BF2 - tech discussion

[mid]

Right, I was being vaguely enthusiastic about BF2 last night after some quick experimentation with the demo, but now I'm feeling seriously disheartened, looking at everyone else complaining about performance with their ninja boxes. I have

Athlon XP 2600+
512Mb main memory
128Mb Radeon 9550.

Now, I've already clocked the 9550 from default timings of 250MHz core, 400MHz memory to 360MHz core 500MHz memory, which makes a huge difference to everything, and lifts the card from ****e to almost a 9600Pro. But while the game runs perfectly smooth on "not much better than CounterStrike" all-low graphics, I'm going to get my arse handed me with stutters and watch it die if I want shiny pictures, aren't I?

I'm experimenting with the demo at the moment to see if it gives a better idea, but that's just a small map. Do things get worse in a big way in the full game? Is anyone enjoying themselves on a similarly ****e box?

[Rossco]

Well the maps are different sizes based on how many players are in the game so if you play the smaller maps you may be okay but you better off upgrading. Is that not an option?

Even an extra 512Mb RAM would help you out alot with the stuttering. Sure you can splash out like ?30 for a cheap stick of that!?

[mid]

Upgrading the graphics card isn't really an option, as anything faster than what I have is a good ?100 or so. But I _might_ be able to drop another 512Mb memory in. It really depends on how carried away I get with buying a new hard drive - I can either buy a basic 40Gb for my PS2, or get a 160Gb (I really could do with the space) for the PC and put my current 80Gb in the PS2 instead.

[Rossco]

Well thats the best bet. ?30 for more RAM and the game would be so much more playable for you.

[capcom_suicide]

Well thats the best bet. ?30 for more RAM and the game would be so much more playable for you.

Deffo. I started with 512mb then went to 1GB and it was a world of difference.

On a 9800Pro and an old 1.8p4 the game is OK with all details down.

But I really don't want to play with all the details down, and when they are on higher quality, it takes an Age to load, then I get 12-22fps which is crappy.

But if you can handle the PS2 quality textures, and bump up your memory, I think you'd be quite ok.

/C_S

[mid]

So far, it seems crappy textures but medium geometry seem to be my best bet for getting something approaching watchable but smooth. I'll see if I can get the courage to blow lots of money I don't have on PC bits, then.

[mid]

Well, everything was playing pretty much fine on a 64-player server last night apart from the odd wait at spawn and before the level starts for my lack of memory. My poor little 9550 is now only about 15MHz off thinking it's a 9600Pro, so as long as I leave the texture detail at 'low' (because its only a 128Mb card and obviously main memory is pretty strapped as well) everything seems to be holding up fine; the only time I saw the framerate collapse really was while I was actively being blown to bits, and it's far too late to do anything about it other than admire the fireworks.

[mid]

Dropping in an extra 512Mb to go up to 1Gb cleared up those momentary pauses nicely.

Now I've just got to actually find some time to play the game, which I won't for a couple of weeks at least.

[capcom_suicide]

Dropping in an extra 512Mb to go up to 1Gb cleared up those momentary pauses nicely.

Now I've just got to actually find some time to play the game, which I won't for a couple of weeks at least.

Well here it is on my new rig. Very happy. But I still get some lag for the first 30 seconds. (1280 full everything) so I have ordered another gig of DD2 533Mhz joy.

I'm using a 7800GT with a P4 3.0Ghz 2Mb cache system.

The screens are heavily compressed but you may get the idea.

I think had I seen this before I would have upgraded sooner! It really is lush looking! But hard to get on a jpeg.

The loading times are minimal, and apart from the first 30 seconds of a new round, I haven't noticed any lag.

/C_S

[mid]

Ah, one of the advantages of having a less than stellar graphics card is that you're playing with the texture detail set to 'low'; at that point the game fits in 1Gb much more comfortably than it does with all your fancy stuff.

[capcom_suicide]

Ah, one of the advantages of having a less than stellar graphics card is that you're playing with the texture detail set to 'low'; at that point the game fits in 1Gb much more comfortably than it does with all your fancy stuff.

Aye, it is a joke this upgrade business. Still I figured newer games will benefit from extra memory, and it was only 80 quid for a matched pair of 512MB.

Anyway, can you post some screenies from your system? This would be useful for comparison. John has posted from a 6800GT, I've done the 7800GT so you could post from your 9600.

Thanks.

/C_S

[mid]

Sure, I'll take some when I can. It'll probably be a while, though - I'm pretty busy at home at the moment, and my wife is usually on the PC doing work stuff when we do get time.

The big immediately obvious difference is that I'm running without anti-aliasing; looking at your screens it's actually more obvious than the texture differences.

[Orgun]

Ok this is strange o_O

I had been playing the demo on a Geforce FX 5600 and was running so-so and then just before the full game was actually released I bought a Leadtek Geforce 6800 GT 256ddr3 card and was able to run the demo and full version at 1280x1024 with everything on high and 4x AA. Fast forward to today and I can barely run it on medium at 1024x768

I havent really done anything with my comp, that i can think of, that would cause this. I've run AVG, S&D n defragged. Little effect, I removed my Graphics and sound drivers and reinstalled new ones (used Driver cleaner too) and I thought I had sorted it. Started a game at 80ish fps...10 minutes later 15fps..10fps.

Im currently using the 77.07 Nvidia drivers off the website but I see they've just released the 78.?? ones so I think i'll give those a try.
Anyways my system is:

Advent's 3417 (too lazy to make my own this time)
P4 3.2ghz
1024mb Ram
160Gb HD
Leadtek Geforce 6800 GT 256ddr3
C-media AC97 audio (yes yes I know it sucks)

[capcom_suicide]

Ok this is strange o_O

I had been playing the demo on a Geforce FX 5600 and was running so-so and then just before the full game was actually released I bought a Leadtek Geforce 6800 GT 256ddr3 card and was able to run the demo and full version at 1280x1024 with everything on high and 4x AA. Fast forward to today and I can barely run it on medium at 1024x768

I havent really done anything with my comp, that i can think of, that would cause this. I've run AVG, S&D n defragged. Little effect, I removed my Graphics and sound drivers and reinstalled new ones (used Driver cleaner too) and I thought I had sorted it. Started a game at 80ish fps...10 minutes later 15fps..10fps.

Im currently using the 77.07 Nvidia drivers off the website but I see they've just released the 78.?? ones so I think i'll give those a try.
Anyways my system is:

Advent's 3417 (too lazy to make my own this time)
P4 3.2ghz
1024mb Ram
160Gb HD
Leadtek Geforce 6800 GT 256ddr3
C-media AC97 audio (yes yes I know it sucks)

Turn off EAX and reduce all sounds quality.

See what that does.

[mid]

Your onboard sound won't have EAX in hardware, so definitely do that. Even though mine does, I've had to turn sound quality back down to low to avoid it making loads of horrible farty noises.

Also, if you're running everything on high, it's going to be doing a fair bit of swapping with 1Gb memory.