Improve Performance

[Octavius-Augustus]

I know this has been discussed before, but I want to hear as many opinions as I can. All of you guys with low-end systems (and not so low), what tricks you use to improve performance with RS? Of course some of you don't need this at all, or you could just tell me to upgrade my hardware, but since this is impossible at this point, I'm open to suggestions.

I'm grateful to dvk, the tips he posted some time ago helped my performance a lot. Here are some things I did on his advice and other methods.

I've uninstalled my NOD32 AV and installed AVG. It works pretty smooth, it updates frequently and user-friendly and seemengly improved performance. I use 'Large' unit size, the game works just fine this way, but I want to push it to have more exciting battles. (Huge is too much, but I can set it through preferences to be a compromise - 100 or 120...)
I play on the lowest possible settings ('possible' implies that I don't want the game to look crappy, but pretty much everything is on 'low'). I defragment my hard drives frequently. I close all aplications except AV software and end most unneeded processes that may slow down game performance. I've played around with the Windows pagefile, as dvk suggested. That also works pretty well. I overclock my videocard, because it's very old, too slow and generally it's just crap. (GeForce FX5700LE 256MB) What else... :hmmm: For now I can't think of any more stuff I do with my comp, but I bet you guys can offer me some more.

[Spartan 666]

i defragment the hard drive once a week, play with Winamp and installed AVG...huge unit size,medium\high unit detail and almost none others detail...that's all....sometimes the pc cries for mercy!!!

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Here's my trick: I work a few more hours, so I can buy a faster computer.

[Nellup]

Clean out your temporary files, they build up if you let them and can slow down your system.

[Octavius-Augustus]

Here's my trick: I work a few more hours, so I can buy a faster computer.
To spare the whining and stuff, I must also note, that it works for everyone.

Lol, truly universal, mate. But since I don't work, it's not that easy. Also in my country most jobs don't pay for extra hours, screwed, no?

Thanks anyway

@Nellup: That's something I didn't even think about. Thanks

[Arnspac]

I use a little program called CleanUp that restores a lot of space. Careful how you set up your options. I also shut down everything but Fraps when playing. Sometimes if my game starts to stutter I save and reboot just to clear the memory.
How much RAM you running?

Hope this helps.

[Octavius-Augustus]

I have 1GB RAM. I clean up most junk that I can find.

[Faridus]

i run quad processors and 4 gig ram and still lags at times.
but i think i'm getting used to the limitations.

[century x]

I play on loew/medium settings. I just changed the page file I have, defrag my hard drives every month, and that is enough to handle 10,000 troops on the field without lagging.

I have 2 gigs of ram and a descent video card.

[Jingles]

Increase your Page file limit, that should help a good deal. Also, I know this is a little drastic, but I reformmatted my PC recently and as a result performance has tripled, I can even run M2TW with good graphics, and I have only 512 of RAM with a 1.6 Ghz processor

[century x]

Increase your Page file limit, that should help a good deal. Also, I know this is a little drastic, but I reformmatted my PC recently and as a result performance has tripled, I can even run M2TW with good graphics, and I have only 512 of RAM with a 1.6 Ghz processor

How do you reformatt?

[Oli]

turn grass off! the easiest possible thing to do

[Korlon]

How do you reformatt?

Grab your windows XP disk or whatever you got there. Back up all your important files, and then reinstall your operating system. This erases everything on your computer, registry keys, files, everything. So whatever you had that made your computer slow will be gone.

Lowering your used disk space helps out as well. Mainly so that the page file can be increased and it's easier to do, but also because it's easier to defragment then.

Typically, I turn off every file I don't need when I play something. That's including any virus blocking programs such as AVG. I have also turned off a couple unuseful microsoft services so that I free up some ram, as well of the regular services.

[century x]

Thank you.
Now I got to find my windows xp disk.

[Jingles]

century, if you do decide to reformat, MAKE SURE YOUR WINDOWS DISK HAS MORE THAN ONE INSTALL ON IT! I had a rather big panic attack when I found out mine wasn't!! luckily I was able to use a business version a friend had, which has unlimited installs.

[century x]

Will do.

[Jingles]

Look for the letters OEM on the case and stuff, that means it's one time install.

[HMonk]

I use Auslogics speed boost program 4.1 it is a utility suite that dose everything to keep your system running great! The first time I used it,
it gave me a hole system a (10% increase in performance) and that helped with RS big time.
I have a aging system/ P4 3.4 ghz w/ht, 2gigs of ram/ 512 MB 7600GS Ge-Force graphics card. it was a Dell xps Gen3 gaming system, really good in its day.

[bohema]

that dosnt seem to be a slow machine to me

[HMonk]

that dosnt seem to be a slow machine to me

Thanks, but it is going on three yrs old now, but it still holds its own.