Trying to Learn so Please dont kill me. FAR CRY 3 ISSUE!

[paisa23]

Hello, all I am still very new to this site and PC gaming. I am a hardcore Console guy but I want to convert. I am trying to learn so bare with me. I am a 35 yr old TSgt in the Airforce. I have Outlast, Borderlands 2 and I just bought Far Cry 3 and am trying to play it. However I am noticing a lag issue with the audio and actual gameplay. What can I do to fix it or how can I LEARN what to look for? I am use to putting in a game and the console doing it all. I am learning that to PC game you have to learn how to tweak settings. That is where I fall flat since I don't know much else if not CtrL Alt Delete. Please help and here is my "Gaming PC"

Also I am currently deployed so when not doing missions I would like to sit down and get away.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2462541,00.asp

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/699212

 

[Thaisnang]

Which setting you're playing at?

 

[paisa23]

Ok so that to me sounds a bit confusing? Do you mean in the actual game settings? Without being on my laptop right now(AT WORK) I was on it last night and I had it at the highest video quality which I believe was 1920-1080. I actually didn't mess with much of the settings other than taking it off of Windowed view into Full view. I'm use to consoles being set the way they usually need to be. But because I just bought this laptop prior to my deployment in October I thought it was already designed decent enough for a 2 year old game. I went on youtube to see if I could find any help but got more confused than anything else with the Download this and go to Nvidia and update drivers. that's when I said ok I have to come here and see if anyone can dumb it down for me.

 

[Thaisnang]

Download this

Download what?

go to Nvidia and update drivers.

You've updated the drivers?

 

[paisa23]

No I think that is what I need to understand a bit more. Im fearful of downloading something that I don't need or understand. I was just saying that a lot of the youtube videos that I saw for help were telling me to download different files, or go to Nvidia Sites and download drivers but without full understanding what my laptop is capable of I didn't do so. Does that make sense? Im sorry if my lack of knowledge is confusing you. I expect my laptop to maybe not be strong enough for games like Shadow of Mordor or Advanced Warfighter, but I thought that Far Cry 3 would be as simple as download and start playing since its not the newest thing out.

 

[Thaisnang]

No I think that is what I need to understand a bit more. Im fearful of downloading something that I don't need or understand. I was just saying that a lot of the youtube videos that I saw for help were telling me to download different files, or go to Nvidia Sites and download drivers but without full understanding what my laptop is capable of I didn't do so. Does that make sense? Im sorry if my lack of knowledge is confusing you. I expect my laptop to maybe not be strong enough for games like Shadow of Mordor or Advanced Warfighter, but I thought that Far Cry 3 would be as simple as download and start playing since its not the newest thing out.

If you haven't downloaded anything. Then you should do it. Update your drivers. But make sure you've uninstalled the previous driver before doing it by using a driver uninstaller. You can re post if lags still persist. How much fps do you get?

 

[paisa23]

Yeah Thaisnang, that's were I have no clue what to do. How do I know what drivers to install or uninstall? I think I have it set up to 60 FPS. Tell you what during lunch ill run to my room and see if I can do any of these things without messing anything up. I really appreciate all the help and wish I could explain more. Or understand more for that matter. Ill let you know what I end up doing.

 

[paisa23]

This is what I am looking at
Display 1920*1080
Windows Mode- Fullscreen
GPU MAX Buffered Frames - 3
Wdescreen letter box - off
Directx- Directx 11
MSAA Anti-Aliasing - Off
alpha to coverage - Enhanced
SSAO METHOD - HDAD
Field View - 73.15

Then on vid quality I have
Overall - ULTRA
Everything is either High, Ultra or Very High

 

[Thaisnang]

This is what I am looking at
Display 1920*1080
Windows Mode- Fullscreen
GPU MAX Buffered Frames - 3
Wdescreen letter box - off
Directx- Directx 11
MSAA Anti-Aliasing - Off
alpha to coverage - Enhanced
SSAO METHOD - HDAD
Field View - 73.15

Then on vid quality I have
Overall - ULTRA
Everything is either High, Ultra or Very High

Updated the drivers yet?

 

[paisa23]

Actually going to do that as soon as I get back to my room. What am I looking for specifically. Ima go to the Nvidia Site and look for update drivers but what should I check on my laptop to see if I need an update or if mine are outdated? Its the reading the I don't understand. How do I make sure that I am downloading the right drivers? And when I do this is it game specific or does an update cover all current games?

 

[paisa23]

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/79893/en-us what i found but i dont know where else to go from here or what precautions to take.

 

[Thaisnang]

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/79893/en-us what i found but i dont know where else to go from here or what precautions to take.

Download this--> http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/79893/en-us
But before installition, use this--> http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

 

[paisa23]

If i did this, what is the wors tthat can happen? and what is this for? http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience

 

[Thaisnang]

If i did this, what is the wors tthat can happen? and what is this for? http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience

It is a software design for Nvidia GPU's which adds some extra features And I can't think of anything worse that will happen.

 

[paisa23]

So would uninstalling the one i have now have any effect on the laptop? Wouldnt just downloading the new one upgrade the current one?

 

[Adinathjuparkar]

is your game original or pirated ? try setting to DirectX 9 or 10 if possible and if if you have problem with unsynced voice then turn on the subtitle option for better understanding: my age is 16

 

[paisa23]

Original from Steam... The unsynched voices would come and go depending on if i had a lag or not.

 

[Adinathjuparkar]

is it actually lagging or You hear his voice first and then see the lip movement or vice versa.

 

[Adinathjuparkar]

K
last time i have seen some game problems in which the PCs were of high end and the user use to play old games and then the games used to lag so changing the DirextX option was the Solution but, I don't think this is your problem..............

 

[Adinathjuparkar]

Is there a V-sync (Vertical Sync) option in the game video settings?
Try enabling that.
If that doesn't work it might be a directX problem (uninstall and re install directX) or it could be your sound card/onboard soundcard.

 

[Thaisnang]

So would uninstalling the one i have now have any effect on the laptop? Wouldnt just downloading the new one upgrade the current one?

No,it will have no effect.But If you just upgrade from current one then you may have even more issues.

 

[paisa23]

No the audio is more off an hear it first then lips move but then gets synced again. The Lagging or skipping was more when i was trying to run or shoot back that it happened a bit . it didnt happen all the time but sporadicaly.

http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af349/paisa233/Mobile%20Uploads/20141125_105453_zps6024cbb9.jpg

http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af349/paisa233/Mobile%20Uploads/20141125_105506_zps23e142b0.jpg

 

[Frag Maniac]

Hey dude, thanks for your service in the military.

First off, your 860m is not as powerful as the settings you're trying to employ. It's Passmark score is 1834. My 7970 scores 5168, and even I don't use max settings, near, but not quite.

As mentioned, driver updates are essential. Also, make SURE your laptop is not in the power saving mode.

1. Drop SSAO. HDAO is highest level and works best on AMD GPUs. Nvidia struggles with it. That's a big part of why Nvidia came out with HBAO+, which FC3 does not support.

2. Don't go higher than 1 with GPU MAX Buffered Frames. I don't even use more than 1 and I have 3GB VRAM. 1-3 (vs 0) can smooth out hitching some, but you have to have a high amount of VRAM to buffer those video frames, especially if you play at high res.

3. Try Borderless mode, but use the res your desktop is set to. Otherwise it will revert to your desktop res.

4. Drop Alpha to Coverage, it's too high for an 860m.

5. Definitely drop shadows if they're at highest setting.

6. Post FX is a resource hog and can be dropped if you want to prioritize mostly texture sharpness and overall clarity.

7. Disable motion blur (save a backup copy of GamerProfile.xml first). http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Far_Cry_3#Disable_motion_blur

The main things you want to keep as high as possible for sharp image quality and minimal pop-ins are textures, terrain, and environment.

 

[Quest_Skyrim]

Hey dude, thanks for your service in the military.

First off, your 860m is not as powerful as the settings you're trying to employ. It's Passmark score is 1834. My 7970 scores 5168, and even I don't use max settings, near, but not quite.

As mentioned, driver updates are essential. Also, make SURE your laptop is not in the power saving mode.

1. Drop SSAO. HDAO is highest level and works best on AMD GPUs. Nvidia struggles with it. That's a big part of why Nvidia came out with HBAO+, which FC3 does not support.

2. Don't go higher than 1 with GPU MAX Buffered Frames. I don't even use more than 1 and I have 3GB VRAM. 1-3 (vs 0) can smooth out hitching some, but you have to have a high amount of VRAM to buffer those video frames, especially if you play at high res.

3. Try Borderless mode, but use the res your desktop is set to. Otherwise it will revert to your desktop res.

4. Drop Alpha to Coverage, it's too high for an 860m.

5. Definitely drop shadows if they're at highest setting.

6. Post FX is a resource hog and can be dropped if you want to prioritize mostly texture sharpness and overall clarity.

7. Disable motion blur (save a backup copy of GamerProfile.xml first). http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Far_Cry_3#Disable_motion_blur

The main things you want to keep as high as possible for sharp image quality and minimal pop-ins are textures, terrain, and environment.

I believe Frag Maniacs suggestion to be the best option to solve your problem, Paisa23, with unsynced voices and sound in general. You could also try to defrag your harddisk as games like this tend to be rather large and the less reading/searching for files like textures or audio files, the faster your system will be to load into memory and process those files.

Read this how to search in Win 8 and Win 8.1: http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/windows-8.1-file-search,2-740.html

Use "Defrag" as search term on your system and you should be able to find that tool in Windows. Fragmentation on a harddisk can be caused by how a file system handle different size of files during writing those to a harddisk. Smaller files will be written all around where there is free space on a harddisk, which can make it reading those smaller files into system memory taking more time. Larger files will be written as a sequential file and therefore be faster to read into memory (RAM).

There are plenty of Wiki out there on Internet to explain these kind of tings, so I hope you will understand better what and why you should defragment your harddisk when you have been downloading games that need some storage space on your harddisk.

You should also take a look for which version of audio driver you are using and google for driver to be sure that those are the latest one from your vendor.

Search for "Device Manager" on your system (Win key + R or use Control Panel in Windows) and you will find one of several methods to access your hardwares drivers.

Make use of Task Manager in Windows before you start FC3 to see for what processes that will be running in back ground and close those apps/processes that isn't necessary to run at the same time as you will be playing. The less interference from other application or services that might happen while you play, the better and easier will it be to search for problems.

Do also remember to have adequate cooling as heat might reduce speed both on CPU and GPU (throttling) to prevent overheating your system.

 

[paisa23]

Seriously you have all been really great with all the help and advice. I got on last night to play and oddly enough it didn't lag at all. That was without changing anything or updating anything. It worked perfectly. I was on it for about 2-3 hours with no issue, I did notice the laptop getting warm, but I elevated it a bit to get more air underneath. Might need to look into a better way to cool while playing but last night the game worked great. After work today if I still have further issues I will try to make the changes that Fanatic suggested. Thanks again for all the help, your welcome for the thanks of me being in the service and any input on better ways to cool my laptop would be appreciated...