OFP slow on VIA based motherboards

[Tannethal 0]

In reference to the problems reported in this thread

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=43298

I own a VIA KT266 based motherboard (AK32L one of the rare Shuttles) and had serve problems running OFP with autodetected settings fluent, in the Battlefield single mission fps would be average at 10 at startup and reach 25 as peak when the mission was finished.

Since some early VIA chipsets where known for their notorious bad performance with the PCI bus, so i searched for the PCI Latency patch and installed it.

Now as i started OFP I noticed a big improvement in the framerate. Having used the demanding Battlefield Single Mission as benchmark my framerate improved from 8-10 at startup to 25-30. The island animation played after the mission also went up by 15-20 fps.

So now in a little more detail:

IF your motherboard is based on a early VIA chipset,like K?133?, KT266, KM266, KT266A and KT333 , you might try out the VIA PCI Latency patch by George Breese.

If your motherboard uses a KT400 or above it's useless,since the problem with PCI transactions was addressed by VIA with these newer chipsets.

The patch can be found at:

http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/

Some remarks on this patch:

First: It's intended for the mentioned VIA Chipsets to solve problems with crackling sound and bad Raid controler performance, but it will improve PCI access in general.

Note also that VIA hasn't solved this problem with it's own VIA 4in1 and Hyperion drivers. However VIA made a RAID performance patch avaiable, so if you are hesitant to try the PCI Latency patch, try this VIA patch. It's been reported that it does basically the same as the PCI Latency patch, but it's offical. The last revision of the offical VIA Raid performance patch is 1.02.

This is a link to the file

"]http://www.viaarena.com/downloads/drivers/others/rpp1.02.zip

For those who want to search VIAArena for the file: Look under downloads pick your OS, then select IDE, Raid & SATA, then select 3d party raid controllers (not VIA controllers).

Note: i've yet not tested out if this file has the same effect as the unoffical PCI Latency patch. So it's up to you.

Second: If you don't have a problem with OFP performance and own a early VIA chipset based motherboard you may try it out, but rule of thumb:

Don't try to fix anything that isn't broken.

Third: If you have a early VIA chipset based motherboard and use a raid controler you might even suffer a degration in performance. Tests with the last revision of that patch are indicating that. In this case you might try out a earlier release of the patch. However it might be a bit difficult to come by them, since on the page only the last revision is offered. You will have to search the net for earlier releases and invest some time in finding the best version for you. There are also some test on the net available that can give a general direction.

Fourth: On the page of George Breese it is stated the patch might not work with Win XP SP2. I have SP2 installed and was able to install the patch, so this might come down to trying it out. If any problems arise it can be uninstalled via systemcontrol/software.

Fifth: The patch won't install on systems that don't feature a VIA chipset, so no harm is to be feared if you misidentify your motherboard chipset. However make sure you have one of the mentioned chipsets before trying to apply the patch.

SIS Soft Sandra will identify your hardware if you're in doubt.

A more general tweek suggestion: In the system Bios you may try to activate bank interleave for your memory. This will speed up memory addressing in general and will work regardless of the PCI Latency patch use. I've enabled 4 bank interleave and it improved performance a bit. This setting is found in the memory timing settings in BIOS.

So i hope this will help some of you.

S!

@placebo or any other moderator: Maybe you could make this Topic a sticky in the OFP Troubleshooting FAQ, since i didn't find any hints to this after a quick search.

[jolivan77 0]

I have an old machine amd 1400, asus a7v133 board, 512 133ram and I suffer low fps even in SP. Before I try do you think this solve my problem or my machine is to old for OFP

[theavonlady 2]

Before I try do you think this solve my problem or my machine is to old for OFP

If anything, the latter, although I wonder whether another 512MB of RAM would do the trick (though it might be out-of-stock RAM).

[Placebo 29]

jolivan your PC is not too old for Opf, it's well above the minimum Resistance spec, sure some things will need tweaking and you won't be able to max everything out, but it should be able to reach a fair compromise of looking good at a decent FPS. As Avon said another 512mb ram wouldn't hurt

[Zalm 0]

I now Have a nforceII ultra board and before I had a KT400 board and my OFP benchmark went from 6200 to 6600

so it's not a big difference

[Placebo 29]

Personally I've never held much stock with benchmark numbers, especially when they have so many different factors into consideration, to me the only thing that's important is does Opf look good and run well? If yes I'm happy, if no I try to find the solution

[jolivan77 0]

More RAM is the magic world? OR maybe I use high OFP settings but there are some thing I insist on. I use resolution 1200*1024, normal or high terrian settigns, all shadows on, viewdistance 800-900.

[theavonlady 2]

More RAM is the magic world? OR maybe I use high OFP settings but there are some thing I insist on. I use resolution 1200*1024, normal or high terrian settigns, all shadows on, viewdistance 800-900.

There's defintely a major difference running OFP Resistance between 512 and 1024 RAM.

Nevertheless, you should lower your TERRAIN DETAIL setting to normal. Search The FAQ for "stutter".

[dusand 0]

I have Pentium III 800, 512 RAM, geforce 2 mx 400 64mb. I haven't much fps in OFP.

Do you think that if I bought another 512 RAM, it would get better? I doubt about that. Because I have a weak CPU and grahpics. What do you say?

[Placebo 29]

I use resolution 1200*1024, normal or high terrian settigns, all shadows on

Well there's the reason for your low FPS, with your system you can either choose those settings or better FPS, more ram will help to a certain degree but doubling your CPU would also help a lot more

[theavonlady 2]

I have Pentium III 800, 512 RAM, geforce 2 mx 400 64mb. I haven't much fps in OFP.

Do you think that if I bought another 512 RAM, it would get better? I doubt about that. Because I have a weak CPU and grahpics. What do you say?

Get a PIV. Don't invest for another 512MB RAM unless you can find it very cheap.

[Placebo 29]

I have Pentium III 800, 512 RAM, geforce 2 mx 400 64mb. I haven't much fps in OFP.

Do you think that if I bought another 512 RAM, it would get better? I doubt about that. Because I have a weak CPU and grahpics. What do you say?

Doubling your ram would definitely help, but as you're only too aware your CPU is also a little on the weak side these days, as Opf is more about CPU & RAM before graphics card you may be able to upgrade in steps, ie double your ram now, then upgrade your CPU then upgrade your graphics card, it's all about juggling budget with the need for a beautiful and fast running Opf

[dusand 0]

I have Pentium III 800, 512 RAM, geforce 2 mx 400 64mb. I haven't much fps in OFP.

Do you think that if I bought another 512 RAM, it would get better? I doubt about that. Because I have a weak CPU and grahpics. What do you say?

Doubling your ram would definitely help, but as you're only too aware your CPU is also a little on the weak side these days, as Opf is more about CPU & RAM before graphics card you may be able to upgrade in steps, ie double your ram now, then upgrade your CPU then upgrade your graphics card, it's all about juggling budget with the need for a beautiful and fast running Opf  

Well, I know I should replace all the things (CPU, RAM, grahpics). But I think it is useless to upgrade it part by part. If I want to replace CPU, I need to replace the mainboard. And it goes....

So I think buying a whole new computer is better possibility. It will be more expensive, but the result will be much better. Thanks anyway

[Placebo 29]

But I think it is useless to upgrade it part by part. If I want to replace CPU, I need to replace the mainboard. And it goes....

It's not necessarily useless to upgrade part by part, depends on whether you have your money to upgrade in one lump or a little at a time, for example I wanted to upgrade my PC a year or two back, needed to improve my CPU and switch from SDRam to DDR, couldn't afford a new motherboard, ram & CPU all at once, so I bought a new CPU and a motherboard that accepts either type of RAM, I used my SD Ram until I could afford 1gb of DDR ram

[bonko the sane 2]

well, this VIA fix did help my sound troubles in ofp, my SBAudigy stopped doing weird scratch noises, didnt raise any fps, also it installed fine on XPpro SP2 and on my KT400 mobo, so it does help even in more modern motherboards.

[Placebo 29]

Shame there's no patch to fix SB cards in non via motherboards

[KeyCat 131]

I now Have a nforceII ultra board and before I had a KT400 board and my OFP benchmark went from 6200 to 6600

so it's not a big difference  

Since you had a KT400 chipset you should not even need this tweak since the problem was already fixed by VIA ;-)

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Zalm 0]

but there's still a difference