Mass effect 1 Frame Rate

[tuteja1986]

I have :
Windows 7 64Bit Ultimate
Nvidia 196.21 Drivers
Nvidia GTX275
6GB DDR 2 Ram 800Mhz
Intel E8400 (not E6400 sorry)
Steam version of Mass effect 1

I played Mass effect on windows xp on a 3850 and i had no frame rate issue and finished the game but i didn't backup the save. As mass effect 2 is coming i thought i would play ME1 again to refresh my memory of the story and also have save that can copy my in game details over to ME2. The game is unplayable on my current setup. Is their a know issue with ME1 with Windows 7 64bit ?

Should i go back to windows xp 32bit or get windows vista 64bit as i have seen good benchmark frame rate for windows vista compared to Windows xp on the same game.

 

[fffblackmage]

ME is pretty cpu heavy, so maybe the E6400 is holding you back?

But in general, ME's performance is rather cruddy. I played it first with my X1950XT and it was barely playable. After upgrading to my 4830, framerates improved significantly, but I got stuttering issues. In both cases, my cpu was overclocked to at least 2.8GHz.

 

[toyota]

if you have that E6400 at its stock 2.13 then you are absolutely killing the performance potential of that gtx275 in most modern games. fffblackmage is most certainly right in that you need to oc that cpu for Mass Effect. you probably turned up some settings when you started using the gtx275 and some of those have put your cpu under some more stress than before too.

I have tested that game before with my E8500 at 2.4 and it was pretty sluggish in spots on high settings. I would hit low to mid 20s at times where my cpu at stock 3.16 would never go lower than mid 30s. with my E8500 at 3.6 and overclocked gtx260 the game runs very smooth for me at highest settings at 1920x1080 even with vsync on. and yes I am on Windows 7 64 bit.

 

[tuteja1986]

well its not the CPU as i finished the game on Windows XP on E8400 (sorry not E6400) , 4GB Ram , 3850 256mb with no frame rate problem. On that setup i played the entire game without noticing frame rate issue. I can play everyother game with no frame rate issue. Games like Dragon Age , COD 4 MW2 , Wolfenstein , Borderlands and Empire Total War. Seem to be Nvidia Driver issue with ME1 as the game frame rate is terrible even in all low setting.

 

[toyota]

well its not the CPU as i finished the game on Windows XP on E8400 (sorry not E6400) , 4GB Ram , 3850 256mb with no frame rate problem. On that setup i played the entire game without noticing frame rate issue. I can play everyother game with no frame rate issue. Games like Dragon Age , COD 4 MW2 , Wolfenstein , Borderlands and Empire Total War. Seem to be Nvidia Driver issue with ME1 as the game frame rate is terrible even in all low setting.

your reply makes no sense whatsoever. you are saying that his E6400 cant be the prob because you have an E8400? thats like me telling somewhat their GTS250 isnt the problem because I played the game with a GTX275.

never mind. I didnt realize you were the OP.

I am not having any framerate issues with the game on the 195.62 drivers or the previous driver either.

 

[Fayd]

your reply makes no sense whatsoever. you are saying that his E6400 cant be the prob because you have an E8400? thats like me telling somewhat their GTS250 isnt the problem because I played the game with a GTX275.

uh...

dude, he is the OP...

 

[toyota]

uh...

dude, he is the OP...

oops, I NEED some sleep.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It plays smoothly on my E8400 with an ATI 4870-512 MB, but that's under XP 32bit not Win7 64.

 

[Schmide]

Can you set it in DX9 mode?

 

[thinkwhy]

I played the game on E2200 @ 3Ghz , 4GB Ram , 3850 256mb, Vista 64bit. Frame rate was very smooth. Your system should have no problem running the game.

One quirk that I noticed was that frame rates *actually dropped* when I lowered the settings. The game was butter smooth with everything turned to max, but became unplayable when I lowered the settings.

 

[nitromullet]

I just re-installed this on my rig. No problems here with a GTX 275, 196.21 WHQL, Win 7 x64.

 

[x3sphere]

i7 920 @ 3ghz and an HD5970 here, never dips below 60FPS at 2560x1600.

I believe it runs in DX9 by default. To my knowledge no UE3 titles run under DX10.

 

[toyota]

i7 920 @ 3ghz and an HD5970 here, never dips below 60FPS at 2560x1600.

I believe it runs in DX9 by default. To my knowledge no UE3 titles run under DX10.

Gears of War has DX10 and there might be some others.

 

[Qbah]

Since Mass Effect is DX9 and Windows 7 doesn't come pre-installed with the whole DX bundle (you need to download the whole pack), did you do it? It's on the Microsoft site, just get the newest one (will probably say August 2009 or something).

And to everybody else, since the same CPU was running the game fine on XP, it's not the CPU. So why even mention his CPU, if it was fine when he had a HD3850 and WinXP for the same game?

EDIT: This one.

 

[toyota]

Since Mass Effect is DX9 and Windows 7 doesn't come pre-installed with the whole DX bundle (you need to download the whole pack), did you do it? It's on the Microsoft site, just get the newest one (will probably say August 2009 or something).

And to everybody else, since the same CPU was running the game fine on XP, it's not the CPU. So why even mention his CPU, if it was fine when he had a HD3850 and WinXP for the same game?

EDIT: This one.

because he originally said he had an E6400 and if he was trying to raise several settings with a new graphics card he could have put even more load on the cpu too. we know its not the cpu now because he has an E8400 which would not be the cause of a noticeable slow down.

also I have never had to get DX9 from the Microsoft site for any game on Vista or 7. 99% of games are not DX10 or 11 and the OS comes with everything you need for DX games installed and if a game requires more then it will be included in the game.

 

[Qbah]

because he originally said he had an E6400 and if he was trying to raise several settings with a new graphics card he could have put even more load on the cpu too. we know its not the cpu now because he has an E8400 which would not be the cause of a noticeable slow down.

also I have never had to get DX9 from the Microsoft site for any game on Vista or 7. 99% of games are not DX10 or 11 and the OS comes with everything you need for DX games installed and if a game requires more then it will be included in the game.

Well, it solved some issues I had with games when I was running Vista x64. Maybe he has one or more corrupt libraries and running the above will replace everything with the newest versions available. Worth a shot imo.

 

[NoQuarter]

I installed Win7 3 times in the last month it doesn't come with DX9.

The CPU is the same he used before and it was fine. An E6400 could handle this game easily anyway. It's definitely not anemic hardware.

I am playing it on Win7 64 bit for much the same reasons and it runs fine, so not OS either.

Did you try earlier versions of the drivers? Make sure anti-aliasing isn't forced on in the Nvidia control panel?

Also, I hate the UT3 engine. I wish it would go away.

 

[toyota]

I installed Win7 3 times in the last month it doesn't come with DX9.

The CPU is the same he used before and it was fine. An E6400 could handle this game easily anyway. It's definitely not anemic hardware.

I am playing it on Win7 64 bit for much the same reasons and it runs fine, so not OS either.

Did you try earlier versions of the drivers? Make sure anti-aliasing isn't forced on in the Nvidia control panel?

Also, I hate the UT3 engine. I wish it would go away.

so Windows 7 only plays DX11 and 10 games? well I can certainly play any game without having to download DX9. an E6400 is most certainly a little weak for this game on highest settings and would cause lag in spots but on slightly lower settings it would be just fine. it takes only minutes to test that out which I have. personally I like the UE3 engine because it can deliver decent graphics without being a system hog. UT3 and Batman look great and run smooth on any decent dual core and modern mid range card.

 

[Schmide]

well I can certainly play any game without having to download DX9.

You installed it then. One of your games probably came with the runtime. The DX9 runtime is not included with windows 7 or Vista. It is an after setup install.

 

[toyota]

You installed it then. One of your games probably came with the runtime. The DX9 runtime is not included with windows 7 or Vista. It is an after setup install.

well then my earlier point still stands that you dont have to go download it. if you did then gaming would come to a halt for less tech savvy people because most games are not DX10 or DX11 and they would not know to go to microsoft to find DX9.

 

[Schmide]

Every dx9 game has a DX9 update in its install. No need to be difficult. It's usually seamless.

 

[Qbah]

You installed it then. One of your games probably came with the runtime. The DX9 runtime is not included with windows 7 or Vista. It is an after setup install.

That is my understanding too. It was like that in Vista as well. Many games come with the off-line runtime and you only need to install it once and you're usually prompted during installation. Toyota probably had it installed or all his games come with local libraries that are located in one of the game-created folders (though I read somewhere that this way might require some extra licensing so not everybody does it?).

As for the OP, just download and see if it helped. It's a standard download from Microsoft, certified for Windows 7. So it won't break anything.

 

[Rifter]

Well im late to this thread but thought i would add that it plays fine on my laptop with a 2.2GHz dual core T6600 CPU and a ATI 4570 512MB so im going to assume its either driver or software related and that your hardware should handle it fine. I played it at 720P res medium settings no AA. not sure of framrate as i dont have fraps on laptop, did slowdown a few times but hardly noticable and totally playable.

My desktop in sig can maintain 60FPS With Vsync never dropping at 1080P max settings.

DLing the Latest DX 9c updates solved alot of issues i was having with old games its a good idea.

 

[toyota]

never mind

 

[evolucion8]

I usually find good performance boost when the latest DX9 runtime is installed, the one that comes by default lacks from some funcionality like the xaudio thing that gave me issues when I ran Serious Sam HD which got fixed after I installed the latest DX9 runtime from Microsoft download.