Team Fortress FPS issues

senou1 · 03-08-2008, 10:03 AM

If this has already been posted i'm sorry.

The problem is that after reading the system requirements and surpassing them, updating all drivers and directX. Team Fortress 2 (among other games such as portal and half life 2: episode 1) are having some FPS issues.

In wide open spaces in general the FPS drops generally to 20-25 FPS whilst in closed spaces it easily reaches/surpasses 60FPS.

My spec is as follows:

PSU - 450w (il get more info on this later and update accordingly in this thread)
Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4 series ( 1 socket 939 )
CPU - AMD athlon 64 3500+ @ 2200 mhz
RAM - Micron tech - DDR SDRAM - 2 x 200mhz - 2 x 1gb
Video card - Radeon x1800xt 256mb - PCI-E
HDD - Maxtor 6Y080L0 ATA - 80GB - IDE (i think)
OS - Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

I hope someone here can help me out!
Thanks in advance

Sen

EDIT - the GPU has been overclocked using ATi Overdrive.

**koala** · 03-08-2008, 10:13 AM

Hi Sen, welcome to TSF

Quote:

PSU - 500w (il get more info on this later and update accordingly in this thread)

Check the label on the side of the PSU. If the amps listed for +12V are less than 26A, you'll need a more powerful PSU to run a PCIE card.

How much free hard drive space is left? Windows needs a minimum of 15% free.

Have you installed the latest motherboard chipset drivers? When you updated the graphics driver, did you uninstall the old driver and then update in VGA mode?

Have you tried dropping the game's graphics settings, epecially AA and resolution?

EDIT: Undo the overclock.

senou1 · 03-08-2008, 10:22 AM

Thanks for the prompt reply :)

I have undone the overclock, and as mentioned before i have updated all drivers.

The HDD has approx 38 (48%-ish) free space.

The power supply is also up to scratch to run a PCIE card.

Also, adjusting resolution makes no difference, neither does changing the AA/other major settings.

My friend said it may be vista hogging the CPU, could that have something to do with it?

Thanks again,

Sen

**koala** · 03-08-2008, 10:36 AM

Check your temperatures and voltages with PC Wizard at startup with no other programs running, then again during gameplay (alt-tab out of the game). Post back with 2 screenshots from the 'Voltage, Temperature & Fans' window.

Vista is known to slow down some games, but I don't know how it affects Team Fortress. Hang on for some replies from the Gaming team about this.

Check your CPU usage in Task Manager while playing.

senou1 · 03-08-2008, 04:40 PM

Before i show the results, i ought to say i added a further 1.5GB of RAM ( total = 3.5GB ), which loaded the game significantly faster, but made no noticeable difference to FPS.

The results from PC wizard show as follows in the Voltage, Temperature and Fans tab:

PC freshly booted:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/1.jpg

Team Fortress 2 running whilst in a closed area (60FPS):

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/2.jpg

And finally, Team Fortress 2 running whilst in an open area (20-30 FPS):

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/3.jpg

And as for the CPU usage in task manager:

CLOSED SPACE = 38% average ( 33 - 42 )
OPEN SPACE = 48% average ( 43 - 55)

All results were taken on a moderately busy server for TF2 ( 16 people including myself)

Hope this helps to diagnose the problem,

Thanks again,

Sen

**Aus_Karlos** · 03-09-2008, 06:08 AM

It could be your RAM (sorry to add to your problem). If ive read your specs right your RAM is running at 200mhz or is it 2x 200 = 400mhz.
If its at 200mhz than that is one reason why the game slows down in open spaces as it requires a large amount of RAM and fast RAM.
Also Wizard PC is giving an incorrect temp reading for your CPU.
Try Everest from my sig.

EP1 and EP2 engine (EP2 runs TF2, Portal) have had a major overhaul to graphics, physics, textures. TF2 could be slowing down due to the amount of facial animation. Just by injuring someone makes their character react.

Also Vista is a memory hog. Which most ppl know by now. Vista even in idle can use up-to 1.2gb of RAM. Leaving very little for pagefile swapping, and games.

Try disabling Motion Blur, and lower the Anisotropic to 6 or 8, turn down the reflection.
Motion Blur has a huge performance impact on GPU and CPU.

03-08-2008, 10:03 AM	#1 (permalink)
senou1 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Vista Home Premium	Team Fortress FPS issues If this has already been posted i'm sorry. The problem is that after reading the system requirements and surpassing them, updating all drivers and directX. Team Fortress 2 (among other games such as portal and half life 2: episode 1) are having some FPS issues. In wide open spaces in general the FPS drops generally to 20-25 FPS whilst in closed spaces it easily reaches/surpasses 60FPS. My spec is as follows: PSU - 450w (il get more info on this later and update accordingly in this thread) Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4 series ( 1 socket 939 ) CPU - AMD athlon 64 3500+ @ 2200 mhz RAM - Micron tech - DDR SDRAM - 2 x 200mhz - 2 x 1gb Video card - Radeon x1800xt 256mb - PCI-E HDD - Maxtor 6Y080L0 ATA - 80GB - IDE (i think) OS - Vista Home Premium (32-bit) I hope someone here can help me out! Thanks in advance Sen EDIT - the GPU has been overclocked using ATi Overdrive. Last edited by senou1; 03-08-2008 at 10:08 AM.

03-08-2008, 10:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
senou1 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Vista Home Premium	Re: Team Fortress FPS issues Thanks for the prompt reply :) I have undone the overclock, and as mentioned before i have updated all drivers. The HDD has approx 38 (48%-ish) free space. The power supply is also up to scratch to run a PCIE card. Also, adjusting resolution makes no difference, neither does changing the AA/other major settings. My friend said it may be vista hogging the CPU, could that have something to do with it? Thanks again, Sen Last edited by senou1; 03-08-2008 at 10:24 AM.

03-08-2008, 10:36 AM	#4 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 12,386 OS: XP/7/Ubuntu My System	Re: Team Fortress FPS issues Check your temperatures and voltages with PC Wizard at startup with no other programs running, then again during gameplay (alt-tab out of the game). Post back with 2 screenshots from the 'Voltage, Temperature & Fans' window. Vista is known to slow down some games, but I don't know how it affects Team Fortress. Hang on for some replies from the Gaming team about this. Check your CPU usage in Task Manager while playing. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

03-08-2008, 04:40 PM	#5 (permalink)
senou1 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Vista Home Premium	Re: Team Fortress FPS issues Before i show the results, i ought to say i added a further 1.5GB of RAM ( total = 3.5GB ), which loaded the game significantly faster, but made no noticeable difference to FPS. The results from PC wizard show as follows in the Voltage, Temperature and Fans tab: PC freshly booted: http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/1.jpg Team Fortress 2 running whilst in a closed area (60FPS): http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/2.jpg And finally, Team Fortress 2 running whilst in an open area (20-30 FPS): http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p153/linkos01/3.jpg And as for the CPU usage in task manager: CLOSED SPACE = 38% average ( 33 - 42 ) OPEN SPACE = 48% average ( 43 - 55) All results were taken on a moderately busy server for TF2 ( 16 people including myself) Hope this helps to diagnose the problem, Thanks again, Sen

03-09-2008, 06:08 AM	#6 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,461 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Team Fortress FPS issues It could be your RAM (sorry to add to your problem). If ive read your specs right your RAM is running at 200mhz or is it 2x 200 = 400mhz. If its at 200mhz than that is one reason why the game slows down in open spaces as it requires a large amount of RAM and fast RAM. Also Wizard PC is giving an incorrect temp reading for your CPU. Try Everest from my sig. EP1 and EP2 engine (EP2 runs TF2, Portal) have had a major overhaul to graphics, physics, textures. TF2 could be slowing down due to the amount of facial animation. Just by injuring someone makes their character react. Also Vista is a memory hog. Which most ppl know by now. Vista even in idle can use up-to 1.2gb of RAM. Leaving very little for pagefile swapping, and games. Try disabling Motion Blur, and lower the Anisotropic to 6 or 8, turn down the reflection. Motion Blur has a huge performance impact on GPU and CPU. __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home