I really need some *professional* help with FPS. Any takers?

Ever since NF, GWs has been running on my PC with the lowest frame rates I've ever experienced. They range from 1-30, with the constant being 3-6.

My display settings are as follows:

1280 x 960
85hrz
small display
anti ali 4x
highest settings
post p enabled

Now, I know you're going to say, "why don't you try turning down some of the superfluous options.." but I've tried that. And the thing is, it was running with those settings pre nf at a stable 30-40.

I've tried everything.. running at 800 x 600 with no anti, no post-process and low everything. And I get maybe 2 fps more, sometimes. I've tried -nosound to see if my sound card is conflicting, but that makes hardly any difference.

I know since nf we've had upgrades et cetera, but surely they shouldn't have hit my system this hard?

My specifications are as follows

Motherboard ABIT - A17-G Socket 478 System Board
Processor Pentium 4 3ghz
RAM 1024 (2x 512 corsair dual channel)
Video Card Radeon 9800 XT (agp) 256mb
Video Drivers Omega Drivers (3.8.330)
Sound On Board Realtek AC97 Audio

I was under the impression that these more than sufficed to run GWs, but it looks like I may have been mistaken ..

I can't play in these conditions, the best I can hope for is a few hours of trading here and there and even then the fps makes it a frustrating experience.

If anyone knows of any issues of confliction between GWs and any of my hardware or drivers, or has any advice here, pls help!

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EDIT Also, In the last couple of hours, I've installed a brand new and completely legit copy of Windows XP Pro. Installed all drivers from fresh, and run GWs with -image to collect every single piece of decompressed data. Every other program runs smooth, like ice.

I don't game much on my pc, but I can run Halo at 60+ fps, and HAlf Life 2 at 30-40ish. Both at high spec.

So GW lagged before and after the reformat?

I'd switch out the Omega drivers for ATI's and see whether that makes a difference.

Already tried that, should have mentioned.

I'm upgrading my v and sound card soon, hoping that will fix it . .

If anyone has any bright ideas in the mean time, feel free to share.

You may have just run into the infamous Omega glitch.

My professional recommendation is to try the DNA drivers. They are much better on most occasions.

Find them here: http://www.dna-drivers.com/

Try that, report back to me here. Then we can take the problem up the escalation ladder. I can ask some of my coworkers about it, some of them are border level genius.

Okay, tyvm. I'm away until monday now, so I'll let post results then.

Sounds like a plan. I have to work in morning, so post it midday (EST USA) Hope it works.

If reducing your resolution and video settings by that much doesn't make more than a 2fps difference I'd say you're looking at a really messed up driver install or some other non-video related conflict. Have you checked task manager to see if other processes are eating CPU cycles? You might be looking at something as simple as some process hogging your resources.

BTW - Any time you're having a (possibly video-related) problem and you re-image your machine, don't reinstall unsupported 3rd-party drivers. Get things working with official drivers first, and then try your 3rd-party drivers again. Troubleshooting computer problems is a matter of eliminating variables.

If your frames are fine for a little while to start and then taking a nose dive, then perhaps your PC is overheating.

Also try updating Microsoft DirectX (Feb 2007 version).

Some (not all) took a performance hit when DirectSound3D was added and updating to the newer Direct X fixed that. This is if your running 3d/EAX sound.

Also update your other drivers, especially motherboard chipset.

Installing the feb version of DX has completely cured this. I'm also now running the latest update of official ati drivers.

Ty all for you help and suggestions. Greatly appreciated.

EDIT I also blew a lot of dust away from my cpu and vcard fans. And added a cooling fan to my rig. Seems it was a case of simple care and maintenance. I'll pay more attention in future.

Running at a cool 30-60fps, now.