Frame rate goes to 10 fps

Fallopian

Active Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
300
Ok wizards, I have one for you....
When playing DOD:s, with relatively high quality settings, I get 60-80 FPS for about 30 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, (usually occurs after a new graphic event such as close muzzle flash), I drop to 9-10 fps. No amount of tweaking settings has any effect.

The following have been attempted with no effect:

Closing dod and steam and running them again
change resolution (all the way down to 640x480)
changing Antialiasing
changing Display resolution, aspect ratio, window mode
Changing these details: Model, Texture, shader, water, shadow, color correction
Changing Filtering mode, "Wait for vertical sync", Motion Blur, High dynamic range, Bloom effect
Changing speaker config (from 4 to 2 or whatever)
changing sound quality


Alt-Tabbing does not cause this issue. It happens after time, every time, whether I have at some time alt-tabbed or not. Also sometimes happens if I have the game minimized for a couple of hours.
My only fix is a reboot (power cycle is not necessary, reboot works).

I operate XP home edition sp3. I run the game in full screen. Direct x 9 (4.09.00.0904). I have the most updated motherboard, video and sound card drivers. I do leave Norton protection center running during gameplay. Notifications are turned off. I have turned Norton off and removed it from memory prior to running the game and it still happened.


My hardware: (home built)
  • American Megatrends 775Dual-Vista Motherboard
  • Intel Dule core 3.4GHz
  • 2 Gig Ram (can't remember model, but is buffered and was high end 9 months ago)
  • Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 256mb (kinda old, but still works)
  • 160gb WesternDigital 7200speed hard drive with lots of available space
  • Sound Blaster Audigy


Got any ideas? Thanks for looking at this! :o





This is my Autoexec.cfg:
//_Set Netcode vars_
cl_cmdrate "66"
cl_interp "0.01"
cl_interpolate "1"
//cl_lagcomp_errorcheck "0" // Disables lagcompensation error checking, only needed if you're having any registration/loss/choke problems.
cl_lagcompensation "1"
cl_smooth "1"
cl_updaterate "30"
rate "25000"
//_Set MP vars_
mp_decals "50" // How many player sprays will be shown.
//_Set Client vars_
//cl_drawmonitors "0" // Disables the rendering of ingame "monitors" which contain 3d rendered images.
//cl_ejectbrass "0" // Disables brass ejection
cl_forcepreload "1" // Forces the game to load all texture and model information into memory on map load.
cl_phys_props_enable "1" // Enables phsyics props.
cl_phys_props_max "50" // Maximum amount of physics props allowed.
//cl_ragdoll_physics_enable "0" // Disables ragdoll.
cl_restrict_server_commands "0" // Compatible/needed with serverplugins
//cl_show_splashes "0" // Disables water splashes.
//_Set Render vars_
r_3dsky "0" // Disables the rendering of 3d sky boxes.
//r_decal_cullsize "9999" // Any decals under this size are not rendered.
//r_decals "0" // Disables decals.
r_drawbatchdecals "1" // Enables the rendering of decals in batch.
r_drawdetailprops "1" // Enables the rendering of detail props.
r_drawflecks "0" // Disables the sparks and dirt from bullet impacts.
//r_drawmodeldecals "0" // Models decals (i.e. blood).
//r_eyes "0" // Disables eyes in models.
r_lod "-1" // Different level of details on models. -1 = Variable at distance. 0 = None. 1 = Minor. 2 = Less minor.
r_modellodscale "1.0" // The transitioning power of LOD.
//r_occlusion "0" // Enables the Model Occlusion system.
r_propsmaxdist "100" // Max distance at which props are rendered.
r_renderoverlayfragment "0"
r_rootlod "2" // Base lod of the model in the memory.
r_shadowmaxrendered "32" // Max shadows the game will render.
r_shadowrendertotexture "1" // Rendered the shadow texture causing it to match the player model.
//r_shadows "1" // Enables shadows (Change be disabled for additional performance.)
//r_teeth "0" // Disables teeth in models.
r_waterdrawreflection "0" // Disables the rendering of water reflections.
r_waterforceexpensive "0" // Forces cheap water.
gl_clear "0" // Disables the gl_clear convariable.
props_break_max_pieces "0" // Disables prop fragmenting
//_Set Materials vars_
mat_antialias "0" // Disables the use of multisampling to smooth out edges.
mat_bumpmap "0" // Disables bump mapping.
mat_clipz "0" // Disables optimized Z-Buffer rendering.
//mat_compressedtextures "1" // Disables texture compression. Users with low amounts of system memory should turn this on.
mat_disable_bloom "1" // Disables bloom effects.
mat_hdr_enabled "0" // Disables HDR.
mat_hdr_level "0" // Double Disables HDR.
mat_mipmaptextures "1" // Enables the use of mipmapping to make textures look smooth.
mat_monitorgamma "1.6" // Lower the number the brighter the screen. Only works in fullscreen.
//mat_picmip "2" // Changes the resolutions of textures when they're loaded into memory. May improve FPS on graphics cards with low memory sizes.
mat_reducefillrate "1" // Reduces the fillrate when the game is run in DXLevel 8.
mat_specular "0" // Disables Specularity on objects.
mat_trilinear "0" // Disables the use of Trilinear mipmapping.
mat_wateroverlaysize "8" // Sets the resolution of water distortion. Must be multiple of 8.
//_Set Violence vars_
violence_ablood "1"
violence_agibs "1"
violence_hblood "1"
violence_hgibs "1"
//_Set HUD vars_
hud_centerid "1" // Centers player IDs
net_graph "1" // Enables net_graph (Required in SS round)
net_graphpos "1" // Adjusts netgraph position-set between 1 and 3.
//_Set Misc settings_
//cl_downloadfilter "nosounds" // Disables annoying pub sound downloads
fps_max "75" // Caps framerate. Set to max monitor refresh rate + 1.
jpeg_quality "100" // High quality screenshots
 
# Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 256mb (kinda old, but still works)

Is it overheating? Go get nvidia nTune and run your game til it drops to 10fps then check the temps.
 
Thanks, At ilde it is 63 degrees C. When it happened it reached 72 deg. C. Once it dropped back to 63, I restarted the game and it was still at 10 fps. I think it's a memory issue.
 
Probably not your video card, then. Is it only games? Try running Priome95 for about 10 mins and see if it crashes. It could be your memory or CPU.
 
Well...I rebooted, ran Prime95 for 60 minutes, closed it, ran DOD. As soon as I got into dod, I was at 10 fps.

It has to be something other than the video card, but I have purchased a 1gig 9800 anyway. Got any thoughts? Bios settings? Any way to purge memory?

BTW, my cpu temp never gets crazy high and even if I let it get to idle temp, If the 10fps had already started, it stays at 10 until I reboot (regardless how cold my cpu is).
 
Could be the video card but, i had the same issue with bad ram. It hit a bad memory module and BAM artifacts in the game and bad fps. but, the 9800 will serve you good. :)
 
Thanks, At ilde it is 63 degrees C. When it happened it reached 72 deg. C. Once it dropped back to 63, I restarted the game and it was still at 10 fps. I think it's a memory issue.

yeah i was gonna say memory. It might be the memory on the card but i doubt it. I think its your ram. Steam games are horrendous for "leaking" memory. In other words, the game will run up the amount of memory used until your computer overheats or crashes. They say they have fixed it but they could say that about the palermo update and be lying through their teeth.

could you post your memory specs please if you can find them?

yeah for all the people saying its a vid card problem, think about it, the video card is not used any more in dods than it is in other games for him, but the memory definitely is.

I remember back 3 years ago when i could only play about an hour of css or dods until it used up the entire 2 gigs of ram i had.

i would say check for spyware on your computer and run some diag tests on your ram modules.

-Blue
 
try memtest 86+ and don't close it out till you get 10 passes with it. That is usually enough to stress the ram. If you wanna be sure run about 20 passes. It will take over night but you will be able to tell if its the ram or not.
 
I did memtest overnight....no problems. I think it is memory leak from the app. I doubt it cause of TSR programs, but, any way to purge the memory?
 
There are memory defragmenters that free up memory but sometimes they free up too much memory and it causes a performance hit in your OS.
 
Well the card will be in in a week or so.....thanks Six

Jus courious, how many watts u pushin on ur power supply? Iwas thinking about getting a 9800 but PS is only 375w. And its a dell so aftermarket parts dont fit or needs to be modded. What is recomended wattage for that card?
 
First do you have a fan on your vid card. also try changing your vid card to performance rather than quality
 
That autoexec script looks like Casey's Config for Counter Strike Source :p

Well when there is alot of action going on the screen your GFX card has to process it. I get a really high FPS when staring at a wall, but when I am duelling it out with another dude my FPS can drop by 30.

Try running DOD with DirectX 8 or even 7.

You can do this by opening up Steam and going to My Games.
Right click DOD and go to Properties.
Click on Set Launch Options.
And add the following line

Code:
-dxlevel 80

If that doesn't work change it to 70 to use DirectX 7. By doing this you should see a good increase of FPS.
 
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