Lag with 40+ fps?

[shenmueguru]

I'm playing M2TW with an 8800gtx, C2D E6600, and 2 gigs ram. I maxed the settings (no shadows), played a 4200 man battle, and got lag. Fraps says I've got 40+ fps most of the time, but it lags even when it says I've got 50+. I'm thinking it may be my monitor (4 year old CRT). I've got all the new graphics drivers and such. Any ideas?

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Other than saying it's definitely not your monitor, I can't really offer any help - maybe trying to disable vsync could help. Could you describe the lag further?

[Freddie]

I'm playing M2TW with an 8800gtx, C2D E6600, and 2 gigs ram. I maxed the settings (no shadows), played a 4200 man battle, and got lag. Fraps says I've got 40+ fps most of the time, but it lags even when it says I've got 50+. I'm thinking it may be my monitor (4 year old CRT). I've got all the new graphics drivers and such. Any ideas?

I believe FRAPS displays the average frame rate, it lags because form time to time and for what ever reason the frame rate drops dramatically for a short while. What you need it to show is miniuam fram rates.

[Town Watch]

Oh dear

Mainly because I was exactly sure in my mind, that I'd buy that same setup as you have right next weekend. Kinda weird if it doesn't run M2TW smoothly with 6K armies and full settings. If that doesn't do the job, then what will?


It's never a good time to buy a computer, and the computers never catch up on the coolest games, like M2tw, there's always lag/crappy fps/freezing no matter what kind of computer you have.

[shenmueguru]

I get the sense that I am getting 50+ frames, yet it jumps. Its a weird look. By lag I mean jumpy - jump from the castle gate to...I don't know, 20 game feet in back of it. It's not fluid, I'll tell you that. It mostly happens when the meat of the battle takes place. I don't think its my parts, I get the feeling its from a quality set-up. For further detail, settings maxed out with a 4200 man battle goes from 20-60fps (vsync on). A lot of 8800GTX owners get up to 20,000 men before needing to lower the settings to med-high, from what I've heard.

[Vanquisher]

Its the amount of memory on your card i'm afraid while the GPU can render a decent 50fps, it will drop right down every so often because the measly 700 odd mb is not enough to keep up with the gpu apparently. 1gb would be much better fot th card.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

So basically, moving around the map is jumpy, but if you zoom in to the action and watch fighting animations are they fluid?

[Vanquisher]

Technicaly it should be.

[Doono]

vanquisher it's a 8800gtx it has 700 odd megs of video memory it is definitly not related to his graphics card. 256meg of video ram is all you need to run this game on max.

This is definitly related to something else, it's a long shot but check the following things. Update your audio drivers, and check hardware acceleration is on max under directx.

To get to these settings go to start > run > dxdiag > sound

While you are there you could check to see if it shows any problems under display.

Either way that hardware should have no issues running this game unless its faulty.

[shenmueguru]

vanquisher it's a 8800gtx it has 700 odd megs of video memory it is definitly not related to his graphics card. 256meg of video ram is all you need to run this game on max.

This is definitly related to something else, it's a long shot but check the following things. Update your audio drivers, and check hardware acceleration is on max under directx.

To get to these settings go to start > run > dxdiag > sound

While you are there you could check to see if it shows any problems under display.

Either way that hardware should have no issues running this game unless its faulty.

No problems with the sound. When I mean jumpy, it looks like the video can't keep up with the speed almost - if I put the cursor up top to make the camera faster, it's better (which should be the opposite for lag...weird). I feel like the card is owning the game (it darn well better for the price), yet something can't keep up (just my gut). Camera rotations are at full speed as well. Nothing adds up - eh, maybe an LCD upgrade will do something...

[Town Watch]

Are there even 1gb versions of 8800gtx? Ive only seen the 768mb versions in online stores.

[Doono]

no there isn't and you definitly don't need a gig of video memory for anything thats available at the moment.

[Doono]

have you updated the video drivers recently? Thats what i would do next.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

eh, maybe an LCD upgrade will do something...

As mentioned above, that wont definitely change anything - 100% guaranteed. You said you have a CRT and there is no lag on CRTs (that's one of the few advantages CRTs still have) - there is lag on TFTs, but nothing like you describe.

[shenmueguru]

Graphics drivers are updated. I installed the motherboard drivers from the CD, though it was a recent release of software so I don't think that would be an issue. It very well may improve when more nvidia drivers are released; 8800 drivers are known to be weak from what I've heard. Thanks for the help so far, also.

[PyrrhusIV]

every so often because the measly 700 odd mb is not enough to keep up with the gpu apparently

Not to be rude; But do you know anything about GPU's? Probably not. 256 would run this game perfectly, actually, it does.

Now, i'm surprised the question hasn't come up, but how many background processes do you have running?

[shenmueguru]

Not to be rude; But do you know anything about GPU's? Probably not. 256 would run this game perfectly, actually, it does.

Now, i'm surprised the question hasn't come up, but how many background processes do you have running?

Usually none, I x-out all possible ones on the tray.

I've come to a semi-conclusion that it's the drivers; the people I read about who were getting awesome performance at high troop levels with the 8800gtx were using the first drivers I believe - i'll just wait till new ones come out`and see what happens. All other games run magnificently, though. However my monitor restricts me to 1280x1024 so that might be it but nontheless I think its the drivers.

[Juggernawt]

Remove ALL old drivers - There are some excellent software out there that removes every trace of the graphics drivers. Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard and apply it. Download the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard and apply them. Then, and ONLY then, download and install the latest graphics drivers. Also make sure you have the latest drivers for your soundcard as well as the latest DirectX.

[Town Watch]

quick question, does m2tw support widescreen resolutions?

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

@Town watch: Yes it does - I personally play it on a 24" widescreen TFT (1920*1200)...

@shenmueguru: What do you mean by saying that your monitor restricts you to 1280*1024? Do you think it runs better on a higher resolution? (And if the answer if yes, how do you come to thinking that??). I agree that your monitor appears to be inappropriate for your otherwise great system, but it wont solve your performance problem...