PC/GPU Set up help

[nuniksais]

First of all hi guys! I've got a few questions about how to set up my pc for better gaming performance (Specifically oblivion).

 

My current rig is as follows(i hope this info is enough):

 

- Core2Duo @ 2.0Ghz

- Inno3D GeForce 8500GT 512mb

- 2gig RAM

- Asus P5S-MX Se motherboard (DDR2 Single Channel)

 

I run my oblivion at High Settings @ 800x600 (coz i only got a 15" monitor as of now)

 

Now, here are the questions:

 

1. How can I remove the stutter/lag when I'm in an area with lots of trees and grass(without

removing them of course :) )?

 

2. Is there a special configuration in my nVidia Control Panel so that my Oblivion game would

look good with a decent performance?

 

3. Do I also need to configure my processor so that i maximize the potential of the 2

processors?

 

 

I think that's all that i would like to ask right now. Pls feel free to answer and it would really be appreciated :)

 

THANKS!!

[MRG]

Hello!

 

First off, which C2D CPU do you have? Is it 2.0GHz or 2.13GHz? The 2.13GHz sounds like the E6400, which is what I have.

 

A few questions:

 

1) Is your CPU overclocked? If it is, set it back to stock, if you arn't sure, run CPU-Z & post a SS here for me to see.

 

2) Are you using onboard audio or a dedicated sound card? Onboard audio can be causing your problems, as most generic (not all) onboard audio chips don't have a DSP & so your CPU has to do all the number crunching instead of the Audio DSP doing the legwork, thus lowering your performance. A generic fix, might be to lower the Audio Acceleration under dxdiag (START->RUN->dxdiag) to standard acceleration. A generic fix at best, but it might work, if you are using onboard. This is hit & miss for some people using onboard audio. Your motherboard has the "Realtek HD ALC662" audio chip, which is more or less a standard onboard audio chip. It's performance is slightly better than most generic onboard audio chips.

 

3) Of course make sure that you have the newest drivers installed, thats video, audio, mortherboard, etc.. If you need help with this, let me know & i'll link you to the correct drivers. If you already know & have done all this, then good job.

 

4) Install "coolbits" for your video card. It'll open new options. One of which is the ability to pre-render FPS. Normal setting is @ 3. Try lowering to 1 or even 0. This may or may not help, as again, this is a hit & miss fix for some people. Under your video cards control panel, set the performance/quality slider to performance.

 

5) Raise the games resolution to 1024x768, regardless if you only have a 15' monitor.

 

6) I see that you have the RAM running in Single Channel mode. I took a look at the specs of your motherboard & it's only able to run in single channel mode, which could also be a cause for your lack of performance. I looked at the options for the newest Bios for your motherboard to see if it addressed this issue, but is does not. Sorry.

 

7) Which OS are you running on? XP or Vista? If Vista, enough said. How long ago did you install/reinstall your OS? It might be that time again to do so.

 

8) I was reading through a few posts on a couple different forums. One guy was having a similar problem, until he disabled the onboard video. Now this should happen automatically since you have the 8500GT installed, but it's what I read & since I don't have your setup here in front of me, I can't see or test for my self. Also make sure that in the Bios, your RAM is set to run @ DDR2-667 & not the default DDR2-533. In single channel, every little bit will help.

 

9) As a general rule of thumb, when you update your drivers, it's very important to make sure that all previous files have been removed, as any lingering files can cause problems. I would advise you to use Driver Cleaner Pro - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745

 

10) Run a registry cleaner. There are a large number to choose from. I use & like the free version of Eusing registry cleaner - http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleane...try_cleaner.htm

 

Here is the ASUS site for the drivers to your motherboard.

http://support.asus.com/download/download....del=P5S-MX%20SE

 

Let me know how it goes & if your performance improves in any way. Check your in game FPS, either via the console or with a third party program like FRAPS.

 

-MRG

[DarkWarrior45]

First of all hi guys! I've got a few questions about how to set up my pc for better gaming performance (Specifically oblivion).

 

My current rig is as follows(i hope this info is enough):

 

- Core2Duo @ 2.0Ghz

- Inno3D GeForce 8500GT 512mb

- 2gig RAM

- Asus P5S-MX Se motherboard (DDR2 Single Channel)

 

I run my oblivion at High Settings @ 800x600 (coz i only got a 15" monitor as of now)

 

Now, here are the questions:

 

1. How can I remove the stutter/lag when I'm in an area with lots of trees and grass(without

removing them of course :) )?

 

2. Is there a special configuration in my nVidia Control Panel so that my Oblivion game would

look good with a decent performance?

 

3. Do I also need to configure my processor so that i maximize the potential of the 2

processors?

 

 

I think that's all that i would like to ask right now. Pls feel free to answer and it would really be appreciated :)

 

THANKS!!

 

1. There's a couple of options you can do: a software route and a hardware route.

Hardware wise I would do as MRG suggested in regards to the sound card. Another thing that I can add is try defragging the hardrive.

 

Software wise there's a few thing you can do. Again, like MRG said, drivers. update your drivers. Now if you are running a cd version of Oblivion, (not the D2D version), then there are a number of mods that are designed to increase performance, namely "Operation Optimization" and "Streamline." Plus there is "Low Poly Grass," which is designed to minimized the FPS hit from the grass.

 

2. Depends. If you want quality, then HDR in my opinion is a must, and it's actually enabled in the game itself. In regards to AA, I would experiment with the AA setting in the control panel to see what works best. For your settup, I would experiment with running at 1024x768, with HDR enabled, and try either 2x or 4x AA. I would set Antistrophic Filtering to "application controlled.) Again, I would experiment with these settings and see what's best.

 

3. No. If the CPU is at stock speeds, then it's fine. It is my opinion that you should not overclock, and that it would also not gain you any real performance gain in games. Rather, the graphics card, amount of RAM, latency of the RAM, type of RAM, and the drivers play a bigger role in game performance.

[MRG]

Now if you are running a cd version of Oblivion, (not the D2D version), then there are a number of mods that are designed to increase performance, namely "Operation Optimization" and "Streamline." Plus there is "Low Poly Grass," which is designed to minimized the FPS hit from the grass.

 

Excellent advice there DarkWarrior. I forgot to mention that there are a few programs out for Oblivion that enable to to tweak the settings. Back in the day when I was forced to run the game on my old & slow 3.6GHz P4, I remember I used the mod that lessened the grass density which did WONDERS for my game performance. I also used a few of the different FPS optimizer that you mentioned, which also helped a huge amount.

 

FPS Optimizer:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6678

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7706

 

Less Grass Density:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View...ail&id=1479

 

Good Tweak Info:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/95794-13...imization-guide

 

3. No. If the CPU is at stock speeds, then it's fine. It is my opinion that you should not overclock, and that it would also not gain you any real performance gain in games. Rather, the graphics card, amount of RAM, latency of the RAM, type of RAM, and the drivers play a bigger role in game performance.

 

While that can definitely be true, a few extra clock cycles can also do wonders for ingame performance. It goes without saying that the CPU's tech itself plays a massive role & in nuniksais case, with his mobo only supporting DDR2-667 RAM & in single channel only, he might want to try overclocking his CPU a little, to try & help compensate for some of the other possible performance degraders, as mentioned earlier. Again, this is only if he feel comfortable doing so.

 

Either way, I think you might want to think about using some of the FPS Optimizer Tweaks DarkWarrior mentions & I link to.

 

Let us know how it goes nuniksais.

 

-MRG

[nuniksais]

Lots of thanks, MRG and DarkWarrior45.

 

I'm now currently doing the tasks assigned and I will post as soon as possible.

 

@MRG

 

C2D E4400 if I'm not mistaken. Its at stock speed and i use windows xp.

Anyway, ill just finish up all the tasks and post the results as soon as possible :D

 

Too bad i use a D2D version..

[nuniksais]

Already finished with cleaning the registry and installing the new drivers for my video card. I didnt install the driver for the mobo, its kind of risky for me and i dont think i can fix it if anything goes wrong. I also disabled the on board GPU and deccelrated the on board audio.

 

The results are sort of disappointing, before i did all that i was averaging 18-27 FPS inside towns (i.e Bruma, Cheydinhall). After all the cleanup and updating, i was averaging 18-30. When im outside towns and adventuring on forests my FPS drastically drops down to 9-15 fps, depending on how thick the foliage is.

 

I think my mobo is bottlenecking the performance of the CPU and the Vid card.. Well back to the drawing board for me.

 

Another question, how come most of the guys get and average of 30-50 FPS? man i have never experienced anything like that in the game (except when opening the map or other menus).

 

Well anyway, thanks guys for your help, and ill try to reconfigure again.

[tmx]

Already finished with cleaning the registry and installing the new drivers for my video card. I didnt install the driver for the mobo, its kind of risky for me and i dont think i can fix it if anything goes wrong. I also disabled the on board GPU and deccelrated the on board audio.

 

The results are sort of disappointing, before i did all that i was averaging 18-27 FPS inside towns (i.e Bruma, Cheydinhall). After all the cleanup and updating, i was averaging 18-30. When im outside towns and adventuring on forests my FPS drastically drops down to 9-15 fps, depending on how thick the foliage is.

 

I think my mobo is bottlenecking the performance of the CPU and the Vid card.. Well back to the drawing board for me.

 

Another question, how come most of the guys get and average of 30-50 FPS? man i have never experienced anything like that in the game (except when opening the map or other menus).

 

Well anyway, thanks guys for your help, and ill try to reconfigure again.

 

I hope you will get a good video card someday, this is a beautiful game you have to see at max graphic. I use the oldest/earliest video card driver that was released for my card, it runs faster and I've experience this with more than one card, I think it is due to the fact that the older driver enable less of the graphic technology. Unfortunately I don't know which it is for you card, but for the latest driver, go to this guru3d link, try difference ones if you need to, they also have third party drivers.

 

For a low performance card such as the 8500gt, you must make compromise. For in game settings, choose: Medium quality, absolutely no shadows, bloom ok but no HDR. You should go to your Nvidia Control Panel and turn off both AA and AF, as well as turn texture filtering quality to high performance. You can compensate for these low settings by turning up your resolution, it make a very big difference in image quality.

 

The slowdown of outside area can be attribute to either shadows or the new video card driver, try a different driver to see if it help. From my experience, I don't necesary feel you have to do driver cleanup, I can feel the different between some drivers. There are mods that help speed up the game if you haven't got them. Oblivion PolyGone and LowPoly Grass are very good ones. I would also mention that there are many mods that significantly lower the frame rate, so watch out for them, such as LOD texture mods. Also water mods.

 

Also do your case have good cooling, if it does then it will be very helpful to overclock a bit. You can install Nvidia's NTune to monitor your video card heat and Speedfan to monitor your cpu heat. After installting Ntune, go to Nvidia's Control Panel, choose View->Define Custom View, select the Accept Agreement, agree on it, and go to Define Custom View again to enable the new options to overclock. But if you are not sure or if your computer seems hot, then I recommend just leaving it alone. The new Core2Duo are particular good overclocker, for cpu overclock, you have to make sure the speed of your ram stay similar to it's original speed and not higher by modifying the cpu/ram ratio. If you only make some small changes it won't harm things and can be really help.

 

For the latest drivers of your motherboard, go to this asus link, choose Socket 775 in the mobo catergory. You could download and update newer drivers too, with the Asus Update utility, but if you think your mobo is running stable then you can leave it alone.

 

Also defragmenting your harddrive might help with load time a tiny bit.

[Karasuman]

Let me simplify this a bit. In short, that 8500GT is what's bottlenecking you. Oblivion is very GPU-dependent, much more so than on any other system component. Simply put, you can have a great system everywhere else, but if your card isn't up to snuff, Oblivion will lag, end of story. You can have an Intel 6600 Quad with 4GB DDR2 memory on a Gigabyte mobo and your game would largely run the same as it is right now on that card. This is why people report such big fps gains in Oblivion when overclocking their vid cards, especially relative to overclocking anything else. As proof, your processor and type of RAM you have are both superior to what I have (AMD 3800+ DC with 2GB DDR), but I also run the game on a 7950GT and that is why I get 30-50 fps even running in high-def (1920X1080) resolutions. The Nvidia 8400, 8500, and 8600GTs are all built on piece of crap 128-bit memory buses, which basically means that the 512MB of RAM on your card is largely useless as the memory interface is far too slow to ever take advantage of 512 anyways. Save yourself some time and upgrade your card if you want Oblivion to run better. Hope this helps.

[nuniksais]

@Karasuman

 

yup, thats also what i thought. Im now running Oblivion at a sucky resolution of 800x600 thus gaining me a large 10-20 fps boost.

 

When i bought the 8500GT i didnt know too much about vid cards and i thought that the 8500GT was a really good choice..if i knew that this would hinder the performance of certain games i wouldve opted to buy the much higher models. Oh well, just need to save up to get better cards..

 

Thanks for the opinions guys!

[nuniksais]

Uhm another question guys, my RAM now is 2Gb 667, how come when i view the latency speed it only registers a 333 speed?

 

@all

 

sorry if i'm kind of ignorant about certain aspects of the PC hardware :)