Slowdowns in COD

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kinney

kinney

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Sep 24, 2001
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I have Call of Duty (Q3A engine with major modifications) and in busy firefights I get some bad frame rate loss.
I havent run FRAPS on it yet to get exact FPS count but I will for extra information for troubleshooting.

My system
Nforce2 with the recently released drivers with IDE fix, 1700+, 2x256MB PC2100 in dual ddr, sound blaster audigy, radeon 9800 pro (CAT 3.7).
I'm running EAX3.0 and max display settings in-game @1024x768@32bit. I turn vsync on in-game as it keeps down on the tearing.

I figured with a game based off the efficient Q3A engine I could max things out on one of the fastest video cards available.. even on a 1700+ which I dont consider a terrible slouch.

I'm considering trying the cat 3.9s and see if anythings different.
I'm hoping this is not a radeon issue as I just blew good money on this thing.
Am I getting expected results with my system? I assumed there would be no slowdown unless I'm missing something.

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
I don't think it's a Radeon issue as the latest benchies show the Radeons doing better than the FXs in COD, but they ALL dip somewhat.

<A HREF="http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTQwLDY=" target="_new">FX5700 review at [H]</A>

Now of course this ISN'T the R9800 and FX5900, but it does match other reviews I have seen, and [H]'s review has a great hystogram that shows ongoing progression of FPS.

Like Ris3n said, the bottleneck may be elsewhere. Either that or it may just be normal (granted somewhat poor) performance.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK :evil:
 
I'm at 85hz with vsync on so I'm supposed to be at 42.5fps max.
Which looks smooth to me, its the dip under that which bugs the hell outta me.
W/o vsync when using the machine guns I get terrible tearing.

If it is the CPU, do you think just a cpu upgrade would make it go away?
The upgrade would be to a 2500+, would it be worth it to go there w/o ddr333 mem?
But supposedly out of sync mem/fsb leads to increased latencys, I just dont know to what degree.

I dont honestly think its a radeon problem but to be sure I'm going to check out the link that Ape sent me.

I've also noticed extreme jittering when benching 3dmark03 with vsync on. I know vsync on in that program doesnt produce the right results but it continuously 'hitch' with it on.. and I dont understand why it would?
Its just a FPS cap, nothing more nothing less??
I guess I could save in a spot where the game was stuttering and try it huh?
(smile)
One spot was on the bridge (dont remember the level), but you have to hold out for a while before reinforcements arrive.. fun as hell but I noticed as my objective was to run back to get a panzerfaust or run the machine gun for cover that things were slowing down drastically.

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
I'll check out that link. Also read my reply to risendemon, its meant for your eyes also.. I want to get this fixed.

I've read the COD thread and some have reported some COD problems to be sound related (?)
One guy even said

I fixed mine by pulling out the Audigy 2 card, and installing a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz in place of it.

No problems in any game anywhere now.....

So long Creative !
Click to expand...

I believe that quote is in reference to actual hard locks in the game though.
I've been meaning to get away from Creative myself but dont have the $ right now..and I'm waiting to see how NVs stand alone card fares. :wink:
But the M-Audio Revolution has me near pulling out the credit card.
Though thats going to hurt my FPS even more cuz it doesnt have DS3D acceleration!!! ARGH

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
Yep doesnt look like a radeon issue, I always look at minimum FPS as a judge of speed and the radeon wiped the floor with the FXs.
That makes me a little warmer inside.

They are using a 3.0C though vs my lowly 1700. But I'm using a 9800pro vs their 9600xt... so I should be getting circa (according to my farmer logic) performance around what that system got.

I'm entirely to curious if my sound has anything to do with it. EAX3 should be handled nearly completely on board but I'm going to do some professional in-home testing.
Maybe I'll finally get my excuse to go into debt to get rid of creative!

Another rage3d quote
Okay, I hit the driving mission this morning and locked up. Here's my setup
Radeon 9800 XT
3.8 Catalyst
VPU Recover Enabled
Soundblaster Audigy 2
44khz sound rate, EAX 2 selected
Win XP

I had a feeling that my Soundblaster drivers might be one release behind, so I went and downloaded the latest. I also changed to EAX 3 support and lowered sound rate to 22khz. The mission loaded fine this time, but the frame rate was quite a bit choppier. When I changed back to EAX2 support, the frame rate was smooth again.

So if you have a SB2 you might try some of those things, because they did work for me. I didn't change any graphics settings at all, so in my case I don't think it was the ATI driver.
Click to expand...

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kinney on 11/06/03 01:21 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Unfortunately I have no first hand experience with Call of Duty, but I would only replace my CPU if I truely LOVED a game (Morrowind sorta pushed me with my gaming rig to do so). And yeah you may find that you wouldn't get the most out of a new CPU with lesser memory. IT's a tough choice, you upgrade onne thing, then another, then another. Is the game THAT important to you? If so, then also keep in mind that all this may still not push your frames up all that much.

The issues in 3Dmk03 do seem stange. I always test without vSynch, but with my R9600P sometimes I get slowdowns and 'perceived' jitteriness, but that's because it's stressing the card to single digit frame rates. The thing would be to fiddle and find out IMO.

As for the Creative issue, that seems strange. I'm looking to replace my original Audigy, with the Newest ZS or NX (USB) versions. So that will be something I'll have to look into.

I would go RME (best audio fidelity out there IMO) except for like the M-Audio they don't have EAX-like hardware support.

It's surprising that there would be an audigy issue, as I personally thought it was the audio standard that games were optimized for.

I wouldn't go with the nV add-in until more info/benchies come out. Could be a creative killer, but then again it could be worse than a Fortissimo.

The main thing about upgrading is how much money are you willing to pay for this game? Can you satisfy your needs with a lower resolution?

Anywhoo, that's how I see it.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK :evil:
 
I JUST got to the bridge level!!! I think the problem might be with all the bodies piling up everywhere because my FPS went down into the 20's with bodies set to insane....
 
I love COD. Its worth getting, I am not much of a gamer usually but once in a while those special games come around, this is one of them.

As far as the sound. Its not the audigy, I tested the bridge level in EAX3/2/miles 2D and no FPS difference.

BUT I just experienced my FIRST hard lock in COD.
I was done testing FPS differences with different audio modes and switching between EAX3 to 2 to see if things sounded much different.
Then I went to the menu to switch back and i heard a short squeek and entire system lock.

You're right, an upgrade wouldnt be worth it.
I just figured upgrading to a 9800 would give me perfect playablility until Doom3/HL2- when at that time I would be forced to get a matching CPU..

So its not the Audigy at all. I dont have alot of faith in creative driver support...
but the 'squeek lock' that I just got was near to what I used to experience when I used to use VIA/Creative combos...so there still might be an issue but until it happens again I'm not jumping to conclusions.

Sounds like its a cpu issue, doesnt seem that long ago i got my 1700+!!

BTW my FPS drops to 15FPS in the bridge level!!!
15fps on a 9800???? WTF I dont care if it is a 1700+, its still a 1+ghz cpu.

I'm going to do more investigating, because I WILL get to the bottom of this.

I wouldn't go with the nV add-in until more info/benchies come out. Could be a creative killer, but then again it could be worse than a Fortissimo.
Click to expand...
Why not? The soundstorm is the best thing to come to us since sliced bread IMO. Besides, they have been beta testing them in Nforce2's for some time now...they are about ready for release :tongue:

You are right though if it comes down to just a lack of power, I'm not upgrading little by little.
I bought the 9800 for reasons listed above and my next upgrade is to a A64 3400+.. I figured they'd be a nice match.

edit- Switched to 800x600 and hit 5fps. And my average is nearly exactly the same- 15-40FPS.
I assume that means the limit is not the video card, which I would believe.
I do not believe my system is THAT much of a limiter. Back to tinkering..

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kinney on 11/06/03 02:52 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
I just replied to Ape and I am hitting a low of 15fps in that level.
I also run with bodies on insane.. everythings maxed out on mine but I expect it to run that way.
Its the principle of the matter- I have a 1+ghz cpu and a 9800pro the hottest thing going.. I expect to be able to run this game based on the Q3A engine w/o hitting 15fps.

But more testing is underway, everything in my system is getting examined now. I WILL fleabay this supposedly incredibly fast radeon if it has COD issues. I dont want to do that but it'd disgust me to much if does have anything to do with its drivers.
I know opengl isnt the best environment for a radeon..I'm not trying to jump the gun but I give no extra slack to ATI for my dollar.
We'll see and I'll report back :smile: .

edit- I just got Worms3D (not the most intensive 3d game ever) and I think I notice something strange in that game too (its slow as ****)..
/puts on investigative reporter hat
I will be back with the truth!

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kinney on 11/06/03 02:53 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Its out in europe and asia..

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
THOSE BASTARDS!!!!!!!
erg......just looked it up, and there's no realease date set
yet. I wonder how much it would cost me to get it from europe??
 
Just got COD demo and it played like [-peep-] on my xp2100/9500pro with 2xAA/4xAF. Although it could be that i only have 256mb ram(other one broke).

Keep inmind the demo only has first level!!! I can't imagine how bad my comp will run how later levels... :frown:

Wonder if my cpu/ram is the bottleneck in COD...
 
Even if your CPU/System was the limiter, I don't think that the shift even to an XP3000+ would make THAT much of a difference. But that's just a guess.

As for he SoundStorm, yeah the info from Xbit labs is promising, but no one has really put it up for a review (expect some of the best from Xbit, they do serious Audio comparisons) <A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/revolution71.html" target="_new">HERE's their M-audio one</A> and <A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/int-sound2.html" target="_new">their latest Audigy vs Via Envy</A>

I'mj ust saying, considering you have a pretty good card now, wait till they're fully reviewed. I don't mind buying things and being a guinea pig, but I usually don't commit to anything unless I've seen the reviews (except WHATEVER PCI-EX graphics cards come out).

Anywhoo, doesn't sound like I'd get the most of COD with my XP2000+ (running @ 2100+ speed) and R9600P (even at my 456/318).

Halo demo entertains me for now, when I'm not playing Morrowind.

Good luck with COD, I like it when a game comes along that people get caught up in, It means that more and more people will move on from the older games which I've abandoned. And hopefully the low Framerates, gives us something that will push us to demand more More MORE!


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK :evil:
 
While this isn't technically the right forum, just thought I'd let you and others following this thread know that there are NEW Creative Audigy EAX 4.0 drivers availible as of last night;

<A HREF="http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp" target="_new">http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp</A>

Filename: SBA2_EAX4DRV_031031.exe
EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD Driver Update for Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2/Audigy 2 ZS

Just FYI.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK :evil:
 
Thank you.
I updated to the drivers and I still get the 'squeal of death' on my audigy while using eax3.0 :frown:

I'm going to stick it out and see how nvidias card turns out and then upgrade at that time. But I'll probably switch to a santa cruz.

----
I just tell it like it is and some can't handle it. If your experience is different, well congratu-fukulation.
<b>I’M NOT A ATI FANBOY, I’M NOT A NV FANBOY, I’M A STABILITY FANBOY</b>
 
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