splinter cell (maybe other games too) LAGS when settings are on highest

J

johnnq

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 31, 2005
Messages
1,049
asus a8n-sli
a64 3200
evga 7800gt

playing at 1280x1024 with no aa is super smooth. playing at 1600x1200 at highest settings is very playable (30 fps+) but there is a full second of lag. if i lower the settings (lower res, lower shader level, lower aa) the lag is reduced. what's going on?
 
i thought "cpu limited" just meant that max frames were reduced...not lag...and wouldn't the cpu limit me at LOW resolutions and settings??
 
Quoting the HardOCP review of the WidowPC WidowFX
"Splinter Cell continues to be one of the most graphically challenging games in our line-up, despite the recent additions to our library. We have yet to evaluate a system that can handle this game at its highest settings."
And your system consists of 1 7800GT...
 
yea yea i know...but shouldn't the game just be choppy at low frames? what does lag have to do with it? (and the game is very playable besides the lag)
 
I dont think he means normale fram lag, but I'm thinking of a delay of some sort... Try the usual suspects first, new drivers, patch the game and report back.
 
Check your framerate, it's probably in the mid 20's, so it looks smooth, but it's actually choppy and laggy.
 
i have 2x 1gb ram in dual channel...and yea by "lag" i mean "delay".
 
johnnq said:
i have 2x 1gb ram in dual channel...and yea by "lag" i mean "delay".
Click to expand...
A delay between what? You pressing buttons and the action happening? Delay between sounds and visuals? Delay between characters and their hitboxes? What?!
 
ahh sorry i'll elaborate. delay from mouse to game, keyboard to game.even through the menus, i move the mouse left and it takes almost a full second for it to start moving.
 
johnnq said:
asus a8n-sli
a64 3200
evga 7800gt

playing at 1280x1024 with no aa is super smooth. playing at 1600x1200 at highest settings is very playable (30 fps+) but there is a full second of lag. if i lower the settings (lower res, lower shader level, lower aa) the lag is reduced. what's going on?
Click to expand...
hmm whats your ram like?
 
super super cheap mushkin value (i didn't buy a pack. i bought 2 1gb sticks for like$70 at the time. they're within 3 models of each other so i know they're from the same batch (they run in dual channel). one thing i noticed a while ago was that they were running at 2t, is this the reason? should i try to force 1t?
 
just running around, fraps gave me 24 fps (which is very playable...)
 
reduce to 12/10 and like 4x aa it should still look nice and give great performace.
 
well duh lol (and there is still some lag...) but there shouldn't be ANY delay...can somebody help me get to the bottom of this?
 
You know I had somewhat of the same problem. I had 2 6600GT's running in SLi and a 3200+ from everyone I talked to, I should have been able to run full settings on BF2, FEAR etc cuz of the SLi, but I set all to max and everything was laggy as all hell.

One thing that helped me was going into the nvidia utility and changing AA and anisotropic filtering and such from "application controlled" and setting the values manually in the utility instead of the game menu. I don't know why but somehow that helped a lot. I still experienced some lag, but it was a lot less than before. I ended up just upgrading to a 3800 dual core and now everything is perfect. A couple people I talked to said high-end graphics can "bottleneck" and cause lagginess on a lower-end cpu.
 
Give this a try:
1. Make sure the drivers for your monitor are installed and current. Then load ReForce. This will make sure you are always running Windows, apps, and games at the highest refresh rate your monitor will allow.
2. Start SC at 1024x768 at the highest AA/AF/SM settings you can set (make sure you enable VSynch for all resolution te4sts). Make note of the average fps this gives you.
3. Then start SC at 1280x960 or 1280x1024 at the highest settings. Be sure to note the average fps this gives.
4. Finally, start SC at 1600x1200 with the highest settings and make note of the fps this gives you.

If your average fps at any setting are around 45+, then you should really stick with that setting. Since you stated that 24-30 fps at 1600x1200 is playable on your system, keep in mind that when the game is rendering a bunch of particles for weapon fire, smoke effects, or night vision mode (for example), this is going to substantially impact performance (you might even be dipping down into single digit fps at such a high resolution).

I have to play SC:CT with SM3.0 and 16x AF (all other setting maxed) at 1280x1024 on my system. Any resolution above that and it does start to lag in certain areas of the game unless I start eliminating in-game graphics options, such as AF, soft ahadows, etc.

Here are the specs of my system:

Venice 3000+ @ 2.4GHz
2GB PC3200 memory
7800GT @ 460/1100MHz
19" CRT (1280x1024x75Hz)

Give it a try, and you'll likely find that 1600x1200 is just too high of a resolution for your 7800GT with this game. ;)
 
oh i know that the game WOULD slow down, but running around is fine. and i'm pretty sure it's not the monitor (if that's what you were getting at) because i'll click fire, but i won't hear the gunshot untill it loads (half or a full second later)
 
I recommend you install ReForce, as it will ensure that you get to play all games at the max refresh rate allowable by your monitor. Higher refresh rate = higher possibility for frame rates when VSynch is on (eliminates tearing). ;)
 
i've never heard of reforce. i'll go look it up. does running my monitor at almost the highest refresh rate it can go bad?
 
Nope not at all. All you are doing is running it at the highest factory specified limit. ReForce takes the monitor info from Windows and applies it so that the max refresh rates are always used at every resolution. It's like going into the display settings and selecting the higher refresh rate manually, only this does it for you all the time, every time. :cool:

I already posted you a link to it here. Enjoy!
 
it's the demo...but it's not the game. if i play ureal tournament with 8xS, there is also lag (even at 50fps+ and going through the menus)
 
check your processes to see if you have a cpu hogging app like anit virus or spyware stuff
 
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