Need For Speed: Carbon performance.

[Dream Operator]

I grabbed a 9600gt, installed NFS: Carbon on a separate HD than my OS, patched to version 1.3 and defragged. Loaded the game up at 1920x1080 using a tool from Racer S. It looked great with everything maxed, but it chugged along. I began reducing settings until I found myself at 640x480 w/ all settings low/off. Still chugging along. Rightmark CPU tool shows my 4200+ @ 2794mhz at nearly 100% CPU usage while on the track. This is even in free roam mode w/o lots of cars.

Is this game really that CPU limited? It's so old! I played already, but with a 7800gt. Perhaps the lagging in that card blended with the CPU being slammed. I really don't remember it being so choppy though.

Is there anything that could be put in a 939 socket to exceed the CPU demand of this game?

I wanted to wait for the next Intel socket before betting another CPU, but I know this one is holding me back.

I went back and forth between the CPU's and Overclocking and PC Gaming sections. Hope this was OK to post here.

 

[monkey333]

I just picked it up last week and have it running at 1280x 1068. I havent patched to the latest version. I have all but like 2 graphic options tweaked all the way up and it runs fine. Unfortunately, i'm at work now and cant tell... im me if u want anything further... i have similar specs

 

[SlowSpyder]

Min. requirements are a P4 @ 1.7GHZ? I can't imagine that your CPU is holding you back. I don't think you're going to do much better then a 2.8ghz dual core, on socket 939.

 

[AzN]

probably some driver issue. I played that game fine on a 1950pro with everything maxed 1440x900 4x AA.

 

[monkey333]

ok, just to follow up here. My specs are amd x2 4200, 2 gig ram, x800xl 256, and I think all i turned down is like the world details, car geometry is high and a bunch of other stuff and it runs like butta.

 

[Dream Operator]

Thank you all for your input. I guess I will wait until the next driver comes out for the 9600gt. I tried to install the game in vista. Could not get it to run. Updated to 1.4 and tried various compatibility modes. I'll post on this again after some more troubleshooting. As always, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks again.

 

[andrei3333]

get the latest march release of directx

 

[Dream Operator]

Originally posted by: andrei3333
get the latest march release of directx

Great suggestion. I installed it and played and it seemed noticeably smoother. Still a chop here a chug there, but CPU usage was not hitting 100% for either core. I exited to change resolutions in Racer S' tool. I returned and the horrid chop was back. I then thought it was a res issue. Exited and returned to the res I used when it was smooth (1600x900), still choppy!. After playing with settings resolutions some more, I checked CPU usage with RightMark CPU after exiting the game. Something was keeping core 0 at 9%. I think that combined with the CPU usage of the game, and perhaps HDD usage whatever is going on in the BG is what is causing the performance issues in the game. None of the processes in task manager were showing usage above 1%. I ended almost all of my non critical processes. CPU usage was still there. I rebooted and checked CPU usage. Back to normal being around 3% w/ RightMark open. I'm really not sure whats going on, but I haven't noticed it in any other game. I think I'm going to play something else!! I went through a couple of races, I had forgotten how much the people annoy the hell out of me in this game. SHUT UP ALREADY!!

Thanks all.

 

[Loop2kil]

have you adequately cleaned out the old drivers with drivercleaner before installing the new drivers? if not that is most likely your problem with the 9600gt not working as smooth as it should be.

 

[Dream Operator]

i used driver cleaner. the card works fine with other games. Serious Sam II @ 1080P, Viva Pinata @1080P (though a little slow), COD4 and Bioshock @ 1600x900, Flat Out 2 @ 1080P (flawlessly smooth, what a great game. wish a third would come out).

 

[Calculator83]

Originally posted by: Dream Operator
I grabbed a 9600gt, installed NFS: Carbon on a separate HD than my OS, patched to version 1.3 and defragged. Loaded the game up at 1920x1080 using a tool from Racer S. It looked great with everything maxed, but it chugged along. I began reducing settings until I found myself at 640x480 w/ all settings low/off. Still chugging along. Rightmark CPU tool shows my 4200+ @ 2794mhz at nearly 100% CPU usage while on the track. This is even in free roam mode w/o lots of cars.

Is this game really that CPU limited? It's so old! I played already, but with a 7800gt. Perhaps the lagging in that card blended with the CPU being slammed. I really don't remember it being so choppy though.

Is there anything that could be put in a 939 socket to exceed the CPU demand of this game?

I wanted to wait for the next Intel socket before betting another CPU, but I know this one is holding me back.

I went back and forth between the CPU's and Overclocking and PC Gaming sections. Hope this was OK to post here.

Turn, off the Image Post processing, or whatever they're calling it now, the one that changes the color of the screen and everything. Turn off shadow. Should be good from there. It's not ur CPU for sure.

 

[Dream Operator]

There is no way to turn off the Image Post Processing. I did change it to low though. There are no options for shadows. As stated previously, the performance issues occur even with all settings low.

Perhaps my CPU is not the issue, but CPU usage is.

 

[manowar821]

You've got the same overclock that I do, exactly, on the same cpu, with the same cooler...

Curious, are you running on XP? If so, did you install the Dual-Core patch for AMDs?

Edit: I'm on an AM2 socket, but it's almost the same.

 

[Rubycon]

Is vsync enabled by chance?

That game plays very smoothly for me.