Unreal Tournament 2003 slow - CPU?

[sauroneru]

I've been playing the UT2003 demo, and it runs kinda slow. Not too bad, but I definitely don't have the kind of performance I want. I barely can get 800x600, but prefer to stay at 640x480 due to its slowness. What part of my system is the bottleneck???

AMD Athlon 750 MHz
Via chipset
512 MB PC 133
AGP GeForce2 GTS 32 MB video card
recent drivers, running on WinXP Pro
nice hard drives, other system componenets shouldn't matter...

 

[Fenix793]

It's pretty slow on my system too. I've got a 1.6 P4 and a GF2 GTS which is what's holding me back I think. UT is more CPU dependant then anything else I think so I would upgrade the Athlon to an Athlon XP with some DDR Ram. That should speed up a lot of other stuff as well. Then when you get some more cash you could get a new video card. Can't really pinpoint any one bottleneck since most of the stuff you're running is somewhat aged. I know how you feel I was running on an old athlon with 384mb of pc133. When I upgraded to the P4 I realized what I was missing. The speed is great. Goodluck, hope this helps.

 

[Shagga]

1.1 Minimum System Requirements
-------------------------------

Operating System: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (Linux in separate download)

Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 733 MHz processor

Memory: 128 MByte RAM

Hard Disk Space: 300 MByte free

Video: 16 MB TNT2-class or other DirectX version 6
compliant video card*

Sound: Windows compatible sound card. NVIDIA nForce or
other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby
Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for
Dolby Digital audio.*

DirectX: DirectX version 8.1 or higher for cards with a
hardware transform & lighting unit.

DirectX version 8.1b for cards without a hardware
transform & lighting unit (e.g. TNT2, Radeon 7000)

Modem: 33.6K baud (for modem/Internet play)

Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported.

1.2 Recommended System Requirements
-----------------------------------

Operating System: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (Linux in separate download)

Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 733 MHz processor

Memory: 256 MByte RAM

Hard Disk Space: 500 MByte free
(300 MByte for game, 200 MByte swap)

Video: NVIDIA GeForce2 or ATI Radeon (32-128 MB VRAM
recommended)*

Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy series sound card*

DirectX: DirectX version 8.1 or higher for cards with a
hardware transform & lighting unit.

DirectX version 8.1b for cards without a hardware
transform & lighting unit (e.g. TNT2, Radeon 7000)

Modem: 56K baud (for modem/Internet play)

Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported.

* Indicates device should be compatible with DirectX, version 8.1 or
higher.

========================================================================
2 Performance
========================================================================

2.1 Resolution
--------------

The resolution in which you run the game will have the greatest impact on
performance if you are not in the lucky position of running the latest
top of the line graphics cards. Running at 640x480 in 16 bit mode or even
512x384 in 16 bit mode should provide decent performance even on older
hardware.

2.2 CPU Speed
-------------

The game is also very sensitive to CPU speed, memory bandwidth, and cache
performance. Thus, it runs far better on leading-edge processors like
those of AMD and Intel. See section 1.2 for a guideline on recommended
specs.

2.3 Memory
----------

Unreal Tournament 2003's performance is highly dependent on the amount
of RAM you have in your machine, and the amount of memory that is
available. Machines with less memory will access their hard disk more
frequently to load data, which causes sporadic pauses in gameplay. Thus,
if you have a 128 MByte (or less) machine, you should make sure that
you don't have other unnecessary programs loaded in memory when playing
Unreal Tournament 2003.

How the game will perform under different RAM conditions:

* 64 MByte or less: lots of swapping

* 128 MByte: minimal swapping with default settings

* 256 MByte: might swap in rare cases with highest texture detail

* 512 MByte or more: shouldn't swap

2.4 Considering upgrading?
--------------------------

For people considering upgrading their machines, here are some tips based
on our experience running Unreal Tournament 2003 on a variety of
machines:

1 The biggest performance gain in Unreal Tournament 2003 comes from
having a state of the art graphics chip.

2 The next upgrade that tends to improve Unreal Tournament 2003
performance is upgrading your CPU.

3 Finally, lots of RAM helps. With memory prices continually falling,
it's now reasonably affordable to upgrade to 256 MByte of system
memory.

2.5 Getting better performance
------------------------------

By default Unreal Tournament 2003 picks hardware specific default
values the first time you run the game which should result in decent
performance but there is always room left to tweak.

Resolution and texture detail levels have the greatest impact on
performance, if you have a fast CPU. So you might want to tweak the
settings to achieve the visual quality / performance tradeoff you
desire.

If you have a fast graphics card, but a rather slow CPU you might want
to lower the World detail setting in the detail settings menu.

Last but not least, if you have both a fast CPU and a fast graphics
card you shouldn't have to read this 🙂.

 

[obeseotron]

It's always a combination of things, but in general if a game slows down considerably when raising the resolution it is related to the video card. If the game is slow regardless of resolution than it is a CPU issue. I have a very fast CPU and a Geforce 1, and I have to play at low resolution and texture detail, but it flys with these settings. Upping the resolution and detail kills performance because of the outdated vid card.

 

[AnAndAustin]

😱 It is incredibly important to have a well balanced system. You don't want a fast CPU with a slow gfx card (eg Fenix793) or a slow CPU with a decent gfx card (eg PIII 500mhz and GF3/GF4TI). Much in the same way as avoiding 1GB of RAM with a PII and 64MB RAM for a P4.

😉 As a general rule a GF2GTS/TI/GF4MX/Rad7500 is fine for a CPU below 800mhz as it won't gain a great deal from a faster gfx card, GF3/Rad9000/Rad8500 for a CPU between 800mhz and 1.4ghz (or 1.6ghz P4) and anything over this CPU speed and you really should pack a GF4TI or Rad9700 although with the previous gfx cards you'll still get very decent (though not optimal) perf.

🙂 SDR on AthlonXP doesn't hurt perf as much as it sounds, 10% or so is about right so if you have ample SDR RAM there's no great need to get DDR. So both your CPU and gfx card simply aren't up to scratch, if your mobo won't support AthlonXP then get a Duron1.2/1.3, 2nd hand Athlon or else upgrade the mobo. If you upgrade the mobo you can still keep your existing SDR-PC133 whilst also having DDR slots for future expansion, this will help to keep the cost down. A 128MB Rad8500/9000 is very cost effective at the mo. For UT2003 you really do want at least a Duron 1.2ghz with a GF3/Rad8500 (800x600 high detail should yield 80FPS+) but more pref an AthlonXP1800+ with a GF4TI or Rad9700 allowing higher res, faster FPS, AA and Aniso! Upgrading your decrepid (by todays standards) GF2 would be the best thing to do first, get either a Rad9000PRO, Rad8500 or GF4TI4200 in 128MB form. Then think about your CPU, mobo and RAM options.

 

[MarcoP]

<<<<"For UT2003 you really do want at least a Duron 1.2ghz with a GF3/Rad8500 (800x600 high detail should yield 80FPS+)">>>>>

I'm using a Duron @1160MHz with 143MHz SDRAM clock and a GF4Ti4200 (300/600MHz).
I don't exactly know whether you are referring to the flyby bench or the in-game-bench, but during normal game play - you'll get about 30fps with such a configuration not more - really!

 

[0roo0roo]

i'd say your cpu. i run a lowly radeon(original radeon at that-think geforce1) with a tualy 1.48ghz. i get playable 800x600😛 my vid card is def the bottleneck😛 u can run at 320x240 haha

 

[tbates757]

I'd say your entire system is the bottleneck. That is like 3 year old technology trying to run UT2003?

 

[Intelman07]

I got an older p3 machine that runs Unreal Tournament 2003 fine. Its a Pentium 3 800EB @900EB with a geforce 4 mx 420 and 256MB of ram. Hope this helps!

 

[alkemyst]

definitely a combo of the slow CPU (by today's standard's) and the TNT2....

What's the max CPU your board can take? I would go with that or close to it ($50 should get you some nice speed/$100 if a MB is needed)

Then find a GF3 minimum and you should have a noticible improvement....keep in mind though the 'next' gaming generation is coming out and all the rumor mills are talking about even the current fastest 64MB cards may have a hard time keeping up.