Company of Heroes is destroying my computer

[TheBDB]

I just bought Company of Heroes and my current rig isn't performing as I would like. I currently have:
Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3
1GB Ram
GeForce 6800GT

I need to start doing some research because I haven't kept track of hardware since I bought my stuff almost 2 years ago. I read the latest High-end Buyers Guide, but there are still things I need to decide. Could I really go Intel? What about SLI or Crossfire? Also, I think it is time for a new case. And should I replace my Audigy with an X-Fi?

I guess it is time to scratch that itch.

 

[Moggis]

i dont see why that comp would struggle with company of heroes.

 

[Mr Fox]

Originally posted by: TheBDB
I just bought Company of Heroes and my current rig isn't performing as I would like. I currently have:
Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3
1GB Ram
GeForce 6800GT

I need to start doing some research because I haven't kept track of hardware since I bought my stuff almost 2 years ago. I read the latest High-end Buyers Guide, but there are still things I need to decide. Could I really go Intel? What about SLI or Crossfire? Also, I think it is time for a new case. And should I replace my Audigy with an X-Fi?

I guess it is time to scratch that itch.

You probably have Vid Card Driver Issues..... Try 70 series Forcewares

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Mr Fox

Originally posted by: TheBDB
I just bought Company of Heroes and my current rig isn't performing as I would like. I currently have:
Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3
1GB Ram
GeForce 6800GT

I need to start doing some research because I haven't kept track of hardware since I bought my stuff almost 2 years ago. I read the latest High-end Buyers Guide, but there are still things I need to decide. Could I really go Intel? What about SLI or Crossfire? Also, I think it is time for a new case. And should I replace my Audigy with an X-Fi?

I guess it is time to scratch that itch.

You probably have Vid Card Driver Issues..... Try 70 series Forcewares

Your computer shouldn't have any trouble running Company of Heroes. I know someone with a 6800nu and there playing it just fine. (a slower card then yours)

70's series????
WTF?

Fsck that. You want at least 80's series drivers. A while back I might have said to fall back to 70's series drivers but not anymore. Folks, it's time to move on.

And anyway, the best driver out there is the XTreme-G 92.91 driver. It's based off of the official beta from nvidia. For some reason all of Nvidia's beta (official) drivers seem to be REALLY good. Not sure if it just works out that way or what. But it's worth checking out.

Also, turn those shadows off. It's the least noticable affect and could give you a very large performance gain. I have dual 7900GT's (look in sig) and I can't even run the game at max settings (probably thanks to the 256mb of vram, among other things, and thats with 4xAA/16xAF). I can't use the ultra or w/e the highest texture setting is. I have to turn it down to high.

 

[Mr Fox]

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: Mr Fox

Originally posted by: TheBDB
I just bought Company of Heroes and my current rig isn't performing as I would like. I currently have:
Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3
1GB Ram
GeForce 6800GT

I need to start doing some research because I haven't kept track of hardware since I bought my stuff almost 2 years ago. I read the latest High-end Buyers Guide, but there are still things I need to decide. Could I really go Intel? What about SLI or Crossfire? Also, I think it is time for a new case. And should I replace my Audigy with an X-Fi?

I guess it is time to scratch that itch.

You probably have Vid Card Driver Issues..... Try 70 series Forcewares

Your computer shouldn't have any trouble running Company of Heroes. I know someone with a 6800nu and there playing it just fine. (a slower card then yours)

70's series????
WTF?

Fsck that. You want at least 80's series drivers. A while back I might have said to fall back to 70's series drivers but not anymore. Folks, it's time to move on.

And anyway, the best driver out there is the XTreme-G 92.91 driver. It's based off of the official beta from nvidia. For some reason all of Nvidia's beta (official) drivers seem to be REALLY good. Not sure if it just works out that way or what. But it's worth checking out.

Also, turn those shadows off. It's the least noticable affect and could give you a very large performance gain. I have dual 7900GT's (look in sig) and I can't even run the game at max settings (probably thanks to the 256mb of vram, among other things, and thats with 4xAA/16xAF). I can't use the ultra or w/e the highest texture setting is. I have to turn it down to high.

He has a 6800 GT..... He needs to go backward to go forward.... Vid Card Drivers should only be Updated to address an Issue, or To pick-up functionality that is addressed in those drivers. The Current 90 Series Drivers have issues with older cards, and are released for the Cards that you are running... I have 2x7800 GTX's that hate Those Drivers..... Random Locks and other fun stuff..... NVIDIA really needs to get back


Nvidia has forgotten about the Unified Driver Concept for their Vid Cards.... the Issue that He is having could come from Four things :

1,) AGP Aperature in BIOS needs to equal Vid Card VRAM

2,) 90 Series Drivers have Issues with older cards....

3,) Page File needs to be Manually Adjusted to compensate for Hard Drive Bottleneck.

4,) What Motherboard Chipset Driver are you Using ? and did you install the Nvidia SW IDE Driver ?

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Mr Fox

Originally posted by: wizboy11

Originally posted by: Mr Fox

Originally posted by: TheBDB
I just bought Company of Heroes and my current rig isn't performing as I would like. I currently have:
Athlon 64 3200
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3
1GB Ram
GeForce 6800GT

I need to start doing some research because I haven't kept track of hardware since I bought my stuff almost 2 years ago. I read the latest High-end Buyers Guide, but there are still things I need to decide. Could I really go Intel? What about SLI or Crossfire? Also, I think it is time for a new case. And should I replace my Audigy with an X-Fi?

I guess it is time to scratch that itch.

You probably have Vid Card Driver Issues..... Try 70 series Forcewares

Your computer shouldn't have any trouble running Company of Heroes. I know someone with a 6800nu and there playing it just fine. (a slower card then yours)

70's series????
WTF?

Fsck that. You want at least 80's series drivers. A while back I might have said to fall back to 70's series drivers but not anymore. Folks, it's time to move on.

And anyway, the best driver out there is the XTreme-G 92.91 driver. It's based off of the official beta from nvidia. For some reason all of Nvidia's beta (official) drivers seem to be REALLY good. Not sure if it just works out that way or what. But it's worth checking out.

Also, turn those shadows off. It's the least noticable affect and could give you a very large performance gain. I have dual 7900GT's (look in sig) and I can't even run the game at max settings (probably thanks to the 256mb of vram, among other things, and thats with 4xAA/16xAF). I can't use the ultra or w/e the highest texture setting is. I have to turn it down to high.

He has a 6800 GT..... He needs to go backward to go forward.... Vid Card Drivers should only be Updated to address an Issue, or To pick-up functionality that is addressed in those drivers. The Current 90 Series Drivers have issues with older cards, and are released for the Cards that you are running... I have 2x7800 GTX's that hate Those Drivers..... Random Locks and other fun stuff..... NVIDIA really needs to get back


Nvidia has forgotten about the Unified Driver Concept for their Vid Cards.... the Issue that He is having could come from Four things :

1,) AGP Aperature in BIOS needs to equal Vid Card VRAM

2,) 90 Series Drivers have Issues with older cards....

3,) Page File needs to be Manually Adjusted to compensate for Hard Drive Bottleneck.

4,) What Motherboard Chipset Driver are you Using ? and did you install the Nvidia SW IDE Driver ?

1.) 128mb size will do since the card has 256mb of vram

2.) Since when?, I know plenty of people (6800's/7800's) that use it just fine

3.) HD bottleneck?? How about since he only has 1GB of ram. The swap file for him should be a static ~3GB should be alright. Anything more would be wasted space, anything less is probably alright, but 3GB is on the safe side. Make sure it's one size only (same min/max) so it doesn't fragment

4.) The Nvidia IDE driver is alright. You don't need it (performance is the same). And yea, install the latest mobo drivers

lol, I know he has a 6800GT. I'd still recommend the 90's series driver. I just can't recommend the 70's series drivers anymore since there so outdated especally with the newer games.

Copany of Heroes is a VERY demanding game. Useing a lot more then 1GB of ram so you'll need to lower the texture detail (and thus size) to compensate otherwise you get a lot of HD swaping and that will really lower performance. Just turn down the settings for the most part in a few areas and you'll be fine.

I think YOU have a problem with the new 90's series driver. Not him. Has he even treid them yet? You should ALWAYS give the newer drivers a try before you decide to roll back.

The ONLY drivers I would currently recommend are:
-70's series:
---Wouldn't even bother

-80's series:
---XTreme-G 84.37.v2 (damn good driver, worth a shot if all else fails)

-90's series:
---XTreme-G 92.91 (most up to date and also a DAMN good driver, love it)
---XTreme-G 91.47 or 91.45 (or 91.37) Second (or third or fourth) best driver (in order from great to good, although the 47/45 are near identicle)

The only problem I've had with the newer 92.91 driver is I can't create a SLI profile. Not sure if I'm the only one, but OP doesn't even have SLI so it shouldn't be a problem.

90's series should be fine even for older cards. If all else fails, theres the 80's series (84's got some damn good drivers in there) but 70's series????? (fsck that)

Edit: lol, 48 posts vs 3371 posts. Who he gonna belive
j/k It's all good

 

[TheBDB]

AGP aperature is 128MB
Page file is static 1.5GB
Using the nForce 5.11s
Video drivers are 81.95s

I guess I can try other drivers, but I can't imagine getting enough performance increase to be happy. Right now I have to run the game at 1024x768 with settings at medium to low. I'd really like to do better.

 

[akshayt]

At what settings are you unsatisfied.
According to my estimates, you may be able to manage 1024x768 High no AA no AF or nearly these settings provided 1GB of RAM doesn't bottleneck you and it is still highly recommended to overclock your CPU to 2.4-2.6GHz and some overclock on the 6800GT as well.

BTW, what are the scores/FPS that the ingame performance test gives you?

 

[Mr Fox]

1.) 128mb size will do since the card has 256mb of vram

AGP app should Equal VRAM on the Card.

2.) Since when?, I know plenty of people (6800's/7800's) that use it just fine

My son's Rig cannot run 90 Series Drivers they give Hang-ups and Locks.

3.) HD bottleneck?? How about since he only has 1GB of ram. The swap file for him should be a static ~3GB should be alright. Anything more would be wasted space, anything less is probably alright, but 3GB is on the safe side. Make sure it's one size only (same min/max) so it doesn't fragment

RAM is Not a Bottleneck on a Modern Computer.. it has always been Hard Drives.

4.) The Nvidia IDE driver is alright. You don't need it (performance is the same). And yea, install the latest mobo drivers
lol, I know he has a 6800GT. I'd still recommend the 90's series driver. I just can't recommend the 70's series drivers anymore since there so outdated especally with the newer games.

IF the NVIDIA SW IDE Driver Was Installed it could be a Part Of the Issue. Guru 3D has Repacks that have the best drivers in a repack.

Copany of Heroes is a VERY demanding game. Useing a lot more then 1GB of ram so you'll need to lower the texture detail (and thus size) to compensate otherwise you get a lot of HD swaping and that will really lower performance. Just turn down the settings for the most part in a few areas and you'll be fine.

Operating System: Windows® 98/ME/XP/2000
Broadband or 56kb modem (multiplayer).
Processor: 1.5 GB Processor.
DirectX 8.1 Certified Sound Card.
Video Card: GeForce3 64 MB or Ati Radeon 8500 64MB or greater (True DX8 Graphics Card with 64MB RAM i.e. Video Cards with at least pixel-shader technology - GeForce4 MX isn't supported).
Disk Space: 3GB HD space.
RAM: 512 MB RAM.
DirectX: DirectX: DX9.1 (included) but DX8.1 supported.

Nothing that Demanding here.... BF2 is Majorly More... yes I See the Eye Candy... But ONLY DX8 Compliance.





I think YOU have a problem with the new 90's series driver. Not him. Has he even treid them yet? You should ALWAYS give the newer drivers a try before you decide to roll back.

The ONLY drivers I would currently recommend are:
-70's series:
---Wouldn't even bother

-80's series:
---XTreme-G 84.37.v2 (damn good driver, worth a shot if all else fails)

-90's series:
---XTreme-G 92.91 (most up to date and also a DAMN good driver, love it)
---XTreme-G 91.47 or 91.45 (or 91.37) Second (or third or fourth) best driver (in order from great to good, although the 47/45 are near identicle)

The only problem I've had with the newer 92.91 driver is I can't create a SLI profile. Not sure if I'm the only one, but OP doesn't even have SLI so it shouldn't be a problem.

90's series should be fine even for older cards. If all else fails, theres the 80's series (84's got some damn good drivers in there) but 70's series????? (fsck that)

Edit: lol, 48 posts vs 3371 posts. Who he gonna belive
j/k It's all good [/quote]


Number of posts means little or nothing.... Actual Experience with the Hardware in Question is what is important.


Hmmmmm ..... Unlike some of the other folks that like to brag about what they have I have chosen to not get into that routine.


But I have A Little Experience with the Equiptment in Question.

Rig #1

e6600 Intel C2D @ 3.2 Ghz
Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB)DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
2x BFG Tech Geforce 7900GTX 512MB
4x WD 150GB Raptors (RAID 5)
2x Plextor SATA I PX716SA
Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Power Supply
Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan Side Panel
XP Pro - XP x64 Corp. - OS-X 10.4 (Tiger)



Rig #2 (Son's rig)

AMD Opteron 175 Denmark @ 2.9 Ghz
Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 DDR SDRAM 2-3-2-5
2x BFG Tech Geforce 7800GTX 256MB
2x WD 74.5 GB Raptors (RAID 0)
2x Plextor SATA I PX716SA
Mad Dog Multi Media 650w Modular Power Supply
Thermaltake Armor Black Full Tower Case
XP Pro - XP x64 Corp.


Rig #3 (Game Server/File Server)

AMD Athlon 64 4000+
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum NForce 3 250
1 Gig (2x512) Corsair XMS PC 3200 2-2-2-5
BFG Tech 6800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3
2x WD 36 GB Raptors (RAID 0)
2x Plextor PX716-A
Mad Dog Multi Media 650w Modular Power Supply
Chenming Black Dragon Case
XP Pro - XP x64 Corp.

Rig #4 (TV/Media)

AMD Opteron 148 Socket 940
ASUS SK8N Nforce 2 Pro
1 Gig (2x512) SAMSUNG PC3200 ECC REG DDR
Leadtek 6800 GT 256 MB
2x 320 Gig Seagate SATA
2x NEC DVD/RW
Antec 450w TruePower
Antec LanBoy Case
XP Media Edition

I never had any issues with any of this equiptment, but you had to be smart enough to recognize a bad driver... and roll back if there were issues. Many people had issues with those Vid Cards On That Chipset..(NFORCE3-250). and it was all drivers....

NVIDIA's SW IDE Driver has always been crappy....Many people make the mistake of installing it. The Windows Defaults are always better.

Again number of posts here does not equal Technical Expertise.....

 

[omegaalpha]

Friend of mine had trouble with this particular game using 7600gt in sli...I suggested he defrag, problem solved
...corsa

 

[TheRyuu]

AGP app should Equal VRAM on the Card.

Not on modern cards, half should be fine

My son's Rig cannot run 90 Series Drivers they give Hang-ups and Locks.

YOUR sons rig. Not the OP's rig. At least the OP should give it a shot.

Operating System: Windows® 98/ME/XP/2000
Broadband or 56kb modem (multiplayer).
Processor: 1.5 GB Processor.
DirectX 8.1 Certified Sound Card.
Video Card: GeForce3 64 MB or Ati Radeon 8500 64MB or greater (True DX8 Graphics Card with 64MB RAM i.e. Video Cards with at least pixel-shader technology - GeForce4 MX isn't supported).
Disk Space: 3GB HD space.
RAM: 512 MB RAM.
DirectX: DirectX: DX9.1 (included) but DX8.1 supported.

Nothing that Demanding here.... BF2 is Majorly More... yes I See the Eye Candy... But ONLY DX8 Compliance.

Those are the minium requirerments. They mean nothing. And WTF is a 1.5GB Processor? (typo?)

I wouldn't even try to run this game on 512mb of RAM let alone 1GB (although 1GB should do just fine)

NVIDIA's SW IDE Driver has always been crappy....Many people make the mistake of installing it. The Windows Defaults are always better.

Since when. I have no issues at all along with a lot of other people

 

[hans007]

its playable with a 6600gt at 1280x1024 no aa no af. so i wouldnt see why you'd have a problem.

 

[Mr Fox]

Originally posted by: wizboy11

AGP app should Equal VRAM on the Card.

Not on modern cards, half should be fine

My son's Rig cannot run 90 Series Drivers they give Hang-ups and Locks.

YOUR sons rig. Not the OP's rig. At least the OP should give it a shot.

Operating System: Windows® 98/ME/XP/2000
Broadband or 56kb modem (multiplayer).
Processor: 1.5 GB Processor.
DirectX 8.1 Certified Sound Card.
Video Card: GeForce3 64 MB or Ati Radeon 8500 64MB or greater (True DX8 Graphics Card with 64MB RAM i.e. Video Cards with at least pixel-shader technology - GeForce4 MX isn't supported).
Disk Space: 3GB HD space.
RAM: 512 MB RAM.
DirectX: DirectX: DX9.1 (included) but DX8.1 supported.

Nothing that Demanding here.... BF2 is Majorly More... yes I See the Eye Candy... But ONLY DX8 Compliance.

Those are the minium requirerments. They mean nothing. And WTF is a 1.5GB Processor? (typo?)

I wouldn't even try to run this game on 512mb of RAM let alone 1GB (although 1GB should do just fine)

NVIDIA's SW IDE Driver has always been crappy....Many people make the mistake of installing it. The Windows Defaults are always better.

Since when. I have no issues at all along with a lot of other people

At one time AMD Processors was only supported by VIA and They were ok as long as you waited and bought their "A" itteration of their chipsets. Except for the KT 400/600

Since the time that AMD got out of the Chipset Buisness (Late 2000)...

AMD produced the First DDR Supporting Chipset to support Thunderbird Socket A Processors(AMD 761) it was a Great Chipset and DDR was a step forward.

AMD at that time decided to concentrate on Processors,and that Market was picked up By NVIDIA with Their First NFORCE Chipset it was ok, and was comparable with the VIA chipsets of the time.
XP Came out (September 2001) with Native Chipset Support For NVIDIA Chipsets.

Then the development NFORCE - 2 Chipsets came on to the market (November 2002) with Locked AGP bus and Great Overclocking Support. The first Unified Platform Drivers for NVIDIA had that driver as a part of that package.

At the same time GeForce 4600 Vid Cards came out, and there was an Issue With Battlefield 1942, NFORCE 2, and GeForce 4600 Vid Cards with Slow Load Times, and Stuttering in Game ....

After doing numerous installations, and subsequent formats it came down to this : NVIDIA SW IDE driver is Junk, and contributed to the problem.

There was also an Issue with EA's Code that was fixed in patch 1.4


Now move forward 3 years NFORCE 3 250 and 6800 GT's in Battlefield 2 same Feces different year......

NVIDIA needs some improvement in their Driver Dept. It used to be their Strength....


Sound like maybe... just maybe I might have a Clue ??

 

[Lonyo]

Get another 1GB of RAM.
I went from 1GB -> 2GB and it make a great improvement.