nVidia 8800 GT 512 MB, crappy frame rate

logsniffer · Post by **logsniffer** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:40 am

Hi all. I just got a new 8600GTS and am having the same issues. Tried all of the 1xx series and the 9x won't work with this newer card. Allegiance framerate is abysmal, although Oblivion looks magnificent. I hate to say it, but I might be stuck in Grim's boat

I would hate to build another machine just so I can play this game. Should have done the research.

OS: winxp
2 G ram
gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo
core 2 duo 2.66

Noble · Post by **Noble** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:42 pm

Hey Gang,

I had recent frame rate issues, that seem to be related to this thread... *Cable@Sysx helped to solve my troubles...

I will give system specs then post what resolved my issues...

[I] ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6600

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2b

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK

Gateway 26" FPD2485W TFT LCD Monitor [/I]

If you don't want to read the drama skip to the very bottom for what fixed my frame rate...

Prior to any changes I upgraded from Nvidia drivers (162.18) to (169.21) ... This is where my trouble began as I later found out...

On, Cable's advice I disabled Video Sync to increase frame rate from the native 60mhz that my monitor supports and ended up getting about 12-19 fps in Allegiance, while other games ran awesomely...

Puzzled I re-enabled Vsync to find no change; I then proceeded to do all sorts of things that any Allegiance junky would do when denied good gaming... (In short I fubared every setting imaginable) After a reinstall of video drivers and a reinstall of allegiance after deleting everything I could find in the registry associated with Allegiance I still saw no change... (At this point my heart sank, and considered a reinstall of windows)...

Alright now that my fit of insanity subsided, it finally occurred to revert drivers, which I should have done several hours earlier...

Frame rate issue solved a solid 60fps using drivers (162.18) however disabling Vsync brought no higher frame rate...

Once again talking to *Cable, we discussed my monitor and the fact that I was watching a small TV not a monitor. /wub.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":iluv:" border="0" alt="wub.gif" /> He suggested going into the Nvidia Control Panel and make sure advanced settings was displayed (which you need to have in order to disable Vsync) and change my video card to scale non native resolutions instead of the monitor...

Most flat screen monitors have a built in utility to scale to the edge of the screens when not running applications in the monitorsâ€™ native resolution, in most cases apparently your video card can do a better job of this than your monitor... (Why or how this was affecting my Vsync and not allowing me to run full FPS I cannot answer.) Anyway after this change and keeping Vsync turned off I can now run Allegiance at over 150fps normal flying and around 115ish in big battles...

If using a similar system/specs

Step 1. PRIOR TO ANY CHANGES make sure you have your original drivers saved incase you need to revert to them!!! ... DO NOT be an idiot and skip this step!
Step 2. Make sure you are running Nvidia Driver Version 162.18 or earlier... they can be located at (Guru3D) just Google it...
Step 3. Under advanced settings in Nvidia Control Panel, Make sure you are selecting your video card to handle scaling instead of your monitor.
Step 4. Disable Vsync under global settings, in most games you won't need it anyway.
Step 5. Optional, make sure Anti Aliasing is turned off under global settings, this is optional because allegiance *seems* to prefer this setting, however it may affect other games that you enjoy...

These are the steps that allowed me to go from 60fps to 150fps with the above system specs. (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!) I will not shed a tear if you do these steps and end up worse off, these are what helped me, so I share them with you, I give no promises or state that they WILL work for you...

The only certainty that I can post is that Nvidia Drivers (169.21) do not seem to be compatible with Allegiance R4...

Thank you for your help *Cable, the game is now a lot more enjoyable!

Wasp · Post by **Wasp** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:42 pm

Dogbones, are you on vista and still getting the yellow box corruption?

If so....been there, done that /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

logsniffer · Post by **logsniffer** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:54 am

Rejoice! Solved for 8600GTS!
Grabbed 160.02 and things are swell.

Unfortunately other games are lacking somewhat in quality. I will try 162.18 later, but first I have to get some game time in!

Dogbones · Post by **Dogbones** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:53 pm

Wasp wrote:QUOTE (Wasp @ Jan 11 2008, 01:42 PM) Dogbones, are you on vista and still getting the yellow box corruption?

If so....been there, done that /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

No, XP Pro 32bit, I posted specs before but perhaps in another thread.
2 gig DDR2 main memory
8800 GTX 512 MB
core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)

QUOTE (Noble)If you don't want to read the drama skip to the very bottom for what fixed my frame rate...[/quote]Going from 60 fps to 150 fps is not really a fix, it was never broken /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> Now going from 14-20 to 60 is a fix. Any fps above what your monitor's refresh rate is gets wasted as you don't see it and you can get tearing artifacts if updates come mid refresh (depending on the vid card).

lawndart · Post by **lawndart** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:25 am

Any word on the Nvidia issues being fixed in the next driver set? It's rather a drag to have to play in software to get a good frame rate. I am not too keen on slipping back into the past with a 90 series driver (although I'll agree that they seemd to be a lot less problematic, over all).

Mebbe I'll just suck it up and do that.

lawndart · Post by **lawndart** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:50 am

No joy... same result.

Dogbones · Post by **Dogbones** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:15 pm

I would encourage you to submit a support request to nVidia letting them know about the problem. The more they get the more likely they are to actually address the issue.

ImmortalZ · Post by **ImmortalZ** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:53 pm

LawnDart - disable SLI. Your card is a dual-chip card that has SLI enabled always. Allegiance doesn't like SLI.

lawndart · Post by **lawndart** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:11 am

Sometimes I just want to flick a booGer on the winshield of the Nvidia CEO. Make a card and then completely drop support for it. Honestly, SLI is garbage anyways. I am not sure what if anything is fill rate limited these days and that SLI feature has been causing me more greif thatn it is worth. Should have saved my $ and waited.

... and yes, that worked.