too expensive, which is why a lot of display manufacturers don't support it, bringing up the second problem, not enough selection, and TN is not good enough anymore for most.

I swear, more and more people are just caving to the will of display manufacturers, and accepting mediocrity. LCD should have been replaced with better tech by now, and not this disposable OLED/PLED crap that is overpriced and only has at best 1/3 the lifespan.

 
ROG swift is not cheap but it's the best monitor for gaming by far in my opinion and I have it side by side with a flagship PLS monitor from Samsung. The colors & viewing angles are better on the Samsung however both are 8 bit panels and look good.

I'm sure a PLS/IPS would better but we're years away from high quality fast IPS/PLS panels...
When this tech is available the price will be very high.
 
Being 8 bit TN is a big part of why it's overpriced, other than being GSync. 8 bit on TN doesn't mean much because the TN film itself is somewhat limited.

The devil is in the spec details, a paltry 72% NTSC on color saturation.

Source: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/ASUS-ROG-SWIFT-PG278Q-GSYNC-Monitor-Review/

So called gaming monitors sell one thing, speed, not quality, and that speed only really shows up in online twitch shooters and fighter and racing games. Other than that any decent display will do, and be a whole lot easier on the eyes.

You really can't put whipped cream on LCD tech and call it a Sundae though. LCD needs to go.

 
This panel significantly better looking than any other TN panel I've ever seen.
A high end calibrated IPS/PLS panel will have better colors viewing angles and be better for photo editing and movies.

For FPS gaming this is the best solution in my opinion... The Gsync removes the tearing which improves the experience for games that don't need 120 hz +.

LCD Tech isn't going anywhere anytime soon... Have you tried the ROG swift or a high end IPS/PLS monitor?
 
I have a mere $330 Panasonic Alpha IPS 32" TV I've been using for nearly 3 years now and honestly, it's picture is far better than any TN panel, and that's aside from no tradeoffs on viewing angles, black level, or color gamut. The response is plenty good enough for the games I play and screen tear is rarely an issues except in the few games that have it really bad, and I've yet to even encounter one of those that can't be solved by internal or external (D3DO) Vsync.

The reason LCD has hung around so long is consumers are complacent, and/or naive, along with other problems in the industry over copyright issues or apathy. They assume just because they've had cheap displays that are pretty susceptible to screen tear that ALL are. Some even claim the display does not factor in to screen tear, but oh it def does. I've seen quite a bit more screen tear on the same game even on friend's VA panels, let alone cheap TN ones like many use.

It's easy to talk about what a friend has bought and paid for, but when it comes to spending one's own money, it makes you think a bit harder, esp if you're on a budget or skeptical about the actual benefits overall. I also use my display for everything from Games, to Movies, to TV, to internet, and there's no way I'd be happy with ANY TN panel 8 bit or not, which on TN is really more like 6.5 bit.

That Swift ROG may be miles better than a mediocre 6 bit TN in color, but compare it to the better quality 6 bit panels and suddenly that 72% color gamut doesn't look night and day anymore.
 
As I said earlier, I have the Samsung 970d 8 bit pls and the ROG swift they are side by side.

I like Panasonic however there IPS TV doesn't look as good and is not as fast as a flagship 8bit 1440p Samsung PLS panel in my opinion.
"I've seen a Panasonic TV with IPS tech"

I'm sure the Panasonic TV provides with a decent gaming experience and I'm aware that cheap TN panels have more problems with tear than a High end TN or IPS monitor...

You need to try gaming with an ROG swift to come to a Conclusion in my opinion. After gaming with the Swift my other monitor is reserved for watching movies editing photo's, work and general browsing as a second monitor....

There are many more reasons such as size, energy efficiency and decreased eye strain that comes with this tech.
Creating something better requires a huge budget in R&D.

I own the panels, earlier when I was talking about my friend it was about him upgrading to a 4790k.

Try gaming with a ROG swift and I'm sure your opinion will change.
 
I don't need to try gaming on a ROG. I know full well the only benefit would be a bit less blur and input lag, but it would be pretty minimal in the games I play.

The tradeoff is it would look quite a bit worse for everything else. I don't just game on my display. One of the biggest tradeoffs other than picture quality, viewing angles, black level, color gamut, etc, is lack of a TV tuner, and the PC tuner cards aren't worth a damn.

I also doubt you're really comparing picture quality with that Sammy PLS. It sounds mostly speed biased. That's the main lure of gamer based displays, they tend to get sucked into that and ignore and even be deluded into thinking anything else picture wise is better.

There's also the fact that picture quality is very personal preference, esp when it comes to color and saturation. I have a friend with a Samsung 16x10 VA monitor and I can't stand his compared to my TV. The colors on Sammy's are often over saturated.

A fast display can lessen the effect of color bleeding from over saturation though. There's just so many factors and so many settings and personal preferences the fine details of PQ is almost moot to discuss, but I DO know that the tradeoffs of TN are a constant that can't be ignored, at any speed.
 
I disagree, the color accuracy is pretty good on the swift however the color accuracy is better on the factory calibrated Samsung 970d.

I've tried many monitors and I'm speaking objectively, The Samsung is the best looking 1440p monitor I've ever used.

Did you calibrate your TV?

Both of us understand the features and benefits of TN and IPS/PLS panels.

Like I said earlier the Samsung looks better, has better color accuracy, viewing angles but gaming is more enjoyable on the ROG swift in my opinion... I willing to sacrifice a bit of picture quality and have inferior viewing angles for smoother and better gameplay.

You're speaking based on reviews and your experience with low end TN panels...

Hopefully one day they will have an IPS/PLS monitor with 120hz+ & Gsync however this will take a long time.

"Believe it or not Gsync is a game changer"
 
Almost everything you're saying is baseless because you don't have much hands on experience with TN or IPS/PLS Monitors, you're just regurgitating jargon from some review sites...

Do you really think your uncalibrated IPS TV has comparable or better picture quality to the Samsung 970d or the ROG swift?

Remember the ROG smaller pixel pitch will & will be sharper than a 32 inch Monitor with a significantly lower resolution.

The high refresh rate will reduce or elimiate lag, blur and tearing. The Swift also has ULMB that can be used instead of Gsync.

The bottom line is that The swift is great for FPS shooters and generally comparable to a 1440p ips/pls with the same resolution however has inferior viewing angles.

"I wouldn't replace my TV with the but for gaming it's as good as it gets in my opinion"
 
How would you know, you've been ASSuming almost everything you say about my experience. I help a lot of people with their computers and they have various displays. I've seen even high gamut displays that look like crap for some uses because they look over saturated.

I'm not going to sit here and quantify your claims based on YOUR personal views when all you do is blow smoke up Nvidias GSync, yet you don't even own one yourself.

At first I was willing to pass this off as personal preferences, but you're clearly indulging in smug elitism based on what friends rather than yourself own, and trying to label me as inexperienced in the process.

The bottom line is, out of the two of us, you're the only one in this conversation that's admitted you'd give up PQ for a little more speed. As you recall, I was the one that stated I'd rather have the PQ than the speed, and I was referring to your beloved GSync TN when I said that.

As for PLS, what a lot of people don't know about it is the main reason Samsung went to it is reduced production cost. The "superior" image quality is mainly just their claim. I've yet to see one out of the box that looks better than mine, and most everyone that owns one talks about needing to calibrate them. Other than that they have more brightness. Mine has plenty brightness and it's not even LED. CCFL is more color accurate than LED too.

I also don't know what Panny you're even referring to when you say mine doesn't compare, or what mode it was in. Panny doesn't even make their own LCD panels anymore, and when they did, they made Alpha IPS ones that had superior black levels and color accuracy. I also only use mine in Game mode without the video processing. It looks very sharp and color accurate that way. The reason Panny ran into financial problems is unlike other manufacturers, they weren't cutting tech corners and in the process, costs, like many others, including LG and Samsung, whom if anything are the two manufacturers that can afford NOT to cut corners.

There's a lot of self proclaimed experts on displays surfing the net and what it often comes down to is they're just parroting manufacturers claims and/or raves of their friends. It's even escalated to the devolution of tech, preferring a bit more speed for less image quality. The distinguishing factor in any of these arguments is typically not what you own or have owned, but what you're willing to settle for. And that's you in a nutshell. You even admitted it, so you're acting so cocky like you know more is laughable.
 


Before I respond, I want to remind you again that I own a ROG Swift & I'm using it right now...
I suggest you review my responses before you come to a conclusion.

 
I'm not sure what you've seen but you haven't seen the swift and most likely never seen the Samsung 970D.

You're a self proclaimed expert, Just because you like your display better than high end PLS/IPS monitors doesn't mean this is a fact.
This is your personal opinion/preference.

I saw the ROG swift in Akihabara japan in October and was impressed with the quality. I wasn't a big fan of TN panels until I saw the Swift...



 
I have higher specs then you I lag with people that have horrible ping, but your using 1333 ram(I would at least use 1600), not to mention its a 64-bit program;(also refreshes monitor at 60hz) which uses so much resources, they really got pretty lazy with the pairing. Officially the maps that lag the most for me are instinct, my friend that has the equivalent version of my video card in ATI seems to crash every other time. Whereas if it is just me and him playing he don't crash which leads me to believe the pairing is BS within COD AW. Some other problems that are common that need to be patched is STEAM having problems "fetching the profile" when launching the game it will say "error COD AW is unavailable", whereas closing steam and reopening it multiple times will fix this problem. Some say that restarting your router will work, this is untrue as it is a steam connection issue.

PROBLEM = PAIRING SYSTEM AND PING
 
I never claimed to be an "expert" as you put it, I just know hype in displays when I see it, and you can't seem to handle that. I'm sorry but no TN panel is ever going to match the color quality of a decent IPS, and the Alpha IPS panels Panasonic used to make are untouchable color wise and black level wise by any TN.

You're also only talking gaming. I use my display for everything, and with real life images the difference is even more obvious. Go get a ROG if and when you can ever actually afford one and not just talk about it, then do nothing but game on it. If you're ever in the market for a display that can do everything well, maybe then it will sink in.