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Doom 3 FPS issues with 6800 GT

C

cackle

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 7, 2002
Messages
270
System specs:
Asus a7n8x deluxe
512 MB XMS corsair
2500+ at stock
XFX 6800 gt at stock

I'm getting massive slowdowns in doom3 whenever I open doors and at certain points in levels (specifically, I get <20 fps during the scene at the beginning of the game where you can move around and the ship that just dropped you off is starting to fly upwards). From what I can tell by other people's glowing reviews of the 6800 series, I shouldn't be getting these slowdowns but the stuff I've tried so far hasn't seemed to help.

I'm running at 1280x1024 HQ with all effects on.

I have disabled AGP fast writes in the BIOS and done a ton of console tweaks (the ones that can be found easily through google). Are there any other things that anyone has done to get rid of these stutters and slowdowns? Thanks much.

~ cackle
 
how about enabling fast writes, and setting AGP aperature to 128MB, try that

also, in our own testing and my experience i've experienced the same thing during initial level loads, and sometimes entering through doors to another room

and in that scene you are talking about at the very beginning that is one of the most intense scenes, for your graphics card, in the game, its normal to slow down there a little

but performance should still be very playable, i.e. above 30FPS

also make sure you have the latest driver

and just an FYI moving to 1GB of ram might help some of that hitching

could also overclock your CPU if you are up to it, that's kind of a bottleneck for that video card
 
I'll try fast writes and agp aperature and get back to you. I definitely agree there should be some hitching, but I'm going into single digit frames in some sections (when I first talk to Sarge), and during the space ship scene I'm idling at 15-17 fps which seems to be about half of what I should be getting. I don't have multiple monitors. Hopefully it's not my CPU as I'm hesitant to overclock it (my motherboard REALLY doesn't like being overclocked). I was thinking about getting another 512 MB of RAM. This may be a good enough reason to.
 
cackle said:
I'll try fast writes and agp aperature and get back to you. I definitely agree there should be some hitching, but I'm going into single digit frames in some sections (when I first talk to Sarge), and during the space ship scene I'm idling at 15-17 fps which seems to be about half of what I should be getting. I don't have multiple monitors. Hopefully it's not my CPU as I'm hesitant to overclock it (my motherboard REALLY doesn't like being overclocked). I was thinking about getting another 512 MB of RAM. This may be a good enough reason to.
Click to expand...

well, the ram will help stabalize hitching, but it won't raise your frame rate

sounds like something else is going on
 
Does it happen in all your games?

The same thing happens to me at 1600x1200 in CSS - even slower systems get better fps at that than I do.

Howveer you have only got a 2500+ - or should you still be getting higher?
 
Blad3 said:
Does it happen in all your games?

The same thing happens to me at 1600x1200 in CSS - even slower systems get better fps at that than I do.

Howveer you have only got a 2500+ - or should you still be getting higher?
Click to expand...

I get the same crap everytime too. Usually when this happens, unfortunely with newer games, it's time to upgrade the ram. I've seen several of these posts and every person that has this problem has 512mb or less. I have seen my framerate dip to 0 from page filing. :(

One thing, does it kind of go away after like 10-15 minutes of gameplay? Mine reduces quite a bit sometimes, after everything has loaded.
 
lol you and I almost have the same computer. Except I have a t-bred and you have a barton. This board will at least give you an overclock of 2.1-2.2GHz. I don't think that's your problem though. What drivers are you using?
 
I used to have the same problem with my system, and it is a pretty good gaming system. I had some 512mb DDR laying around and I popped it in my system. All the hicupping from entering new rooms and the like, compltely went away. Performance with 1024mb is way better for really demanding games like Doom 3, Half Life 2 (I'm guessing) and Far cry. I would recommend a RAM upgrade for sure, and eventually a CPU upgrade. But 2500+ is good for now.
 
I'm using the 61 and not the 65 or 66 version drivers. I have a feeling it might be the lack of RAM, but I'm not 100% sure. Yeah, my board should be giving me a good 2.1 or 2.2 OC especially with the heatsink and fan I've got on it but the BIOS is REALLY flakey once I start to overclock and I remember just giving up because my performance was good enough. It may be time to update the BIOS and etc. and see if that helps as well.
 
The answer is no to that quick question. Also, I just played at medium quality and I was still getting the drops. I'm 99% sure it's not the RAM. Anywho, I'll get the newer chipset drivers ASAP.
 
I just installed the newest chipset drivers and it didn't make any difference.
 
I still believe that it is the RAM. Like I said, I had exaclty the same problem with my Doom 3 playing, I increased the RAM, and I had no more problems.
 
ive found the answer to your problem...

reconstruct the entire doom3 universe in your basement
 
cackle said:
I'm using the 61 and not the 65 or 66 version drivers. I have a feeling it might be the lack of RAM, but I'm not 100% sure. Yeah, my board should be giving me a good 2.1 or 2.2 OC especially with the heatsink and fan I've got on it but the BIOS is REALLY flakey once I start to overclock and I remember just giving up because my performance was good enough. It may be time to update the BIOS and etc. and see if that helps as well.
Click to expand...

Speaking of that, I have a barton 2600+ on an Asus A7N8X-X,with 512MB of DDR400 (more 512 coming this weekend). Anyway, I couldnt bring my cpu to do anything more than 2800+,that being 12,5 x 166(1.65v). I flashed the bios today to the latest version (1010-X) and bingo, 3000+,being 10,5 x 200 (1.7v),totally stable,with almost 0 temp increase.
 
Well I have the A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 1.4 so I'd be using a different BIOS for sure, but the idea still stands. I should probably update it. That means I'm probably going to have to go find a floppy disk drive I can hook up. Unless ASUS has another way of doing it. I may just end up buying a new motherboard as this one has given me more trouble than I think it's worth.

Anywho, I really really don't think it's my RAM. Dropping the quality level to medium still yields the same slowdowns (i.e. to <10 fps) in the same areas. I'm not adverse to getting another 512 MB stick, though, as I'm going to need it eventually anway.
 
I guess I just find it hard to believe that it's the RAM when I've seen other people with machines almost exactly the same as mine getting MUCH better FPS. 512 MB should be enough to make medium quality not slow down and it is, so that's another oddity.
 
No one can guarantee it's the RAM causing the problem, but I've just finished a session of Doom 3 and my peak commit charge was 864Mb (I have 1Gb RAM) - in other words there would be some serious paging going on if I had 512Mb. Having said that, I still get stuttering on my BFG 6800U OC with 1Gb RAM, but I reckon it would be much worse with half the memory.
 
Is that stuttering as in single digit FPS stuttering or drops to 25 fps stuttering? There is a huge difference and I'm most certainly getting the single digit stuttering even in medium quality. That alone makes me believe that I've got other issues. I may try a fresh install of WinXP.
 
Cackle: yes, it will occasionally drop to 25 fps, but not normally during 'open play'. If I'm *ahem* beating a hasty retreat and sprinting between various sections of the game it sometimes looks like the game is trying to shuffle memory to- and fro and you have to wait a second or two for it all to settle down.

Pull down the console in Doom (Ctrl-Alt-Key just beneath 'Escape') and type 'timedemo demo1' (without quotes) and watch it. Mine stutters pretty badly in parts of the demo (you can see it happen where the effects and action noticeably hots up), but I still come out with 69fps average at 1600x1200, high quality, no aa or af.

I've got a 3400+ processor running my card. If you have something similar, I'd guess you should be looking at c.56-60fps with your card at this resolution.

As I said, you can't be certain RAM is the problem, but I reckon you need a 512Mb card and 2Gb RAM to get the best out of Doom3, maybe even on 'high', rather than 'ultra'. Either way, bunging in the extra RAM won't be a waste as it'll make most modern games more comfortable. I play Enemy Territory a lot. When I had 512Mb, it would peak at about 380Mb usage. Running it with 1Gb it's peaking at 560Mb. Even this fairly ageing engine appreciates the extra headroom.
 
My exp is this:

2600 Barton
GB 7n400 pro 2
BFG 6800 gt
512 MB (x1) crucial 2.5 CAS
36 GB Raptor (x1)

Game would be the exact same as you desc. I would also get too much tearing. Had to drop to 800x640 to get it to not be so annoying but still some of the problems would be there.

1GB (512x2 Dual Channel) CAS 2.0 of ram later and I have none of the problems that you have now. Totally a different game now. Best 180 I have spent to upgrade. I didn't think that 512 and 1GB would matter much, but I think we are now in the days where it does.
 
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