Geforce4 framerates disappointing inofp

[Barfly143 0]

I recently upgraded from a GeForce2 GTS 32MB to a GeForce4 Ti4400 and much to my dismay it has not helped my framerates in OFP at all. In fact I think they may be slightly worse, I have tried all the FAQ's and usual tweaks with not much luck. Though the latest detonator drivers have helped quite a bit, unbelievabley enough it just doesn't seem to run quite as smooth as my GeForce2 did. I've tried all the differnet color depths and resolution and they all run about the same so I keep it in 1600x1200 32bpp. Anyone else out there experiencing this? It is probably unlikely but I wonder if the OFP graphics engine is tuned for certain graphics chipsets?

I'm running on an AMD 1ghz Thunderbird with 512 MB RAM. I have an ABIT KT7A-Raid with the VIA KT133 chipset, so I know about the 4in1 driver update, but that hasn't helped either. On the upside, all my other games absolutely rock with the Geforce4, Unreal Tournament at 1600x1200 with anisotropic filtering is a thing of beauty!

[Lt_Damage 0]

Sounds like the game engine simply isn't taking advantage of the extra power available.. quite sad.. maybe BIS will contibute something.. when Suma gets back.

[Barfly143 0]

Yeah, I'm hoping the Resistance addon will improve things. It supposedly has an enhanced graphic engine.

[Mister Frag 0]

I assume you already did the "Autodetect" thing in the Preferences program after installing the new card, right?

What do you have the Framerate and Visual Quality sliders in the Video Options set to?

[LBGS_Stewart 0]

alright this might seem odd or not very noticable but after i installed 1.45 and 1.45 it seems the beginning lags a bit now and i have a ATI radeon 64mb vivo i was talking to a friend who has just upgraded to 1.46 and he has a G force and now his game is starting to lag so i decided to uninstall the game and runn it at 1.3 and it ran smoother so could this be a posible bug from 1.46 actking up on your G force 4 just something to ponder

[Airwolf 50]

this game doesnt have any support for new computers, the game ran better on my old 350mgz P2, it runs like crap and lags all the time on my new 1.9 P4.

[DodgeME 0]

Well that 1GHz Athlon hasn't got enough power to feed a Gf4. I have a Gf3 and a 1GHz Athlon and when l push my CPU 50 Mhz more the frames of 3DMark2001 go up a lot. My conclusion is that u need a CPU powerful enough as your card. Get an XP2000 or XP2100. I would get an XP2000 and throw some OC on it. You can easily OC it 100Mhz more of the it's current speed.

Also don't expect the game to run in 1600*1200*32 with FSAA and 64-tapping and LOD bias to full...etc. Be realistic. Althoughl could run higher l prfer to run my game to 1024*768*32 with Quincum FSAA and 64-tapping. Looks amazing. Things seem small in 1600*1200 anyway.

[Barfly143 0]

Thanks for the replies.

Mr. Frag,

I did do the autodetect in advanced settings and I tried different LOD slider settings without much luck.I put the visual quality and framerate settings as high as both can go. Even if I slide visual quality all the way down it doesn't make a noticeable difference.

LBGS_Stewart,

I think you're right about the upgrade. I really did notice an increase in lag especially after the 1.46 upgrade even on my old card.

DodgeMe,

I agree on the 1ghz being inadequate, I have a 2000+ xp on the way. I'll post the results once I get it up and running.

[DodgeME 0]

Have u deleted the previews drivers you have or u installed the new ones over the old? If you haven't deleted em first my experince sais that conflicts cause major performance loss.

[Barfly143 0]

No I didn't delete the old driver files, I thought they would be overwritten with the new detonator drivers. I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

[Mister Frag 0]

The new Detonator components would overwrite all of the old DLLs, so I don't think that's the problem.

The fact that different version behave differently is interesting. I wonder if BIS inadvertantly left some debugging code in the executable, that could slow it down if it wasn't compiled as a non-debug version.

[Barfly143 0]

I've tried some more tests and got some very interesting albeit strange results. I set up a very basic scenario in the mission editor on the island of Malden. I put a squad of east infantry and 3 BMP'S attacking a squad of west infantry. I first put the units in an area with rolling hills and lots of shrubbery and trees. My framerate and quality settings were both maxed out under Video Options. The video depth was 1024x768 32 bpp. I left the advanced preferences, LOD settings, etc. under the OFP preferences program to the default settings I had when I let it auto-detect. The scenario ran smooth as silk, no slow downs whatsoever. I bumped up the resolution to 1600x1200 32bpp, and again it ran smooth as silk with no discernable slow-downs. At this point I decided to pick up all the units and waypoints in the scenario and move them to a differnet part of the map of Malden. I placed everything in and around the city of LaTrinitie. I bumped the resolution down to 1024x768 bpp and the scenario ran as slow as snot when the buildlings of LaTrinitie were in view. I tried reducing the quality setting all the way down to its lowest setting but that didn't speed it up at all. Now get this, at this point I bumped up the resolution to 1600x1200 32 bpp and put the quality slider back to its highest setting, and at this point the scenario actually ran smoother. Still too slow for my liking but it was noticeably better than it was at 1024x768, go figure. I continued to play with the placement of units on the map in different cities, locations, and the common thread was that if there are no buildings in visual sight it runs smooth, with buildings in sight it slows down considerably. I never had this problem before with my GeForce2. Can anyone with a GeForce4 verify these results?

For the record my system is a 1gz Athlon, 512MB Ram, Geforce4 Ti4400 with latest detenator drivers.

[DodgeME 0]

Old det drivers cause conflicts. Again deleting the drivers before installing the news one while better than installing them over the old ones ain't the best way. I recommend using detonator destroyer(crusher smt like that). It deletes old registry files made by the old drivers.

[Barfly143 0]

I'm rebuillding my system tonight, so I will start out fresh with the current detonator drivers without installing any older ones. I'll try the test again afterwards.

Thanks!

[Mister Frag 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (DodgeME @ Mar. 28 2002,04:07)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Old det drivers cause conflicts. Again deleting the drivers before installing the news one while better than installing them over the old ones ain't the best way. I recommend using detonator destroyer(crusher smt like that). It deletes old registry files made by the old drivers.<span id='postcolor'>

If you have any doubt as to whether the driver files get overwritten, just go into the Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced and click on the tab for your video card -- there's a listbox there that shows all of the driver components and their version.

I've never had a problem with files not getting replaced when I install different Detonators, regardless of whether I upgraded or downgraded. The one exception would be an unofficial beta release that doesn't include all-upgraded components, in which case you might see that one of the DLLs has a version number from a previous release, but that is because the file(s) with that beta haven't been rev'd.

[Barfly143 0]

I have rebuilt my system with a new motherboard KT266A chipset and processor AMD XP 2000+ and now everything is working beautifully. The only thing I can figure is that the GeForce4 cards have some problems with older VIA chipsets (ie; KT133A) which had problematic AGP implementations like I had, to get such strange results like I was getting. Right now I have my resolution in OFP set to 1600x1200 32bpp with 2x AntiAliasing and the test scenario I setup which I mentioned in a previous post, now runs silky smooth even when buildings are within sight. In fact the only time I see any kind of slowdown is during missions where there's tons of AI units, even then it's still playable. So I guess the moral of the story is if you play OFP make sure you have a newer motherboard/processor combo before you splurge for a GeForce4. Thanks to those who responded for all the help and ideas.

[Lt_Damage 0]

God damn, that moral is terrible

All the people who read hte thread looking for better performance options will be crushed, lol

Basically, MORAL of the story is more $$$$ spent on PC = Better performance.

[Mr.P 0]

Have to agree with Dodgeme.....I have a GeForce4 MX440 (which obviously isn't nearly as good as the Ti series), but I have a 1800+, and I'm able to run everything at full with no noticeable problems or stuttering.

[Lt_Damage 0]

Damnit

I have an ASUS Geforce4 Ti4600, but I am running an Athlon 900Mhz Thunderbird... so it appears I won't get to enjoy this video card until I upgrade my CPU..

I don't suppose my motherboard will be compatible either, so there goes that. Ohhhh need $$$$ now..

[HellToupee 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Lt_Damage @ May 15 2002,13:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Damnit

I have an ASUS Geforce4 Ti4600, but I am running an Athlon 900Mhz Thunderbird... so it appears I won't get to enjoy this video card until I upgrade my CPU..

I don't suppose my motherboard will be compatible either, so there goes that. Ohhhh need $$$$ now..<span id='postcolor'>

dammit i was gonna buy a gf4 ti i got 850mhz, ive got to much money at the moment so im gonna use it, im getting that gf4 ti or mx and your words will not stop me except maybee there out of stoc like last week.

[Mister Frag 0]

Don't waste your money on a GF4 MX, the name is very misleading. Technically, it is on the same level as a GF2.

[dayglow 2]

The mx is the fastest dx7 card out there so if they don't mind not having any dx8 support then it's a good fast card. Dx8 doesn't matter really until later in the summer when UT2003 hits the shelves.

As for the orginal post OFP is cpu limited. The fast the cpu the better the framerates. As he stated he gets the same rate at any res, so that's a good hint that the cpu is the bottleneck. I have a 1.3 duron with a ti4400 so I too am limited, but I do get all the extra image quality of AA and aniso filtering for free, so the game looks good.

COLINMAN