Weird solution to Halo performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter zlo
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zlo

This game has been running like crap on my system. It hasn't even been
playable at 800x600, or 1024x768. I've heard about issues with AA so i
always turn it off. My system is 1.2 athlon, 512DDR, 9700pro, 4x agp.
Well i thought i would do something really stupid, out of boredom. I bumped
it up to 1600x1200 to see how low i could go with my framerate. I could let
it sit, and just watch the screen at 16x12 and dream about what it would be
like to see it move smoothly at such a nice res. Low and behold, it runs a
100% better at 1600x1200! Why??? It's actually playable now, and if i had a
faster cpu, i bet it would run even smoother all the time. It's really
awesome to finally see this game in hi res, but i don't understand why it
runs so much better at 1600x1200 than 800x600. The only thing i can think of
is that by raising the res, it's telling the card to take more of the load
rather than the cpu? With the exclusion of AA and AF, this is true of my
other games too. I get better framerates at 1600x1200 than i do at 1024x768.
 
This game has been running like crap on my system. It hasn't even been
playable at 800x600, or 1024x768. I've heard about issues with AA so i
always turn it off. My system is 1.2 athlon, 512DDR, 9700pro, 4x agp.
Well i thought i would do something really stupid, out of boredom. I bumped
it up to 1600x1200 to see how low i could go with my framerate. I could let
it sit, and just watch the screen at 16x12 and dream about what it would be
like to see it move smoothly at such a nice res. Low and behold, it runs a
100% better at 1600x1200! Why??? It's actually playable now, and if i had a
faster cpu, i bet it would run even smoother all the time. It's really
awesome to finally see this game in hi res, but i don't understand why it
runs so much better at 1600x1200 than 800x600. The only thing i can think of
is that by raising the res, it's telling the card to take more of the load
rather than the cpu? With the exclusion of AA and AF, this is true of my
other games too. I get better framerates at 1600x1200 than i do at 1024x768.
Click to expand...
I doubt if its 100% better or really much better at all, but you're
describing a CPU bottleneck precisely. I don't know really know what
happens when you combine a card like that and a processor that slow, it
does remind me back when I had a Voodoo3 running on a 300 MHz Celeron,
games ran a little faster at 1280x1024 than they did at 800x600 or at
least it felt that way.

Running Halo at 1600x1200 sure as hell isn't faster on my system. :-P
 
I"m not sure that's possible. At higher resolution, the cpu is working just
as hard, but the framerate cape becomes the video card, not the cpu as is
with lower resolutions. It would be possible to get the same framerate when
going from a lower to a higher resolution. Which is I think what's happening
in your case since you have a very fast video card but a slow cpu. Try
runnning fraps in the background while playing to check you fps. Getting
higher framerates at higher res. is extremely unlikely
 
zlo said:
This game has been running like crap on my system. It hasn't even been
playable at 800x600, or 1024x768. I've heard about issues with AA so i
always turn it off. My system is 1.2 athlon, 512DDR, 9700pro, 4x agp.
Click to expand...

CPU is pretty slow (in terms of cutting edge - I'm not sure what Halo
typically requires)
Well i thought i would do something really stupid, out of boredom. I
bumped it up to 1600x1200 to see how low i could go with my framerate. I
could let it sit, and just watch the screen at 16x12 and dream about what
it would be like to see it move smoothly at such a nice res. Low and
behold, it runs a 100% better at 1600x1200! Why??? It's actually playable
now, and if i had a faster cpu, i bet it would run even smoother all the
time.
Click to expand...

Thats interesting to say the least. Did you ONLY change the resolution?
Did bumping the resolution that high disable something else (like, I
dunno... AA)
It's really awesome to finally see this game in hi res, but i don't
understand why it runs so much better at 1600x1200 than 800x600. The only
thing i can think of is that by raising the res, it's telling the card to
take more of the load rather than the cpu?
Click to expand...

Nah, what the CPU does and what the GPU does is pretty clearly defined by
the drivers, regardless of resolution. I suspect that raising the
resolution disabled something else, that was causing the game to run slow.
With the exclusion of AA and
AF, this is true of my other games too. I get better framerates at
1600x1200 than i do at 1024x768.
Click to expand...


That is odd. I always run at 1600x1200 so I can't say I've noticed :-)

Ben
 
I"m not sure that's possible. At higher resolution, the cpu is working just
as hard, but the framerate cape becomes the video card, not the cpu as is
with lower resolutions. It would be possible to get the same framerate when
going from a lower to a higher resolution. Which is I think what's happening
in your case since you have a very fast video card but a slow cpu. Try
runnning fraps in the background while playing to check you fps. Getting
higher framerates at higher res. is extremely unlikely
Click to expand...


You can get a frame rate counter (built in) by hitting CTRL-F12.

Pluvious
 
you are aware that (in your prior post) that MAYA and all that other expensive software was never meant to be installed in
conjunction with 'games', There are subtle changes made to various system and driver files.
 
JAD said:
you are aware that (in your prior post) that MAYA and all that other
expensive software was never meant to be installed in conjunction with
'games', There are subtle changes made to various system and driver
files.
Click to expand...

Hmm... not sure what you mean by that. Do you have any specifics?

Ben
 
when you install MAYA (non bootleg) will tell you in the beginning of the install that there will be changes made to your system. I
cannot give specifics as I do not own that software. However, during my training at college, we had the option to use whichever
software we wanted on a new bank of machines. We took the initiative to install the software ourselves, that's when I discovered
this. I did not do the virtual dub install, but through the grapevine heard that games stopped running exceptionally after the
software was installed. All this makes sense as this software is normally installed and hardly ANYTHING else, in the work
environment. It is not printed on the web page(at least not anywhere I have found) but it does discuss it briefly in the install
manual that comes with the software. I know I know black & white is the only way you'll except this....well I don't have it, but I
can tell you through experience with the software, this is true... these kids have no business having that SW ITFP. It can only be
ripped off, And as a retired professional I resent the fact that they do....even Adobe and their release of 'essentials' pissed me
off.

Take it the way you will, I rarely post things that I cannot prove, but this is one time that my experience will have to do....
 
JAD said:
when you install MAYA (non bootleg) will tell you in the beginning of the
install that there will be changes made to your system. I cannot give
specifics as I do not own that software. However, during my training at
college, we had the option to use whichever software we wanted on a new
bank of machines. We took the initiative to install the software
ourselves, that's when I discovered this. I did not do the virtual dub
install, but through the grapevine heard that games stopped running
exceptionally after the software was installed. All this makes sense as
this software is normally installed and hardly ANYTHING else, in the work
environment. It is not printed on the web page(at least not anywhere I
have found) but it does discuss it briefly in the install manual that
comes with the software. I know I know black & white is the only way
you'll except this....well I don't have it, but I can tell you through
experience with the software, this is true... these kids have no business
having that SW ITFP. It can only be ripped off, And as a retired
professional I resent the fact that they do....even Adobe and their
release of 'essentials' pissed me off.

Take it the way you will, I rarely post things that I cannot prove, but
this is one time that my experience will have to do....
Click to expand...


Well off-hand I can see no reason to directly modify system files that would
affect game performance.

I suspect that in certain situations whats happening is that it's
introducing a layer in the drivers that is adding some kind of functionality
but slowing down the rendering overall. Who knows... anything is possible.

Ben
 
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