Increasing frame rates in COD: United Offensive

[InflatableBuddha]

Using the system in my sig, I'm taking some pretty substantial performance hits in United Offensive. I've got most settings at High, not Extra, and most special effects are enabled, at 1280x1024.

In the Crossroads mission, the game slowed to a crawl when I hit the courtyard, with a crapload of gunfire and explosions everywhere. FWIW, the first mission ran pretty smoothly, and I maxed out the settings on the first Call of Duty with no problems at all.

Are my settings overkill? If so, I'm kind of worried, since I haven't tried any newer games on this system yet.

• Will updating my video driver help? Currently at 158.22. If so, how do I know which driver to update to - just go with the latest?

• Is it better to change options in-game, or globally using the Nvidia control panel?

• Which settings have the most impact on performance?

• Can someone recommend a good FPS counter so I can troubleshoot my settings?

Any other hints appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Cutthroat]

Download 'nHancer', you can create profiles and tweak your driver settings with it. It has good descriptions of the different options and the effect on performance.

Use 'Fraps' to see your fps.

Can't remember the settings for that game, but in general fps killers are special effects, grass, shadows, fog, AA, AF, draw distance, texture detail, etc.

Overclock your E6600, it's begging you.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

In addition to the advice above, run 3DMark 06 and see if your score is in the right range for your card and CPU.

 

[badkarma1399]

Definitly use Fraps and tell us your framerate. I played COD with a 6800GT and easily got framerates in the 100s at max settings. A 8800 should have no difficulty whatsoever running the game. The stuttering could be caused by a variety of different reasons. At least if you get the framerate you'll know if its caused by something graphical (dk what it could be) or some other peice of hardware that could be tripping you up.

I know when playing Oblivion it would stutter even when the framerate was in the 50's. Turns out it was a faulty integrated sound driver. Just saying...

 

[tigersty1e]

Call of Duty ran fine for me with everything maxed out except for AA. There isn't an option in game and I don't notice the jaggies anyway.

United Offensive is running pretty bad for me in certain spots. I have to turn texture settings down to high (instead of Extra). The framerate will drop down to the 20s for no reason at all. Bad coding. I know what you are talking about in the crossroads mission. The worse is when the mission is over and you meet in the middle. There is no fighting going on and my framerate will drop down to 30-40.

 

[bamacre]

Yeah, that game should run fine with everything on max for you.

 

[Wheelock]

The game ran fine for me with a 9800pro and an Athlon XP 2000+. Not max settings, but close. Something is definitely up with your system's performance.

 

[lupi]

I played ot fine back in the day with a 5200

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I'll download fraps and nHancer tonight, plus do a run on 3D Mark 06 and post my results.

tigerstyle - good to know I'm not the only one with these issues. UO does not seem to be as efficiently coded as COD, but something is definitely awry here.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Busy night...sorry for the delay in posting. So here is an update:

3DMark06: 8609

SM2.0: 3958
HDR/SM3.0: 3785
CPU: 2117

Fraps:

Bastogne mission - Early on; didn't take a reading but the counter was consistently between 58-60.

Settings are: 1280x1024x32; textures: high; trilinear filtering, fog enabled; lighting - nicest quality, everything.

I Took a benchmark during "clearing the MG42 nests" and got:

Frames: 549
Time (ms): 47611
Min: 3
Max: 61
Avg: 11.53

Ouch...the framerate was hopping around like a goddamned kangaroo. I tried another run, but with fog off and lighting only for models and got (2/63/20). An improvement, but still not acceptable. Hopefully someone here can make sense of this problem.

I'm really confused, as my rig's performance seemed pretty solid during the 3DMark demos - the counter seemed to hover in the high 30s to 40s most of the time, with an occasional dip below 20 during really intense sequences.

I'll have to try out nHancer tomorrow night and fiddle with drivers. Now I need to get some sleep.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I updated my ForceWare driver to 162.18, but I only got a small improvement in 3DMark 06 - 2 points.

Anyone have any suggestions on other things to try?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Turn down/off lighting maybe? Defrag your HDD? I just don't get it, that game shouldn't bog on your rig.