8800 cards and Unreal 2k4

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Jivemiguel

Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
761
I downloaded the UT3 demo this weekend and realized what I already knew: that I need to upgrade my video card if I want to play this game. A while back (around ForceWare version 100 or so) I bought a 8800 gts. Under windows XP, I found out that unreal tournament 2004 had stuttering problems. I guess this wasn't a problem with Vista, but I never tested it myself (don't have vista, don't want it). The frame rate wouldn't go down, but frames would drop, and it felt really weird. So I sold that card and went back to my 7900GT.

My question is: I want to get an 8800GTX now, but I still will be playing UT2004, as well as UT3. Does anyone know if this stuttering problem has been resolved? The forceware version is up to 160 or something, and I figure it must be resolved by now, but I don't know.

Any help or input would be great. Thanks!
 
The studdering problem might not be your card. I've ran 2k4 on this laptop before, running a mobile radeon 7000 with no studdering issues.

Care to list your system specs for us?
 
If you have an amd x2 cpu get the dual core optimization by them. I heard it stops stuttering. might help :)
 
i remember playing unreal2k4 maxed out on my radeon9800 pro thinkin it was the shit

it definatly wasnt your card. i second trying the dual core fix, as you will probably hit this issue further on again
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I can say that it definitely was the card and not my system. When I went back to my 7900gt, the problem was gone. And it is documented that other users have this problem with 8800 chip cards AND any game that uses the unreal engine (whatever engine powers ut2k4, I forget what version of the engine that is).

Specs of the machine are:
Asus A8N sli with heatpipe northbridge cooling (forget if that's the deluxe, super, mega cool or what)
AMD Athlon 64 San Diego core running around 2.4 mhz
2gb pc3500 OCZ ram
Windows XP
EVGA 7900 GTKO

It's not a screaming machine by todays standards, but it's more than capable.
 
Jivemiguel said:
Thanks for the replies so far. I can say that it definitely was the card and not my system. When I went back to my 7900gt, the problem was gone. And it is documented that other users have this problem with 8800 chip cards AND any game that uses the unreal engine (whatever engine powers ut2k4, I forget what version of the engine that is).

Specs of the machine are:
Asus A8N sli with heatpipe northbridge cooling (forget if that's the deluxe, super, mega cool or what)
AMD Athlon 64 San Diego core running around 2.4 mhz
2gb pc3500 OCZ ram
Windows XP
EVGA 7900 GTKO

It's not a screaming machine by todays standards, but it's more than capable.
Click to expand...

I'd RMA your 8800gts. It's more than an adequate card for UT3, as is your system. UT3 is very friendly to machines.
 
JStudrawa said:
I'd RMA your 8800gts. It's more than an adequate card for UT3, as is your system. UT3 is very friendly to machines.
Click to expand...

LOL I sold the GTS a week after I bought it. It would have cost me $45 to return it to new egg and an RMA wouldn't have fixed the problem. As I said, it was a known issue with Unreal Engine games and the 8800 series of chips, and the ForceWare drivers at the time. My question still stands, has the issue been fixed with newer drivers?
 
UT2004 runs great on an 8800 GTS. 1920x1200 @ 60fps solid (vsync'd). Game runs silky smooth essentially as high as you can set things.

I've got a Core 2 Duo on Vista 64-bit that is backing the 8800.

So while I'm not saying you aren't having problems, it isn't a problem inherent to the 8800. On my system, it runs extremely well.
 
Sycraft said:
UT2004 runs great on an 8800 GTS. 1920x1200 @ 60fps solid (vsync'd). Game runs silky smooth essentially as high as you can set things.

I've got a Core 2 Duo on Vista 64-bit that is backing the 8800.

So while I'm not saying you aren't having problems, it isn't a problem inherent to the 8800. On my system, it runs extremely well.
Click to expand...

This is the response I'm looking for. Thank you... I'll be running at the same resolution. So I guess I can assume that nVidia has finally fixed the problem with their drivers.

Thanks again!
 
OP. I think you are the most loyal UT fan on earth. Theres a lot of games out there that run flawless on the 8800gts. :) Don't get me wrong, I'm a sicko for a ut2004 onslaught match.

My computer plays it fine. I'm assuming EVERYTHING was up to date on your computer?
 
stoney_titan said:
OP. I think you are the most loyal UT fan on earth.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm up there for sure. I don't play or care about any other game but ut2k4 and ut3 :D


stoney_titan said:
My computer plays it fine. I'm assuming EVERYTHING was up to date on your computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, at the time that I tried out the 8800gts, XP was patched, i was using the latest forceware drivers (tried many versions, including 'beta' and 'alpha' versions, and ones hacked by guru3d, etc), and my hardware was pretty new. Again, the problem was not there before I tried the 8800, and it went away once I took it out and put my 7900GTKO back in.
 
Jivemiguel said:
LOL I sold the GTS a week after I bought it. It would have cost me $45 to return it to new egg and an RMA wouldn't have fixed the problem. As I said, it was a known issue with Unreal Engine games and the 8800 series of chips, and the ForceWare drivers at the time. My question still stands, has the issue been fixed with newer drivers?
Click to expand...

Obviously, if I am saying UT3 is friendly to 8800's.... (note, look at sig). :)
 
I've been playing UT2004 for years. I bought my 8800 GTS 640 in Febuary. I never had any problem with stuttering. I think it was something wrong with your computer, not the specific drivers or video card.
 
I am using forceware 163.75 beta driver for my 8800 GTX card and no shuttering problem in UT3 or UT2k4 @ all for me.

Shuttering may occur when it come to memory issue (filled up ram and use virtual memory instead) or driver problem.
 
Well, nVidia never fixed the UT2k4 stuttering under XP. They did fix it under vista so I broke down and went for Vista. Yes, that's how much this OLD game means to me!
Thanks for all who replied.
 
UT2004 was the only game that I started the singleplayer campaign (if you can call it that :p) on and did not finsh. The reason being was of the stuttering. I have an 8800GTX and WinXP. This was in December that i finally gave up on the game and uninstalled it.


Edit: the above post makes sense.
 
Wait, are you saying that if I install my good old copy of UT2k4 Editors Choice Edition right now, it will stutter?
 
The 8 series has compatibility issues with UT2k4 based games (sucks for me as I am an avid RvS fan :(), it has something to do with the T&L lighting from what I was told, there is a fix but imo it doesn't really fix it a ton.

ut2004.ini
[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]
DetailTextures=True
HighDetailActors=True
SuperHighDetailActors=True
UsePrecaching=True
UseTrilinear=True
AdapterNumber=-1
ReduceMouseLag=True
UseTripleBuffering=False
UseHardwareTL=False <<<<<Set this line to false!!!
UseHardwareVS=True
UseCubemaps=True
DesiredRefreshRate=60
UseCompressedLightmaps=True
UseStencil=False
Use16bit=False
Use16bitTextures=False
MaxPixelShaderVersion=255
UseVSync=False
LevelOfAnisotropy=1
DetailTexMipBias=0.000000
DefaultTexMipBias=-0.500000
UseNPatches=False
TesselationFactor=1.000000
CheckForOverflow=False
AvoidHitches=False
OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False
ReportUnusedTextures=False
DecompressTextures=False
TerrainLOD=0
SkyboxHack=False
LowQualityTerrain=False

It might look okay, it might look like shit, but good luck. :)
 
When I had my evga superclocked 320 gts , then the 640 mb version [no O/C] certain custom maps would always stutter.
I also had friends building the Troopers mod, which i was beta -testing, and they had to put up with me whining whenever we got to the Death Star Map :p.

I think somehwere I had read it wasn't the shaders or anything specifically about the 80 series architecture, but instead the fact that the amount of ram on these cards was not "standard" for what the ut engine wanted. So it chugged a bit even though one would think it was serious overkill.:D
When I E-bayed the 640 for a new 8800GT the game was back to its awsomeness. Of course there was the whole overheating debacle...:rolleyes:
 
AeXStrider said:
I think somehwere I had read it wasn't the shaders or anything specifically about the 80 series architecture, but instead the fact that the amount of ram on these cards was not "standard" for what the ut engine wanted. So it chugged a bit even though one would think it was serious overkill.
Click to expand...

I thought this was the case too. I don't have any problems with UT2004 or UT3 with forceware 159...something, under XP32. These drivers seem to work the best for me.
 
Sta!nless said:
I thought this was the case too. I don't have any problems with UT2004 or UT3 with forceware 159...something, under XP32. These drivers seem to work the best for me.
Click to expand...
From what I've found, it is really dependent on the maps that you play. I play strictly VCTF, and the problem is apparent on about 20% of the maps that get played on a regular basis. And yes, there are no problems that I know of with UT3 and the 8xxx cards under XP32. UT3 seems to run better under XP than Vista, but that's for another thread!
 
I have had 0 problems with UT2k4 on my rig using the latest drivers when they come out, it is always silky smooth at 1920x1200 reso.

UT3 on the other hand tends to give me little red checker patterns on some large maps regardless of the drivers. If the server I am on has more then around 12 players I do tend to lockup a few seconds after the checkers appear.
 
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