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Same settings, crappier FPS (Read 1208 times)
Jun 25th, 2004 at 8:42am

pooty13901   Offline
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Hi All,

I'm posting this in three different forums. i hope that's legal. I don't know where to best find the answer:

What is going on when I fire up the computer, have settings at a particular point, run the FS and get FPS of about 28, and then fire it up the next time and have the settings the same and the FPS jump all over from 28 down to 3, to 25-29 to 4 creating very jumpy gameplay?
Please keep in mind that I am doing a Ctrl+Alt+Del and freeing up RAM space. Also the cloud settings are the same. On top of that, I can drop all my graphics settings to literally zero and still get crappy movements. This is a new 128Mb ATI 9800 Pro and the second time (out of three times so far) that I have used it I was flying out of Phoenix with clouds and lightning and settings up pretty high and I was smooth as hell. This morning I did the same exact flight, the clouds were nil, and the FPS sucked! *%$^^#*!!!!

Secondly, is it normal for the CPU usage indicator to jump around from say, 77% down to 43% when all programs are shut down?
 

Awwww, crap!
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Reply #1 - Jun 25th, 2004 at 8:49am

pooty13901   Offline
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Binghamton, New York

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I just wanted to add that the second time I played using the new card was in the same sitting as when I first used it. I only add it to show that I don't think this is a defrag problem or something like that. It doesn't make sense to me that if the FS runs crappy and then I do other stuff on the computer as a break, then come back and fire up the FS again and it runs smoothly.... Angry Angry Angry Angry
 

Awwww, crap!
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Reply #2 - Jun 25th, 2004 at 8:55am

pooty13901   Offline
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Binghamton, New York

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Wow! Look at me!! I'm running my own thread here!!! Grin

I just wanted to add....again....that my system is as follows:

768Ram
2.4Ghz
Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb
30Gb Hard Drive
17 Inch Monitor

And how much does the screen resolution under "Hardware" affect gameplay? Thanks everyone!
 

Awwww, crap!
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Reply #3 - Jun 25th, 2004 at 12:41pm

leworthy8   Offline
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What brand of power supply do you have and how powerful is it?
 

...
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Reply #4 - Jun 27th, 2004 at 5:24pm

pooty13901   Offline
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Binghamton, New York

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I have connected to my computer power source. i think 250W max. output. Whaddya think? Could that be the problem? I think the card recommends 300W. I understand that one should always do the recommended stuff when it comes to a  video card and I plan to. I just haven't gotten around to a place yet that can sell me the necessary hardware. Will this affect the card's performance? If so, what are the chances?
 

Awwww, crap!
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Reply #5 - Jun 28th, 2004 at 11:45am

leworthy8   Offline
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OMG that is probably your problem that your running a 9800pro, hardrive,cdrom, motherboard and other stuff of the power supply is probably putting to much of a strain on the power supply.
Is the molex plugged into the 9800pro?
The 9800pro is probably not getting enough power.
I'd suggest either borrowing a more powerful power supply of someone to test (at least a 350-400watt) or buying a new one.
 

...
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Reply #6 - Jun 28th, 2004 at 2:04pm

Dan   Offline
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How can I find out what my PSU is? It doesn't say on it, and the Belarc advisor doesn't either.
Dan
 
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Reply #7 - Jun 28th, 2004 at 2:28pm

leworthy8   Offline
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Open the case of your PC and it should have a label on the side of the PSU telling you the power in watts and also the current rating on each voltage line e.g. 12v=17A
 

...
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Reply #8 - Jul 5th, 2004 at 5:26pm

4_Series_Scania   Offline
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Windows XP or MX/98? If its the latter, you have too much RAM for these OS's....

Just a thought!  ???
 

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!
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Reply #9 - Jul 6th, 2004 at 2:46pm

Dan   Offline
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I thought it was truly IMPOSSIBLE to have too much RAM?
Dan
 
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Reply #10 - Jul 10th, 2004 at 9:07am

GeForce   Offline
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Quote:
Windows XP or MX/98? If its the latter, you have too much RAM for these OS's....

Just a thought!  ???


Hi Scania

This is extremely debatable. Mr Fozzer has Win98SE and put an extra 256mb RAM in (taking the total to 768mb) and has apparently noticed a big increase in performance.

I myself have come to the conclusion that whether you can add more than 512mb RAM to those OSs depends completely on the system.

For example, two of my friends have Windows 98. They both put their RAM from 512mb to 768mb and one noticed a 5-7fps performance increase in FS2002, the other found that it slowed their PC down so much it was almost unusable.

Jon 8)
 

...&&LiveScripts.NET - Over 300 free Scripts and Extensive Scripting Tutorials&&AMD Athlon 64 3700+ @ 2.8Ghz | Asus A8N-SLi Premium | BFG Tech GeForce 7900GT 256mb @ 475/1360Mhz | 1Gb GeIL Ultra-X NF4 Edition | 160Gb WD SATA-3 HDD | Hiper Type-R 580W
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Reply #11 - Jul 10th, 2004 at 3:51pm

4_Series_Scania   Offline
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He who laughs last, thinks
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Quote:
Hi Scania

This is extremely debatable. Mr Fozzer has Win98SE and put an extra 256mb RAM in (taking the total to 768mb) and has apparently noticed a big increase in performance.

I myself have come to the conclusion that whether you can add more than 512mb RAM to those OSs depends completely on the system.

For example, two of my friends have Windows 98. They both put their RAM from 512mb to 768mb and one noticed a 5-7fps performance increase in FS2002, the other found that it slowed their PC down so much it was almost unusable.

Jon 8)


Sheesh, if I had a quid for every time somebody asked me why they got problems with over 512MB & 98or ME!

Don't quote me, I'm no expert........  Wink

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=253912  Kiss Ask this mob!

Quote:
SYMPTOMS
If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message:

There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.
The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message:

Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.
CAUSE
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.

On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:
Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less. For additional information about how to use the MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size

Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.For additional information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings

Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATION
Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB.

This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses.

In short, Windows 98 or ME cannot support over 512MB of RAM and be expected to stay stable!
This is hardly a new issue and a reason WHY XP supports more than 512MB RAM!

Wink
 

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!
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Reply #12 - Sep 16th, 2004 at 4:39pm

Max-Burn   Offline
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Don't forget that win98 was probably the most unstable OS Microsoft has ever produced, why not get XP pro?
 

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Reply #13 - Sep 16th, 2004 at 4:41pm

Max-Burn   Offline
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I have a 550 PSU, it was only £25, I would upgrade that too, or you will have all sorts of problems.
 

MSI K72N delta, 1 gig 333 RAM, Athlon 2.6 clocked to 2.25, 120gigHDD0 Service Pack 2, 80gigHDD1 Service pack 1, GeForce 5600 ultra, Antec plusview server case, lots of fans, lights & UV illuminatory devices!
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