BF2 -> Where is the weakness on my machine...

[bob4432]

i know my rig in sig i outdated to run bf2 unless i run at 800x600 w/medium settings and 2AA and that is what i do. i have noticed that when i am on larger servers(50+), there is a ton of lag even thought my ping will be ~70. i have looked at task manager after gaming and it shows a max usaged of ~940MB including running the os, av, firewall, etc.

a friend of mine has a a64 3000 w/ 6600gts in sli running at 1280x720 setting medium -> high and 2-4AA w/ 1GB of ram, 74GB Raptor and very miniminal programs running in the background, in fact all he uses this machine is for gaming. we can get on the same server and have the same problems but neither one of us go over 1GB of ram useage.

so, is it the server, our video cards, ram or what?

last night i chose a sniper, took up a excellent place and watched through the scope and the enemy just bounced, about every 1 sec, which makes gameplay horrible as a sniper, let alone up close and friendly.

what should i upgrade? mind you that my cpu temps don't seem to really move so i doubt my cpu is the culprit.

thanks in advance

 

[wasserkool]

Your vid card might not be the best for BF2 but it should run higher than 800X600
the skipping and lagging is caused by the server, even my system experience that on 64 player server with low ping

I run at 1280X1024 everything high except texture and shadow

 

[Heckler 5th]

1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

 

[wasserkool]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

well, said, thats why even i can't run everything maxed without having sever slowdown!
btw..if you are running at 800X600, its more CPU limited than vid card limited

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

it looks really bad without atleast 2AA and i have measured it with fraps, but it was on an empty server so that is not fair, but it averaged ~50fps.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: wasserkool

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

well, said, thats why even i can't run everything maxed without having sever slowdown!
btw..if you are running at 800X600, its more CPU limited than vid card limited

then why is my friend having the same problems when we are on the same servers? even when i o/c my cpu to 3.2 it still has the same problem and i doubt a 3.2 would be the bottleneck....or would it?

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: wasserkool

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

well, said, thats why even i can't run everything maxed without having sever slowdown!
btw..if you are running at 800X600, its more CPU limited than vid card limited

then why is my friend having the same problems when we are on the same servers? even when i o/c my cpu to 3.2 it still has the same problem and i doubt a 3.2 would be the bottleneck....or would it?

I run the game on a p4 3.2, 2 gb ram, 256 mb 6800 GTO, with pretty much all high settings, 4x AA. Game runs SMOOTH, hardly ever lag.

 

[Heckler 5th]

i think your 9800pro is holding you back, even at 800x600. use fraps with a 32 or even 64 player server w/AA=on and w/AA=off and i think you will see. are you OCing it at all? if your gpu temps are good, i'd give it a shot. (edit: you gotta figure that your 128MB of video ram is holding you back too, as that is the least amount recommended to even run the game)

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: chrisg22

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: wasserkool

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

well, said, thats why even i can't run everything maxed without having sever slowdown!
btw..if you are running at 800X600, its more CPU limited than vid card limited

then why is my friend having the same problems when we are on the same servers? even when i o/c my cpu to 3.2 it still has the same problem and i doubt a 3.2 would be the bottleneck....or would it?

I run the game on a p4 3.2, 2 gb ram, 256 mb 6800 GTO, with pretty much all high settings, 4x AA. Game runs SMOOTH, hardly ever lag.

even on the big 50+ player servers? because on the smaller servers the game is pretty smooth. also what resolution are you playing? and is your gt o/c to ultra speeds?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
i think your 9800pro is holding you back, even at 800x600. use fraps with a 32 or even 64 player server w/AA=on and w/AA=off and i think you will see. are you OCing it at all? if your gpu temps are good, i'd give it a shot. (edit: you gotta figure that your 128MB of video ram is holding you back too, as that is the least amount recommended to even run the game)

no o/c on the gpu, i live in Phx, AZ so my computer room/office ususally runs about 85F (2-3machines running atleast 16hrs a day). the 9800 just has the stock cooler so when i run atitool to get max speed it is not even as high as a xt and i don't want to put $$$ into it since it won't really benefit it much.

i am stuck because i don't want to spend mucho $$$ on a 6800gt/ultra agp card but don't want to get an entire new machine to go pci-e since my current rig is still good for me, except this damn lagging in the game...

 

[Heckler 5th]

if you can OC fast enough to run 1024x768, the lack of AA and AS will be less noticeable. plus, i've noticed AA=4x makes my ATI run 2-3C hotter, so with it turned off you *might* be able to get 1024x768 working for you. otherwise, that card has hit a wall, i'm sad to say. great card, too.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
if you can OC fast enough to run 1024x768, the lack of AA and AS will be less noticeable. plus, i've noticed AA=4x makes my ATI run 2-3C hotter, so with it turned off you *might* be able to get 1024x768 working for you.

i actually chose 800x600 w/ 2-4AA over 1024x768 w/ no AA. it just looked better to me.....

 

[Heckler 5th]

i see your predicament. i don't blame you for keeping your current rig at all. i would keep an eye on 6800gt prices tho, they're really comin down. i got my card as an OEM version and have been thrilled with its performance and with the $ i saved. a 6600gt would only be a slight improvement for you so i think i see a 6800gt agp card in your immediate future- esp. if you love BF2 as much as i do!

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
i see your predicament. i don't blame you for keeping your current rig at all. i would keep an eye on 6800gt prices tho, they're really comin down. i got my card as an OEM version and have been thrilled with its performance and with the $ i saved. a 6600gt would only be a slight improvement for you so i think i see a 6800gt agp card in your immediate future- esp. if you love BF2 as much as i do!

that is kind of what i am thinking, in the mean time i will pick up a new p/s, line one of the enermax or seasonic x2, sli ones for future proofing (atleast for a while)

thanks for the assistance

 

[Sureshot324]

I think it's the server. It takes a lot of resources to run 50+ player server, and if there's too much action for the server to handle, the ping will stay low because it's not the connection that's the problem, it's the server running out of cpu power or ram. I don't play BF2, but there must be a way to show your fps on the screen. If your fps are low when it's lagging it's a problem with your machine, if not, it's the server.

 

[BOLt]

It's a buggy game. If you read Anandtech's article about it, you'll notice that they say for true lag-free experience, use 2GB of RAM. They had dual 7800 GTXs, an FX-55, OCZ EL Platinum Rev. 2, etc. So pretty much any comp will lag on the game because of the inherent properties of the game. You'll need to wait for a patch or something to see a true representation of what you hardware can do in BF2, IMO.

 

[Accipiter22]

i can't even run it on mine...it freezes rock solid 10 seconds in and i have to reboot my comp.

 

[eastvillager]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high.

wrong, in my experience. play on max size server and 1 gig isn't enough, even with textures on medium. At first, people kept complaining about how laggy the big servers were... then they noticed that the people with 1.5 or more gigs of ram had a nice, smooth experience on those servers.

I had 1 gig of ram and always lagged like crazy on the max size servers with textures at medium. Two gigs of ram and the max size servers don't lag anymore unless it is definitely the server.

 

[bob4432]

looks like my card may be the issue - i just used fraps on a 50+ person game out of norwary, even though my ping was 200, the game was smoother than with a ping of 70 on some servers, but anyways here are the numbers:
min: 17
max: 77
avg: 36.445

so to end the problem, it looks like atleast a x800xl or 6800gt, new p/s and 1more GB of ram...damn that is a lot of $$$ just to play a $50 game... the thing that sucks is that ddr2 will be adopted soon and my regular ddr won't be useable

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: chrisg22

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: wasserkool

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
1GB of RAM won't become a bottleneck until you set textures = high. the immediate lag that occurs when you enter the first server of the session is due to punkbuster scanning your computer. i think your video card is definitely what's holding you back, especially with 2xAA. you'd get much better performance with AA and AS disabled. have you measured your FPS? i'd be shocked if your FPS never dipped below 30 with AA and/or AS on.

well, said, thats why even i can't run everything maxed without having sever slowdown!
btw..if you are running at 800X600, its more CPU limited than vid card limited

then why is my friend having the same problems when we are on the same servers? even when i o/c my cpu to 3.2 it still has the same problem and i doubt a 3.2 would be the bottleneck....or would it?

I run the game on a p4 3.2, 2 gb ram, 256 mb 6800 GTO, with pretty much all high settings, 4x AA. Game runs SMOOTH, hardly ever lag.

even on the big 50+ player servers? because on the smaller servers the game is pretty smooth. also what resolution are you playing? and is your gt o/c to ultra speeds?

right now just playing on the defautl 1024x768 resolution, it's fine for me. The other resolutions don't look right for some reason and I don't care enough to figure it out

But 64 player servers, not much lag at all. I usually ping sub 50, and quite often sub - 25 pings.

Honestly the game runs smooth as ever on 32 player servers, and still pretty smooth on 64 player servers.

64 player servers are a little too big most of the time though, i prefer 32.

Oh, and my 6800 is just a stock GT. havent messed with it whatsoever.

I originally played with just 1 gb of ddr2 533 mhz memory, and just last week I added another 1 GB to it. It basically eliminated my lag. I did experience some lag with only 1 GB.

 

[Heckler 5th]

Originally posted by: bob4432
so to end the problem, it looks like atleast a x800xl or 6800gt, new p/s and 1more GB of ram...damn that is a lot of $$$ just to play a $50 game... the thing that sucks is that ddr2 will be adopted soon and my regular ddr won't be useable

i was about to say you may not need another PSU but then i saw you have 7 case fans... yeah, probably need another PSU. the x800xl draws about 200W under load. you're absolutely right about the money needed to play a $50 game, tho. all the hardware manufacturers should be thanking the hell out of EA and DICE for their system resource hog of a game.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th

Originally posted by: bob4432
so to end the problem, it looks like atleast a x800xl or 6800gt, new p/s and 1more GB of ram...damn that is a lot of $$$ just to play a $50 game... the thing that sucks is that ddr2 will be adopted soon and my regular ddr won't be useable

i was about to say you may not need another PSU but then i saw you have 7 case fans... yeah, probably need another PSU. the x800xl draws about 200W under load. you're absolutely right about the money needed to play a $50 game, tho. all the hardware manufacturers should be thanking the hell out of EA and DICE for their system resource hog of a game.

the major problem(being that i am cheap bastard) is that the card i buy now(agp) won't work on my next upgrade, which i really don't need now as my 2.8c is still plenty fast for what i am doing (and if i do a lot of encoding of movies, i just use dvd rebuilder and the schedule function and let it run all night). i don't think anybody has a pci-e skt478 board. it is not like i could sell my p4 and board and buy a 3000venice & chaintech nf4ultra for the same price... d@mn, d@mn, d@mn... even if i went the 6800GT route they are still ~$270....f*ck...

 

[bob4432]

for the people that say 2GB is better, if i am not fully hitting 1GB, why would i benefit from 2GB?

 

[Heckler 5th]

if it makes ya feel any better, a good friend of mine (who doesn't know a thing about computers) asked me to come look at his dell computer to see if he can run BF2. turns out he's got a fx5600 PCI card. not pci-e, PCI. LOL and, he can play the game with 768MB system RAM. i couldn't believe it but he can! so, there are people worse off than you! LOL
edit: you usually need 2GB to run all the graphics options on high, esp. textures.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Heckler 5th
if it makes ya feel any better, a good friend of mine (who doesn't know a thing about computers) asked me to come look at his dell computer to see if he can run BF2. turns out he's got a fx5600 PCI card. not pci-e, PCI. LOL and, he can play the game with 768MB system RAM. i couldn't believe it but he can! so, there are people worse off than you! LOL
edit: you usually need 2GB to run all the graphics options on high, esp. textures.

that is funny thanks for the laugh.