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CPU Stess Relief (Gaming)

K

Katotonic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
320
System has a P4HT @3ghz and a x1950pro 512mb (OC'd) as well as 2GB OCZ and I was wondering what I could do with in game settings to relieve some of the bottleneck (which is extremely minimal at this point) off the CPU.

It is my understanding that things like AA, AF, HDR are taxed on the vid card and things like textures and resolution typically are associated with memory (as well as vid card). If we are using FEAR (since it has a lot of in game settings) what would be the settings to reduce? I'm thinking Physics and AI (which I can't really adjust) but I'm not sure what beyond that. I need to know what to look for in future games as a general reference.
 
genaral rule to remember - the higher the resolution you run the less AA, AF etc. required to make the game run and look good. at 1600x1200 a game will look better with AA and AF off than say at 1280x1024 res with it all on. Shadows and water detail can be lowered to speed gameplay....try to get your settings to allow for a nice 40+ FPS

the faster and smoother your game runs the less you will even notice the little things you turned off.
 
Gruntled Employee said:
genaral rule to remember - the higher the resolution you run the less AA, AF etc. required to make the game run and look good. at 1600x1200 a game will look better with AA and AF off than say at 1280x1024 res with it all on. Shadows and water detail can be lowered to speed gameplay....try to get your settings to allow for a nice 40+ FPS

the faster and smoother your game runs the less you will even notice the little things you turned off.
Click to expand...

It is also my understanding that enabling AA and AF delays the rate of info sent to the CPU and helps avoid the bottleneck. I play @ 1280x1024, my LCD's native resolution so I use 2-4AA and 4-8AF depending on the game.
 
Images are processed by the GPU and then filtered before exiting the card to the CPU.
This delay is next to nothing...the problem is that game is sluggish and the system is processing too much information and bogging down....best thing to do is start dropping off these features that are barely noticeable but tax your system. It is not so much that the flow of information is delayed.
 
Gruntled Employee said:
Images are processed by the GPU and then filtered before exiting the card to the CPU.
This delay is next to nothing...the problem is that game is sluggish and the system is processing too much information and bogging down....best thing to do is start dropping off these features that are barely noticeable but tax your system. It is not so much that the flow of information is delayed.
Click to expand...

Can you tell me specifically what processes are usually CPU bound (that are typically available in the in game setttings) that can be adjusted?
 
Things that will bog down CPU vs. GPU are things like A.I. (Difficulty settings), Audio (if you are using crappy onboard audio vs. a good aftermarket soundcard with hardware decoding etc), Particle effects (to some degree on the physics processing side of it).

Hope this is helping...
 
Gruntled Employee said:
Things that will bog down CPU vs. GPU are things like A.I. (Difficulty settings), Audio (if you are using crappy onboard audio vs. a good aftermarket soundcard with hardware decoding etc), Particle effects (to some degree on the physics processing side of it).

Hope this is helping...
Click to expand...

Helps a lot, one more question now that you mentioned it, I'm using a soundblaster live 5.1 (only use two speakers) I'm assuming this is up to par for my needs and won't affect the CPU.
 
It is better than on board but it is essentially a DX8 era card, I highly recommend you go to at least an audigy 2 zs or better...that will dramatically improve performance.
 
Gruntled Employee said:
It is better than on board but it is essentially a DX8 era card, I highly recommend you go to at least an audigy 2 zs or better...that will dramatically improve performance.
Click to expand...

and by dramatically he means like 5 to 10 percent improvement

FEAR has a lot of customizations that will burden your CPU less. Most of them are in the Options -> Performance -> Advanced Computer Options
turn off the extreme physics, and things like particle bouncing, and you will notice improvement

Also, can you overclock your Pentium? I got my 3.0 up to 3.5 easily with no voltage increase and it made a noticeable improvement in several games.
 
Gruntled Employee said:
It is better than on board but it is essentially a DX8 era card, I highly recommend you go to at least an audigy 2 zs or better...that will dramatically improve performance.
Click to expand...

Wow, had no idea, any links to benchies or graphs? If not, don't worry about it I'll try and find some, you've been more than helpful.
 
The older soundcards can't keep up, you may actually see a performance improvement by removing that card and running off onboard due to the higher end system you have this would be the first thing to do until a sufficient replacement arrives.
 
Gruntled Employee said:
The older soundcards can't keep up, you may actually see a performance improvement by removing that card and running off onboard due to the higher end system you have this would be the first thing to do until a sufficient replacement arrives.
Click to expand...

From what I've read the SB live is better than onboard but from the looks of it I won't be upgrading soon, at the egg decent cards are like $150 and up and I don't think I can justify it for a 5fps (estimate) increase.
 
The card itself won't render you extra FPS in terms of horsepower but what it will do is allow DX9 to be processed correctly with less issues and better stability....EAX2 is pretty much the norm now. I have still 1 system with an SB live 5.1 for older games, an SB live platinum in another machine and an audigy 2 ZS in a 3rd, I can definitely tell you that although it may seem insignificant in a FPS stand point it WILL reduce load on your CPU further allowing it to process other information like AI.
 
Katotonic said:
From what I've read the SB live is better than onboard but from the looks of it I won't be upgrading soon, at the egg decent cards are like $150 and up and I don't think I can justify it for a 5fps (estimate) increase.
Click to expand...
I got my Audigy 2 ZS for like $50 two years ago. Check the forums, I'm sure you'll find someone selling at a reasonable price. The ZS does make a noticeable difference. I can't really say anything about X-fi because they still haven't gotten their Linux drivers going.
 
I know myself I was standing there asking the same question to myself..."why should I buy this (audigy 2 zs) when I had the sb live 5.1" but I did it...I had to see for myself if the purchase was justified and I can honestly say it was worth it for me, watching movies, gaming, music....everything sounds clearer and better on the zs.
 
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