Poor TF2 performance

[Gabe3]

I've had this problem for awhile, i get about 15-25 frames when a lot of people are around especially in outdoor areas, like on Badwater Basin. i have a dual core cpu, the first core is 99% and the second core ranges from 9-30%. I've lowered down the settings and resolution, neither help... I use about 2.5-3gigs of ram, with at least a gig left to spare. I have 4gb total. TF2 is using 1.1gb. my temps are fine. svchost.exe typically using the most ram in my processes at 128mb.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Try enabling multicore processing in the video settings tab.

 

[Gabe3]

Try enabling multicore processing in the video settings tab.

that seemed to help a little but i cant multitask while playing, for example I can't have firefox open now while playing.

btw: if i have multicore disabled, and have firefox closed, it doesn't help.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

939 doesn't cut it for the game I don't think, unless your low fps is a recent development.

 

[cannondale06]

939 doesn't cut it for the game I don't think, unless your low fps is a recent development.

why would the socket matter? sure a 2.8 dual core Opteron may not be top of the line but its certainly way more than enough to run that game competently. I had no issues running that game on a 5000 X2 at stock 2.6.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

why would the socket matter? sure a 2.8 dual core Opteron may not be top of the line but its certainly way more than enough to run that game competently. I had no issues running that game on a 5000 X2 at stock 2.6.

Running it, and running it 60fps are two different things. This game is so CPU bound it's kinda retarded.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

939 doesn't cut it for the game I don't think

Should be fine. My A64 3000+ (@2.3GHz) managed about twice that at max settings. Even with 32 players I don't think it went under 25fps.

 

[cannondale06]

Running it, and running it 60fps are two different things. This game is so CPU bound it's kinda retarded.

sure the more cpu power you throw at it the better but the OPs cpu along with his 8800gt should be more than enough to have high framerates. something is clearly wrong.

 

[dderidex]

I've had this problem for awhile, i get about 15-25 frames when a lot of people are around especially in outdoor areas, like on Badwater Basin. i have a dual core cpu, the first core is 99% and the second core ranges from 9-30%. I've lowered down the settings and resolution, neither help... I use about 2.5-3gigs of ram, with at least a gig left to spare. I have 4gb total. TF2 is using 1.1gb. my temps are fine. svchost.exe typically using the most ram in my processes at 128mb.

Definitely something environmental, there.

I pull 18-50 fps on a TF2 replay specifically designed to stress the CPU, and I'm on a 2.4ghz Socket 939 CPU with a MUCH weaker GPU than you have (Radeon 3850). Linkage for FRAPS run.

Enable 'multicore rendering' definitely. If Firefox is an issue...well, use a browser that doesn't have such a massive memory leak. IE8 is great, but Safari and Google's Chrome aren't bad. Just not Firefox, that thing is a disaster.

Anyway, check what other tasks you have running that could be pulling interrupts. Norton's Antivirus products tend to be really aggressive with some of their behavior, and may be causing issues (as an example). Also - update to your latest graphics drivers. Dunno about nVidia, but ATI recently (late 2008) done some amazing things with multicore rendering optimization, and I'd be surprised if nVidia wasn't keeping up.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

sure the more cpu power you throw at it the better but the OPs cpu along with his 8800gt should be more than enough to have high framerates. something is clearly wrong.

When I upgraded from my 939 to my E8400 the difference was night and day, that was before multicore rendering though.

 

[cannondale06]

When I upgraded from my 939 to my E8400 the difference was night and day, that was before multicore rendering though.

well I dont doubt you there but he should be not consistently be getting 15-25fps drops with that setup.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Definitely something environmental, there.

I pull 18-50 fps on a TF2 replay specifically designed to stress the CPU, and I'm on a 2.4ghz Socket 939 CPU with a MUCH weaker GPU than you have (Radeon 3850). Linkage for FRAPS run.

Enable 'multicore rendering' definitely. If Firefox is an issue...well, use a browser that doesn't have such a massive memory leak. IE8 is great, but Safari and Google's Chrome aren't bad. Just not Firefox, that thing is a disaster.

Anyway, check what other tasks you have running that could be pulling interrupts. Norton's Antivirus products tend to be really aggressive with some of their behavior, and may be causing issues (as an example). Also - update to your latest graphics drivers. Dunno about nVidia, but ATI recently (late 2008) done some amazing things with multicore rendering optimization, and I'd be surprised if nVidia wasn't keeping up.

if you setup firefox correctly.. its far better then safari(hacker fest browser) and IE8..

it sounds more like your issue is that you are using java based sites in the background.. which java has a memory leak when its used in FF.. has nothing to actually do with firefox.. but it does sound like its an issue some where between vista and the game.. sure source games are insanely cpu bound.. but i dont see why that system cant run it.. the 939 sockets arent that bad besides the crappy ddr 400 ram it runs.. one thing you can try doing since you are running dual display's.. its worked for me in a few games.. in the nvidia drivers in the manage 3d settings, program settings tab.. load up the TF2 exe and set the multi-display/mixed-gpu to single display performance mode (you can also try setting the multi-threaded optimization to on).. so what will happen is that it limits your secondary monitor to frame buffer and leaves the gpu just for your primary display.. some games dont like it, some arent effected, and some games require it.. so it may or may not work for you..

 

[Blackstone]

TF2 is deceiving. It is more demanding than people realize. With the new multicore rendering feature enabled, TF2 uses 100% of my E6600 @ 3.2 GHz. At that processor speed, with my 8800GTX OC, I get noticeable, but not gameplay breaking slowdown in areas with a large number of player models. This is with 4GB of ram at 1066MHz. I have concluded I would need at least a GTX260 to run the game without slowdown.

Also, I think there is widespread misconception about just how powerful an 8800GT is. I am sorry but the 8800GT is just not a great card. Lately every thread I read where someone is not satisfied with system performance is by an 8800GT user. 8800GTX and above users seem to be satisfied. The fact is the 8800GT lacks that last few drops of memory and power that make the 8800GTX a formidable card today. 8800GT was obsolete on launch day. It was designed to be cheap and run legacy games fast. It runs current generation games mediocre at best.

 

[spicey]

TF2 is deceiving. It is more demanding than people realize. With the new multicore rendering feature enabled, TF2 uses 100% of my E6600 @ 3.2 GHz. At that processor speed, with my 8800GTX OC, I get noticeable, but not gameplay breaking slowdown in areas with a large number of player models. This is with 4GB of ram at 1066MHz. I have concluded I would need at least a GTX260 to run the game without slowdown.

Also, I think there is widespread misconception about just how powerful an 8800GT is. I am sorry but the 8800GT is just not a great card. Lately every thread I read where someone is not satisfied with system performance is by an 8800GT user. 8800GTX and above users seem to be satisfied. The fact is the 8800GT lacks that last few drops of memory and power that make the 8800GTX a formidable card today. 8800GT was obsolete on launch day. It was designed to be cheap and run legacy games fast. It runs current generation games mediocre at best.

8800GT is doing me fine with a quad at 1680 x 1050. It may not be a cutting edge card but it runs TF2 as smoothly as something very smooth!

If fact it runs everything so well that I have held off on a upgrade until I find a game that taxes it.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

Also, I think there is widespread misconception about just how powerful an 8800GT is. I am sorry but the 8800GT is just not a great card.

Just about every benchmark I can find puts the difference between the GT and the GTX at around 10%. It even comes out on top sometimes at low res. Doesn't seem any less formidable or more obsolete than what you're running .

 

[SoFGR]

sure the more cpu power you throw at it the better but the OPs cpu along with his 8800gt should be more than enough to have high framerates. something is clearly wrong.

no there is nothing wrong, i had similar framerate issues with 8800gt and opteron 180 @ 2.75ghz back in the TF2 launch day

 

[SoFGR]

TF2 is deceiving. It is more demanding than people realize. With the new multicore rendering feature enabled, TF2 uses 100% of my E6600 @ 3.2 GHz. At that processor speed, with my 8800GTX OC, I get noticeable, but not gameplay breaking slowdown in areas with a large number of player models. This is with 4GB of ram at 1066MHz. I have concluded I would need at least a GTX260 to run the game without slowdown.

Also, I think there is widespread misconception about just how powerful an 8800GT is. I am sorry but the 8800GT is just not a great card. Lately every thread I read where someone is not satisfied with system performance is by an 8800GT user. 8800GTX and above users seem to be satisfied. The fact is the 8800GT lacks that last few drops of memory and power that make the 8800GTX a formidable card today. 8800GT was obsolete on launch day. It was designed to be cheap and run legacy games fast. It runs current generation games mediocre at best.

I use E6600 @ 3.3ghz, GTX260 192core @ SSC 676/1457/1158 and 4gb ram as well ( only 3 visible in xp sp2 tho ) i have my fps capped to 100(19" crt at 1280*960 100hz ), most of the time they stay that way but on payload with many stuff going on i get about 55-75 and i notice it without even looking at netgraph/FRAPS, it doesn't bother me much tho, if i wanted 100fps ALL the time a 4ghz cpu and/or using a fps cfg would be my best bet

 

[SixtyWattMan]

With my E8400 and an 8800gt I got 60 fps. I got pretty low fps with my 8800gt back on my 939 setup.

 

[noinimod]

lol seems like i have a pretty similar story to most here. I was on a brisbane 3600 o/ced to 2.5ghz paired with a 8800GT; the fps was crappy - never above 80 and in firefights it'll crash rock bottom.

Then i read all the stuff about how TF2 was sooo cpu-dependent. Sold those off, got an e8400 and downgraded to a 3870. Guess what? I got -significantly- higher fps on the exact same settings and the game was just that much more enjoyable to play

 

[Gabe3]

I enabled "single display performance mode" for TF2 in nvidia control panel, it didn't help.

I then disabled all my startup programs and played tf2 without anything running. didn't help much, maybe +/- 5 fps. So far the only thing that helps is enabling multithreading. problem with that is I can't have firefox running, which kinda sucks because I like to take advantage of my ram. I don't understand why it wont run well in the background because I have ram to spare and here sitting at my desktop with firefox my cores are not going over 15%.

 

[dderidex]

I enabled "single display performance mode" for TF2 in nvidia control panel, it didn't help.

I then disabled all my startup programs and played tf2 without anything running. didn't help much, maybe +/- 5 fps. So far the only thing that helps is enabling multithreading. problem with that is I can't have firefox running, which kinda sucks because I like to take advantage of my ram. I don't understand why it wont run well in the background because I have ram to spare and here sitting at my desktop with firefox my cores are not going over 15%.

Waitawaitawaita...

You are SITTING THERE just AT YOUR DESKTOP with Firefox running and your CORES (?!plural!?) are at 15%?

Dude, your system has got some serious problems. You might want to run some antivirus/antimalware software. BADLY.

I've got IE8 up (8 tabs), Firefox running (2 tabs), a VMWare instance to a remote server, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Excel 2007, MS-SQL 2008 Management Studio, Visual Studio 2008 *AND* iTunes running (playing lossless encoded music!) running across 3 monitors, and my CPU (on an ancient single-core Pentium 4) is only 4-8%.

If you are seeing 15% utilization with just Firefox running? You have some MAJOR viruses or spyware or something.

 

[cannondale06]

Waitawaitawaita...

You are SITTING THERE just AT YOUR DESKTOP with Firefox running and your CORES (?!plural!?) are at 15%?

Dude, your system has got some serious problems. You might want to run some antivirus/antimalware software. BADLY.

I've got IE8 up (8 tabs), Firefox running (2 tabs), a VMWare instance to a remote server, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Excel 2007, MS-SQL 2008 Management Studio, Visual Studio 2008 *AND* iTunes running (playing lossless encoded music!) running across 3 monitors, and my CPU (on an ancient single-core Pentium 4) is only 4-8%.

If you are seeing 15% utilization with just Firefox running? You have some MAJOR viruses or spyware or something.

it happens all the time for anybody using any browser depending on whats actually running on those pages. 10-15% cpu usage and even higher spikes from flash or other programs running is not uncommon.

 

[dderidex]

it happens all the time for anybody using any browser depending on whats actually running on those pages. 10-15% cpu usage and even higher spikes from flash or other programs running is not uncommon.

I took "just sitting there at my desktop" to not mean "and running a CPU-intensive high definition flash application in Firefox".

 

[cannondale06]

I took "just sitting there at my desktop" to not mean "and running a CPU-intensive high definition flash application in Firefox".

well I dont know what he is running. sometimes I forget that I have something like the weather.com radar running which certainly uses the cpu enough to affect gaming.

 

[Gabe3]

Waitawaitawaita...

You are SITTING THERE just AT YOUR DESKTOP with Firefox running and your CORES (?!plural!?) are at 15%?

Dude, your system has got some serious problems. You might want to run some antivirus/antimalware software. BADLY.

I've got IE8 up (8 tabs), Firefox running (2 tabs), a VMWare instance to a remote server, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Excel 2007, MS-SQL 2008 Management Studio, Visual Studio 2008 *AND* iTunes running (playing lossless encoded music!) running across 3 monitors, and my CPU (on an ancient single-core Pentium 4) is only 4-8%.

If you are seeing 15% utilization with just Firefox running? You have some MAJOR viruses or spyware or something.

i have around 30 tabs. the cores range from 1-15%. I have other things running, wmp, mail, xfire, pidgin. i have 10 things running next to my clock in the taskbar. like cannondale06 said, it just depends whats running in those tabs. flash advertisements don't help. my firefox is normally using 250mb ram.

fyi, my pc is about as clean as it gets as far as malware/viruses. I don't have any un-necessary startup apps either.

 

[-Sn1PeR-]

TF2 is heavily cpu limited, even with the new multicore support. It still will not max out a quad on a regular basis - core 1 will be 100% and the others in the 60's. This is part of the reason that if you turn off AA etc you see no performance gain.

 

[Blackstone]

I've had this problem for awhile, i get about 15-25 frames when a lot of people are around especially in outdoor areas, like on Badwater Basin. i have a dual core cpu, the first core is 99% and the second core ranges from 9-30%. I've lowered down the settings and resolution, neither help... I use about 2.5-3gigs of ram, with at least a gig left to spare. I have 4gb total. TF2 is using 1.1gb. my temps are fine. svchost.exe typically using the most ram in my processes at 128mb.

Hey do you know what, I did run into a problem once where my frames would tank and then after a run of driver cleaner and a reinstall of nvidia drivers they would come back. I think it did manifest itself as a frame rate drop in busy areas.

Tell us exactly what resolution and settings you are using. Also what drivers? I've found nvidia's drivers updates seem to improve source engine performance.

 

[MrGuvernment]

do you got alot of icons down by your clock?

what programs do you got running for spyware and malware?

i got a Q9650 running @ 4.01Ghz and a 4890 stock and 8G of 1066 and on custom maps and some stock i can see massive FPS drops into the low 30's at times on a 32man server and i assign the game to 3 cores, and i get around %60-%80 usage on all 3, running at 1920 x 1080 with AA and AF maxed, sometimes i need to turn it down to 4x and 8x.

TF2 is becoming more intense then it was when it came out.

 

[Gabe3]

Hey do you know what, I did run into a problem once where my frames would tank and then after a run of driver cleaner and a reinstall of nvidia drivers they would come back. I think it did manifest itself as a frame rate drop in busy areas.

Tell us exactly what resolution and settings you are using. Also what drivers? I've found nvidia's drivers updates seem to improve source engine performance.

1680x1050, heres a screen of my settings. I always run driversweeper before a driver install. I guess I could try the newest nividia, I'm using 182.06.

do you got alot of icons down by your clock?

what programs do you got running for spyware and malware?

i got a Q9650 running @ 4.01Ghz and a 4890 stock and 8G of 1066 and on custom maps and some stock i can see massive FPS drops into the low 30's at times on a 32man server and i assign the game to 3 cores, and i get around %60-%80 usage on all 3, running at 1920 x 1080 with AA and AF maxed, sometimes i need to turn it down to 4x and 8x.

TF2 is becoming more intense then it was when it came out.

I do have quite a few icons down there, but like I said earlier, I disabled all my startup programs with msconfig, so that pretty much rules that out. I use eset smart security v4 and spybot for spyware, as well as windows defender. With your rig I would expect at least 40 fps on highest settings.

lately I havn't been seeing below 30fps, maybe its just because I havn't played on a demanding map with 24 or more peeps.

 

[MrGuvernment]

turn down your AA and AF to nothing, try the game, see if it still happens, turn down texture to high from very high and try from there, the best thing to do is turn down settings and then go back up.

at 1680 x 1050 your cpuy is going to be working hard, and the slower the CPU the lower your FPS will drop.

 

[Gabe3]

turn down your AA and AF to nothing, try the game, see if it still happens, turn down texture to high from very high and try from there, the best thing to do is turn down settings and then go back up.

at 1680 x 1050 your cpuy is going to be working hard, and the slower the CPU the lower your FPS will drop.

are you guys not reading what I already said, for the 3rd time I lowered all the settings. at least read the first post of the thread, please...

 

[SixtyWattMan]

If lowering the settings didn't help you are obviously CPU limited.

 

[MrGuvernment]

at 1680 x 1050 you are between cpu and gpu, so if lowest possible settings, textures on low and everything still give you crappy FPS on stock maps, then ya, your cpu is showing it's age

also, if you sitll have icons by your clock, then they werent taken out by msconfig, alot of them will just come back.

 

[Gabe3]

at 1680 x 1050 you are between cpu and gpu, so if lowest possible settings, textures on low and everything still give you crappy FPS on stock maps, then ya, your cpu is showing it's age

also, if you sitll have icons by your clock, then they werent taken out by msconfig, alot of them will just come back.

i disabled everything, so there were 3 things next to the clock, safely remove hardware, network status, and volume. also lowered my settings. so I guess its my old cpu, btw: i'm accepting donations

an upgrade would be new mobo, cpu, and ram.

 

[MrGuvernment]

lol

they were awsome cpu's in their day, but games these days can bring those old kings to their knee's.

have you tried a reinstall of the game or your OS?

 

[Gabe3]

lol

they were awsome cpu's in their day, but games these days can bring those old kings to their knee's.

have you tried a reinstall of the game or your OS?

I might have tried a reinstall of the game, but not the OS. I'll probably be installing win7 in a day or two. I'll post my results with that.

 

[dderidex]

i disabled everything, so there were 3 things next to the clock, safely remove hardware, network status, and volume. also lowered my settings. so I guess its my old cpu, btw: i'm accepting donations

an upgrade would be new mobo, cpu, and ram.

I'm really thinking it's not the CPU, though. I have a Socket 939 CPU clocked quite a bit lower than yours that has not had any issues - indeed, I posted a benchmark run I did in TF2 earlier in the thread showing better performance than you are seeing. With a less capable graphics card and less capable CPU, I have better performance.

 

[Gabe3]

I'm really thinking it's not the CPU, though. I have a Socket 939 CPU clocked quite a bit lower than yours that has not had any issues - indeed, I posted a benchmark run I did in TF2 earlier in the thread showing better performance than you are seeing. With a less capable graphics card and less capable CPU, I have better performance.

strange.... I posted a thread on the steam forums and someone said they had the same issues on vista, they installed win7 and the problem was gone.

heres the exact post:

Are you on vista? I had performance problem with only tf2 as well under vista, low 30ish fps all the time and changing video resolution and settings wouldnt change anything, now with win7 my lowest is about 60-70 at highest in 1600x1024.

the guy never posted in the thread again so I don't know what hardware he has.

 

[dderidex]

Hmmm. Guess it could be OS, actually - I'm on WinXP 32-bit.

I was merely arguing that the position of "ZOMG, that CPU is the problem!!" didn't seem entirely correct as I have an all-around weaker system, and managed to pull off (!substantially!) better performance.

 

[BallerX]

Why all the fuss? Whatever you are doing, it is operator error.
I have a opteron165@2.6 and 2gb of ram and an 8800gts640. The lowest frame rate I get in TF2 is around 35-40 and that's with huge fire fights.

What business do you have running anything other than the game when you are playing it anyway?
Do you defrag your HD ever? How many processes are running on your machine? You can turn a lot of that stupid crap off you know. The only thing that should be running are essential processes and the game.

You know what is in my tool bar right now? A freaking speaker icon and a clock. LRN2COMPUTE.....