How to reduce choppy frames

[PadFoot 0]

My desktop is a DIY small system. CPU=Q6600 (non-overclocked), RAM=XMS 1066MHz 2GB X 2 5-5-5-10, HD=Western Digital MyBook 1TB external via eSATA, Gfx=ATi Raedon 4870 1GB DDR3@stock speed.

 

Played 2 session from Single Mission F-8 Crusader(stock aircraft) Vs MiG-17 and MiG-21, most enjoyable. Graphics settings are all on High with reflection and mirror on. The trouble was very choppy. I know by omitting mirror I save quite plenty of frames per second. But I do need the mirror and cockpit reflection to know my orientation during a dogfiht. I can install my TrackIR4 device but I wonder if that helps compemsating for the loss of mirror and cockpit reflection.

 

Can anyone help me with this, I wanna to sort out what exactly is the bottleneck, the graphics card or the CPU? If I replace the Q6600 with E8500 would that be better, I heard that the E8500 is doing 3.4GHz raw speed. I do not want to overclock the Q6600 to reduce the CPU core temp so that I can maintain it below 45 degree...

[jomni 6]

lower some graphics to medium (i lower shadows and effects as they are of lower priority to me).

[+Gunrunner 313]

Which version of Windows are you using ?

If you are using Vista or 7, make sure you have Strike Fighters set to automatically deactivate Aero when it starts, it may make a noticeable difference.

 

To get an idea of where the bottleneck is, use the ALT-D combination in game until you bring up the FPS count, it will indicate both the CPU and GPU FPS, if the CPU one is noticeably higher, then the GPU's your bottleneck (most likely), if both are close, then you're CPU bound.

 

Also try to play with other factors like Anti Aliasing modes and levels, Anisotropic filters and mipmap levels with your graphic driver instead of letting the game decide, you might get a better compromise between quality and speed.

 

Bear in mind that tweaking settings is a more cost efficient method to improve playability, as by purchasing more hardware you'll want to push the settings higher and end up where you started (albeit with a nicer looking game).

Edited March 30, 2010 by Gunrunner

[Stick 773]

Tune your graphics settings-you've got a 1GB vid card that ought to handle it with EASE!If on 1st gen games then try the HDR mod for ATI cards. Im running WOI on a 512mb 4750 card and its sssmooth. OH and check whether you are running application controlled settings...if so, manually enter what suits you...as aforementioned.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Stick

[PadFoot 0]

I have done that. Strangely, there are 2 readings. One is the graphics FPS, which reads about 20-30 whereas the CPU FPS is always 59-60. This is what happens in cockpit view (Key F1). For external views both readings are the same. The Catalyst drive I used is 10.3.

 

Now when I reverted back to Catalyst 9.12, both FPS readings are the same no matter external or internal views. The thing is I have better FPS which is above 29. The graphics are set to the lowest resolution and I applied AA=8X and AF=16X.

 

Why?

[Romflyer 25]

My suggestion would be to set all your in cockpit setting up (mirrors/reflections etc.) turn your external settings to about half (shadows, details, etc.) bring the visual distance in to 'normal', definately get your track ir hooked up, and most importantly turn off alt-d so your not watching the numbers .......and enjoy flying

 

From there you can try tweeking some of your external settings upwards (one at a time) to see how much extra detail you can squeeze before it starts costing you in performance.

 

edit......also, set your resolution to match your monitors native resolution.

Edited April 13, 2010 by romflyer

[PadFoot 0]

That's a brilliant I will certainly try that.

 

But I have also noticed one thing: Unpatched version of WoV, WoE and SFP1 have fluent frame rates. Is that because the stock version doesn't not use complicated rendering technique like shader effects......

[xclusiv8 35]

The Q6600 is the easiet CPU to overclock ever. At least to around 3.0-3.2Ghz.

 

What version of the game are you running? Latest patch and so on?

[MigBuster 2,861]

That's a brilliant I will certainly try that.

 

But I have also noticed one thing: Unpatched version of WoV, WoE and SFP1 have fluent frame rates. Is that because the stock version doesn't not use complicated rendering technique like shader effects......

 

Unpatched series 1 games will use a lot less resources - espcecially if you have the originals - see my sig for the dates - but with the latest patches you get a vastly improved and stable game.

 

Shadows were one of the biggest killers in series 1 with the 2008 versions.

 

Did you try the HDR mod - you could probably max out with that.

[PadFoot 0]

What is the HDR mod?

 

I reinstalled ATI 9.5 driver. And patched the game with the latest Oct update. Using the default graphics setup with the AA set to 8X, AF set to 16X, I managed to get a solid 53 FPS performance!!!!!! This is WoE (integrated with WoV) and FE1 also!!!!

 

Having said that, at medium with all these AA and AF settings in place the quality is excessively acceptable.

[MigBuster 2,861]

Its a mod that has been posted here in downloads somewhere - there are some old threads on it here and at 3rd wires site - trying to work out why the FPS just went through the roof.

 

Needs multicore/Win Vista or 7 / DX9 (which WOE is) to work I believe.